My (F25) boyfriend (M33) has waifus. How to feel alright about it?

Ok, this is an unusual one. I have tried every phrase related to this and it doesn't seem to be talked about here, so. <br><br>I am in a relationship with a much older guy. At first, we were friends because he was considering a career change to what I am in, and then there was a little bit of a crush on me involved, but we decided to date. He’s a good person, and he’s known to me because he’s my best friend’s little brother, so I have known him for a while. <br><br>He used to be a big anime fan back in the day. Now he’s into anime video games but he still has a lot of stuff from back in the day. Reminds me of my stuff from back in the day. He has a lot of little figurines and he has them out of the box. I found out about the waifu thing by him explaining that the figurines are his waifu. I thought this was funny, but he told me there are more than what I see.<br><br>I asked him about the rest, and he told me there’s a lot on his shelf in the closet. I asked him if he considers them his waifus and he siad yes. He said it was mostly in the past but he has a lot of stuff so he still has them. <br><br>He was embarrassed about how it would look for a guy his age to have that much anime stuff, and I told him that for some guy in his 30s, it was pretty cool to me, but up to that point I never knew that he had so much waifu stuff. <br><br>When we were inside his house the first time, he showed me the closet with all the waifus. He said he considers them his past girlfriends and they were important to him. <br><br>He said that he gave all of them a backstory and he thinks of them like his own girl. He has about 20 waifus, but then he has other stuff around the room that he considers to be their children. He started calling them his kids and he said they gave them children. It’s a lot. <br><br>I asked if he was ok with me seeing his past girlfriends and he told me yes. He said they’ve been packed up for years and they’re all together now. I told him it was kind of weird but that I was ok with it and I thought it was cute. <br><br>But once I actually saw all of them, when he was busy doing something else, I started to actually look at them. The amount of detail and stuff he has for them is staggering. I didn’t expect that he had so many and I was initially just kind of laughing and being shocked and then I started thinking “wait, they’re all his girlfriends?” <br><br>Ok, that was a lot to process. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe it was a joke to him and I just didn’t get it? I had no idea. But then I started to notice how realistic they were and that he had so many pictures of all of them. So many, and some of them were more suggestive. That was a shock. <br><br>I was really surprised that this dude had so many other girlfriends and I was just dating him. I had thought we had chemistry. I had a crush on him. But all of these other little girlfriends. So many of them. <br><br>That really made me confused, because on one hand, it was funny to see so many of them and I thought they were cute, but on the other hand, I felt like I was in some weird competition and felt really weird about dating him and didn’t know how to feel about it. It made me really annoyed for awhile and I had thought about it nonstop.<br><br>But I decided to ask him about it and I’m glad I did because it was a misunderstanding. I asked him about it when we were eating dinner and he was nice about it. He said he doesn’t have all those girlfriends because he can’t find a real one or because he’s scared. He said at one point he was lonely, but it’s because he was sad. <br><br>He told me that he had been single his whole life, except for a brief relationship here and there, and it was mostly because he had social anxiety. After his mom passed away, he was alone by himself in the house and he was really sad and lonely. He had nobody except my best friend, but he said he was also in bad shape from the mom stuff, so he was alone. <br><br>He said he started out with just Rem from Re:Zero, but then he had several of them in his head and he had so many. He couldn’t keep them all straight so he decided to just have them all out. He said he stopped once he started to feel better. <br><br>I said that I was surprised that he had so many pictures and so many of them at all, and he said that when he was younger, before he started doing them, he was lonely and he would draw his favorite characters in a romantic way because he was lonely and needed something to make him feel better. <br><br>He said that now they’re all the same for him. He doesn’t consider them all his girlfriends. They’re mostly his kids now. He said that he likes to think of them as being happy, which is why they have so many kids (he has a lot of tiny little figurines). He said he considers us to be a family and I’m his wife and the waifus are like my sisters or something and the little kids are our kids. <br><br>I said that I was actually grateful that he would be able to think of me that way, as the mom and his wife, and he said he considers me his irl wife, and he still has all these waifus. I thought that was sweet. He said it wasn’t all the waifus that he considers to be his girls, that it was mostly one of them, and then I was the real one. <br><br>He said that he would forget about all the waifus if I wanted. He said that the waifus were only important to him because they helped him feel better when he was sad and lonely. He said he would do that for me any time I wanted and that he’s glad I’m his real girlfriend and he’s so happy to be with me. <br><br>I told him it wasn’t a big deal and I don’t mind. He was relieved and he told me how much waifus meant to him and how he’s glad he has them all together now and he’s really grateful for them. It made me feel a lot better knowing that he wasn’t trying to have other girlfriends. It was just something that helped him feel better. And I think it’s cute that he considers them his children. <br><br>He has them all out now and he’s comfy with it. I like it. It reminds me of my stuff from when I was younger. I’m glad he’s happy. I’m glad we’re happy. I’m glad we’re together. I’m glad we can both have our stuff out. And now we have stuff together which is nice. <br><br>I think it’s a weird thing to have to explain to people that all those little figurines are his past girlfriends. But it feels really nice that he was honest with me about it and I’m glad I’m able to be his girlfriend. He makes me so happy. I’m glad I’m his real girlfriend.