JAPAN IN GRIP OF KAWAII SHOCK! As usual, things are subtly off throughout the article (Spirited Away as an example of "cute"?), and a discussion of the subtle differences between English "cute" (British or American?) and Japanese kawaii is missing, but there is an interesting bit at the end:

Indeed, Japanese have come up with nuances of cute and use phrases such as "erotic-cute" and "grotesque-cute" in conversation.

Yes, Japanese do! And foreign, such as my, do too! Erokawaii and gurokawaii are really useful words in a culture where so much of the cool art revolves around reacting to and commenting on kawaii things.

Having said that, though, this isn't some special effort that Japanese word-coiners are making for cuteness' sake. /Ero/ and /guro/ have long since been absorbed into the language as standard /i/ adjectival roots -- I think via the popular Japanese-sounding coinage /eroguro/, which conflates the two and is an old and respected criticism of popular entertainment -- and today can be attached to all kinds of words, with varying degrees of self-consciousness. Erokanashii ("ero" + sad)? Check. Gurotanoshii ("guro" + fun)? Check.

And, to take another step back, many (most?) Japanese adjectives can handle this treatment, again with the caveat that some usage is intended to be entertainingly non-standard. Even usage like this is understandable to all, though, and so you have words like omoshirourayamashii (funny/interesting + enviable) and urusakawaii (noisy/annoying + cute). The only obvious non-semantic restriction seems to be that combinations where the first half ends in /i/ are avoided, even down to removing final /i/s where necessary. so /kawakakkoii/ (cute + cool) is more common than the expected /kawaikakkoii/... but /kakkokawaii/ (cool + cute) is more common than both put together.