I will say that a lot of the weird factor that anime insights in people can be attributed to the East itself, specifically because of the Japanese 'otaku' crowd. A large percentage of them really are what I would consider disturbed. Just look at things like the whole building of shrines and celebrating anime characters and vocaloids birthdays. The way that they get voice actresses shamed and denounced within their cultures, because say, one of them dares to get a boyfriend. And on top of this, there's the whole association of the "men's toys" themes in shows - giant robots, in shows aimed at selling toys to men, not kids and so on. The new transformers was blasted for being OTT nonsense for that exact reason.
Then there's the whole weird side to anime, with the tentacles and porn and questionably aged sex-object younger female characters. The genre has itself to blame for all the hate it receives. Given that Legend of the Overfiend was one of the first really widely known anime in the West, as well as a few other demons and tentacles films, that hasn't helped either. The nearest Western equivalent to Japan's otaku we have at the moment, are bronies.
I'm a fan of anime myself, but I'm all too aware that it's a gigantic quagmire of utter shit, with some real gems here and there.