I’m not sure if parents supposed to post here but long story short, my son told me that he fell in love with this girl from one of his anime shows. Today he told me that he had a crush on that character for over a year and imagines doing things and having conversations with her in real life. My son is 15 years old and doesn’t have many friends but I was still surprised when I found out he was doing this. After the conversation he directed me to go here to better understand what was going on. So, what do I do about this? He has been bullied for most of his life and I want to be as supportive of him as possible but it is hard to find serious information on this subject. Is it actually that common for teens to love cartoon characters? If so, do you actually love them or is this just a trend? Finally, what should I do about this long term? Do I go along with it and pretend she’s real or should I get him help? It seems like he wants me to treat her like an actual Daughter-in-law because he asked me to watch the show to “get to know” her. Anyway, I appreciate any insight you might have to offer on this unique situation. Thanks!

Update: Thank you all for the comments. I wanted to respond but my IPad won’t let me. I talked with him more earlier and he said that while he knows that his waifu isn’t real, he believes that technology will be able to make her real in the future. He also told me that his relationship is serious and that he is planning to wait for her until she can be real. He fully believes this will happen. I watched the first episode of the show his waifu is from and Maki seems to be a decent character. I can see why he would like a girl like that. Sorry if this turned out to be a bit of a rant, I’d just like to thank you for responding and helping me out here.