>Japanese manga is fully of sexy, weird, objectifying stuff that most people really wouldn't want their kids to see, but go to a bookstore in Japan and you'll also see bookcase after bookcase of manga totally appropriate for all ages with young girls pressing their nose into them. Stories about teenage girls getting picked on at school or trying to meet the right guy or saying stupid things in class. Stories about girls who are in bands and office workers and every possible thing.
I, uh, read a lot of manga intended for teenaged Japanese girls. The ironic thing is, a lot of times even the manga intended for girls is mildly sexualized to please members of the peripheral male demographics, yet the original female audience doesn't run away screaming in response. Guys enjoy "girls comics," and vice versa, and growing up around female anime and manga fans, I never really questioned it. Stories about girls trying to choose between a group of handsome suitors, or stories about guys surrounded by improbably attractive women. Cutesy slice-of-life, or ultra-violence. Ones with boobies and panty shots out the wazoo, or ones with homoerotic undertones... we didn't care, we watched it all together.
Meanwhile, in our more "enlightened" mainstream American culture, people write angry blog posts filled with stupid impact font image macros about how they literally judged an entire medium by its cover, because the female body is offensive or something.
A lot of manga is written by women, and a lot of it is read by women. You're overreacting and being unnecessarily prudish. None of the art on any of those books is even remotely lascivious.
While that stereotype still exists in some corners; I've actually found that there is more mainstream understanding and acceptance of anime these days. I work in an office that terminally online folks would call “full of normies”; but I have found people here are at least aware of anime, if not active consumers. These days, it's not “cringe” to enjoy anime itself, and I'm guessing that the majority of commenters in this particular thread are over-analyzing the presence of an anime girl on a website.
The author probably likes seeing an anime girl, and feels that displaying one on their page expresses an interest in anime, tech, and a casual tone for their writing.
As the parent mentioned, if you go to Japan, you'll see a thriving market for manga that appeals to girls of varying age groups. So, this would lead one to believe that the demand exists now, it's just completely untapped here. (Ignoring possible cultural differences.) Do you know how you create a large comic book market for older girls / women? Get them hooked when they're young on age-appropriate material, treat them well, and you'll create that market.
Consider 'normal' books. Kids (including girls) have a wide variety of age-appropriate books in a large amount of genres to choose from. I don't understand how there could be a demand for these books, and not those same books with added pictures in them.
there is definitely an issue. not so much that your coworker would get upset or anything. but it is true that anime & mangas geared towards men (shonen and seinen) tend to overuse young girls for effect. they even have names for the different archetypes.
those geared towards women (shojo and josei) do the same thing but they have a different drawing style. the manga guide collection is not using that style.
the manga guides are cool with me. but that does not invalidate the issue though. it's exactly the same issue as men with perfect six packs on romantic novel covers.
Most manga/anime fans in the west are young women. That doesn't mean they bring it to work, but they're not offended by manga having women without perfectly flat chests or anything. Remember, the attraction to those features is just in your head.
Actually this reminds me of an anime forum I used to be on that was so sensitive about this issue (because the other boards made fun of them constantly) they ended up being reduced to only liking shows where shirtless men got in homoerotic fights, because any women being on screen that wasn't a grandma was a sign of fanservice.
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