Am I the only one who thinks it's creepy when....

Probably not. I'm sure there are many people who think that's creepy. I'm sure there are many people who find people your age who still watch cartoons creepy as well.
 
If it's creepy, then maybe artists and animators shouldn't bother designing any characters with potentially attractive qualities/features at all, much less ones whose fame and existence are based solely on their iconic sex appeal. Sorry, Betty. Sorry, Jessica.

C'mon now. Attractiveness is an honest, legitimate and 100% subjective reaction to a work of art/fiction just like laughter and sadness and excitement. Finding a character attractive doesn't (and shouldn't) mean that you have a literal craving to get it on with him or her; not anymore than letting a piece of fiction make you so sad that you actually need psychological counseling. If people take their admiration of characters/stories too far, then that's 100% their fault and not the artist's.
 
I think that I see both sides of the issue. I sometimes do think it is a little creepy, since the person's not real.

However, I think that sometimes, the artist is drawing someone so they do seem attractive. But, since I'm not the artist of any characters, I can't prove that. :sweat:
 
There's nothing wrong with finding a cartoon character's design appealing provided it becomes nothing more. Anything beyond that....yeah. You've got problems. :shrug:
 
There are whole genres of shows out there that depend on how attractive the audience finds the characters.

So I guess you could take it a step farther and say that animation is creepy.
 
This pretty much. Fanservice shows are kind of made to be, but then people who find stuff like Adventure Time and Fairly Odd Parents characters hot must really have a lot of imagination or something.
 
It only gets creepy when it goes to a really wierd place like Lolikon (Anime girls who are like ten years old) or maybe just as bad as that furry (Type Sally Acorn in google without filtering the mature images I dare you). I also find it wierd for people to find characters attractive based on off the wall designs like Family Guy, The Simpsons, Adventure Time and Danny Phantom. I dont get how someone can find a character attractive when she looks like a sqwiggle or is made up of abunch of boxes.
 
"Attractive" doesn't always equate "hotness". One could simply find a character's outward appearance or character design to pleasing.

Call me weird (and you probably will :sweat:), but I personally see nothing wrong with being attracted to a cartoon character, provided that one isn't so far gone as to believe that he/she could actually forge a relationship with a drawing. That's no weirder to me than fans obsessing over fictional characters' romantic relationships.

People who are attracted "lollies" are no weirder than people who are attracted to anthropomorphic animals. I'm not down with the 'furry' vibe myself, but I won't judge those who themselves happen to be.
 
It is very possible for humans to find attractive qualities in fictional characters. Especially cheerfully cute ones. I see nothing wrong with that providing you don't lose sight of reallity. This brings to mind the cult in Russia that worships Gadget. That, I find, is wrong on many levels. But at the same time isn't too far seperated from modern idolotry of celebrities and even politicians.

As far as hottness factors go, I again find it very possible for one to find 2D drawings hot. It allows the imagination to push boundries and have strange wild fantasies.
 
As others have said, it only gets creepy when taken to an extreme. For example, do I find the character Zuko in Avatar attractive? Yes. Do I imagine having his babies? Definitely NO. I never mentally pair myself with any fictional character, whether cartoon or live action (yes, Twilight fangirls, I'm pointing at you). But drawing attractive characters is always one of the goals of a cartoonist, so I don't find it weird that people find those characters cute or hot.
 
Well, it is a system. Body pillows, statues, figurines, busts... There's a whole market out there. I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying that there are places that thrive by the way the audience feels about their waifu.

I think that's the more interesting area of conversation, IMO.
 
Well, when you think about it logically, it really isn't odd at all.

Animated characters are designed to be visually appealing. If the character design of a cartoon is ugly, no one will watch it. Thus, it's entirely normal to find a character design appealing and, well, attractive. It looks good. It's attractive. In many cases, it's recognizably female, as well; while I think it's about impossible to literally find ink-on-paper attractive, some people can easily "conceptualize" what a character looks like. Jessica Rabbit, for example, isn't particularly human-looking. But people can "smooth out the edges" of the character into a more realistic concept, even subconsciously.

Hard to explain what I mean there.

On the other hand, characters are also designed to be endearing, in and out of animation. If you don't have an emotional investment in a character, it's a failure of a character, more or less. These characters are intended to be as human as possible.

Human beings are generally attracted to other human beings, be they fictional or not. What's the point of romance novels if the tall, rugged, handsome cowboy ISN'T supposed to be found attractive?

So combine A) aesthetic appeal, B) endearing characterization, and C) basic human instinct to find other human psyches attractive... and it's only common sense to find animated character attractive.

I think the main difference is in how easily an individual can smooth out the edges. Some people can't see a cartoon character as anything but ink-and-paper. Some people can quite easily see a cartoon character as an abstract representation of a "real" individual. And some people are so intuitive in this manner that they can find anthropomorphic fish attractive.

That's just my thoughts, though.
 
How do you find a flat, 2D photograph of a woman sexy? I mean, it's not like she's really there, right...? :shrug:

I personally don't find anything wrong in finding an extremely well-designed female animated character sexy. Pocahontas has that long black hair, the rockin' bod, the skimpy outfit...if you saw an actress who looked and dressed like that, would anyone find it "creepy" to find her attractive? There are a lot of 'toon females I find extremely beautiful and/or sexy, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it, as I find a lot of "real" actresses equally desirable. It's the same as finding adults who still watch cartoons "creepy". It makes no sense whatsoever.

EDIT: For an example, look at the following pic. On the left is voice actress Irene Bedard, and on the right is her character, Pocahontas:

pocahontas.jpg


All I see are two pretty Native American girls. One is "real" and one is a cartoon, but both are very attractive in my eyes.
 
You mean the whole moe subculture/genre right?

I don't really have a problem with it existing. It's just that too many japanese studios nowadays are chasing after this demographic after how successful certain shows (notably K-ON) have become. I saw a chart a few days ago for the Fall 2010 line-up in japan and it seems like a large number of shows were pandering to this type of audience.

I do wonder if such a phenomenon could exist outside japan though. Here in America, visual novels are practically non-existent, and light novels are hardly on the level as other more successful series are.
 
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