• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Shotaology

Shota studies

  • 調査
  • Survey
  • Forum
  • About

Research

My own shota

My own shota

August 15, 2021 by Shota Leave a Comment

Eric was hot. He had a rough edge, because he was a city boy and his parents were divorced. He had a moped. He had longish hair and lips that pouted just slightly and gave him a simple look. He probably wore braces, I don’t remember. But despite his rough aura, Eric was also kind. He didn’t hang out with the “cool” boys from the city, but he was respected by them. He was friends with the farmers, and since I was closer to the farmers (the only ones who would accept me), Eric was in my vicinity every now and then.

Eric was my classmate for three years in middle school. I don’t know anything about him either before or after, but for those three years I watched him every week in the changing room at gym class. He changed in the part of the changing room where I and the farmers changed.

My middle school changing room, or junior high school locker room for you Americans, but it didn’t have lockers.

I remember clearly when I watched him undress the first time. His muscles! Despite we were the same age – 12 or 13 years old – the muscles on Eric’s arms were bulging like smooth, toppy hills that disappeared in deep rivers that led into his dark armpit. I was mesmerised by that image, forever imprinted in my mind. I remember the intricacies of that dark pit of raw desire – it was like a mystery to me!

My sketch of Eric in the middle school changing room, as I carry the image with me.

Of course I also remember his penis. It was pointy; stood out a bit from the body, as if it was always slightly erect. A small patch of pubic hair just above it. Over those three years I watched his penis grow: In 9th grade it had the same form – pointy – but was now several sizes bigger. More hair grew on top of it. His muscles had also grown, an intoxicating mess of smooth hills and dark, dangerous rivers. And he had grown underarm hair.

On one of the last days of seventh or eight grade, our teacher asked us what we would do over summer break – would we have a summer job maybe? Eric said he would work at the local saw. “So it’s a muscular Eric who will come back after summer break”, the teacher replied, and I read some desire into her words, like, did she have to mention his body? I still remember this occasion because I thought about Eric and his muscles.

I think I was in love with Eric, but I didn’t realise it, and I’ve never really thought about it after either. At one time the two of us were to go together to a field or forest for an exercise day a bit away from the school. I don’t know how we ended up together, we might have been assigned something, so the others had gone before us. I came to school with the school bus, but Eric had a moped, so he offered me a ride. I did have a moped too, but maybe only later on. I had in any case never sat behind a boy, a sexy boy, on a moped before. I was excited. Where should I hold my hands? There was some kind of metal structure for packages behind the long seat, so I grabbed it behind my back. Eric said: “You can hold on to me.” I didn’t. I thought it would be gay. How I regret that I didn’t, to this day! But I remember the heat from his body under his flannel shirt, flapping in the wind as we rode through the city to the others. I was so much in love!

I don’t have many more memories of Eric. I’ve googled him over the years, but fortunately never seen a picture. He remains in my mind as the perfect 13-year-old boy who I watched naked in the changing room every week for three years. Eric and his muscles. Eric and his penis. Eric and his warm body next to mine on the moped. Eric is my own shota.

Listen up, you reader! You probably carry your own shota with you from when you grew up. Tell me about him! Draw him! And be part of the collective research project into shota and shotacon that will contribute important insights about desire and sexuality to academia. Get in touch, let’s chat, let’s share our imaginations! Fill in the shota survey and let’s take it from there. I want to talk to you!

Filed Under: Personal, Research, Survey Tagged With: drawing, shota

What are little boys made of?

The Ontology of the Boy, or: What are little boys made of?

July 27, 2021 by Shota 1 Comment

In the introduction to the book Kono shota ga sugoi (このショタがすごい!) from 1997, Shindōji Gun (真道寺軍) opens with this provocative question:

What are little boys made of?

Kono shota ga sugoi, p. 4
Introduction, page 4–5 in Kono shota ga sugoi (このショタがすごい!) by Shindōji Gun (真道寺軍), 1997.

