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Lolicon

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"The Lolita Complex" redirects here. For the book, see Russell Trainer.

Lolicon art often blends childlike characteristics with erotic undertones.

In the context of Japanese popular culture, lolicon (ロリコン, also romanized as rorikon or lolicom) is an attraction to and affection for young or young-looking girl characters, or the genre of fictional media in which such characters ("lolis") appear in erotic or pornographic contexts. The term is a portmanteau of the English phrase "Lolita complex" (rorīta konpurekkusu),[a] and is associated with non-realistic and stylized imagery in manga, anime, and computer games. In otaku (manga/anime fan) contexts, lolicon is understood as distinct from desires for realistic depictions of girls, or real girls as such,[1][2][3] and is associated with the concept of and development of moe, an affective response to fictional characters (typically within manga and anime).

The phrase "Lolita complex", derived from the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, entered use in Japan in the 1970s, when sexualized imagery of the shōjo (idealized young girl) was expanding in media and consumer culture. Similar imagery appeared in adult manga, and during the "lolicon boom" in manga of the 1980s, the term was adopted in the nascent otaku culture to refer to the attraction to bishōjo (cute and youthful female characters), as distinct from real women. As imagery of bishōjo in manga became more varied, the scope of the term lolicon narrowed to more childlike depictions. A moral panic against "harmful manga" in the 1990s, triggered by the arrest of serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, has made lolicon a keyword in discourse on fiction in Japan. Works in the lolicon genre, which marked a shift in erotic manga towards the soft and round styles of shōjo manga (comics for girls), feature an aesthetic of "cute eroticism" (kawaii ero).

Child pornography laws in some countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, criminalize explicit content depicting fictional child or childlike characters, while other countries, including Japan and the United States, exclude depictions such as lolicon from child pornography laws on the basis of freedom of expression.[4] Opponents and supporters of legislation have debated if the lolicon genre contributes to child sexual abuse. Academic and critical commentary identifies lolicon with explorations of sex and gender in fantasy, and with a separation of fiction and reality in otaku consumption.

Definition and scope

Lolicon is a Japanese portmanteau of "Lolita complex", an English-language phrase derived from Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita (1955) and in Japan more associated with Russell Trainer's The Lolita Complex (1966, translated 1969),[5] a work of pop psychology in which Trainer described adult male attraction to pubescent and pre-pubescent females.[6] In this original meaning, the phrase was used in Japanese to mean "pedophiliac sexual desire"[7] and suggested the pairing of a middle-aged man and a young girl.[8] However, due to its widespread use in and association with otaku culture, the term today does not usually refer to attraction to real young girls,[7] but an "orientation of desire" toward young girl characters in manga, anime, and computer games[9] as a sexual fantasy that is generally understood to exist and be satisfied in fiction (see § Commentary).[10] Lolicon also refers to a person who feels such an attraction or affection, as well as sexualized works featuring young or young-looking girl characters (ロリ, "loli"[11]).[12] The terminology of lolicon is distinct from that of pedophilia (yōji-zuki or pedofiria; in clinical contexts, shōniseiai or jidōseiai) and that of child pornography (jidō poruno).[9]

As adopted in the nascent otaku (manga and anime fan) culture of the 1970s to the 1980s, lolicon was specifically associated with a desire for fiction.[13] Manga editor and critic Akira Akagi wrote that during the 1980s, the meaning of lolicon moved away from a young girl having sex with an older man, and instead denoted an attraction to "cuteness" and "girl-ness" in manga and anime.[14] Editor and critic Kaoru Nagayama similarly argues that lolicon was not a desire for girls but rather "cute things";[15] other critics defined it as a desire for "manga-like" or "anime-like" characters, "roundness", and the "two-dimensional", as opposed to "real".[13] At the time, all eroticism in the manga style with cute girl characters (bishōjo) was associated with the term;[16][b] synonyms of "Lolita complex" in the otaku sense included "two-dimensional complex" (nijigen konpurekkusu), "two-dimensional fetishism" (nijikon fechi), "two-dimensional syndrome" (nijikon shōkōgun), "cute girl syndrome" (bishōjo shōkōgun), and simply "sickness" (byōki).[18] As character body types in erotic manga became more diverse by the end of the early-1980s "lolicon boom", the scope of the term lolicon narrowed to more childlike depictions.[19]

