Character designs: THE SUBJECTIVITY THREAD :'D

[Kriven]

I honestly feel like that cultural edginess is more responsible for diminishing anthro representation than "omg, people might jerk off to them!"

There's also always that huge push (at least in the USA) for fiction to be more "realistic", which I know is a vague term, but the general consensus is that walking-talking-animals aren't very realistic.

And it's not like the concept is completely disappearing... some of what's being done with anthro characters isn't the best out there, but it's still around. TUFF Puppy on Nickelodeon was only canceled last year, multiple Cartoon network characters have anthro animal sidekicks (Jake the Dog? Uncle Grandpa's Dinosaur Pal?) not to mention Regular Show routinely featuring anthro characters. I mean, they aren't drawn in the totally almost-human way that characters from like, TwoKinds are, but they're still as anthro as Bugs Bunny, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Rocko's Modern Life ever were. Even on the Bugs Bunny front, I don't think we've gone a single year this decade without the Looney Tunes being involved in something, whether it's the Looney Tunes Show or that new Bugs Bunny show that's happening.

Sure, anthro characters aren't as predominant as they were in the early to mid 2000s, when even Disney was producing new anthro cartoons (Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, The Buzz on Maggie), and when every up-and-coming game studio wanted to make the next Banjo-Kazooie... but that doesn't mean the format has disappeared, and I really don't think it's Rule 34 that has put studios off of creating this kind of content. I think it's just not the flavor of the decade. It'll come back. It'll go out again. That's just how things work.