The question evokes so many thoughts. At first, I think about the boy’s body. Like the rest of us, boys are made up of flesh and blood, bones and organs. But just by spelling this out, I realise what a bad answer it is. Of course boys are made of the stuff that makes all of us. Disgusting stuff that I don’t want to see. So why is the boy so great (or “sugoi”) when he’s made of the same things as the rest of us? Is it the composition of these things – the proportions in which the bones are held together? Is it the youthful lustre of the thin layer of skin that so perfectly wraps around the stuff we don’t want to see? Being so concrete about the answer makes me realise that what the question really asks is this:

What is the magic of boys?

That question has been asked before in shota research. In 1996, Manda Ringo phrased it like this in the shota survey published in her book The Syotaroh:

Where does the magic of the boy reside?”

The Syotaroh, p. 15

Popular answers included “smooth legs”, “thin limbs”, “beautiful face”, and “youthful skin”, but the number one answer, as entered independently by 13 respondents, was junsuisa (純粋さ), which can be translated as “purity” or “innocence”. This is something far more abstract than the physical attributes. It is something that is hard or maybe even impossible to grasp, and thus it is denoted as “magic”. But maybe one can try by way of examples. The introduction in Kono shota ga sugoi follows an illustration where the same question is posed – twice for impact:

Boys, what are they made of?
Boys, what are they made of?
Ray guns and spacecrafts,
what’s more, robot monsters,
What a wonderful anything goes!

Kono shota ga sugoi, p. 3
What are little boys made of? Page 3 in Kono shota ga sugoi (このショタがすごい!) by Shindōji Gun (真道寺軍), 1997.

The text reads like a poem, and maybe poetry is the only way one can close in on questions about magic.

The continuous outpour of books and dōjinshi discussing shota reflects a will among shota fans to understand themselves. Like few other genres, shota seems to create a curious reflexivity among its readers, who are more diverse than readers of other comics. Women and men, young and old, straight, gay and bi, ask themselves: What is the magic of the boy?

In academic terminology, one might talk about the ontology of the boy, as a way to try to capture his very being. The passionate production of shota dōjinshi provides a unique chance to close in on this transient ontology called Boy: How old is he? (Twelve!) What does he look like? What hobbies does he have? Of course there are many answers depending on personal taste, but taken together, the expressions in these dōjinshi make up an important databank devoted to an ideal that never lets itself be captured, and which therefore keeps engaging us.

So I ask you: What is the magic of the boy? Reply in the comments or in the shota forum – and don’t forget to take the shota survey!

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: Manda Ringo, Shindōji Gun, shota, まんだ林檎, 真道寺軍

Boys with swords: Wataru, Toraoh, Yoh-kun

Young boys with big swords – phallic symbolism in Wataru and Shaman King

March 15, 2021 by Shota Leave a Comment

A boy’s greatest desire is to become a man. This theme therefore permeates virtually all boys’ manga and anime – only the execution varies. Especially robot anime feeds on this desire, where the robot represents the man that the boy admires, wants to learn from, fight alongside with, and eventually become. The robot is an externalisation not only of the boy’s desire, but of his potential: Eventually, all boys will become men, but this is a complicated process, a process that engages not only the boy himself but all of society. Hence the focus on male coming-of-age rituals in virtually all cultures and eras: The boy must be guided to manhood, and watching a semi-disguised version of that process in anime is what keeps us glued to the screen year after year. Probably it provides us with solace to see new generations of boys being fostered into men, thus implicitly convincing us that the world will continue to exist.

This process is beautifully captured in the transformation sequence of robot anime. That’s where the magic happens, and isn’t the boy’s transformation into a man a kind of magic? The boy’s greatest desire logically receives the greatest care in the form of an advanced animation sequence, a real treat for the eye, accompanied by powerful music. The sequence often includes the boy summoning the robot by throwing a magical token, ejecting or ejaculating a piece of himself if you will, like a seed that gives birth to something greater, outside of himself – the man he will become. The boy is then shown (as in Wataru below) ascending into the inner core of the robot, from where they will control its huge limbs. Boy and robot – boy and man – have become one: Only so can they fight the enemy and save the world.

