Once the War was lost, Japanese film makers were free to take their anime in any direction they wanted. Adult themes have been slowly working their way into anime since Japanese artists started experimenting with the medium, with the government using animators to create propaganda films during WWII.
But even the existence of the aforementioned forrest seems less crazy when you consider that suicide has been engrained in Japanese culture since the days of the samurai and their hara-kiri rituals, and you have to look at the art form that is Japanese anime in much the same way. Kids spending fortunes at the dentist getting their teeth knocked wonky (a bizarre current fashion trend) and buying underwear from vending machines (pretty handy, you must admit), to the suicide forrest, which is exactly what it sounds like - life in Japan is so far removed from life as we know it that most of us simply can��t believe what we read.
To say that Japanese customs seem somewhat strange to those in the western world is a drastic understatement.
