Shotacon

nihongo|Shotacon|ショタコン, sometimes shortened to nihongo|shota|ショタ|shota, is a Japanese term for a sexual complex where a person is sexually attracted towards a young and/or underage boy. In the Western world, it refers specifically to artwork or manga depicting pre-pubescent or pubescent boys in sexual situations. Shotacon art is often explicit in nature; some common themes include yaoi (homosexual relationships), cross-dressing, and in some cases incest with an older sibling or other family member. The female equivalent to shotacon is lolicon.

Shotacon typically features relationships between young boys and adult women, this related but less common genre is referred to as straight shota. Yaoi shotacon features young boys, but includes men or other young boys. In anime, yaoi shotacon themes are far less common than heterosexual ones. Many prominent series include straight shotacon, notably "FLCL" and "Negima!", these series include scenes where older women press themselves on boys.

Controversy

Like lolicon, shotacon often depicts children in sexual situations with adults or other children. While the shotacon community argues that drawn art is protected under freedom of speech, critics claim shotacon is a direct offshoot of child pornography and may lead to child sexual abuse, backed by studies done on the subject by the NHC (formerly the National Children's Homes).Fact|date=October 2007 Supporters argue shotacon is comprised of fictional drawings and therefore not child pornography (a view supported by Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition) because no child has been harmed in its creation, and that no study has ever linked shotacon to child sexual abuse.

Shotacon has dubious legality in many parts of the world. The sale, but not possession, of shotacon is outlawed and punishable by imprisonment in some regions of Japan, but is legal in others.Fact|date=May 2007 The United States PROTECT act of 2003 prohibited obscene or sexual drawings of children, while the Supreme Court in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition ruled that such legislation is unconstitutional. Shotacon is illegal in Australia, Canada, Sweden, Norway, and South Africa, but prosecutors do not typically press charges unless other crimes are present. Since most shotacon is trafficked internationally (such as through the Internet), national legal prohibitions are difficult to enforce.

Origins

The term "shotacon" is a Japanese portmanteau of nihongo|"Shōtarō complex"|正太郎コンプレックス|Shōtarō konpurekkusu, a reference to the young male character Shōtarō (正太郎) from "Tetsujin 28-go". Saitou Tamaki (2007) "Otaku Sexuality" in Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., and Takayuki Tatsumi ed., page 236 " [http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/B/bolton_robot.html Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams] " University of Minnesota Press ISBN 978-0-8166-4974-7 ]

In the anime and manga series, Shōtarō is a bold, self-assertive young detective who frequently outwits adult adversaries and helps to solve cases. Throughout the series, Shōtarō develops close adult friends, and acts within the adult world despite being a young boy. His bishounen cuteness embodied and formed the term "shotacon", putting a name to an old sexual subculture.

Where the shotacon concept developed is hard to pinpoint, but some of its earliest roots are in readers responses to detective series written by Edogawa Rampo. In his works, a character named Yoshio Kobayashi of "Shōnentanteidan" (Junior Detective Group, similar to the Baker Street Irregulars of Sherlock Holmes) forms a deep dependency with adult protagonist Kogoro Akechi. Kobayashi, a beautiful teenager, constantly concerns himself with Kogoro's cases and well-being, and for a time moves in with the unmarried man. The adult-boy relationship in part inspired the evolution of the shotacon community.

Tamaki Saitou describes the modern shotacon doujinshi community as having largely formed in the early 1980s and having a roughly even split between males and females.

hotacon publications

Shotacon stories are commonly released in semi-monthly anthologies. Sometimes, however, mangaka will publish individual manga volumes.

Male oriented shota manga anthologies

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Female oriented shota manga anthologies

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hotacon anime

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hotacon video games

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* "Laughter Land"

Non-hentai series with shotacon themes

Many series make use of shotacon themes or evoke the fetish through stalker-like characters.
* The shounen series "Negima" stars a capable if beleaguered ten year old teacher in a situation somewhat similar to a harem series, and contains frequent playful asides regarding the shotacon fetish. The class representative, Ayaka, has been referred to as a shotacon by fellow classmates.
* "Haunted Junction" is a fairly conventional high-school ghost-hunter series. One of the trio of main characters, though, is a teenage girl with a self-declared shota complex; she takes it as a matter of pride that she only has crushes on boys 12 years or younger.
* "Loveless" is an example of a shōnen-ai series that evokes the spectre of shotacon. One day Ritsuka Aoyagi meets a man called Soubi Agatsuma, who claims to be the friend of his dead brother. With the desire to know about his brother's death, Ritsuka becomes friends with Soubi. Because Ritsuka is 12 years old and Soubi is a 20 year old, the series evokes shotacon themes, because there is a man who is 20 interacting with a 12-year-old boy.
* The series Ouran High School Host Club features a shota character, Mitsukuni Haninozuka nicknamed "Honey"(or Hani, a shortened version of his name). He is one of the hosts who caters to the fetishes of young ladies at a high-class school. His childish habits (especially going around with a stuffed bunny doll) and short stature makes him appear to be around elementary school age. He is, however, the eldest of the hosts (the second-eldest being his friend Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka), being a senior in high school.
* In the first series of "Steel Angel Kurumi", Nakahito, a prepubescent boy, becomes the focus of affection of Kurumi, Karinka, and Kagonei, all full-grown young women.
* "Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo!"'s title character is a very young-looking high school freshman who is endlessly pursued by an older female senior. With his baby face, innocence, and small height, Mamoru is thought to be a shota character, although he is 14 years old. The official Mamoru-kun website, www.megadere.com, lists Mamoru's height as 155 centimeters (5 feet 1 inch) and the series addresses Mamoru's unhappiness with his extremely short height for his age - he has the height of a 10 or 11-year old. Evidence in case for his shota status is that the official site calls him a "boy" (男の子) instead of "youth" or "teenager" (少年) used to describe his male classmates.
* "Please Save My Earth" is a manga series which has an eight-year old boy named Rin falling in love with a seventeen-year old girl named Alice.
* The shoujo series "MeruPuri" features a girl named Airi who eventually falls in love with a very young prince known as Aram. Although Aram transforms into a seventeen year old every time he is exposed to darkness, his true age makes him quite a bit younger than Airi.
* The main character from "Kanokon" also has a shota-like appearance, although he is only one year younger the girl who is in love with him, both being in high school.
*In the anime and manga seies "FLCL" the main character is a twelve year old boy who falls in love with an alien woman who claims to be twenty but is suggested to be older.

Publications against shotacon

In Japan a few works critical of shotacon exist as well. Most of them are not very popular or are not translated for release outside of Japan. One of the few comics in the western world that deals critically with the subjects of shotacon and abuse is the German manga-style comic "Losing Neverland".

ee also

*Hentai
*Pederasty
*Pedophilia

References