The public perception of lolicon in the otaku context changed in the 1990s after the arrest of Tsutomu Miyazaki, a serial killer and child molester who was framed in the mass media as an otaku (see § History).[20] As the otaku meaning of lolicon as an orientation towards fiction was conflated with desire for real children in debates on "harmful manga", the term's 1980s meaning was replaced by "moe", which refers to the affective response to cute characters more generally.[20] Like moe, lolicon is still used by otaku to mean attraction that is consciously distinct from reality,[20] though the term has been "deeply compromised" as a result of the Miyazaki case.[21] Some otaku use "two-dimensional lolicon" (nijigen rorikon) to specify their attraction to characters.[9] The term has become a keyword in criticism of manga and sexuality within Japan,[22] as well as globally with the spread of Japanese popular culture.[23]

History

Background

In the 1970s, shōjo manga (marketed to girls) underwent a renaissance lead by artists including Moto Hagio, Keiko Takemiya, and Yumiko Ōshima, who experimented with new narratives and styles, and introduced themes such as psychology, gender, and sexuality.[24] These developments attracted adult male fans of shōjo manga, who crossed gendered boundaries to produce and consume it.[25] The first appearance of the term "Lolita complex" in manga was in Stumbling Upon a Cabbage Patch,[c] an Alice in Wonderland–inspired work by Shinji Wada published a 1974 issue of the shōjo manga magazine Bessatsu Margaret, where a character calls Lewis Carroll a man with a "strange character of liking only small children" in an inside joke to adult fans.[26] Early lolicon artwork was influenced by male artists mimicking shōjo manga,[27][28] as well as erotic manga created by female artists for male readers.[29]

The image of the shōjo (idealized young girl) became dominant in Japanese mass media and consumer culture by the 1970s, particularly in advertising, and as a fictional ideal came to embody cuteness, purity, and romance.[30] Critic Eiji Ōtsuka describes the shōjo as "representing consumptive pleasure suspended from productive functions", and other critics describe an "illusion of beauty", a "distinct gender", and an "idealized Eros".[30] These attributes became attached to imagery of younger girls over time.[31] Nude photographs of shōjo, conceived as fine art, had begun to gain popularity by the 1960s: a photo collection titled Nymphet: The Myth of the 12-Year-Old was published in 1969, and in 1972 and 1973 there was an "Alice boom" in nude photos themed around Alice in Wonderland.[32] Prohibitions on depicting pubic hair under Japan's obscenity laws may have encouraged the use of models who appeared or who were pre-pubescent.[33] Specialty adult magazines carrying nude photos, fiction, and essays on the appeal of young girls appeared in the 1980s;[34] this trend in adult photography faded in the late 1980s, due to backlash and because many young men preferred two-dimensional images of shōjo within manga and anime.[35] The spread of lolicon imagery in manga may have also been helped by the prohibition on display of pubic hair.[36][d]

1970s–1980s

Front page from Hideo Azuma's first contribution to Cybele. Critic Gō Itō identifies the work as a comment on a "certain eroticism" in the roundness of Osamu Tezuka's characters.[38]

The rise of lolicon as a genre began at the Comic Market (Comiket), a convention for the sale of doujinshi (self-published works) founded in 1975 by adult male fans of shōjo manga. In 1979, a group of male artists published the first issue of the fanzine  [ja],[26] whose standout work was an erotic parody of Little Red Riding Hood by Hideo Azuma, the "Father of Lolicon".[38] Prior to Cybele, the dominant style in seinen (marketed to men) and pornographic manga was gekiga, characterized by realism, sharp angles, dark hatching, and gritty linework.[39] In contrast, Azuma's work displayed light shading and clean, circular lines, which he saw as "thoroughly erotic" and sharing with shōjo manga a "lack of reality".[39] Azuma's combination of the stout bodies of Osamu Tezuka's manga and the emotive faces of shōjo manga marked the advent of the bishōjo character and the aesthetic of "cute eroticism" (kawaii ero).[40] While erotic, Azuma's style was also viewed as humorous and parodic;[38] only a minority of readers found the style erotic at first, but a large fan base soon grew in response to the alternative to pornographic gekiga that it represented.[38][41] Erotic manga as a whole moved away from combining realistic bodies and cartoony faces towards a wholly-unrealistic style.[38] Lolicon manga played a role in attracting male fans to Comiket, an event originally dominated by women (90 percent of participants were female at its first run in 1975); in 1981, the number of male and female participants was equal.[42] Lolicon, mostly created by and for men, served as a response to yaoi (manga featuring male homoeroticism), mostly created by and for women.[43]