This process includes overt symbolism. Most obviously, the boy always sports a long and powerful sword (in Granzort we even see it grow), the swinging of which to eliminate the enemy marks the “orgasm” of each episode. If you haven’t got it yet, the sword of course symbolises the boy’s penis, or phallos with a fancier word.

Wataru
Nine-year-old boy Wataru grabs his big … sword.

Once you’ve understood that, the story makes more sense, since all boys and men are obsessed with their penises. So whether they “get it” or not on a conscious level, seeing a boy swinging a long object fills male viewers (maybe female too, in a different way) with satisfaction. We’re not only seeing the slaying of a villain – we’re watching the supreme victory of our own sex! And it’s big. Very big. And so it taps into the fascination and desire of every single boy out there: The fascination with the growing capability of their own body part, and the desire that it will one day grow bigger than the little miniscule appendix they are stuck with as boys. Or in short: That they will one day become men.

The desire fueling the imagery of boys with swords is evident in anime 30 years apart: Wataru (1988), Granzort (1989) and Boku no Hero Academia (2019). I’m not much of an anime buff, so you can probably find many more examples.

Shaman King (1998–2004, by Takei Hiroyuki/武井宏之) is not a robot manga, but is fueled by the same manly desire: 13-year-old Yoh-kun merges with various men in the form of ghosts, who enter his body. Instead of controlling the robot, the boy’s body is here controlled by the man whose spirit has entered it. This frame with the boxer was cut out of the anime but well captures the man/boy dynamic of this idea:

Man on boy: Yoh-kun as a boxer.

The fact that several men can take advantage of Yoh-kun (or “have some fun with his body” as one of them put it) seems to be at odds with the idea that a boy should only have one man who guides him, but after a while the samurai Amidamaru accepts this role. Beyond the obvious symbolism of man-on-boy action (or man inside boy even), the manga also sports several phallic objects, most evidently the sword which Yoh-kun holds in the same iconic way as Wataru above:

13-year-old boy Yoh-kun grabs his big … sword. In the background Amidamaru.

There are lots of other phallic objects that are held and pointing in various suggestive ways throughout Shaman King, but whereas metal pipes and wooden planks are symbolic, the ihai (位牌), or “spirit tablet”, almost perfectly represents the size of a boy penis and is held in a way that reminds of masturbation:

Boy grabbing his hard … ihai. Note that something is going on in Yoh-kun’s pocket in the right frame.

Some frames are suggestive in a way that makes you wonder if you’re a pervert who sees “signs” everywhere. But seriously. The wooden stick in the bucket in this frame is simply a bit too perfectly positioned, don’t you think? Just squint your eyes …

Quite early on, Yoh-kun gets a rival in the form of Ren. Ren is equipped with a long halberd. You may want to squint your eyes again …

Yoh-kun’s rival Ren grabs his long … halberd.

It’s amazing to see when Ren gets going. He swings his halberd in such a confident and powerful way that my thoughts go to Murakami Takashi’s legendary sculpture My Lonesome Cowboy. This piece of art is brilliant in that it captures exactly what I have been trying to describe in this post, namely the underlying phallic desire in mainstream boy culture. The boy’s self-image of being an omnipotent, sperm-shooting demigod on his way to manhood is epitomised in Murakami’s sculpture. But look closely and you will be able to see the sperm of the lonesome cowboy running as a common white-greyish thread through so many manga works.

It should be mentioned that this is most probably not a conscious thought process in the creators of manga and anime. Although there are cases where shota and loli artists also create mainstream, non-sexual works, in most cases the desire that results in all these symbols probably works as a motor deep down, under the hood so to speak. It’s a societal desire, and creators are part of the society.

