I Wanna Be a Anime Girl · 11:49pm Feb 3rd, 2017
Seriously, who wouldn't want to be something that explicitly preys upon human aesthetic appeal?
One of the biggest appeals of writing in a fantasy setting is the wistful feeling of, "What if it was real? What if the world was actually like this, and not the seemingly incessant roller coaster of satisfaction and dissatisfaction that it is instead?" For the author, that can be their most powerful tool: They can accomplish wish fulfillment of a sort, create a world that's both beautiful and compelling, and is so very different from the world that they're in. Despite what some authors may cite of this being the mark of a bad story, I believe that every story that is steeped in a fantasy world is some level of wish fulfillment, whether it is consciously acknowledged or not.
Take, for example, your generic anime girl.
I've chosen a girl because I find their aesthetic more appealing than the males, personally. I can imagine that some folks feel the male aesthetic is more appealing, but that's not my dig.
Do you like what this anime girl looks like? She has really cute-looking hair, arrayed in a fashion that can't possibly be emulated in real life to the same effect. Her eyes are impossibly big, eyes which by all rights are something right out of a sci-fi alien mugshot--but are somehow cute, deep and pretty and innocent. The mouth is a slightly curved line, the simple design of it still managing to convey a clear message of the character's temperament. The choice of attire likewise can be imagined to be sensible for a girl her age, and always sports complementary colors to her hair color, eye color, and the like.
On a deeper level, things as simple as the shape of her face--a very common optimal face proportion that we as people love--or the sheer big puppy dog-feeling look in her eyes, as if she's just begging for you to hug her and tell her she'll be okay as she calls you onii-chan... these are things that humans just tend to appreciate. Even a person who has no interest in anime almost certainly doesn't feel an aversion to this aesthetic, as it appeals to these base human appreciations that are notoriously difficult to un-program.
Anime girls can be innocent.
They can be sexy.
They can be innocent and sexy.
They can be a naughty teacher.
They can be a giant robot pilot.
Are there any more anime stereotypes I missed? 
The point I'm trying to make is that, even within this specific artistic medium, there's a massive array of base human desires that can be fulfilled simply by looking at how the character is drawn. It's an appeal that can't possibly be captured by a real-life counterpart. We don't have those big saucer eyes, that perfectly arrayed hair, the simple mouth design, or the perfect head shape. As much as we want those things, they will never exist in real life.
When someone draws an anime character, what are they drawing? Are they fulfilling some primal desire for a certain level of aesthetic appeal? I'm talking inspiration here. How does the vision of an anime character in an artist's head look? What's their definition of a thing with "perfect" proportions? Is it human, or is it a fantasy creature?
Anime art styles can vary quite a bit--as can cartoon art styles, such as Star Butterfly.
Or Mabel.
Or Twilight Sparkle.
Or sexy Twilight Sparkle.
Despite the departure from anime tropes in the creation of these characters, there remain some general themes that hold true cross-animation genre: Things like head shape, complementary colors, simpler art styles, and eye size/shape are generally consistent in animation. There are always exceptions to the rule, but this often holds true due to what is the common consensus on what makes something aesthetically appealing. Regardless of what the style is, or the culture, humans tend to find the same things to be easy on the eyes.
It's weird, isn't it? Caricatures of people are typically even more attractive than real people. There's a wide variation in what people look like. Maybe you're into skinny girls.
Maybe you're into bigger girls.
Maybe girls with a certain skin tone.
Maybe short girls.
Or perhaps a woman with a certain bust size (picture redacted because I'm on a work computer and googling some of these pictures was already risky enough).
There's a wide variation of people in the world, both men and women--and your mileage will vary from person to person. Do you find every single person in the world attractive? No? Then you're a human being, and you have likes and dislikes of your own.
Compare these acute preferences within real humans to the preferences within anime characters. All anime characters have the same general aesthetic, the same overall likability that humans only wish they could have. In this case, human imagination surpasses reality: In many ways, a fake thing is better than a real thing.
I don't blame virgins for remaining virgins in light of this. I have my preferences in women, and surprisingly enough, the type of woman whom I prefer tends to seek me out (short girls that aren't really skinny, but aren't really fat either--what I call a "healthy body weight," if you're curious). Do I consider real women more attractive than anime women? Insofar as I can touch and feel and experience life events with a real woman, yeah. Some individuals who are desperate for company have found a loophole, though...
