Shotacon ショタコン

Definition

hentai featuring

The term shotacon refers tofeaturing shota characters, or, translated from Weaboo to English: drawn child porn featuring little boys.

WHAT?!?!

Ugh, you know what, I already wrote about this before in the article about female version of shotacon, and I don't feel like writing it all over again. Check that post if you want an explanation.

Female Shotacon

Trap Shotacon

The female counterpart of shotacon is lolicon , being about girls instead of boys.

The single well-known shotacon anime, the worldwide infamous Boku no Pico ぼくのぴこ, literally "My Pico," (not to be confused with Boku no Hero Academia, which has nothing to do with it), is also infamously known for featuring a gender-ambiguous character, tricking countless victims into watching gay porn unknowingly.

Regarding the genre-ambiguity, trap and crossdressing characters in manga and anime are to shotacon what oppai lolis are to lolicon: absolutely deliberate degeneracy. So asking whether it's "lolicon" because the trap may identify as a girl is nonsense. Rather, it's because it's "shotacon" that the character was made a trap.

Written in Japanese

Note that, shotakon in Japanese has different meanings from shotacon in English.

Shotakon ショタコン

In English, shotacon normally refers to hentai. It's used strictly within the fandom, by fans of anime and manga.

In Japanese, shotakon refers to an attraction toward little boys, synonymous with "pederasty," which in Japanese would be shounen-ai 少年愛, literally "boy love."

in English is an anime slang that doesn't mean the same thing as shounen-ai in Japanese, it instead refers to non-pornographic

Note, however, that the term "shounen-ai" is an anime slang that doesn't mean the same thing asin Japanese, it instead refers to non-pornographic yaoi (gay stories).

booizu rabu ボーイズラブ, is an otaku slang often abbreviated to just fujoshi, and it's not the same thing "shounen-ai" in English nor is it the same thing as shounen-ai in Japanese, it's closer to yaoi やおい instead.

FURTHERMORE, because the Japanese language fucking hates you, the English phrase "boy love" katakanized,ボーイズラブ, is anslang often abbreviated to just BL and used by, and it's not the same thing "shounen-ai" in English nor is it the same thing asin Japanese, it's closer toやおい instead.

shotakon may also refer to someone who is attracted to little boys in Japanese, a "pedophile (for boys)," also called a shounen-ai-sha 少年愛者.


So, basically, this shit is a goddamn trainwreck. Seriously, what the fuck. Who the hell came up with these terms?!

Also note that, as far as the term is concerned, a shotacon is a "pedophile" not a "child-abuser." That means if a character in a manga is called a shotacon, it doesn't mean they go around raping children, it just means they look like they are attracted to children. (whether they go around raping children is a separate issue).

And since rorikon may be used jokingly (and inaccurately) toward people who say they "like children," maybe shotakon one can do. I'm not at all sure about this, though.

Syotakon

FARRRRRRTHEEERrRrrrrrMOaarrrr, the wordmay also refer to someone who is attracted to little boys in Japanese, a "pedophile (for boys)," also called a少年愛者.So, basically, this shit is a goddamn trainwreck. Seriously, what the fuck. Who the hell came up with these terms?!Also note that, as far as the term is concerned, a shotacon is a "pedophile" not a "child-abuser." That means if a character in a manga is called a shotacon, it doesn't mean they go around raping children, it just means they look like they are attracted to children. (whether they go around raping children is a separate issue).And sincemay be used jokingly (and inaccurately) toward people who say they "like children," maybeone can do. I'm not at all sure about this, though.

syotakon ショタコン is the same thing as shotakon ショタコン, but the romaji comes from a different shotakon uses Hepburn rules made for westerns, syotakon uses Kunrei-shiki rules made for the Japanese. So the person who wrote syotakon is probably Japanese.

The wordショタコン is the same thing asショタコン, but thecomes from a different romaji system . Whileuses Hepburn rules made for westerns,uses Kunrei-shiki rules made for the Japanese. So the person who wroteis probably Japanese.

Shotacon Characters

Sometimes in anime you see a character who's a shotacon.

A shotacon is not a little boy, that'd be a shota, the shotacon's target. The shotacon is, often, an older girl or adult woman who likes little boys.

For example, in Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Hideyoshi's older twin sister, Yuuko Kinoshita, was known for being "a shotacon, a homosexual, and for not wearing panties."

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon 小林さんちのメイドラゴン, the dragon-goddess Quetzalcoatl acts in such way toward a boy character whose name is literally Shouta 翔太 that he even mistakes her for a succubus.

It's worth noting that, because so many anime feature a male boy as main character, and they also feature many more girls than boys, the chances of one of those girls being a shotacon is high.

Even if the girl character is not a shotacon, a ship or situation (in fanfic, doujinshi, etc.) consisting of an older-looking girl plus a shota character is termed oneshota, even though Yoko was never interested in Simon in the anime and he never really stood a chance.)

Although never explicitly stated, in the anime小林さんちのメイドラゴン, the dragon-goddess Quetzalcoatl acts in such way toward a boy character whose name is literally翔太 that he even mistakes her for a succubus.It's worth noting that, because so many anime feature a male boy as main character, and they also feature many more girls than boys, the chances of one of those girls being a shotacon is high.Even if the girl character is not a shotacon, a ship or situation (in fanfic,, etc.) consisting of an older-looking girl plus a shota character is termed oneshota おねショタ . (example: a Yoko x Simon fanfic is, even though Yoko was never interested in Simon in the anime and he never really stood a chance.)

