japanese cultural appreciation is heavily indexed on nerd culture and that's heavily men. just an additional audience to skew the metrics.
Now, the bits of culture that concern swords and warrior codes of honor? Yeah, those are boy things, mainly.
although I encountered something similar, in my schools they were a very distinct subculture defined by their affinity to Japanese culture, whereas what I see now amongst younger people is that many more attractive popular well adjusted women (people in general) are ok with or into anime, that style, and non-US cinema at all. I like this outcome.
For the closest real-world analogue, check out m-flo.
I was just thinking there ought to be an AI chat agent that can recommend music based on themes and mood, perhaps with a periodic, paradoxically-opposite sense of humor.