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Lolicon

In Japanese popular culture, lolicon (ロリコン, also romanized as rorikon or lolicom) is a genre of fictional media in which young (or young-looking) girl characters appear in romantic or sexual contexts. The term, a portmanteau of the English words "Lolita" and "complex", also refers to desire and affection for such characters (ロリ, "loli"), and fans of such characters and works. Associated with unrealistic and stylized imagery within manga, anime, and video games, lolicon in otaku (manga/anime fan) culture is understood as distinct from desires for realistic depictions of girls, or real girls as such,[1][2][3] and is associated with the concept of moe, or feelings of affection and love for fictional characters as such (often cute characters in manga and anime).

The phrase "Lolita complex", derived from the novel Lolita, entered use in Japan in the 1970s, when sexual imagery of the shōjo (idealized young girl) was expanding in the country's media. During the "lolicon boom" in adult manga of the early 1980s, the term was adopted in the nascent otaku culture to denote attraction to early bishōjo (cute girl) characters, and later to only younger-looking depictions as bishōjo designs became more varied. The artwork of the boom, strongly influenced by the round styles of shōjo manga (marketed to girls), marked a shift from previous realism and the advent of "cute eroticism" (kawaii ero), an aesthetic now common in manga and anime more broadly. The lolicon boom faded by the mid-1980s, and the genre has since made up a minority of erotic manga.

A moral panic against "harmful manga" in the 1990s has made lolicon a keyword in manga debates in Japan. Child pornography laws in some countries include depictions of fictional child characters, while those in other countries, including Japan, do not.[4] Opponents and supporters have debated if the genre contributes to child sexual abuse. Cultural critics generally identify lolicon with a broader separation between fiction and reality in otaku sexuality.