Some thoughts here... Before 2023, Japan's national age of consent was 13, though in practice most prefectures had local ordinances that effectively set it higher(15 for ex). In South Korea, the age of consent was 13 until 2020, when it was raised to 16. Japan then raised its national age of consent to 16 in 2023.
To that end, I think this is one reason anime, manga, and some games have historically featured very young-looking characters. The cultural dynamics are different from those in the West, and that often creates a disconnect in how these designs are perceived.
In the West, people often try to reconcile the obvious by arguing that the character is technically an adult, that the body proportions are mature, or that Asian women generally appear younger than their age. Whether those arguments are convincing is another discussion entirely.
The amount of adolescent-coded imagery and aesthetics that appear throughout parts of this culture is difficult to ignore and, at times, egregious.