comment: >
  
  Weird is a measure of normalcy.
  Supply follows a natural demand, and thus normalcy. If a lot of people like anime characters, then it's not weird.
  Let people have their fun. They're not honest about themselves, but no human preferences sound very appealing when you express them in an honest manner. Did you know that the most popular fantasy in women is rape fantasies?
  The danger is not human nature, it's a lack of judgement and self-restraint.
context: The Game of Thrones character Margaery Tyrell is canonically 16 years old. However many people felt attracted to the character after watching GOT. At first one might brush this off as disgusting pedophilia. But upon closer expectation, in the TV show Margaery was played by Natalie Dormer, which at the time of recording was 30 years old (and definitely also looked adult). Furthermore Margaery is a well-spoken, confident and headstrong woman. Hence, Margaery, despite technically being 16 could reasonably be anything between 20-35. And people were not attracted to her because she was 16, but quite the opposite because she was displayed as adult. 
  That is the difference between the book age (the age a character technically has) and the displayed age (the age a character could reasonably have, given their looks and behavior). 
  The same principle applies to Anime, just much more pronounced. The reason for that is that Anime is hyper simplified, meaning there is basically no optical indicator of the age of a character. So the audience could reasonably assign any age between 12 and 30 to a character. This is for example what happens to Marin Kitagawa or Hitagi Senjoigahara (and many more). Despite being 15 and 17 respectively, if you just in your mind change the setting from high school to college, boom, they are 24.
  Edit and post scriptum: 
  I am going to separate this from the main argument above, simply because I think the above is neatly closed in itself. However I also want to argue, why for Anime viewers it does not feel weird or forced to view Anime characters as older as they technically are:
  If you see your high school crush for the first time in 10 years and you feel the hots hitting you again, I don't think you have to be afraid to be a pedophile, because your attraction to a person originates from experiences with their underage self. You are attracted to a person which was the same age as you and by the continuity of the self you still identify with your younger self. 
  The same thing applies to Anime characters. People that watch Anime usually start watching Anime when they were teenagers. At this time they felt attracted to a character that then was the same age as them. When they now still feel that attraction, they do so because they still identify with their younger self. Unfortunately in contrast to your high school crush, where this mechanism felt very natural, the Anime character has not aged along you, making it now technically pedophilia. 
  You might now interpose "Yeah, I can see that with the Anime characters when you were younger. But what about the anime characters you watch now? They are clearly younger!". I again want to apply a continuity argument. I have been watching Anime since I was 14, roughly on a monthly basis. Every month I got the reassurance: Last month these characters I see were roughly my age, so surely one month later they still are. I am now in my mid 20s. And yet, I don't feel a gaping age difference between me and the characters. I guess, in my mind Anime characters are hardwired to be my age by default. In my mind, anime characters (even new ones airing now) have always naturally aged with me.
  (All of this allowed btw. by the fact that in Anime there are barely any markers for the displayed age of a character). >
  
  
  No optical marker for the age of a character
  
  This is a frame from an infamous comic. The female character is supposedly 18 and is in an intimate relationship with the male character. What do you think?
  I think when people describe it being weird, they're referring to this kind of character, not the ones that you linked which can pass for 12-30 years old. The character Bocchi that OP is referring to also does not pass for above 18. 
  That's why it's weird. >
  
  Honestly that is a perfect example, from the picture you could say that character was 25 and I'd believe you. >
  
  Which character are you referring to? >
  
  The one in the second picture you linked. >
  
  Not sure if I'd agree if she passes for 25, but let's see what others think. I don't personally watch the show, but if you put a character with that head-to-shoulder ratio into, I dunno, Naruto, I'm pretty sure she'd look like an Academy student, aka 12 years old. >
  
  I pretty much agree, though I'd be curious to know what percentage of people into the loli stuff are actually also into real life children (whether they'd act on it or not). I'd imagine there is a correlation, but I'm not quite sure how I'd feel about someone who is into that stuff and also genuinely not interested in children at all. Not sure if this something that's ever been looked into. 
  Not sure if this comment is allowed since I'm not really challenging your views, just my thoughts. >
  
  Sexuality is weird anyway. There are people who get hots from animals that are drawn as sexualized humanoids. I feel fairly confident that these people aren't into rabbits or whatever, but mainly see big boobs or butts. I don't know what makes it hot for them that it happens to be an animal, but I suspect it's some sort of a childhood memory subconsciously being triggered or something. >
  
  
  For example, some of you might have heard of the anime Bocchi the Rock. Some ''fans'' were disappointed over the maid scene for Bocchi (who is not only underage but even looks and acts like it) not having big breasts like in the manga. Complaining about something like that makes you in my opinion a sick person, if not a borderline pedo.
  
