Shotacon

File:Shounen Ai Bigaku 01 cover Manga.jpg

Shounen Ai no Bigaku is a popular shotacon manga anthology. Volume 01 is pictured above (ISBN 4-7901-1069-9).

Shotacon (ショタコン) (also Shota ショタ, and commonly misspelled Shouta) is a Japanese and anime term for a pedophiliac situations where an adult is attracted to an underage boy. Shota typically refers to male characters under high school age or any young male characters who are considered child-like or cute. Because shotacon art tends to emphasize cuteness, common themes are yaoi (boy with boy), crossdressing, or even incest with an older brother or sister, or relative.

Because most shotacon characters are bishōnen, classically the fetish is identified with yaoi. However, straight shotacon is sometimes seen.

Controversy

File:Shonen 1.jpg

Naked Boys is a classic shotacon manga (ISBN 4-7901-0729-9)

As boys are stereotypically perceived as being more interested in sex at a young age than girls, shotacon is usually more well-received and less stigmatized than the lolicon counterpart. It is often used as a comedic device to diffuse potential controversy. In addition, many male fans enjoy mild shotacon themes as a form of wish-fulfillment due to the use of older, attractive women in a sexually dominant position or as a romantic/sexual instructor; some feel this balances out the sterotypical female-exploiting nature of hentai themes (or anime in general) which idealizes virginal, submissive girls and portrays men as overly aggressive partners.

Origins

The phrase derives from "Shotaro complex" (Shōtarō is a hero character from Tetsujin 28-go and is a popular generic name for young male characters in anime) and is sometimes contracted further to shota. Shōtarō, in those anime and manga, often outwitted and was never afraid to say what he had to against ungainly grownups. Except for few occasions where his physical limits failed him, he had everything that could be had for an adult. His appearance was also deemed cute.

Where this shotacon concept developed is hard to prove but one of the earliest root of this syndrome can be traced to readers responses to detective series written by Edogawa Rampo featuring a cool detective Kogoro Akechi. In it, Yoshio Kobayashi and his friends form "Shōnentanteidan" (Junior Detective Group, similar to the Baker Street Irregulars of Sherlock Holmes) to aid Mr. Akechi. Kobayashi was written as a perfect young teenager who, some might say, had a strong "dependency" to Mr. Akechi. Every time he appears, he is either worried about Akechi's well-being or helping Akechi set the trap for criminals. On the numerous occasions that he was captured, Akechi swooped in for a timely rescue. He even lived together in the Akechi's house who happened to be not married. In short, he acted almost as though he was Akechi's wife and no doubt few female readers had not read the stories picturing themselves to be in Kobayashi's position.

Shotacon as a Meme

Bridget, a crossdressing young boy of the video game series Guilty Gear became infamous on image boards like Futaba Channel and 4chan as a shotacon sex symbol, whose cuteness was lauded by otherwise vehemently straight fans. Usually depicted in his blue nun habit, he became instantly recognizable even when his origin and sex wasn't. Canonically, he dressed as a girl to avoid the supersitious persecution of twins, and has an honest desire to become more manly. Interestingly, fanworks usually depict him in a feminine or even lolicon style of dress but nearly always anatomically male. In most GG fanworks, he is often shown as the "bitch" of another popular character, Ky Kiske.

Non-hentai Series With Shotacon Themes

• 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.

• Onegai Teacher is a seinen series typically seen as a series supporting an older woman fetish. However, several mentions are made of the lead female character (and her mother) of having a penchant for younger men, in particular the lead who is a legal adult by purely technicalities.

• Haunted Junction is a fairly typical 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.

See also

• shonen-ai
• hentai
• yaoi
• lolicon, the female equivilent to shotacon.