35-sai no shoujo episode 5 makes me uncomfortable

 

35-sai no shoujo is about a 10 year old girl Nozomi in the body of a 35 year old because she was in a coma for 25 years. I thought it was an interesting premise because it was about having to grow up mentally while in a mature body.

Nozomi used to have a crush on Yuto when she was back in primary school pre-coma and Nozomi continues to have feelings for him and episode 5 ends with 35 year old Yuto taking 10 year old Nozomi away from her mother because they want to be together.

It just feels so wrong. In anime they would often have a loli looking character but say that the character is creature who is 1000 years old so everything is legal. This is what is happening in 35-sai no shoujo. Nozomi is not legal just because her body is 35 years old. The 35 year old man is taking a 10 year old girl from her mother because he has groomed her in the belief that are should be together.

For argument's sake let's say Nozomi character has mentally matured two years in the space of a few months. Even then, she is way too immature to be consenting to anything. Yes because of her childishness/straightforwardness Nozomi can say and see things that adult's cannot but that does not make her mature enought to be in a consenting relationship with an adult.

This issue of Nozomi's mental age would be more interesting if her relationship with Yuto got deeper in a few years. How would one decide what her mental age was? However, as of episode 5, is clear from the dorama that Nozomi is very far from mature and more towards primary school than middle school and the balance of power between Nozomi and Yuto just screams child grooming.