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Impossibly Cute Boys: The Healing Power of Shota Comics in Japan
Impossibly Cute Boys is the first book in English about Japanese shota comics and their fans. Shota features cute boy characters, but little is known about this manga genre and its readers since research is lacking, both in and outside of Japan.
Based on new research on PhD level, Impossibly Cute Boys details the history of shota (or shotacon) in Japan, before introducing us to the readers and creators of these comics, and asking them what it means to them to love shota. Their answers challenge both previous research and common assumptions about shota fans.
Impossibly Cute Boys is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo and Yokohama. An original contribution to academic research in the fields of anthropology and queer studies, the book is written in an accessible style and can be enjoyed by anyone wanting to learn more about an often misunderstood manga genre.
Based on new research on PhD level, Impossibly Cute Boys details the history of shota (or shotacon) in Japan, before introducing us to the readers and creators of these comics, and asking them what it means to them to love shota. Their answers challenge both previous research and common assumptions about shota fans.
Impossibly Cute Boys is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo and Yokohama. An original contribution to academic research in the fields of anthropology and queer studies, the book is written in an accessible style and can be enjoyed by anyone wanting to learn more about an often misunderstood manga genre.
228 pages, Paperback
Published May 24, 2024
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January 17, 2026
The book is good if a little playful. The author has done some wonderful research and has presented in a fairly well put together. I must state plainly that if you're looking for a history and literary criticism of Shota comics like is available for Loli comics that is not what this book is about. Rather this book is about the people who read Shota comics and their relationship to the comics they read and their relationship with society.
The author handles explaining the research and background rather well. His findings are laid out in a rather informative way. The main ones that stick out to me is the way shota participants engage in conceiving of ethical behavior. That to them hurting a actual child is something they are very cautious of and aware of. Additionally the way many conceive of their attraction to these comics as wanting to become the boy is fascinating. He's also very good at connecting these findings to modern theory, particularly Butler and Foucault.
Unfortunately I also have some criticisms of the work. I think there's a bit of a blindspot to the female subjects. While a portion of this can be chalked up to many of them opting not to be interviewed I still feel like we spend much less time with them and their reasons for liking shota than with the men. I'm especially saddened we could not learn more about the MTF subject. While it would be only one subject I think it would have been truly fascinating to understand how that participant related to shota and her gender. There's also a particular moment where the author mentions not wanting to publish images of shota comics in the book. If ones done their research one would know that equivalent images in Erotic Comics in Japan for Loli content got by the academic press. While certainly partly an editing decision there's a certain rank societal misogyny in the figure of the little girl being "violated" is quite tolerated but the figure of the little boy is vitiolically defended in my opinion at least. Certainly the positions of the two figures ebbs and flows depending on societal conditions but it's certainly interesting.
I would have appreciated the author going further into the thoughts of people more into the oneeshota and the crossdressing subgenres of shota. There's a certain eminent transness/gender variance to the way otokonoko magazines operated that I feel the author didn't pick up or comment on. I feel a bit of chargin at Hibari and Shuu being described as "boys" when they so eminently want to be in the "girls" category we have created but I also can't deny there isn't a bit of connection between transness/crossdresding and boyhood. I feel like there's a lot of neat stuff that could be said about that intersection.
I find the authors discussion of sexuality and the defense of children rather fascinating. I still feel a bit iffish though on his defense of sexualizing young models and music idols. I find it distasteful, especially with how many such figures might be monterarily coerced and would not appreciate such remarks. It strikes me as unethical but I think branding him a monster that must be destroyed as distasteful as the remarks themselves.
To me it seems like on at least this respect Japan has the healthier relationship to media than we in the west. The view of consumption of media as play, as enjoyment is certainly more liberating that the western panopticon where you best not touch the scared calf even in drawings lest you be damned as having a deviant paraphilia (i.e. to be ontologically evil). It recasts harm and the prevention of it onto these societal boogeyman rather than on the main perpetuators of harm. Even in the case of an older man taking advantage of a young boy the focus is always on killing the older man and not on giving the young boy agency in his life. It was certainly wrong of the man who took advantage of my need for companionship and friendship to get sexual favors from me but it was also wrong how I was consistently told to suck up being in a body that felt extremely uncomfortable to me and how my mother controlled my life to minute details. How I was not given tools to express myself and learn the ropes of life. The people focused on hunting down that older man wouldn't hesitate a glance at the plights I was going through. One only need to look at what's happening to gender dysphoric children in Britain and America to see how society really thinks of children.
The author handles explaining the research and background rather well. His findings are laid out in a rather informative way. The main ones that stick out to me is the way shota participants engage in conceiving of ethical behavior. That to them hurting a actual child is something they are very cautious of and aware of. Additionally the way many conceive of their attraction to these comics as wanting to become the boy is fascinating. He's also very good at connecting these findings to modern theory, particularly Butler and Foucault.
Unfortunately I also have some criticisms of the work. I think there's a bit of a blindspot to the female subjects. While a portion of this can be chalked up to many of them opting not to be interviewed I still feel like we spend much less time with them and their reasons for liking shota than with the men. I'm especially saddened we could not learn more about the MTF subject. While it would be only one subject I think it would have been truly fascinating to understand how that participant related to shota and her gender. There's also a particular moment where the author mentions not wanting to publish images of shota comics in the book. If ones done their research one would know that equivalent images in Erotic Comics in Japan for Loli content got by the academic press. While certainly partly an editing decision there's a certain rank societal misogyny in the figure of the little girl being "violated" is quite tolerated but the figure of the little boy is vitiolically defended in my opinion at least. Certainly the positions of the two figures ebbs and flows depending on societal conditions but it's certainly interesting.
I would have appreciated the author going further into the thoughts of people more into the oneeshota and the crossdressing subgenres of shota. There's a certain eminent transness/gender variance to the way otokonoko magazines operated that I feel the author didn't pick up or comment on. I feel a bit of chargin at Hibari and Shuu being described as "boys" when they so eminently want to be in the "girls" category we have created but I also can't deny there isn't a bit of connection between transness/crossdresding and boyhood. I feel like there's a lot of neat stuff that could be said about that intersection.
I find the authors discussion of sexuality and the defense of children rather fascinating. I still feel a bit iffish though on his defense of sexualizing young models and music idols. I find it distasteful, especially with how many such figures might be monterarily coerced and would not appreciate such remarks. It strikes me as unethical but I think branding him a monster that must be destroyed as distasteful as the remarks themselves.
To me it seems like on at least this respect Japan has the healthier relationship to media than we in the west. The view of consumption of media as play, as enjoyment is certainly more liberating that the western panopticon where you best not touch the scared calf even in drawings lest you be damned as having a deviant paraphilia (i.e. to be ontologically evil). It recasts harm and the prevention of it onto these societal boogeyman rather than on the main perpetuators of harm. Even in the case of an older man taking advantage of a young boy the focus is always on killing the older man and not on giving the young boy agency in his life. It was certainly wrong of the man who took advantage of my need for companionship and friendship to get sexual favors from me but it was also wrong how I was consistently told to suck up being in a body that felt extremely uncomfortable to me and how my mother controlled my life to minute details. How I was not given tools to express myself and learn the ropes of life. The people focused on hunting down that older man wouldn't hesitate a glance at the plights I was going through. One only need to look at what's happening to gender dysphoric children in Britain and America to see how society really thinks of children.
Displaying 1 of 1 review