I do not usually read manga, so I regard the scandal with the cancellation of Nymphet (aka "Kodomo no Jikan") as a small piece in the puzzle of mainstreamization. The official letter by Jason DeAngelis read, in part:

It was not until these past few days, actually, that I personally took the time to delve more closely into the rest of the series and the specific content of the subsequent volumes. Sure, I'd flipped through them before, and what I saw on a cursory glance seemed harmless enough. But this time I sat down and read the series carefully in Japanese, and what I found in volumes two and three were very disturbing. (Particularly, pages 129-131 in volume three, which are highly problematic.) So much so, that I now have to retract some of what I said in my first letter where I tried to defend the content, because certain scenes in the subsequent volumes are indefensible and inappropriate, in my opinion.

Predictably, most otakus ridiculed the above view. A few suggested that the stem of the title ruined it. Someone else (who I don't remember, or I'd link) wrote that "they only shared a sweater when locked overnight in gym storage".

Yesterday, I saw this on IRC (nicks changed because I didn't ask permission to publish the log; the channel is public, but the identities aren't the point here anyway):

<sennin> A guy who I thought had given up on anime a long time ago called me to help him format his new hard drive.
<sennin> And at the end of the call, he tells me "Hey dude, Kodomo no Jikan is getting animated!".
<sennin> I shuddered.
<Rein> He must've read it all. *shudder*
<sennin> Yeah, up to the part with the loli and the.. Well, I wouldn't know, since I don't read it.
<Rein> I read first 5 chaps.
<Rein> It's everything you thought it is.
<sennin> And even more.
<Rein> Camel toe suddenly becomes disturbing.
<sennin> ..
<sennin> I think.
<sennin> Yeah, totally arou-I mean disturbing.

So, Nymphet was pushing the boundary even for hardened stalwarts of chat rooms. Who knew. I made a mental note.