Senal

Ish, it was noticeably toned down.

Not that I can blame them, the manga scene was basically a few seconds of hardcore.

There is also the concept of “positive” grooming, for instance a child given specific education and resources to provide an advantage in something like politics could be said to be being “groomed” for politics or leadership.

I’d say the idea of grooming is more intentional than just regular child-raising, but that might be subjective.

As i said though, the current common usage is almost always negative and sexual in nature, it’s just not a requirement.

Not a statement for or against your argument.

But grooming doesn’t have to be sexual.

It is, frequently, but it’s not a requirement.

For example, any of the trope recruiters that target children for military service in any of the bullshit nationalist wars (in anime of course, IRL military recruiters would never be so unethical)