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Shotacon (ショタコン, shotakon^?), sometimes shortened to shota (ショタ, shota^?), is a Japanese term for a sexual complex where an adult is attracted to an underage boy, an underage girl is attracted to an underage boy, or--as tends to be most common--two underage boys are attracted to one another. 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 of 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, Negima!, and Pitaten.

Contents 1 Controversy 2 Origins 3 Audience 4 Shotacon publications 5 Shotacon anime 6 Video games with Shotacon content 7 Non-hentai series with shotacon themes 8 Publications against shotacon 9 See also 10 Footnotes 11 External links

This article or section deals primarily with the United States and does not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

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).^{[citation needed]} Supporters argue shotacon is 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 posssession, of shotacon is outlawed and punishable by imprisonment in some regions of Japan, but is legal in others.^{[citation needed]} 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.

The term "shotacon" is a Japanese portmanteau of Shōtarō complex, a reference to the young male character Shōtarō (正太郎) from Tetsujin 28-go.

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 cute 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.

The shotacon community is predominately male, while females often enjoy softcore shota, heterosexual and homosexual males are more likely to enjoy hardcore works. Because of common themes, yaoi audiences sometimes "drift" into shotacon. For example, shipping pairs, while yaoi in nature, often involve pubescent or prepubescent characters.

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

Male oriented shota manga anthologies:

• Koushoku Shounen no Susume (好色少年のススメ)
• Love Shota (らぶショタ)
• Otoko Musume no ko HEAVEN (男娘の子HEAVEN)
• Shounen Ai no Bigaku (少年愛の美学)
• Shounen Iro Zukan (少年色図鑑)
• Shounen Shikou (少年嗜好)
• Shounen Yuugi (少年遊戯)

Female oriented shota manga anthologies:

• Mousou Shounen (妄想少年)
• Shota Comi (ショタコミ)
• Shota Mimi Love (ショタみみＬＯＶＥ)
• Shota Tama (ショタ魂)
• Shounen Romance (少年浪漫)

• Boku no Pico (ぼくのぴこ)
• Enzai (冤罪)
• Papa to Kiss in the Dark

• AM 2:00 ~Neko to Tsukiyo no Buranko~
• Enzai (冤罪)
• Teikoku Sensenki +18 Add-On Disc Sen Yoru no Yume
• Zettai Fukujuu Meirei
• Laughter Land
• Lasting Snow
• Dolly Night
• Kannagi no Tori
• Bokura wa Minna Koi wo Suru (Nous Tous Chute Dans L'amour)

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 (craddle robber in the Del Rey version) 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 shonen-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. Though technically it isn't shotacon.

• 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 everytime he is exposed to darkness, his true age makes him quite a bit younger than Airi.

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.

• Pederasty
• Shōnen-ai
• Yaoi
• Lolicon, the female equivalent of shotacon
• Hentai
• Pedophilia

The external links in this article may not comply with Wikipedia's content policies. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links.

• Comipedia, Shota manga anthologies
• Deadfrog - Shota
• Flatchan, Lolicon and Shotacon community
• Shochan, A Shotacon and Lolicon community
• Hentai HQ - An open anime/hentai user based community (Contains lolicon and shotacon)
• Free works by Saigado Comics, an artist drawing Shotacon

v • d • e Paraphilias
Abasiophilia · Amaurophilia · Andromimetophilia · Autogynephilia · Biastophilia · Bondage (BDSM) · Chronophilia · Coprophilia · Dacryphilia · Emetophilia · Ephebophilia · Erotic asphyxiation · Erotic lactation · Exhibitionism · Food play · Frotteurism · Homeovestism · Human animal roleplay · Hybristophilia · Katoptronophilia · Klismaphilia · Macrophilia · Mysophilia · Necrophilia · Olfactophilia · Osmolagnia · Paraphilic infantilism · Pedophilia · Pyrophilia · Sadism and masochism · Salirophila · Sexual fetishism · Somnophilia · Statuephilia · Sthenolagnia · Teratophilia · Tightlacing  · Transvestic Fetishism · Trichophilia · Troilism · Urolagnia · Vorarephilia · Voyeurism · Xenophily · Zoophilia
Japanese terms	Chikan · Hadaka · Lolicon · Nyotaimori · Omorashi · Shotacon · Tamakeri · Wakamezake ·
See also	Human sexual behaviour · Sexology