The early 1980s saw a "lolicon boom" in professional and amateur art with the creation of specialty publications dedicated to the genre, including Lemon People (from 1981) and Manga Burikko (from 1982);[44] other notable lolicon magazines included Manga Hot Milk, Melon Comic, and Monthly Halflita.[45] The rise of the genre was closely linked to the concurrent development of otaku culture and a growing fan consciousness;[46] the word otaku itself was coined in Burikko in 1983.[47] Originally founded as an unprofitable gekiga magazine, the publication was transformed into a lolicon magazine in 1983 by editor Eiji Ōtsuka,[48] whose intention was to publish "shōjo manga for boys".[49][e] Artwork in the magazine continued the trends set by Azuma rooted in the styles of shōjo manga, with less realism and fewer explicit depictions of sex;[50] from November 1983, its editors notably yielded to reader demands by removing photographs of real gravure idols from its opening pages, releasing an issue with the subtitle "Totally Bishōjo Comic Magazine".[51][f] Lolicon magazines regularly published female artists, such as Kyoko Okazaki and Erika Sakurazawa,[50] and male artists such as  [ja], the "King of Lolicon", who produced 160 pages of manga per month to meet demand.[52] Uchiyama's work was published both in niche magazines such as Lemon People and mainstream ones, such as Shōnen Champion.[53] The first-ever pornographic anime series was Lolita Anime, released in 1984 and 1985.[54]

Eiji Ōtsuka, editor of Manga Burikko, played a key role in the lolicon boom.

Early lolicon idols in anime were Clarisse from the film Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (1979) and Lana from the TV series Future Boy Conan (1978), both directed by Hayao Miyazaki;[55] Clarisse became especially popular, and inspired a series of articles discussing her appeal in the anime specialty magazines , , and Animage,[56] as well as a trend of fan works (dubbed "Clarisse magazines")[16] that were not explicitly sexual, but instead "fairytale-esque" and "girly".[44] Many early lolicon works combined mecha and bishōjo elements;[57] Kaoru Nagayama highlights the premiere of the Daicon III Opening Animation at the 1981 Japan SF Convention as a notable example of the link between science fiction and lolicon in the nascent otaku culture of the time.[58] Anime shows targeted at young girls with young girl heroines, such as Magical Princess Minky Momo (1982–1983), gained new viewership from adult male fans, who started fan clubs[59] and were courted by creators to raise ratings.[60] Helen McCarthy suggests that the roots of lolicon anime lie in the magical girl genre, where the lines between young girls and adult women can be blurred.[61] Minky Momo producer Toshihiko Satō later recalled his surprise upon attending a club for adult male fans:

The anime started in spring 1982 and these guys started showing up after about six months. [...] [This guy] told me that he was the head of this fan club, which was made up of members between eighteen and thirty years of age. He told me that he was attracted to the character Minky Momo. He thought that she was cute. It is still hard for me to understand. [...] They said Minky Momo is cute. They said they wanted a little sister like her, or a girlfriend like her, or something. They said this stuff, but the character is a child. The things they imagined were beyond anything that we expected. We were simply making animation for three-to-five-year-old children, which was interesting enough that mothers could also enjoy it. And then we learned about this fan club and the guys there told me that Minky Momo is sexy.[62]

While the lolicon boom in commercial erotic manga only lasted until 1984,[63] it marked the beginning of its now-dominant bishōjo style.[64] Near the end of the boom, a majority of readers and creators of erotic manga moved towards bishōjo works featuring "baby-faced and big-breasted" characters, which were no longer considered lolicon.[65] At Comiket, lolicon manga had declined in popularity by 1989 with developments in erotic doujinshi, including new genres of fetishism and the growing popularity of softcore eroticism popular among men and women, particularly in yuri (manga with lesbian themes).[42]

