Shotacon
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Shotacon (ショタコン), sometimes shortened to shota (ショタ shota), is a Japanese slang portmanteau of the phrase Shōtarō complex (正太郎コンプレックス Shōtarō konpurekkusu) and describes an attraction to young boys, or an individual with such an attraction. Outside Japan, the term is less common and most often refers to a genre of manga and anime wherein pre-pubescent or pubescent male characters are depicted in a suggestive or erotic manner. It can also apply to postpubescent adults with youthful neotenic features that would make them appear to be younger than they are.[citation needed] The phrase is a reference to the young male character Shōtarō (正太郎) from Tetsujin 28-go.[1] The equivalent term for attraction to (or art pertaining to erotic portrayal of) young girls is lolicon.
Some critics claim that the shotacon genre contributes to actual sexual abuse of children,[2] while others claim that there is no evidence for this,[2] or that there is evidence to the contrary.[3]
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[edit] Origins
The term "shotacon" is a Japanese portmanteau of 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.[1]
In the anime and manga series, Shōtarō is a bold, self-assertive detective who frequently outwits his adversaries and helps to solve cases. Throughout the series, Shōtarō develops close friends within the world. 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 Saitō describes the modern shotacon doujinshi community as having largely formed in the early 1980s and having a roughly even split between males and females.[1]
[edit] Shotacon publications
Shotacon stories are commonly released in semi-monthly anthologies. Sometimes, however, mangaka will publish individual manga volumes.
[edit] 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.
[edit] See also
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Look up Shotakon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Hentai
- List of manga magazines - includes shotacon magazines.
- Lolicon
[edit] Legal aspects
- Legal status of cartoon pornography depicting minors
- Legal status of Internet pornography
- Legal status of cartoon pornography
- Child pornography
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Saitō Tamaki (2007) "Otaku Sexuality" in Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., and Takayuki Tatsumi ed., page 236 Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams University of Minnesota Press ISBN 978-0-8166-4974-7
- ^ a b Tony McNicol (2004-04-27). "Does comic relief hurt kids?". The Japan Times. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20040427zg.html. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
- ^ Milton Diamond and Ayako Uchiyama (1999). "Pornography, Rape and Sex Crimes in Japan". International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22 (1): 1–22. doi:. http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/online_artcls/pornography/prngrphy_rape_jp.html. Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
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