When I studied literary analysis at the university, someone (maybe it was me) asked: “But why do we have to interpret so much? Can’t we just ask the author what they meant, if they’re still alive?” The teacher replied: “No, because it doesn’t matter what the author intended. Our job is to analyse the work and find things in it that not even the author is aware of.” So that’s what I’ve done here. Tell me what you think and please contribute with your own observations!

Filed Under: Commercial, Research Tagged With: boy eroticism, Shaman King, Takei Hiroyuki, Wataru, ワタル, 武井宏之

3D shota boys

Survey: Do you like 3D shota? (3DCGショタが好きですか)

March 13, 2021 by Shota Leave a Comment

3D shota looks quite different from regular, comic-style shota. Some would say it looks more realistic. With 3D shota I mean computer generated (CG), for example in DAZ Studio.

If you want to contribute to my research, please fill in the bilingual minisurvey below!

3DCGショタと漫画ショタはよく違うと思います。僕の研究で助けたければ、下のアンケートを回答してください!

Do you like 3D shota?
What do you think about 3D shota?
3DCGショタには、どんな感じですか?
Your gender
性別
Your sexuality
セクシュアリティー
May I contact you for more questions?
もう話し合いしに連絡できますか?

Illustration by Barbotage (cropped).

Filed Under: Research, Survey Tagged With: 3D shota, DAZ Studio

Jumbor Angzengbang 2, ユンボル 1, manga cover art

Jumbor and the eroticism of mainstream boys’ manga

December 22, 2020 by Shota Leave a Comment

I stumbled upon Jumbor (ユンボル) by Takei Hiroyuki (武井宏之) at a Mandarake in Tokyo in October 2017. Jumbor is a dystopian manga set in a future ruled by various construction syndicates which fight each other with heavy duty construction machinery. The resistance movement get their hands on a jumbor, which is a mix of human and machine originally used to mine the valuable substance jumborite. This particular Jumbor, model 11D, is a boy: Jumbor Baru.

But enough of the background – just look at these striking covers! One of the volumes even comes with a full colour fold-out with the shirtless Jumbor, pin-up style:

Fold-out in Jumbor Angzengbang, volume 2 (ユンボル 安全版, 全2巻), 2010.

Jumbor Baru has been frozen for several years, so when he finally wakes up, he has the body of a 10-year-old boy, despite he is actually a teenager. After having examined the huge mechanical hands and feet he has been equipped with, he glances down at his crotch and concludes with sweat drops in his face:

But that thing …! It’s still small, hasn’t grown at all!!!

しかもコイツは…!小せえし生えてねえ!!!

Takei Hiroyuki (武井宏之). 2010. Jumbor (ユンボル), volume 1, p. 87-88.
Jumbor Baru discovers his prepubescent penis
Jumbor Baru discovers his prepubescent penis, p. 86-87.
Baby elephant in diapers symbolises small penis
This discovery is illustrated with the symbolic image of a baby elephant in diapers, p. 88.

The jokes on the boy’s penis continue when Jumbor realises that the woman who has awaken him is in fact Princess Rivetta, who he knew as a child – when they were both children:

“That means, you must be that tiny little Princess Rivetta, right?”

“Right. Speaking of tiny little things, how about covering yourself up, Jumbor Baru.”

「するとやっぱりあんたはあの小せえリベッタ姫なのか…?」

「さあな。あれこれ聞く前にその小せえモノを隠したらどうだユンボル・バル」

Takei Hiroyuki (武井宏之). 2010. Jumbor (ユンボル), volume 1, p. 100-101.
Jumbor 1, p. 101

So it’s small. Super tiny. 小せえ! But that is compensated by a huge shovel, many times his own size, that grows out of one of Jumbor Baru’s mechanical hands the first time he’s confronted by an enemy. He’s surprised by this sudden power, which he was not aware of and which he can’t control well in the beginning. Princess Rivetta observes him contentedly in the foreground as he battles with his shovel: “So that’s his secret power.”

