The Moe illustrative style has grown on me since I was little. I've also developed several rather strange obsessions for certain things over the past couple of months.
But to answer the question, I fully agree that anime has become an outlet for such. Weird/strange fantasies we may have are most likely never going to be seen in medias outside of anime, and even it we do, it's once in a blue moon do we come across it. Popular animes nowadays can't exist without a moment containing something moe (i.e. owl eyes), typical overreactions, a sexualized figure (i.e. women of a specific nature), someone being called out as a pervert or school girls. We know shows are typically targeted towards the male audience, and unfortunately the majority of men who eat this stuff up have these sort of fantasies with fictional characters. If a show is running off chibis and cute characters, the show will become popular. If there are women involved, the show will become popular. If PVs include striped panties and boobshots, the show becomes popular.
What other proof is there regarding fetishes and anime? Fan art, good or bad, the most popular choices for fan art are always characters that are either super cute or seen as a sex symbol, both male and female. Where can you find perverted artwork of characters that fans grow some kind of sexual interest in? Everywhere! Any hot looking guys will garner yaoi fantasized depictions, any women (who don't even have to be attractive) will get similar treatment. When all sorts of merchandise is released, the first thing to sell out are products branded with women; posters, pillows, mugs, mousepads, cutlery, containers... they don't even have anything to do with the show!
. I'm leaving out a lot here but you get the idea.
