This is slightly off topic but I don't know where else to write it.
When you learn about the Western otaku community a certain amount, and its attendant dysfunctions, you notice certain repeating images and motifs. Suddenly-trans/AGP and lolicon/MAP are two of the most common dysfunctions, and seem to often overlap.
This character is Shinobu from the Monogatari anime franchise. She is a 598-year-old vampire woman who
happens to be trapped inside a little girl's body due to some plot contrivance. (If you hear that meme where the object of a lolicon's desire is actually an immortal, I think this is the origin of it.) She's introduced as a mature-looking, busty woman, and as a child, she switches between a sort of adult-with-child's-voice way of speaking and an actual child's way of speaking. It's often played off for laughs, but the animation studio has released promotional material that sexualizes her in both (adult and child) forms.
This character seems to be a magnet for people with these issues. An emblem for otaku sexual and identity dysfunction, even. I've seen people on r/anime explicitly state that they developed a loli fetish, and Shinobu was a part of that. As of right now, Shinobu is on Conrad's Twitter banner. She used to be on Conrad's MyAnimeList "favorite characters." He has shown his Shinobu dakimakura (body pillow) on camera before. I'm not trying to attribute these people's issues all to one character, but I think she is just the right kind of character to exacerbate existing mental problems. She is not-quite-adult and not-quite-a-child (similar to how some trans and "non-binary" people think about their gender identity). She can be cute like a child, while having the full mental faculties of an adult (which makes sexualizing her unlike sexualizing an actual child). She is powerful beyond comprehension, but also inseparable from the loner/milquetoast main character for some reason (delusion of grandeur).
I think it's a good (and common) example of how a fantasy image can affect people who have trouble distinguishing fantasy and reality (perhaps only on a subconscious level), because she breaks so many boundaries of appropriate behavior.
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