>>49892719This is a weird coincidence, but I was thinking about the "fujo-fication of kodomo anime" an hour ago. As you pointed out, moms will watch anime alongside their kid, so by adding in fujobait or something tantalizing, the producers also get the mom interested (which in turn makes her willing to buy merch not just for her kid, but also herself). I once heard about a Kamen Rider interview that said handsome male actors were purposely hired to attract the mothers, so the same would apply with fujobait. Aoi Yūki, the voice of Iris, admitted in a interview she's a shotacon who dreams of "tutoring a young boy" and declared 80% of Japanese women are shotacons too, so a character like Gou, who is designed to be a bishounen, would appeal to them.
Some additional things I'd like to add:
>On the topic of fujobucksFujoshi are famously known for shelling out tremendous amounts of money when it comes to their husbandos and ships. They'd buy multiple copies of the same BD, buy merchandise, and buy magazines like Otomedia and spoon.2di. That is how dedicated they are, so why wouldn't companies tap into that market? In contrast, male otaku are notoriously known to be poor jobless NEET hikikomori who can't even rub two yen together. Sure, otaku may post their waifu on Mongolian basket weaving image boards 24/7, but they don't actually support the anime monetarily.
>On the topic of participationBefore Gundam became the worldwide phenomenon it is today, its creator, Yoshiyuki Tomino, thought about cancelling it. He changed his mind when he attended a fan meet and saw just how many women were attending. To him, this indicated Gundam's potential to become a massive success because its popularity wasn't limited to just male otaku. He also mentioned how it was women who sent him letters and would engage with him at conventions, which encouraged him to keep working. So of course anime would pander to the part of the fanbase that actually cares to interact with creators.
