Shotacon (frequently shortened to
shota) is a Japanese term referring to a fetish regarding young boys, or boys that attract such fetishization. Originally popularized in
BL fandom as the
bishonen aesthetic taken to its natural extreme, but more generally refers to an attraction to a male character around 13 years old or less. Comes in hetero-sex and same-sex flavors, and is found in both female-oriented (especially
Yaoi) and male-oriented works.
The earliest
Boys Love manga of the early 1970s featured love affairs between early-teen boys, but were marketed to (female) readers of the same age. Shotacon first became an identifiable genre in the
Boys Love doujinshi community of the early 1980's, but the idea was quickly picked up by male fans (who took it in a substantially different direction). By the early 1990s, when the name was standardized, the male shotacon
doujinshi community was about the same size as the
Boys Love shotacon
doujinshi community.
Currently, Japanese fans and publishers use term
shonen ai (boy's love) to designate specialty shotacon works (for either gender, although it is more commonly used for male-oriented works), which is at variance with its general Western meaning of nonexplicit
Boys Love. Works marketed specifically as shotacon vary substantially by gender target: Boys Love
shonen ai shotacon is generally romantic, may or may not be explicit, and follows Boys Love tropes;
shonen ai shotacon for men is usually sexually explicit, tends to overlap heavily with
Futanari and
Lolicon, and typically features lots of
crossdressing.
Shotacon is also used as a theme in works for a more general audience, where it tends to be less
controversial than
Lolicon. In works aimed at a female audience, it's typically played for
moe fanservice, or to characterize someone as a
Covert Pervert or
Yaoi Fangirl. In works for a male audience it's typically played for humor; because
boys are stereotypically more obsessed with sex, shotacon themes are generally intended to sexualize the woman, rather than the boy who is the target of her affection. So it pops up in
shonen a lot, even if those boys are on the technical borderline; some readers find the idea of physical encounters with older women enticing, while others like the aggressive female characters usually involved. If a show has an aggressive, sex-hungry
Ojou with an
annoying laugh, she's the most likely candidate, although usually only if potential male targets are very limited.
The name is a portmanteau for
Shotaro complex (by analogy to
lolicon, "lolita complex"), which refers to Shotaro Haneda, the main character of
Tetsujin 28, who embodies (
and names) the
Cute Shotaro Boy trope, which many people found appealing.
Compare
Lolicon. See also
Cute Shotaro Boy and
Hot For Student.
