>>28098736>>28098816>>28099099Declining birthrate. Seriously.
Do you know why so many entertainment companies in Japan these days focus so much on "children's" entertainment that works for adults too? Oftentimes sexually? Or why so much anime is made for otaku in the style of the cartoons they used to like when a fair amount of anime was made for kids back then? Well, the answer is simple: there are practically more otaku than kids nowadays.
Many companies are abandoning children's programming altogether or "diversifying" their products (i.e. Nintendo's "for everyone" approach with the DS and Wii) simply because the money isn't there in the child demographic anymore, and it doesn't look like it will be there any time soon.
Japan is littered with closed elementary schools that were shuttered simply because there weren't enough pupils to justify keeping the school open.
And that's why Pokemon character designs are sometimes surprisingly sexualized and Fire Emblem is drawn by a ero doujinshi artist who does not feel too-too compelled to diverge from his typical aesthetic. Pokemon-Amie applied to sparsely armored onee-chans (except in Burgerland because we can't have fun things).