In the 1990s, the influence of the lolicon boom extended far beyond erotic manga in the form of moe, an affective response to characters (often youthful and cute ones in anime and manga) and its associated design elements and narratives.[12] Bishōjo characters moved from niche, otaku publications to mainstream manga magazines, and featured prominently in popular anime series including Sailor Moon and Neon Genesis Evangelion, which triggered an explosion in merchandising and fan works centered around girl characters.[66] This affective desire for characters was also reflected in the explosive popularity of bishōjo games, in which players date and interact with bishōjo characters, and the ubiquitous use of "moe elements" in character design.[66]

1990s–present

In 1989, lolicon and otaku became the subject of a media frenzy and moral panic after the arrest of Tsutomu Miyazaki, a young man who had kidnapped and murdered four girls between the ages of four and seven and committed sexual acts with their corpses.[67] Widely-disseminated photos of Miyazaki's room revealed an extensive collection of video tapes, which included horror/slasher films on which he had modelled some of his crimes,[68] and manga, including shōjo and lolicon works.[69][g] In the extended public debates that followed, Miyazaki's crimes were blamed on supposed media effects: namely, a reduction in his inhibitions to crime, and a blurring of the lines between fiction and reality.[71] Miyazaki was labelled as an otaku, and an image of otaku as socially and sexually immature men, and for some as pedophiles and potential predators, was established for much of the public.[72] The decade saw local crackdowns on retailers and publishers of "harmful manga", and the arrests of some doujinshi artists.[73][74] Despite this, lolicon imagery expanded and became more acceptable within manga in the 1990s,[75] and the early 2000s saw a small boom in the genre sparked by the magazine Comic LO.[76]

In 1999, Japan passed a national law criminalizing the production and distribution of child pornography.[77][78] The original 1998 draft of the law included fiction such as lolicon in its definition of child pornography; this text was removed in the final version.[78] During the 2000s, a wide range of groups within Japan, including feminists, lawyers, and artists, defended the freedom to create "obscene" manga on the grounds of freedom of expression.[20] In 2014, Japan's parliament amended the 1999 law to criminalize the simple possession of real child pornography, and decided against criminalizing fiction such as lolicon.[77] The original 2013 draft introduced by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) maintained the law's existing definition, and included a provision to investigate a link between fiction and real child abuse;[79] the provision was protested by anime and manga industry associations, which argued that it would lead to undue limits on free expression in the future.[80][81] Manga artist Ken Akamatsu, then representing the Japan Cartoonists Association, cited a lack of existing evidence linking fiction to crime.[80] The disputed provision was removed in the law's final version, which went into effect in 2015.[82][83]

Media

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Sexualized imagery and narratives of schoolgirl characters are abundant in Japanese popular culture,[84] and as a genre lolicon is loosely defined. Some define its girl characters by their age, while others define its characters by their designs (characters who are small and flat-chested, independent of age).[11] Plot devices are often used to explain the young appearance of girl characters who are non-human or actually much older.[85] According to Kaoru Nagayama, many manga readers define lolicon manga as "works with a heroine younger than a middleschool student", a definition which can vary from all girl characters under age 18 for observers in "society at large" to characters "younger than gradeschool-aged" for "fanatics".[86]

There is also disagreement on whether the genre extends to works lacking in explicit sexual content.[87] Consistent with other genres and fandoms within erotic manga, young girl characters that are not overtly sexual in the original media can be sexualized by fans themselves in user-generated lolicon content.[88]

Lolicon manga, often published as doujinshi or compiled in anthology magazines,[89] is mostly consumed by a male audience,[29] though Nagayama notes that the works of have "resonated with female readers" and "earned the support of women".[90] Other notable artists include Aguda Wanyan and .[91] Female artists of lolicon manga include Erika Wada,[92] Fumio Kagami,[93] and Kaworu Watashiya, creator of the popular and non-pornographic series Kodomo no Jikan (2005–2013).[85]

Genre features

Akira Akagi identified five types of works within the genre in 1993: sadomasochism, "groping objects" (alien tentacles or robots in the role of the penis), "mecha fetishes" (a combination of a machine and a girl), erotic parodies of mainstream anime and manga, and "simply indecent or perverted stuff"; he also noted common themes of lesbianism and masturbation.[94] More extreme manga can depict themes such as coercion, rape, incest, bondage, and hermaphroditism.[95] "Moe-style" lolicon works do not depict explicit sex and are instead mildly erotic, depicting for example glimpses of underwear.[96] Elisabeth Klar observes that girl characters in lolicon can have an "incredible or at least contradictory performance of age" in which their body, behavior, and role all conflict with each other;[97] an example archetype is a lolibaba ("Lolita granny") character, a young girl character who speaks or acts with the mannerisms of an old woman.[98] Curvy hips and other secondary sex characteristics similarly appear as features in some of the genre's characters.[99]

