Ohhh my gawd.... The reason for this product line existing is hilarious.
I'm much older than my sister, but that didn't stop us playing with lego together. When looking through the catalogue she did complain that there wasn't any "girly" sets on the market. While you could argue that her desire was illegitimate and the result of the sexist state of toys I'd find it difficult to deny her access to similar toys.
The only real difference between them is that the anime fandom as a whole (in large part guided by the anime industry, I'd wager) finally managed to seize a hold of their image and rehabilitate their appearance a bit, and distance themselves from their worst element. Basically, anime successfully managed to go mainstream. Other than that, they're practically identical. It wouldn't exactly be a stretch of the imagination to see furry having taken control of their message and anime instead becoming the kicking bag of the internet - most of the slurs and disgust with either are pretty interchangeable.
Personally I think it was high quality anime films being taken seriously by respected critics and the like that helped anime fandom go mainstream. If the likes of Ebert are taking it seriously more people will give it a go. The problem I see with furries going mainstream by the same route as anime fandom is that there isn't any media specifically associated with furries (unless I am mistaken). While anything anime in style influences people's opinions of anime fandom things with anthropomorphic animals aren't automatically going to influence people's opinion of furries.