>>84166110Animation, and general storytelling, is all about exaggeration. To make a joke funny, or a character appear male/female, you have to exaggerate certain things so that the average viewer knows without a shadow of a doubt what character they're looking at, and where they fit.
For example: The male cats of that show look like cats (versus humans), and have white eyes like batman, and extreme angled clothing and sharp angled whiskers/hair/etc. Boys like characters that are animalistic (Street Sharks, Thunder Cats, Beast Wars, etc), tough, sharp, or mysterious like super heroes in the past.
This explains why they look most like actual cats and have all of these traits mentioned above.
Naturally, a female character will look most feminine in various ways. Notice how she still has a cat nose, and a cat smile, but they're almost indistinguishable from a regular human female face. Notice how her eyes are blue, and feminine with long black eyelashes? Notice also how the various curves on her face, hair, and body are smooth rather than sharp? She also has a thin waist and comparatively full/large breast. By designing a human-looking female you're achieving two things: You're making the character still look appealing and sexy for boys (she is the prize to protect), and you're still making the character feminine and beautiful enough for young females to idolize (she is the competition, and so should gain attention and respect).
Regardless, the most important thing occurs with this goal: Getting the widest diversity of viewers who are INVESTED in the characters. They CARE about them.
Because they care, they'll return each week and buy the toys. This is the most important thing about character design, and it's very clearly a product of the time.
Whether it's ethical or sensitive to the feelings of females, or even males, is irrelevant.