Nagayama argues that most erotic lolicon manga deal in some way with a "consciousness of sin", or sense of taboo and guilt in consumption.[100] Some manga manage this by portraying the girl as enjoying the experience in the end, while others represent the girl as the active partner in sex who seduces men to her.[101] Other lolicon manga, where "men are absolute evil and girls are pitiable victims", indulge in the "pleasure of sin" through the breaking of taboos,[102] which he argues affirms the fragility of the characters.[103] He posits that manga depicting sex between children avoid the "consciousness of sin" via mutual innocence, while also thematizing nostalgia and an idealized past,[104] while other lolicon manga accomplish this through characters with especially unrealistic and moe designs, where "it is precisely because fiction is distinguished from reality as fiction that one can experience moe".[105]

Censorship

Lolicon media is a common target of local ordinances in Japan which restrict the distribution of materials designated "harmful to the healthy development of youth",[106] which were strengthened throughout the 1990s and 2000s.[107] A 2010 proposed amendment to the Tokyo laws on what material could be sold to minors (described by Vice Governor Naoki Inose as targeting non-pornographic lolicon manga[108]) restricted depictions of "non-existent youths" who appeared under age 18 and were depicted in "anti-social sexual situations".[109][h] Under massive opposition from manga creators, academics, and fans,[111][112][113] the bill was rejected in June 2010 by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly;[114] however, a revision passed in December 2010 that restricts "manga, anime, and computer games" where any characters engage in "sexual or pseudo sexual acts that would be illegal in real life" depicted in a way that "glorifies or exaggerates" such acts.[115] In 2011, several manga were listed for restriction, including  [ja] ("My Wife Is an Elementary Student"), a gag comedy that had been singled out on television by Inose.[108] It was published online by J-Comi, escaping restriction.[116][i]

Works containing lolicon themes have also been subject to controversy outside of Japan. In 2006, North American publisher Seven Seas Entertainment licensed Kodomo no Jikan for an English-language release as Nymphet, but cancelled its plans in 2007 after vendor cancellations. Company president Jason DeAngelis released a statement noting that the manga could not "be considered appropriate for the US market by any reasonable standard".[118]

In Superflat

Lolicon imagery is a prominent theme in Superflat, a manga-influenced art movement founded by Takashi Murakami.[119] One prominent lolicon artist in the movement is Mr.[120] Female artists include Chiho Aoshima and Aya Takano.[121] Murakami has also featured the work of commercial artists outside of the movement in his exhibitions: a few artists whose work contains lolicon themes include Henmaru Machino, Hitoshi Tomizawa, and Bome.[119]

Commentary

Academic and critical

Lolicon, a controversial topic in Japan,[122] has been a subject of substantial research and critical commentary.[16] Critics identify lolicon with the desire for bishōjo characters, and with broad discourse on otaku and their relationship with reality, society, adulthood, and masculinity in modern Japan.[123]

A majority of cultural critics responding to lolicon emphasize it as distinct from attraction to real young girls;[124] anthropologist Patrick W. Galbraith finds that "from early writings to the present, researchers suggest that lolicon artists are playing with symbols and working with tropes, which does not reflect or contribute to sexual pathology or crime".[20] Psychologist Tamaki Saitō, who has conducted clinical work with otaku,[125] highlights the estrangement of lolicon desires from reality as part of a broader distinction for otaku between "textual and actual sexuality";[j] Saitō observes that "the vast majority of otaku are not pedophiles in actual life".[127][k] Feminist thinker Yukari Fujimoto argues that in lolicon "the desire is not for a child, but for the image itself", and that understanding that there is "absolutely no connection to reality" is a literacy developed by those "brought up in [Japan's] culture of drawing and fantasy".[129] Cultural historian Mark McLelland identifies lolicon with other manga genres (such as yaoi) as being "self-consciously anti-realist", given its highly stylized nature and the rejection by fans and creators of "three-dimensionality" in favor of the "two-dimensionality" of manga and anime.[84] Setsu Shigematsu describes lolicon as a "fetishism for cuteness",[130] and translator Matt Alt defines it as a "fetishization of girlish naivete and innocence".[131]

