I don't mean the show itself as bad and being copy-pasted. It's more like the industry (and weebs) saw :awooga: :libertarian-alert: and that became a persistent "moe" fixation for the years that followed.

I know "waifus" existed before the pop culture term was picked up from Azumaga Daioh, but it certainly normalized the weeb :brainworms: that habitually watered down character interpretation (and on the industry side, characters themselves), turning such characters in later products into a series of interchangeable harem wish fulfillment fantasy cliches where only the hair colors are swapped around and the characters themselves lack depth or nuance. :pathetic: