Opinions on female characterizations in anime?

Part of the issue is definitely strict Japanese gender roles, but I'm not Japanese and I don't really know enough about this topic to discuss it in-depth. However, I do know that being loud and assertive is considered highly unfeminine (and therefore unattractive), and there is a lot of pressure for Japanese women to get married and take care of the house/children.

But the other part of the issue is otaku-pandering. Otaku are the financial backbone of the anime industry, so a lot of studios go out of their way to make shows that otaku will support. Otaku are stereotyped as lonely, socially-inept men who are terrible with women, and they often watch anime as a sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy. This is where the whole idea of a 2D girlfriend came from -- if you can't get a real girl, why not project your feelings onto a fictional character? She doesn't have any of the flaws of a real person, and she can't dump you. Now begins a race among anime studios to create sexy, beautiful, idealized female characters who all the otaku want to bone, because that's how you sell merchandise. Harems are popular for the same reason: the only thing better than one cute anime girl is a whole army of cute anime girls competing against each other for your dick.

Obviously not all female anime characters are meek and dependent on male characters, and I'm not saying that it's wrong to like those kinds of characters. However, I think it's facetious to say that there isn't a definite trend happening here.

/r/anime Thread