system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: I think that many anime sexualizes children, and makes supposedly mature women look childlike.

Boy.. I know this is going to rile some feathers, but that's what this subreddit is for, I guess. Okay. Not all anime does this, but I find that many of them do. There's always the argument that not all are like that, but if we compare it to other forms of media, the percentage would be alot higher. Look at the body and facial structures of these characters. Usually short, small breasts (if any,) much larger head to body size ratio, huge eyes, small nose and mouth, extremely high pitched voice, and juvenile behavior. 

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I get that it's an art form. I do. They're made specifically to be nice looking. That's fine. Why are there so many adults that are into this, though? Hentai is a whole different story. It's basically the same, but with pornographic content. The description or whatever may state that they are of age, but the characters never really look like they are. They act childlike and innocent, it really makes me sick. I have HEARD that it's Japan's fascination with 'cute' characters, but I think it starts getting into grey territory when adults are really into it. I find it strange and bizarre, and it's instantly a red flag when adults say this to me. 

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When you start fetishizing these characters, there's a certain normalization and acceptance because it's just a cartoon. Sure. But why is it like this? Change my view on this if you can.
gpt
>Why are there so many adults that are into this, though?

I would assume the same reason cute animal videos are one of the most common type of video on the internet.

The anime artstyle is meant to convey "cuteness", as you've correctly identified. The main factors for cuteness are, as you state, certain head-to-body size rations, enlarged eyes, etc. - this is something we see both towards animals and human children. That is simply what out idea of "cute" is biologically wired towards. Do you consider it weird that dogs bred for "cuteness" fullfill the same criteria? 

The primary problem really is a conflict of interests:

1. They want the characters to look cute to draw in interest, which results in them looking more like children

2. They want the characters to look hot or sexy for the same reason (not in all anime of course)

3. They want the characters to be "relatable" for a younger audience ("younger" going up to late teens). How do you make characters relatable to younger audiences? Make them younger.

4. All of this has culminated into a "style" - mainly because it works. This style is then adapted into different media.

The key point here is that noone is really intentionally sexualizing children. Characters are created as childlike to be cute, sexy to bring in views and young to be relatable - in the finished product this seems weird, but seeing it as just the sum of those three things makes it somewhat sensible. They're not sexualised because they are children and/or teens, they are sexualised and are also children - those two are independent of one another.

Consider this example: in any form of media, you have a scene that plays in sub-saharan africa. You have a thief stealing something. This person is black. They are not stealing *because* they are black, they are not black *because* they are a thief. Those are two independent concepts (primarily black population in sub-saharan africa and "we need a thief in this scene") that collide to form this character. 

It's the same with anime: different money-making schemes collide to form a better money-making scheme. There is intention to make a character childlike for money reasons, there is an intention to make a character sexy for money reasons and there is an intention to make them young for money reasons. Noone's sitting down and saying "let's give this girl big boobs because she's 14".

It's all money-making. And ironically, many anime that are successfull diverge from this pattern - but the shovelware that makes most of the "passive" money follows the pattern to allow the very good anime to operate.