This is what awaits all boys. Their bodies will transform and they will have a hard time mastering the new powers that demand attention within them. I come to think of the anime D.N.Angel, where 14-year-old Niwa Daisuke transforms into a “phantom thief” at certain occasions. Or why not Momonari Junta, the good-for-nothing rascal who turns into “Mega-Playboy” in DNA2. Just like Jumbor Baru, Daisuke and Junta can’t control the powers they’ve been equipped with. What we’re seeing is the struggle of puberty and newly awakened sexuality, as manifested in a shovel, a phantom thief, and a playboy.

But back to Jumbor. Even after he has got dressed, Jumbor Baru is running around in several sizes too big bib trousers that expose his shirtless upper body. This imagery is erotic, but not erotic enough to be designated as such. It reminds quite a bit of Takei’s hit manga and anime Shaman King (シャーマンキング) from 1998 (and onwards), whose 13-year-old boy protagonist Asukara Yoh (麻倉 葉) similarly has an exposed chest under an unbuttoned shirt:

Asukara Yoh (麻倉 葉) in Shaman King.

Moe! We might call this imagery titillating, but titillating for who? For boy readers with a latent erotic interest in their peers (and themselves)? Or for older readers? The lack of furigana makes me think that the manga is not aimed at too young readers.

On the female side, people have argued that the girl characters in series like Sailor Moon were sexed up to cater to a secondary (or maybe even primary) target group of adult men, beyond the obvious audience of teenage girls (see Patrick W. Galbraith: Otaku and the struggle for imagination in Japan, Duke University Press 2019, p. 113–115). Is something similar at play in mainstream boys’ (shōnen) manga? I think it’s quite obvious that a series like Made in Abyss (on Netflix of all places) flirts quite shamelessly with both shotacon and lolicon, with Reg – like Jumbor, a boy with robot hands – being one of the most popular characters in shota fan art.

The shota genre makes explicit what is implicit in mainstream manga. No one would claim that Hunter x Hunter and other mainstream series featuring and made for boys have an erotic undertone, and anyone who claims that would not be able to prove it. And that’s exactly what makes mainstream manga so interesting – because you have to read between the lines!

Please contribute with additional examples.

Filed Under: Book, Commercial, Research Tagged With: boy eroticism, Jumbor, Made in Abyss, manga, Patrick W. Galbraith, shōnen, Takei Hiroyuki, ユンボル, 少年, 武井宏之

車谷晴子:「極上男子と暮らしてます。」(2007)

Real shota in “Yay, I’m living with a super sexy boy!”

September 22, 2020 by Shota Leave a Comment

Kurumatani Haruko (車谷晴子) is my favourite shōjo mangaka. I just started reading her work Kyokujō danshi to kurashitemasu 1/極上男子と暮らしてます。①. I think the title can be (freely) translated to “Yay, I’m living with a super sexy boy!”

The story

16-year-old Ruki lives with her mother and adores the manga boy Shun-sama. One morning when she exits her room, Shun-sama is standing in front of her. How is it possible? Ruki concludes that it must be a dream, and since you can do what you want in a dream without consequences, she starts kissing Shun-sama.

It turns out, of course, that it wasn’t a dream. The boy is Senri-kun, who has come to live with them, as arranged by Ruki’s mother. And here begins the quandaries for Ruki-chan, who on one hand thinks the new boy is naughty and irritating like boys are, but on the other thinks he looks so much like fictional Shun-sama that she just has to throw herself in his arms every now and then.

Reality and fiction mixed up

After once again having told Senri-kun off (he keeps making advances on her because of the mixed signals he’s getting), Ruki thinks while looking at both Senri-kun and the poster of Shun-sama that hangs above her bed:

Wow, once again he looks just like Shun-sama up close! My god, Shun-sama is standing in front of me!

She throws herself in Senri-kun’s arms, thinking “Shun-sama … ❤️❤️”, but quickly comes to her senses, thinking “What am I doing?” She thinks:

When I’m looking at Senri-kun I can’t differ between fantasy and reality!!