Most scholars also identify lolicon as a form of self-expression on the part of its male creators and consumers.[132] Sociologist Sharon Kinsella suggests that for lolicon fans, "the infantilized female object of desire [...] has crossed over to become an aspect of their own self image and sexuality".[133] Akagi argues that lolicon manga represented a notable shift in reader identification from the "hero" male penetrator common to pornographic gekiga: "Lolicon readers do not need a penis for pleasure, but rather they need the ecstasy of the girl. [...] [T]hey identify with the girl, and get caught up in a masochistic pleasure."[134] Manga critic Gō Itō views this as an "abstract desire", citing a lolicon artist who told him that "he was the girl who is raped in his manga", reflecting his feeling of being "raped by society, or by the world".[135] Nagayama suggests that readers of lolicon adopt a fluid perspective that alternates between that of an omniscient voyeur and the multiple characters in a work,[136] reflecting an active reader role and a projection onto girl characters.[137] Writing in The Book of Otaku (1989), feminist Chizuko Ueno argued that lolicon, as an orientation towards fictional bishōjo, is "completely different from pedophilia", and characterized it as a desire to "be part of the 'cute' world of shōjo" for male fans of shōjo manga who "find it too much to be a man".[138]

Several scholars identify the emergence of lolicon with changes in Japanese gender relations. Sociologist Kimio Itō attributes the rise of lolicon manga to a shift in the 1970s and 1980s, when boys, driven by a feeling that girls were "surpassing them in terms of willpower and action", turned to the "world of imagination", in which young girl characters are "easy to control".[139] Kinsella interprets lolicon as part of a "gaze of both fear and desire" stimulated by the growing power of women in society, and as a reactive desire to see the shōjo "infantilized, undressed, and subordinate".[140] Media scholar Chizuko Naitō views lolicon as reflecting a "societal desire in a broader sense" for young girls as sex symbols in Japan (which she calls a "loliconized society").[7]

Responding in 1982 to the popularity of Clarisse from his film Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro, Hayao Miyazaki criticized artists and fans who idolized her in what he considered a demeaning manner,[85] and said that he "hate[d] men who use the word 'lolicon.'"[141] Despite his apparent rejection, Saitō and Galbraith still find connections between Miyazaki and desire for young girl characters.[142] Interpreting Miyazaki's own words and his acknowledgment of eroticism as key to his creative process, Galbraith suggests that the distance between Miyazaki and the lolicon boom was about "shame": he criticized men who were open and playful about lolicon desire for having little shame, while he felt embarrassment about his own "longing" for girl characters.[143]

Legal aspects

See also: Legal status of fictional pornography depicting minors

The legal status of media that depicts fictional children in erotic or pornographic contexts has been subject to significant debate in Japan and throughout the world.[144] Some countries, including United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, criminalize such material under child pornography laws.[4] In R v Sharpe (2001), the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a prohibition on such materials was valid on the grounds of a "harmful effect on the attitudes of those who possess [them]" and unquantified harm to society, which the court ascribed to both real and fictional pornography.[145] In contrast, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002) that "virtual child pornography" is a protected form of free expression under the First Amendment to the Constitution, opining that such materials are not "intrinsically related" to abuse either in their production or consumption.[95]

Explaining the exclusion of lolicon from the 2014 amendment to Japan's child pornography laws, an LDP lawmaker stated that "Manga, anime, and CG child pornography don't directly violate the rights of girls or boys. It has not been scientifically validated that it even indirectly causes damage. Since it hasn't been validated, punishing people who view it would go too far",[146] echoing activist arguments.[147] Statistically, sexual abuse of minors in Japan has declined since the 1960s and 1970s while the prevalence of fictional lolicon has increased;[148][149] Galbraith interprets this as evidence that lolicon imagery does not necessarily influence crimes,[75] while Steven Smet suggests that lolicon is an "exorcism of fantasies" that contributes to Japan's low crime rates.[150] A 2012 report by the Sexologisk Klinik for the Danish government found no evidence that cartoons and drawings depicting fictive child sexual abuse encourage real abuse.[151] Academic Sharalyn Orbaugh argues that manga depicting underage sexuality can help victims of child sexual abuse to work through their trauma,[152] and that there is greater harm in regulating sexual expression than potential harm caused by such manga.[153]

