I became hooked on them in real life around the 
age of 12.  There were some that I had hideous 
stalker-type crushes on. ;)  Had I gotten together 
with them I probably would have been too giddy to 
worry about whether they were prettier than I am. 
 I was a tomboy anyway, so I could have strived 
toward being more manly.  (Possibly just kidding!)

Then I got a lot older, and the guys of my age 
typically got less pretty, so my fixation moved to 
manga and anime.  *sigh*

Of course I had atrocious taste, personality wise, 
and still do... so I'm actually very glad that the 
fixations needed to move outside of real life.  
Actually dealing with some of my favourite 
characters would not be fun at all.  I would need 
to tie them up, gag them, and spend many hours 
staring with delight at their helpless prettiness.