anime boyo guide for SL (not as extensive as anime grill.)

MALE ANIME TIPS
This isn't a full guide like the anime girl guide, because frankly, an anime man is more involved than slapping some parts together. Also, price is not so much of an issue as actually finding things that will work.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN, KNOW THE FOLLOWING:
How to read notecards, play around with HUDs, edit objects, edit shapes, etc. You're going to edit things, a lot.
How to try demos. You need to try demos. A lot.
How to edit textures. Pick up Photoshop, or GIMP if you really want to. The better you want your results, the more you’re going to have to edit textures, or have a friend who can edit textures well.
-- If you don't care so much about legality, you may want to learn how to use a cache viewer, if you're going to get a male skin and try to match it to an anime head.
It's extremely helpful if you have a male neck extender or know how to use the LL neck with an alpha mask to help bridge the gap between anime heads and the human neck.

BASIC ANIME MALE: KRANKHAUS KUROO + RAVEN BELL BJD LANCE*
Pretty much as close to "a generic 16+ anime male" as possible, but can be extremely restrictive if you aren't creative and willing to learn certain skills.
PROS:
+ You look like an anime protagonist.
+ Comes with lots of casual clothes in the box already.
+ Krankhaus makes clothing often, and they’re all reasonably priced, if not dirt cheap.
+ Furry mods if you want to be furry.
+ Kuroo body has skins that match the BJD heads already.
+ Easy to modify
+ A lot of alpha sections, so fitting clothes is easier.
+ Female neck fit in case you want to minimize seams (not perfectly seamless, but a tight-fitting collar is sufficient to cover seams without any huge gaps.)
+ Lance head is pretty good and can be reshaped; more similar bento heads may be available in the future from Raven Bell.
KIND OF A CON, BUT NOT REALLY:
= Not close to the male LL body, and in fact, uses the female skeleton rather than the male. This means that a lot of clothing DOESN'T work because of skeleton issues. On the other hand, the shape is why you bought it in the first place. If you want a male body that fits closer to the LL male body, then get one.
= Not fitmesh. Usually would be a con, but combined with the fact that it honestly doesn't get close to either the LL female or LL male shapes, this allows you to fudge unused sliders to fit clothes to the avatar. Unfortunately, it means that certain adjustments are not very easy and if you don't like the waist shape, ass size, and other aspects of the shape that aren't just width/length related, you probably shouldn't get the avatar, and should go for an actual LL-UV mapped male body instead.
CONS:
- Very few human skin mods, for both the BJD head and Kuroo body. Basically, this is a paint it yourself kit.
- Little dedicated clothing outside of Krankhaus's store.
- Feet can be a little small when you increase height.
- You should probably learn how to hide clipping with things like scarves, hoods, capes, cuffs, hair, etc.
- Does not come with nails and nipples; these can be purchased separately, and both are omega compatible when purchased. You can also just paint them on yourself.
(*The Lance is bento, but if you don't care about that, grab any of the other BJD heads. BJD head 4 is most manly, followed by 2, 1, and then 3. Alternatively, try out the bento Cerezo head from Audax, which is an experimental beta. It's way more stylized. DO NOT go with a philo Sophia, Venus, M3, zero style, etc- you will look baby-faced.)
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ANIME HEAD + MANBODY : LL-UV MAPPED MALE BODY (SLINK PHYSIQUE/BELLEZA JAKE/SIGNATURE GIANNI/ADAM BODY) + BJD LANCE
Lance is probably the only anime head that really fits these bodies, stylewise. Please do not use Utilizator Venus, or worse, M3. Please.
PROS:
+ BJD Lance has omega support, so if you find an omega compatible skin, you don't necessarily have to texture anything. (caveat: it won't look very anime anymore.)
+ You can be muscular and look more mature.
+ Depending on the body you pick, fits a range of clothing. Male avatars in general tend to be very different in shape from one another and from the LL male body, so while some older clothing can fit, a lot may not. The market tends to shake up every time a new male body is introduced. Signature has the most available dummy model, so creators can make sizes for it easily. Slink has been around longer than the others and continues to maintain a degree of support from creators. Jake is newest and looks great, so people are jumping on that bandwagon. Adam doesn't have a very accessible dummy model so creators don't usually have sizes for it. Try demos of all of them and see which one you like.
+ Omega tattoo and clothing appliers can be used.
CONS:
- If you dont' like BJD Lance, most other anime heads don't look great on a male body, so you're best off just making a regular-style dude. (*edit, other BJD bento heads may be available in the future with different shapes.)
- Recently male clothing has become more fashionable. However, a good majority of male clothing - especially on the marketplace - are things your dad might think look hip and cool to the kids these days, and are fairly low quality. Be willing to shop inworld and learn where to get the good stuff, or you'll look end up in a plain t-shirt and jeans. Forever.
- Good clothing can be expensive compared to clothing for bodies like Kuroo or Avatar 2.0.
- Most skins are supposed to be realistic, so unless you want to rip and edit them, you might end up looking too gritty and porous.
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BOYISH ANIME MALE : AVATAR 2.0 + KRANKHAUS MANIME FOR MOR MASCULINE BUILD) + ONE OF THE FOLLOWING ANIME HEADS: BJD HEADS (1, 2, OR 3) OR UTILIZATOR VENUS
Want to look younger, or more twinkish? Don't want to go full femboy? Use the manime addon. It's retired now, due to the recent Avatar 2.0 update, and won't be getting more clothes. However, if you don't really need a fitted mesh ass, you'll have access to a fairly large amount of Krankhaus clothing, as well as any below-the-waist items that fit the regular avatar 2.0.
PROS:
+ Like Kuroo, comes with a boatload of clothes, and has a library of Krankhaus clothes.
+ Works with Avatar 2.0 skin mods.
+ The ease of using the 2.0, while maintaining some muscles.
+ Some third-party skins for both the BJD heads and the Venus head.
CONS:
- RETIRED. No more clothing beyond what's been made, or what third parties may make. No updates to work with the fitted 2.0 update.
- Third party support is, once again, limited.
- Isn't quite as smooth as Kuroo or male bodies.
- Bad feet
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FEMBOY TIER : AVATAR 2.0 FLAT + UTILIZATOR VENUS, BJD HEADS (1,2,3), ZERO STYLE HEADS, MOKYU
It's not very masculine, and you shouldn't try to pretend it looks masculine. A few more clothing options are open to you compared to manime build, and more heads look okay on this than the above options.
PROS:
+ Can use cutesy heads, like Mokyu and Zero Style, without looking stylistically disjointed between the head and body.
+ There's at least one skin mod for each head option + the 2.0.
+ 2.0 clothes from the few creators out there will work- no longer required to sign a 1000 year contract with Krankhaus. Artificial Incarnation makes great femboy-styled clothes.
CONS:
- Clothing still hard to find because there's like 3 people who make anything for the 2.0, and 99.9% of it is for pre-fitted ass update 2.0. Therefore, you might have to just downgrade your ass, and still sign that 1000 year contract with Krankhaus.
- There's not a lot of mod options. You might have to texture anyways, depending on the head you pick. Venus probably has the most mods.
- Bad feet
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FEMBOY TIER 2: FEMALE LL BODY + KIKI'S FLAT CHEST/V-TECH FLAT CHEST +  UTILIZATOR VENUS, BJD HEADS (1,2,3, POSSIBLY LANCE), ZERO STYLE HEADS, MOKYU
Extremely homo, but if you want to wear girl pants and LL-UV femboy skins, tattoos, and clothing, this is your best bet.
KIKI'S FLAT CHEST (Simple Stuff Store here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hologram/200/131/37)
- Works on Belleza Isis and Freya, seamlessly. Also has maitreya option.
- if you like palmable squeeze boi boob this is your thing
- sculpted nipple, I don't think it can be removed but if it can, someone correct me?
- NO omega, you have to learn how 2 rip, or get the omega mesh dev kit to get omega functionality. NO tattoo layers, the most you can do is layer the same chest over again and use an alpha texture as a tattoo.
V-TECH FLAT CHEST
- Generally more supported, has clothing available, as well as skin appliers.
- Omega compatible
- No nipples sculpted in- nipples are just textured, or you can buy additional nipples from the V-tech store.
- Fits well but might have some seamage.

