Let's talk about the anime.

Star Guardian Lux was great. It fit. It was bright and girly and happy and it was so in-character for her. It was the perfect opportunity to call back to a beloved anime genre.

Then they made a whole line out of it.

Then they made the Academy skins.

Then they made the Battle Academia skins...

And it goes on and on. Now this isn't me saying "oh, Riot's appropriating my culture!", no no. In fact, I like that our animation has made it big enough worldwide that western companies are emulating it. But what bugs me is, and this isn't specific to Riot but they're doing it most often of late... They make these skins without knowing why anime is popular.

The vibrant pallets, wild hair colors, and huge eyes of the 80's and 90's aren't so done anymore, and in point of fact, they were never the pull. The art style was a consequence of various things, but the popularity of the medium wasn't a consequence of the art style. Heck, it all stems from manga, which is rarely in color at all.

No, it's the personality. It's the over-the-top focus on what's "cool". It's going overboard and being unapologetic about it.

Naruto wasn't popular because of the spikey yellow hair, it was popular because of the way it tied various characters with deep and intricate pasts together into one story. The way it combined a story about clawing your way into your friends' hearts with classic shounen action. The way it melded that action with thoughtful, strategic abilities that needed to be applied in specific ways to outsmart and outmaneuver an equal opponent.

Sword Art Online wasn't popular because of the bright colors. In point of fact, a lot of its scene work is kind of dull and faded to accentuate the grim atmosphere. It was popular because of the story it told. It put all these different people in a life-or-death situation, it set the stakes high, and it showed them making the most out of it. Finding love, starting businesses, forming lasting connections. It was a story of the human spirit told against grand, over-the-top action, and that's why it was beloved.

(By the way, I get a free fox every time someone uses the term "weeb" or its related phraseology.)

Gundam wasn't popular because of the lasers and bright flashes. It was popular because of the stakes those awesome space battles were taking place against. The backdrop of "space opera", where thousands of lives rested on the stick-hands of a few ace pilots. It was the way rivalries formed and friendships grew strong, only to be questioned, tested, or ripped away by the rigors of war. It was the way the heroes developed from amateurs in over their heads to bona fide war heroes. Those stakes are what made the battles so memorable.

I could go on and on, but the point is made.

Now I know you might say, "But Shingetsu. It's a MOBA. There's no time for all that." And I agree. I'm not suggesting League dropped the ball by not developing all that. What I'm saying is that they dropped the ball by picking up the task in the first place. As I said, an homage is one thing. After all, the western game industry is alive because of Japan. It's only natural that Japanese influence on the hobby would expand into related areas, and many in the industry today would have things like anime to thank for their interest in the career.

However, an homage looks like Lux. I'd even say that the Beast Hunter skins hearkening back to Monster Hunter counts as an homage. It's several skins, but Monster Hunter is usually played in a party, so it fits. However, when you continuously do anime-themed skin lines just for the pure looks of it... You're completely missing the point of "anime" as a medium. It's why I don't care for those skins, and why I feel far less people are interested than could be.