I Am Completely Serious

Following inkstone's link and then your post on Bleach (which bored me a long time ago, but I read with a sort of schadenfreude -- and then onto this post. Nail, hammer, bang, with one point I might argue, with support from your observation that

A male villain will tend to hold off his bout of Crazy Eyes for the moment at which he comes to understand that he's lost a fight, or that his cunning plan has been thwarted. ... Alternately, in the grip of Crazy Eyes he may accidentally or deliberately destroy himself, thus freeing the heroes of all responsibility for his death.

I'd say that's what makes Azula's Crazy Eyes a distinctively masculine pattern, rather than the usual crazy-girl version. There's no hint at all that prior to the final battle that she's been holding back on her powers or in any way uncertain of her ability; she's pretty damn smooth and capable and extremely skilled all the way through the series. The writers didn't go the crazy path, which meant that (for a kid's show), they then had to figure out a way to take her down without also forcing a boy to kill his sister (that would be pushing the limit for what a kids' series could really handle, I think, especially when rated TV-7), and without the (mostly pacifist if very skilled) female heroine killing Azula, either -- so her defeat had to come from within, really.

I rewatched the series a week ago, actually, especially the last season. First time around I was all, "oh, not the crazy woman thing again," but the second time around I realized: if they'd done the Crazy eyes, as you call it, this would've started long before those last few episodes. Like, from the very beginning.

Instead, it was a combination of betrayal by her closest (only) friends signaling that if they could betray her, anyone could. That sets her on the path to distrusting everyone, and it's only once she renders herself alone (effectively destroying her backup) that she's vulnerable, and even then a good share of her defeat she delivers herself -- which underlines a major moral of the entire story, that one's victory is within, but also one's defeat (mirrored by the way Aang removes Ozai's power -- lack of internal power creates defeat).

So I'd say that really, Azula might be closer to a good template for what it'd look like if an author chose to do the Crazy Eyes but along male lines, instead of the cliched female-goes-crazy lines. Still not entirely perfect (and a bit of a cop-out if we're talking adult-aged entertainment), but for kids -- who aren't always willing/able to handle the hero/ine making hard choices like killing the bad guy -- the choice to have the villain do the crazy is a nicely-packaged (and moralistic) way to defeat the bad guy mostly by letting the bad guys defeat themselves.

(I'm not sure Mushishi really counts as mansplaining, though, since as a shamanistic figure Ginko's kind of in a different category -- not entirely Magical ____, but pretty close. Okay, actually, maybe really close, except he doesn't die at the end. But shamanistic/magical figures are expected to do some explaining, though just as frequently they're awfully mysterious about it, and Ginko does have his moments, but he's nowhere near as cryptic as Kusuri-uri in Mo No No Ke, another shamanistic travelling peddler guy.)

Not sure if you've watched this, but if you ever need a break from the Crazy Eyes, sit down with Seirei no Moribito. My favorite non-crazy-moment (that would've been crazy in anyone else's hands, really) is when Balsa yells in the heat of battle, "I am a tiger! Stay away from me or I will kill you and eat you!" Ehehehe. The world needs more Balsas, I say.