PROS:
+ Wide variety of female bottoms and outerwear that has no sculpted breasts.
+ Wide variety of tattoos/texture clothing in the form of appliers.
+ Support for skins from Pink Fuel, TSG, Glam Affair, and other popular skin stores (pink fuel makes the appliers.)
+ Fitmesh.
+ If you want to make a female, just take off the chest and get a different skin. If you want to  make a human, get a different head.
CONS:
- Few mesh tops for V-tech, probably fewer dedicated ones for Kiki's chest.
- Few stores sell anime head combos for femboy LL skins - most are for kemono or av2.
- 100% femboy, no way around it. You're not gonna look masculine, ever. You won't even be a slender Clamp anime man. This is some Poju shit. You the soy boy now.
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SHOTA HELL : KEMONO + FLAT ADDON OF YOUR CHOICE + UTILIZATOR VENUS OR M3, ZERO STYLE HEAD, MOKYU, PHILO SOPHIA
Don't fucking make this unless you want a shota or extreme femboy.
It isn't masculine, it isn't a bishounen, it's not even a yaoi uke tier character, and you'd be hard press to call it anything above 12. The kemono works okay for an androgynous little furball, but because of the joint deforms, it's impossible to shape to anything remotely adult, even with addons.
PROS:
+ GREAT clothing selection
+ Lots of texture mods (for utilizator heads, less for other heads.)
+ Lots of body mesh mods
+ Alphas are okay, not numerous, but otherwise usable.
+ Beginner friendly
+ Become catboy easily
CONS:
- mistaken for girl (possible pro)
- It's the kemono, and everyone is tired of the kemono. You will be mocked mercilessly by the /vg/ group.
- In the wild, this species of avatar often associated with people who are too lazy to buy anything but the kemono, but want to be masculine anyways, and therefore end up looking like trash that gets really mad when you call them a girl.
- Extremely restrictive shape; not fitmesh, and joint deforms make customizing the shape even worse.
- Absolutely cannot wear 95% of non-kemono clothing, because of the shape and aforementioned joint deforms.
- Bad feet
- M3 Anime head universally considered ugly, Venus + kemono is the unholy duo of overuse, everything else doesn't have that many skin mods.