As crazy as it sounds, despite my disinterest in having a "perfectly proportioned" fictional wife, and despite preferring the real thing... I kind of envy these guys. They don't settle for anything less than perfect aesthetic appeal--even if they have to live in a dream world. I am too centered in reality to create fictional entities, such as tulpas and waifus, to ever be satisfied with such a reality. I wish I could be satisfied with the dream of perfection. I wish I could simply be happy with being alone sometimes. Yet, I crave human company too much. I'm also not a weeb.
Just think about it for a moment. You could live in a perfect dream world with your perfectly anime girl, perfectly proportioned, with the perfect personality, ready to give you the perfect life. The alternative is acknowledging that, if you do ever find the "perfect" girl to spend the rest of your life with, she may never be satisfied with your career choice or her own, she is a drain on finances, she has wants and needs that frequently surpass your own and cause you to have to disrupt your lifestyle for her sake, and she will never ever look or act as perfect as the perfect anime girl. Who's the bigger fool: The dreamer who'd rather seek perfect happiness at the expense of sanity, or the realist who has consigned themselves to a miserable future with a significant other that meets the minimum criteria of being worthy of one's love and affection?
The love between a weeaboo and his body pillow is pure. It transcends emotional barriers, it circumvents the inherent desire to procreate, and the only person it has the potential of hurting is the weeaboo whose sanity is taxed to maintain such an illusion. Does that make them worthy of ridicule? Perhaps. As a human being that has settled for the idea of an imperfect woman that I'd rather have in my life over some esoteric grasping at perfection, I scoff at the idea of choosing anything other than the real thing. We are taught that these people are bizarre, creepy people, exponentially more likely to rape a woman on sight than they are to leave the house.
We tell ourselves that we've got life figured out, that even the shit that is the ups and downs of relationships, the dissatisfaction that comes with tiring of our significant other, the heartbreak when our significant other tires of us first, the long spans of utter loneliness and the all too brief periods of feeling... belonging, as if there is an end to our search, that we have finally found the end of the road. We think that that roller coaster of emotion, the one that everyone who's ever tried to be with real people is familiar with... that that is superior in some way to being satisfied with the comfort of one's own vision of a perfect wife. Perhaps the bond that the weeaboo has made was born of desperation... but is it truly worthy of our disdain?
I find anime women almost universally aesthetically appealing. The general consensus agrees with this, hence why anime women look like they do. When faced with the ability to actually live as an anime character, a perfectly proportioned and perfectly personified person, and getting to be that over living in the reality that I will be in until the day I die... would I do it? I think so. I want to be cute, or pretty, or beautiful, by the definition of most of humanity. I want to be that perfectly drawn definition of desirable, the one that is so indescribably appealing that they tempt lonely souls that have given up on real people. I want to be better than this life allows me to be.
I want to be Lillie. Deal with it, faggots. 
That was long.
And it went deep.
Like damn dude.
You did that at work?
Get back to work, lazy butt.
wow long and ??? Oh "faggots" really?
4408515
I'm home now.
4408516
Prove it.
4408533
I say it endearingly!
Plus, if anime was real life, we'd all get our own outline!
4408593 Ok Well some paint and a sharp knife you can be what you want to be.
4408634
Those pictures aren't the same aesthetic appeal of the action style, as they fall into the uncanny valley, something with the drawn anime girls don't do.
Your feelings on Japanese culture are your own, but don't have any bearing on the aesthetic appeal of anime girls.
Nanami Aoyama is best anime girl.
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4409385
Never heard of her. She looks good, though.
4409729 She's from Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojou, or The Pet Girl of Sakurasou (she's not the pet). I love the series, but be warned: it's emotionally brutal. It's basically No Matter How Hard You Try You'll Never Be Good Enough the anime.
4409913
I like sad and dark things, so that sounds right up my alley.
I googled her name real quick and got the anime name, but hadn't found the English name; thank you.
Got a link of where I could find it? I wouldn't mind buying it legitimately. I've got money.
4409931 Crunchyroll.com and 9anime.tv are good sites for streaming. You can even buy the series for $55 at Crunchyroll. Happy viewing.
Well that was pretty deep. Jesus, you okay Scoot?
4409998
Damn it, more Crunchyroll advertisements. I thought Adblock Plus was supposed to filter these out.
4410088
Have you seen the standard caliber of story that I like to write? I either write a half-comedic slapstick, or some shit about ponies dying. If I was all right, I wouldn't be able to write. 
No.
4410113
snuggles the Scoot
4411118
Why must you snuggle me!?