google the term "autogynephilia" and fuck off
"anime" has no exclusivity to delusional people self-inserting into cartoon avatars
a cartoon character is perfect, no blemishes, their ideal form, something which they can never attain as reality is a harsh mistress
they are unhappy with their earthly visage and they try to mimic their idealistic characters to no avail
there's also a deeply ingrained porn addiction that worsens their condition, they're terminally online, doomscrolling social media, making 10,000 posts on twitter/bluesky every single day
it's a mental illness, you don't have to pry further than that, they need a constant validation feedback loop, external influences dictate their lives, they have no autonomy over their brains because they've grown reacting to stimulus instead of proactive actions
and it's not a mental illness that's rampant by any means, you're just under a recency bias, also you frequent the websites where these specimens reside