  You think wanting a character to have larger breasts is the sign of a pedophile? >
  
  Some characteristics are hard wired to be attractive. An illustrator can enhance and accentuate those features. Assigning an age to that set of drawn lines is arbitrary. >
  
  I know what you mean, but I'm talking about Lolis and characters that are obviously portrayed to be children not someone like Rias Gremory >
  
  But you understand that it's not "weird" it's understandable but just something you disagree with.
  Have you accounted for cultural differences between the places those anime characters are drawn, and the place you're reading them in? >
  
  You know people get bullied like shit for liking "lolis" in Japan as well right? >
  
  Do you support bullying? >
  
  No, I'm pointing out that you're lying about Japan's culture. >
  
  Do you think culture is a monolith? >
  
  Did you notice you're asking "checkmate" questions in an attempt to stop any relevant discussion? No properly grown men are looking for a young woman to bother them all day long >
  
  Isn't liking big breasts, the opposite of pedophilia?
  Little prepubescent girls don't work as french maids, nor do they have large breasts. I like both of those things, and if you were to draw a cartoon character with those traits, I'd probably say it's hot too.
  Pedophiles are attracted to kids that are noticeably pre-puberty. I have to assume they're not into 17 year olds with secondary sexual characteristics like breasts, asses, and curves.
  It sounds like the anime artist's drew her more innocently and somewhat realistic in the anime, whereas she's more sexual (and older looking) in the manga.
  I have a question too. If I drew a character who looked like an adult woman, with curves and large breasts, etc. And said she's canonically 5 years old. Does finding her hot make you a pedo? Because I think it's less to so with canon ages, and more how a character is presented. Which is true to real life and can get pretty messy (which is why I don't think hard lines work, and why I only really care about actual harm). >
  
  How is being disappointed this character doesn't have breasts mean these fans lust after prepubescent girls? Wanting breasts suggests the opposite. >
  
  It doesn't make you weird because the express purpose of some of those characters is to get you attracted to them. They are designed to appeal to fantasies and desires about women that stimulate your romantic and sexual interest without couching those things in the reality of a complete individual human being.
  Basically, they're a carefully constructed horny drug. Is it weird that heroin makes you feel good even though basically everyone knows it's all fake and actually terrible for you and will ruin your life? No. The weird thing is when someone defends habitual drug use as a harmless and enjoyable hobby. 
  Same with underage anime characters. It's not weird that the horny drug works. But when you constantly seek out more do the horny drug and invest significant time in defending recreational use of the horny drug, that's what makes it weird. >
  
  A lot of the sexualized underage characters in anime are there for "weird reasons" indeed. I just have to preface what follows with that I get that. There's no reason your 200 year old vampire who likes being naked has to have been bitten when she was 12.
  That being said, when it comes to teenagers in a lot of stories (this goes for YA-novels too) the viewer/reader experiences the attraction through another character that they relate to - who is also a teenager. This means that the fantasy that one is immersed in is more like "what it was like to be a teenager", as opposed to "being a fully adult man with a relationship with a 15 year old". Teenagers have love lives and sex lives. Relating to how that was, or could have been, reexperiencing the quality of that love or attraction through stories isn't weird in my opinion.
  I think this "excuses" some examples of "weirdness" but not others. It's easy to excuse examples grounded in a high school experience if it doesn't unnecessarily put their characters in contrived sexual situation. On the other hand, I absolutely see that a lot of anime do do that. However, in some of those cases I think there's something true to life there. I remember I was a very horny teenager who thought about sex constantly. I don't think depicting that should be off limits. I wouldn't ban Euphoria from airing.