Of course, nothing stops a male character from being a shotacon, but that's probably not gonna happen in anime for the general audience. Maybe in something fujoshi-targeted.

Origin of The Word

The word shotacon is lolicon's little brother, in a sense. That is, the only reason shotacon exists, is because lolicon existed before it.

In 1981, in an anime magazine called Fanroad, or fanro~do ふぁんろ～ど, (now spelled ファンロード), a certain question was asked by one of its readers: "if a man liking girls is a lolicon, a woman liking boys is?"

The chief editor at the time, Hamamatsu Katsuki 浜松 克樹, answered the question, coining then the term "shotacon" from the name of the character Shoutarou 正太郎 from the 1980 anime Tetsujin Nijuu-hachi-gou 鉄人28号.

So if lolicon is "Lolita complex," Roritaa Konpurekkusu ロリター・コンプレックス, then shotacon is "Shoutarou complex,"Shoutarou Konpurekkusu 正太郎・コンプレックス,

Details and Transcript

The Q&A corner in question, plus relevant transcript, (romaji line breaks match the image), From the fifth edition of Fanroad, released in 25th of May, 1981, page 74. ("第5号（81.5.25発行）の74ページ).

Q 男の人が小さな女の子を好き

なのをロリコンといっている意味

はわかるのですが、それじゃあ、

女の人が小さな男の子を好きなの

はなんというのでしょうか･･･。

Q: otoko no hito ga chiisana onna no ko wo suki

na no wo rorikon to itteiru imi

wa wakaru no desuga, sorejaa,

onna no hito ga chiisana otoko no ko wo suki na no

wa nanto iu no deshouka...

Q: Man liking little young girls is called lolicon I understand why but, then, a woman liking small young boys what would you call it?

A 同じ言葉で総称してもいいは

ずです。そもそもロリコンは、ロ

リータという女の子を好きにな

ったことからきた名称ですが、正太

郎クンを好きにな

ったショタコンとかいうのは、な

んとなくゴロが悪いではありませ

んか。

A: onaji kotoba de soushou shite mo ii ha-

zu desu. somosomo rorikon wa, ro-

riita toiu onna no ko wo suki ni na-

tta koto kara kita meishou desuga, shouta-

rou-kun wo suki ni na

tta shotakon toka iu no wa, na-

nto naku goro ga warui dewa arimase-

nka.

A: Generalizing with the same word ought to be alright. To begin with lolicon is a term that came from liking a little young girl called lolita but, if you liked Shoutarou-kun you were called a shotacon or something, that sort of doesn't ring well, don't you agree?

Notes

The "lolita" the editor refers to is the character Lolita from the book Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, a literature classic, from which, indeed, the term lolicon came from.

Apparently, the editor didn't like how "shotacon" sounded like. Maybe he thought it sounded lame or stupid. So his answer was actually "just use lolicon for boys too." But his mistake was saying it. Once something is said on the internet it can't be... wait... this... this isn't the internet?!

Tetsujin 28-gou, but sometimes the term shotacon is mistakenly attributed with the real-life boy child-actor who took the role of Shoutarou in the live-action version of Tetsujin 28-gou filmed at the time. In reality, the Shoutarou the editor was talking about was the 2D character from the 1980 anime adaptation. (remember: the Q&A was published in 1981).


By the way, because Shoutarou wore "short pants," hanzubon 半ズボン, literally "half-trousers," plus white socks, at some point later some people considered boy characters that looked good in short pants and white socks to be shota characters, and, conversely, to some people a character could only be considered a shota if short pants and white socks suited him.

According the source of the image, a shotacon-related website (yes, really, so we can be sure that that guy knows something we don't), the character Shoutarou in question is indeed from, but sometimes the term shotacon is mistakenly attributed with the real-life boy child-actor who took the role of Shoutarou in the live-action version offilmed at the time. In reality, the Shoutarou the editor was talking about was the 2D character from the 1980 anime adaptation. (remember: the Q&A was published in 1981).By the way, because Shoutarou wore "short pants,"半ズボン, literally "half-trousers," plus white socks, at some point later some people considered boy characters that looked good in short pants and white socks to be shota characters, and, conversely, to some people a character could only be considered a shota if short pants and white socks suited him.

Both shotacon and lolicon are terms that in Japan can be applied to 2D and real life. But lolicon originated in a real-life complex, then it adapted to be used by anime fans. Whereas shotacon originated in manga and anime, and then it started being used toward real life to fully match lolicon's usage.

Reference

As the curious idiot I am, I'm thankful I was able to find the image above so I could fill this utterly unimportant and entirely meaningless piece of anime history and sate my curiosity, so, as a matter of course, I have to link to where I found it, and this is rather troublesome.

As far as I can tell the specific page I'll link is SFW. But it's 3000% certain the website is NSFW. And who knows if it's even legal for you access this website?! (To be honest I found it reverse-searching the image from a tweet, so I didn't even check the other pages.) If you do want to visit it, visit at your own risk: ショタコンのゆりかご・1 ～ショタと言う言葉の生い立ち～

Extremely often, you see this word in anime-related forums: shotacon. It's in practically every single thread. Okay, that's bullshit. I don't recall ever seeing anybody use it. But for the sake of completeness, this time I wrote a post about the meaning of shotacon.