I’m finding information on JPN Pokemon, not one piece waifus
Very good point master pfm
yeah honestly true, kpop getting popular over here too now
sus
I would expect that it is a combination of what @pfm stated about positive feedback loops and the sexualization of anime characters.
There is a market of actual buyers and a secondary market of “investors” looking to push these cards to the moon. That type of dynamic creates increased demand and crazy prices.
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TLDR;
All this said, it seems to me prices for full art character rares in JP, have to do with the more limited printing. As rarer than their english counterparts, and some have been high since inception, while others have increased more recently. Speculation + Fanbase + ltd supply. Idol-worship can have some nuance, that brings pop culture into the conversation Independent of natural human drives. (Though the nature of pop culture is a whole different discussion, I’m sure some of us would love to have.)
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It’s important to remember that in JPN waifus are not sexualized by most otaku fans. Not sure if this is part of what you’re getting at, @mrpandachum .
Many of the full art card characters on PkMn cards are also supposed to be adults. The otaku fanbase treats waifu in a more idol fashion, (although Japan does have an unusual relationship with sexuality; edit: just learned the national age of consent in JP is absurdly low - by my western values) but by and far, the majority of otaku (JP pop culture fan community) does not. I will say, this is second hand information from lifelong friends from Japan and other things, and I’m sure there are men and women (I’m not singling anyone out) in Japan who do see waifus in a sexual context, just as we can all be sure there are in the USA and beyond. 
The term may also be an effort to re-purpose a term that has pejorative and misogynistic histories, as everyone, mostly uses “waifu” whether it’s a male of female character. “Husbandu” is a rarely used term, and I’ve even seen herd people use english instead of the adopted husbandu, again possibly to avoid the history, or because the term is just now becoming adopted as a middle finger to stereotypical gender roles… who knows.
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Oddly Kotaku just published an article about waifu cards 4 hours ago here Pokémon Collectors Are Driving Up Prices On Cards With Girls (kotaku.com)
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It’s the closest some guys will get to touching a women. 
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After reading the article myself the entire thing felt like a big unnecessary FU to different people in the Pokemon TCG hobby. Not even a single mention of Weiss Schwarz just one big hate for Pokemon. Crazy.
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Classic Kotaku shitting on the people that are allegedly their audience
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Wait until Kotaku looks deeper into Vaporeon collectors
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And the Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem cards (were they even card games?) had some expensive cards featuring very plainly “exaggerated” female characters…
Don’t tell Kotaku about Gardevoir. 
Sorry, just missed me.
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I do wonder, let’s look at the opposite gender cards. Are there similar boosts to popular cards like Lysandre, and N? THAT should be solid evidence… I for one hope my love for Lyasander FA proves popular. 
Several “journalists” were on the pokemon tcg reddit sub looking for “research” and people to interview for kotaku recently, and while I tried speaking to them in good will to give a fair understanding of the market and art of pokemon, the questions were immediately skewed about why so many people are interested in young girl cards and if all collectors are possible deviants. The interviewer already seemed to have an expectation of what answers they wanted to hear. I found it dishonest and removed myself from their contact.
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Thats a big yikes. That explains why the article was nothing but a hit piece on different groups of people. I’ll be sure to avoid kotaku when it comes to anything Pokemon related in the future especially if thats how they do things.
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Maybe people who are solely focused and zealous about asking questions regarding the deviant obsessions of others are, in fact, deviants themselves. Projection is a very real tell of the subconscious. What it tells, however, not so clear.
They just know it will get a lot of attention/clicks and be readily shared, they don’t actually care if collectors are deviants or whether the story has any sort of journalist benefit to their audience
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Sounds like a hot take that kotaku is for deviants by deviants who are interested in deviants.
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I really like @koala 's answer in this thread, it covers most of the key drivers while also spot on.
Basically there is a group of collectors - mostly in Japan - who go after female characters who have some kind of charming points attracting them. Titles where the characters originated from (can be general titles such as Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh to titles more matching what they’re looking for such as KanColle) can be influential, but most of the time it’s not the major factor for these collectors to go after - it’s the charming point of the characters as they see.
Another affecting trait of these collectors is that they are willing to pay a lot for what they’re aiming for. Not everyone have deep pockets, but even those who aren’t are more generous than collectors in other fields. This unfortunately also makes them easy targets for stores, because they can raise the prices of their target characters to test the limit of pricing these collectors out. The end result is usually the prices we now see on the character chase cards - too high for collectors focusing on other aspects, but maybe not for them.
The current situation in Pokémon is that these kind of collectors are entering the circle going after characters they’re targeting. As I mentioned earlier, they’re not focusing on the title but rather the female characters, so collectors whose goals don’t overlap with theirs (i.e. Pokémon only) will get at most ripple effects (by for example Violet shortage due to those collectors trying to pull Miriam) which minimizes in the long term.
Keep a clear mind, assess your own and their interests carefully and don’t overreact. These should keep you sticking to your goal in the current situation.
BTW, the only case I’ve seen outside Japan having this kind of trait is in Mainland China.
Same set, same rarity, Charizard ($141) run over by Sightseer ($240), Acerola ($208) and finally Lillie ($561) at around 3x. Ouch.
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