Lolicon
In Japanese popular culture, lolicon (ロリコン, rorikon) is a genre of fictional media which focuses on young or young-looking girl characters, particularly in a sexually suggestive or erotic manner.
[7] In Japanese, the phrase was adopted to describe feelings of love and lust for young girls over adult women,[8] which remains the term's common meaning.
[9] Due to its association with otaku culture, the term is more often used to describe desires for young or young-looking girl characters (ロリ, "loli") in manga or anime, which are generally understood to exist within fiction.
According to Akira Akagi, the meaning of lolicon moved away from the sexual pairing of an older man and a young girl, and instead came to describe desire for "cuteness" and "girl-ness" in manga and anime.
[22][23] Lolicon became a buzz word after the 1989 arrest of Tsutomu Miyazaki, a serial killer of young girls who was portrayed by the Japanese media as an otaku (see § History).
[24] As lolicon was conflated with pedophilia in the public debates on "harmful manga",[f] its meaning was replaced among otaku by moe, which refers to feelings of affection for characters more generally.
[26] In the 1970s, shōjo manga (marketed to girls) underwent a renaissance in which artists, such as those of the Year 24 Group, experimented with new narratives and styles, and introduced themes such as psychology, gender, and sexuality.
[33] Specialty adult magazines carrying nude photos, fiction, and essays on the appeal of young girls emerged in the 1980s;[34] this trend faded in the late 1980s, due to backlash and because many men preferred images of shōjo in manga and anime.
[j] The rise of lolicon as a genre began at Comiket (Comic Market), a convention for the sale of dōjinshi (self-published works) founded in 1975 by adult male fans of shōjo manga.
[39] Prior to Cybele, the dominant style in seinen (marketed to men) and pornographic manga (hentai) was gekiga, characterized by realism, sharp angles, dark hatching, and gritty linework.
[41] Azuma's combination of the stout bodies of Osamu Tezuka's works and the emotive faces of shōjo manga marked the advent of the bishōjo and the aesthetic of "cute eroticism" (kawaii ero).
[k][42] While erotic, lolicon manga was initially mainly viewed as humorous and parodic, but a large fan base soon grew in response to the alternative to pornographic gekiga that it represented.
The popularity of lolicon within the otaku community attracted the attention of publishers, who founded specialty publications dedicated to the genre such as Lemon People and Manga Burikko, both in 1982.
[51][m] Reflecting the influence of shōjo manga, there was an increasingly small place in lolicon artwork for realistic characters and explicit depictions of sex;[53] in 1983, Burikko's editors yielded to reader demands by removing photographs of gravure idol models from its opening pages, publishing an issue with the subtitle "Totally Bishōjo Comic Magazine".
[57] Iconic characters of the lolicon boom include 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.
[44] 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.
[86] Other lolicon manga, where "men are absolute evil and girls are pitiable victims", indulge in the "pleasure of sin" through the breaking of taboos,[87] which he argues affirms the fragility of the characters.
[90] Lolicon manga, often published as dōjinshi or compiled in anthology magazines,[91] is mostly consumed by male audiences,[9] though Nagayama notes that the works of Hiraku Machida [ja] have "resonated with female readers" and "earned the support of women".
[104] The law's original draft included depictions of fictional children in its definition of child pornography; after "criticism from many in Japan", this text was removed in the final version.
[106] This provision was opposed by manga-related organizations, including the Japan Cartoonists Association, which argued that regulation would infringe upon freedom of expression and negatively impact the industry.
[108] Lolicon media is a common target of local ordinances in Japan which restrict distribution of materials designated "harmful to the healthy development of youth",[109] which were strengthened throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
[128] Manga creators and activists argue that the Japanese constitution guarantees artistic freedom of expression, and that laws restricting lolicon material would be unconstitutional.
[131] Drawing on his fieldwork, Galbraith argues that otaku culture collectively promotes media literacy and an ethical position of separating fiction and reality, especially when the conflation of the two would be dangerous.
[138][139] Feminist critic Kuniko Funabashi argues that the themes of lolicon material contribute to sexual violence by portraying girls passively and by "presenting the female body as the man's possession".
[140] Legal scholar Shin'ichirō 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.
[142] Cultural 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".
[148] Queer theorist Yuu Matsuura criticizes the classification of lolicon works as "child pornography" as an expression of "human-oriented sexualism" which marginalizes fictosexuality, or nijikon.
