Is it normal to like anime girls when you’re middle aged?

I have one of the more modern interpretations of moe. For me moe is kind of how the character Faris in Steins;Gate saw it. She was a wealthy entrepreneur who eventually had the business sector of her city stylized in a moe fashion not just for financial gain but as a realization of her own taste. The sector seemed to feature things like ramen bars, arcades, and cosplay cafe's like the one she herself made appearances at dressed as a cat being while waving her arms about all karate-like and acting as if she had special abilities while bringing people their food.

I see moe as a bit of an otaku culture sub-culture that embraces being a bit silly and stereotypical of otaku culture. I suppose you could say aspects of it are cute but I don't even really think of it like that specifically.

If you interpret moe as some people do, as specifically stuff like cute little girls adventuring, then I totally get why it was so important for you to specify it wasn't sexual. When I was saying it would have been fine if it were sexual, I wasn't referring to that and I meant like that it would be fine to think an older cosplayer or character doing stuff like that was hot in its own way.

The reason I watched Steins;Gate is because people were repeatedly telling me the lead character reminded them of me to a scary extent. He goofed around with everyone, wore his lab coat everywhere no matter what, did evil laughs while claiming to be a mad scientist, and always spoke into his phone as if he was a spy talking about how the "organization" was watching and he refused to break character regarding this trolling even though everyone knew it was a joke and he knew they knew. He didn't try to seem too serious.

A lot of people like his landlord thought he was a fucking idiot goofball but at the same time the dude legitimately had a 170 IQ and was building a fucking time machine in his apartment.

In one of his serious moments he was attending a physics lecture by Makise Kurisu, the daughter of a reputable physicist (the daughter was actually more of a neuroscientist herself) and they get in this World War-like argument about whether time travel is even possible. She not only says it isn't but clearly thinks he's some crackpot who had no business there anyway. She was earlier in life published in Science magazine at just 17 and is really nice but a bit condescending at times.

Well eventually she agrees to see his "lab" which is just his apartment and stuffed with his "lab assistants" (friends) who are all fairly normal people (besides that Daru is a sick hacker he met in college and that Faris is rich). Everything about him gets under her skin to the max and she's 100% sure she "owned" some unqualified lunatic (basically thought of him like a flat-Earther) at her lecture right up until she sees the dude has rigged an old tube TV and a fucking microwave to teleport bananas. She's forced to contend with the fact that somewhere in this annoying guy who refuses to conform to normality or even seek peer respect, behind his evil laughs and fake phone calls about the "organization", is a man who is legitimately building a fucking time machine with methods that may even go over her head, her, a childhood prodigy well-known in the scientific community.

As is obviously predictable in these sorts of stories, behind their constant bickering is a steadily growing volcanic attraction to one another.

I haven't played the game but I liked the show and if that sounds good to you, you will too. The game to my understanding allows you to make different things happen as you just play his life. There are possibilities where he falls for his childhood friend instead, who he is much closer to and, like most of his friends, not so into science. There are also other possibilities regarding the non-romantic aspects of the story but I can't really describe any of that without spoilers.

I had to admit I could see why people compared him to me even though it made me cringe a bit too. It's just that I too believe in never "growing up" too much while still being responsible and that I have an immense obsession with theoretical physics that tends to seem out of nowhere to some people. I also maintain that I am an android from the future (because I am). Regrettably, I don't have a time machine though.