>>149224735
partly being a small fish in a big pond,a d partly due to a lot of the JP original series not really having any fujo-bait dynamics. One of the JP BW animes has a Destron named Starscream(not the original) who's an effete prettyboy, but then he gets turned into a mutant cyborg and his only shipping partner is a big brutish looking bot who also mutates.
TF also got imported to China at a really crucial time when it was one of the few western properties to get imported, so it made a huge splash over there.