Contramuffin

Surprisingly no. Those 2 depicted are just side characters and actually have a somewhat healthy relationship. And the main cast is generally not that sexualized.

To be clear, the issue you point out does exist, just not with these 2 specific characters.

Largely in the same boat. Anime as a whole has… Issues. It’s gotten bad enough that I suspect it’s going to face the media equivalent of the 1980’s video game crash somewhat soon.

But there’s some genuine diamonds hiding in all the shit, written by authors who clearly care about storytelling rather than imagining their own personal power fantasy.

I recommend the “modern fantasy trifecta”: Frieren, Dungeon Meshi, and Witch Hat Atelier. All of them have beautiful animation and have surprisingly nuanced and philosophical stories. And best of all, no sexualization.

My understanding (not a historian, don’t quote me on this) is that one of the big explanations for the collapse was particularly bad famine that affected the entire region. It led rural people to migrate into relatively-more-prosperous cities, often by boat (hence “sea people”), but this migration led to increased strain on city infrastructure, especially since the cities were facing the famine as well.