Legal scholar Hiroshi Nakasatomi argues that lolicon can distort readers' sexual desires and induce crime, and that it violates the rights of children,[154] a view shared by the non-profit organization CASPAR (founded after the Miyazaki case).[155] Some critics, such as the non-profit organization Lighthouse, claim that lolicon works can be used for child grooming, and that they engender a culture that is accepting of sexual abuse.[156][157] Guidelines released in 2019 by the United Nations Human Rights Committee encouraged state parties to regulate sexually explicit drawings of fictional children "in particular when such representations are used as part of a process to sexually exploit children".[158] Feminist critic Kuniko Funabashi argues that lolicon manga, and pornography in general, contributes to sexual violence by framing girls passively and by "presenting the female body as the man's possession".[159] Legal scholar Shinichirō Harata argues that child pornography laws should not collapse reality and fiction together, but also that fans should not dismiss an ambivalence represented by lolicon. He describes the practice of keeping the two separated as the "ethics of moe", or "responsibility of otaku".[160]

See also

  • Shotacon – male equivalent of lolicon, focusing on young boy characters
  • Junior idol – child or early teenager pursuing a career as a photographic model
  • Lolita fashion – Japanese fashion style and subculture
  • Simulated child pornography – produced without direct involvement of children
  • Reporting of child pornography images on Wikimedia Commons

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: ロリータ・コンプレックス
  2. ^ For example, the bishōjo character Lum Invader from the manga series Urusei Yatsura, who physically appears to be about 17 years old, was associated with this sense.[17]
  3. ^ Japanese: キャベツ畑でつまずいて, Hepburn: Kyabetsu-batake de Tsumazuite
  4. ^ Obscenity enforcement against depictions of pubic hair was partially eased in 1991, facilitating a trend of " [ja]" photo books, though depictions in manga and anime continued to be regulated.[37]
  5. ^ Ōtsuka also edited Petit Apple Pie, an anthology series featuring works from the artists of Manga Burikko, but without eroticism.[48]
  6. ^ As one reader wrote in a letter in the August 1983 issue: "I have a two-dimensional complex (nijigen konpurekkusu). I don't feel anything for the photographs in the opening pages. For that reason, I'd like you to stop with the pictures and run only manga."[51]
  7. ^ Some journalists in the room later revealed that Miyazaki had owned only a few adult manga, which were moved to the foreground of photographs and created a false impression.[70]
  8. ^ The proposed restrictions also required labelling such works and zoning them in adult sections, which was opposed in anticipation of a chilling effect on artists and publishers and expected self-censorship.[110]
  9. ^ The first work to be formally restricted as "harmful" under the expanded law was the manga Imōto Paradise! 2 in 2014.[117]
  10. ^ Saitō makes a similar observation of creators and fans of yaoi manga, who are largely female; he finds that their "imaginary sex lives" are "totally separate from their everyday sexual lives", and that many "lead heterosexual lives, but their fictionally oriented sexuality turns to male homosexual relationships".[126]
  11. ^ Saitō further suggests that it is Japan's low rates of child abuse and its distinct and separate "fictional space" that enable lolicon to be approached as a fantasy, which he argues is "impossible" elsewhere.[128]

References

  1. ^ Galbraith 2016, pp. 113–114: "Given its importance, it is not surprising that lolicon has been well researched in Japan over the course of decades, which has led to numerous insights. [...] Characters are not compensating for something more 'real,' but rather are in their fiction the object of affection. This has been described as 'finding sexual objects in fiction in itself', which in discussions of lolicon is made explicitly distinct from desire for and abuse of children."
  2. ^ McLelland 2011b, p. 477: "Japanese scholarship has, on the whole, argued that, in the case of Japanese fans, neither the Loli nor the BL fandom represent the interests of paedophiles since moe characters are not objectified in the same manner that actual images of children can be, rather they express aspects of their creators' or consumers' own identities."
  3. ^ Kittredge 2014, p. 524: "The majority of the cultural critics responding to the Japanese otaku's erotic response to lolicon images emphasize, like Keller, that no children are harmed in the production of these images and that looking with desire at a stylized drawing of a young girl is not the same as lusting after an actual child."
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Works cited

Further reading

External links

  • Media related to Lolicon at Wikimedia Commons
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