>>4024896I understood anon to be talking about what characters IRL boys have first crushes on. In that context, I would argue that Len has never been super popular and time has been an even worse friend than it has been to young Link, at least outside of Japan. While there have been a few voicebanks that have rivalled Miku in mainstream popularity, Len has never been one of them. And so, unless a person becomes a fan of vocaloid, they're unlikely to know he exists. Which brings us to the issue of the non-Japanese vocaloid fandom becoming, in my opinion, outright hostile to boys.
What started as a pretty unisex, maybe even male leaning, weeb interest steadily shifted more towards girls over the years. And more recently it's been the victim of a mass tranny invasion. Those sex songs you mentioned don't get made anymore as even slightly flirty songs get their producers harassed. And idpol garbage has even infected western producers themselves. An older teen or adult may be willing to wade through that. But a young boy is going to bounce right off.
OoT and MM, on the other hand, are still extolled within male dominated circles as some of the best games ever made. And, while I have my issues with the "of the" games, they are very popular, including with boys, and act as a pipeline to the rest of the franchise.
Also, I just want to note that aislop has nothing to do with vocaloid's resurgance. That's due to crypton getting way better and more aggressive with marketing. They've got prosekai doing the heavy lifting while also constantly pushing collabs with everything. This is why I gave my "outside of Japan" qualifier. In Japan, Len likely has passed young Link in popularity with young boys since they get the benefit of all the extra marketing without being turned away by the foreign fans they don't have to deal with.
