Disagree flat out. When I got into it in middle school early mid 90s it was the domain of nerds only, to be sure.
But DBZ, Pokemon, and others were standard afterschool cartoons on broadcast tv stations by the late 90s. Manga was in Borders/Barns and Noble Bookskstores. Early 2000s saw late night CN/Adult Swim almost completely Anime or anime inspired programming at times.

Theres tons of 30-40 y olds out there now to whom Anime is completely normal TV entertainment. And with the tendencies towards more adult themes than traditional western animation, it's obviously not just for children to enjoy.

Now, there's a generational divide (I never saw Naruto for example) but I'd hardly flinch if a follow middle aged adult or younger told me they were into Anime as a hobby.

Though again to reiterate my previous point. Having the off-beat hobby is fine, generally, riffing on it for 10 minutes is the thing that would raise an interviewers alarm bells.