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It's a good question. Anime (like many media, but especially anime) is known to have gratuitous fan service where girls/women of all ages are in revealing clothing for seemingly no reason except to just entice viewers.

The reasoning is that because they aren't real people, it's okay to draw and view images of anime, regardless of their age. And because geek/nerd circles tend not to socialize with real women, we get this over-proliferation of anime girls.

This also was my best guess. A "victimless crime" kind of logic that really really creeps me out.

It is a bit unsettling, but at the risk of false dichotomy, I'd rather them get off on cartoon girls or women than getting their fill with real underage girls or otherwise unconsenting women.

Probably depends on the person, but this stuff is mostly the cute instinct, same as videos of kittens. "Aww" and "I must protect it."

2D girls don't nag and I've never had to clear their clogged hair out of my shower drain.

I'd say it's partially a result of 4chan.

We live in a decadent society.