Shotacon

Shotacon (ショタコン, shotakon), abbreviated from Shōtarō complex (正太郎コンプレックス, shōtarō konpurekkusu), refers to the attraction to young (or young-looking) boy characters, mainly in the context of Japanese media such as anime and manga. The term may also be used to describe one who feels such an attraction. The genre is understood to have come about as an off-shoot of women's manga from the then-nascent self-publishing dōjinshi culture of the early 1980's, further diversifying as its readership grew. Shotacon works feature prepubescent or pubescent male characters often depicted in a suggestive or erotic manner, whether in the obvious role of object of attraction, or the less apparent role of "subject" for the reader to associate with. In both Western and Japanese fan cultures, it describes works that range from the explicitly pornographic to mildly suggestive, romantic, or entirely nonsexual. A closely related term for the attraction to (or art pertaining to the erotic portrayal of) young girls is lolicon. Some critics claim that the genre contributes to actual sexual abuse of children, while others claim that there is no evidence for this, or that there is evidence to the contrary. Explicit shotacon imagery is illegal in various countries, and in a legal grey zone in various others.