I love how the discussion of fantasy and reality, or 2D and 3D shota, takes place within a fictional work, just like in Yankee-shota to otaku-onēsan/ヤンキーショタとオタクおねえさん.

車谷晴子:「極上男子と暮らしてます。」(2007) Cover art
車谷 晴子:「極上男子と暮らしてます。」(2007). Yes, I read it on the beach!

Kurumatani Haruko-san is my favourite shōjo mangaka. Her theme is “bad boys” and the girl who falls for them. I have previously read and loved these works by Kurumatani-san:

  • 悪党男子コレクション (2005, read 2016)
  • 最恐彼氏 (2006, read 2017)
  • アイドル様の夜のお顔 (2007, read 2019)

Filed Under: Book, Commercial, Research Tagged With: Flower Comics, Kurumatani Haruko, shōjo, 車谷 晴子

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Traducción 😛 Tradução ❤️ 翻訳

Subscribe via email

Mini-polls loading ⬇️

Recent posts

Kokoro Button: Kasuga-san and Kōga-kun! ココロ・ボタン

Call me by my first name: Intimate transgressions in Kokoro Button

September 7, 2021

Gon Freecss in Hunter x Hunter shirtless

Homoerotic symbolism in Hunter × Hunter

September 5, 2021

My own shota

My own shota

August 15, 2021

What are little boys made of?

The Ontology of the Boy, or: What are little boys made of?

July 27, 2021

Gokujō danshi to kurashitemasu 2

Honour culture and fictional fiction in “Help, I can’t resist the super sexy boys I’m forced to live with!”

May 16, 2021

Boys with swords: Wataru, Toraoh, Yoh-kun

Young boys with big swords – phallic symbolism in Wataru and Shaman King

March 15, 2021

3D shota boys

Survey: Do you like 3D shota? (3DCGショタが好きですか)

March 13, 2021

Full Ahead! Coco, volume 15, cover art

Man/boy romance in Full Ahead! Coco

February 27, 2021

Jumbor Angzengbang 2, ユンボル 1, manga cover art

Jumbor and the eroticism of mainstream boys’ manga

December 22, 2020

車谷晴子:「極上男子と暮らしてます。」(2007)

Real shota in “Yay, I’m living with a super sexy boy!”

September 22, 2020

Reference library

ショタコンのゆりかご (book cover)

ショタコンのゆりかご

Author: ぶどううり くすこ

An essay on the origins of shota, published as a dōjinshi.

国際おたく大学―1998年 最前線からの研究報告

国際おたく大学―1998年:最前線からの研究報告

Authors: 岡田 斗司夫, 渡辺 由美子

An anthology on “otakuology” that contains Watanabe Yumiko’s important shota study.

吉本たいまつ:腐男子にきく。

腐男子にきく。

Author: 吉本 たいまつ

An interview study on male fans of BL and yaoi, published as a dōjinshi.

The Syotaroh by まんだ 林檎

The Syotaroh

Author: まんだ 林檎

An impressive work on the early shota subculture.

エロマンガ・スタディーズ

エロマンガ・スタディーズ

Author: 永山 薫

One of the main resources on adult manga.

ショタリポート①

ショタリポート①

The first part of an interview study of shota fans.

Recent Comments

  • Smalleyeball on The Ontology of the Boy, or: What are little boys made of?
  • kazumania on The rise and fall of commercial shota magazines
  • Shota on Wataru and the birth of shota in mainstream anime
  • Wezley on Wataru and the birth of shota in mainstream anime
  • Twitter

Footer

Archives

  • September 2021 (2)
  • August 2021 (1)
  • July 2021 (1)
  • May 2021 (1)
  • March 2021 (2)
  • February 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (2)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (2)
  • April 2020 (3)
  • March 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (1)

Categories

  • Admin
  • Anime
  • Anthology
  • Book
  • Commercial
  • Dōjinshi
  • Essay
  • Personal
  • Research
  • Shōjo
  • Survey
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Creative Commons License

Shotaology · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Log in

  • 調査
  • Survey
  • Forum
  • About