So it's really not an SJW talking point,
Oh no, that's one point they use a lot. But is human to commit mistakes.
big heads and eyes, overly emotional behavior and voice.
First of all, I'm completely and 100 percent sure that if I go right now and look at the anime made in this season alone, most of the character designs will not match this description you've made. Not even covering the whole year, just this season.
Secondly, those things you said have little to do with the age of the character in question. They have to do with the artist's style, which can and will affect adult characters too. In fact, the description you gave is so generic that could very well match any number of Western works, and yet we can agree that they are nothing like anime. Of course, it's not obligatory for someone to like a style, everyone has different tastes and that's why we like different things. But that's one of the best things about art in Japan, you're not restricted to one style. In the same anime season you can find anything, from series with a lovely style, or a mecha anime with a retro style, or a martial arts series where almost all the characters look like bodybuilders, or something where the people just look more mundane. And what I'm saying obviously applies to JRPGs as well, which range from horror, to fantasy while some are adorable.
Let's remember, every style has its fans, sometimes less, sometimes more. Of course, for someone to know this, they should at least know a little about the medium, and not just talk about it with preconceived notions that aren't true.
Now, more to the point. As I said, you do have a lot of artists and genres and styles to choose from in Japan. This is not the case in the West. Of course, the West has exceptional artists. But nowadays, most of the time, all your options are limited to looking from one mutant to another, from the same atrocious body to another, from the same repulsive face to another. At best you can get something tolerable, and that's it. I don't have to give any examples because the cases are well known. To the contrary, the point of many styles in Japan is to be appealing. It's largely understandable if someone finds appealing the horrible designs that right now, are the predominant standard in the west. Taste is taste. But to try to talk about what looks or doesn't look appealing, when the predominant style in Japan is years and years ahead of the West in every possible way, is nothing short of laughable.
Again, obviously there are many exceptional indies and artists in the West. But they're that, the exception. A margin that exists outside the mainstream.
