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NSFW [Lolicon History] Fusion Product Lolita/Bishoujo Special Edition [Translation]

NSFW

Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
Source: 「ふゅーじょんぷろだくと ロリータ/美少女特集 81/10」

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In this issue, there's a 6 page roundtable talk between the most influential and important members of Lolicon and Bishoujo manga history. There's a lot of information not available in English with few articles accurately covering the people involved, leading to much misconceptions that still circulate the western internet. Everything following this paragraph is my translation of the article in question with coloured translator's notes to deliver further info. Please keep in mind there are several different definitions of the word Lolicon, and in 1981, there wasn't a word for Otaku or a word for Moe or Waifu in regards to having a fondness for anime characters, so in these days Lolicon, Lolita, and Bishoujo were the words often used for expressing those concepts.

Lolicon Roundtable Talk

No matter how you slice it, Bishoujo seems to be booming. So it's for that reason we have gathered the 'authorities' in that field... Oh, the horror, the horror.

The Lolicon's Path is Rocky and Deep

Lolita, or how I learned to abandon normal romance and love Bishoujo.

(吾妻ひでお) Azuma Hideo (Bishoujo Mangaka) Current Status: Deceased (RIP)

You cannot talk about Bishoujo without mentioning him. He hasn't been making much of a stir recently, but he's still stirring nonetheless. Some worship him as the 'God of Lolicon', clapping their hands in prayer, morning and evening.

001_Azuma_Hideo.jpg

(野口正之) Noguchi Masayuki (Biyoujo Mangaka) *Penname: (内山亜紀) Uchiyama Aki (Link); Current Status: Alive (His Books are Available Digitally).

No longer able to run or hide from it, a man who is unmistakably a Lolicon. Recently applied in a readers' column for the Shoujo manga magazine 'Nakayoshi', and was happily selected as an honourable mention for the C-class. Apparently, he wants to close up shop as a Lolicon mangaka to walk the path of a Shoujo mangaka.

002_Uchiyama_Aki.jpg

(谷口敬) Taniguchi Kei (Lolicon Gekigaka) Status: Alive and well (See End Note)

He gave us a stern warning he will never allow us to publish a photo of his face, but nevertheless, we got him to let us publish it. His first public appearance... A brazen... No, no, a rosy-cheeked Biseinen Mangaka. After making his debut in 'Erogenica', he's currently writing for 'Daikairaku' at a serialisation pace.

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(早坂未紀) Hayasaka Miki (Lolicon Doujinshi Creator) Current Status: Unknown

More than fact, rather it's a foregone conclusion even he who boasts sparkling talent in the Doujinshi world is actually a Lolicon. Despite being so skilled, he's a modest man who hasn't earnestly drawn for a professional magazine. He's working as an assistant for Murakami Motoka and Azuma Hideo.

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(川本耕次) Kawamoto Kouji (Lolicon Editor) Current Status: Alive and Posting on Twitter (Link)

Has had Noguchi Masayuki draw Lolicon manga in 'Peke' and has had Azuma Hideo draw Bishoujo manga in 'Shoujo Alice', you could say he's the man responsible for the current boom. In addition, the phantom masterpiece Bishoujo photo book 'There's a lot of Girls in the City' is also his work. He's currently working hard, day and night, on ero-books over at Gunyuusha.

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(蛭児神建) Hirukogami Ken (Lolicon Degenerate) Current Status: Unknown

Whenever Lolicon is mentioned, he's always ready to talk about it. The man is like a street guru. Dressed in hunting cap, sun glasses, mask, and raincoat that have started appearing on dummies all around. He presides over the extreme Lolicon Doujinshi 'Youjo Fancier'.

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(藤本孝人) Moderator: Fujimoto Takato (Ordinary 30 Year-old Bachelor) Current Status: Unknown

Publisher of the long-established Mini-communication magazine 'Manga no Techou'. At first glance, he's a true and upright salaryman, but in this special article, he's revealed to be a jack of many trades. Talk about not judging a book by its cover. Recently, he's been subjected to a bunch of marriage interviews, but he has insisted he won't respond to any marriage interview photos unless the girl in question is wearing a sailor suit that fits his preferences.

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■Are you a Lolicon?

──"Today's talk is about Lolicon, so I would like to start by confirming whether everyone is a Lolicon."

Noguchi: "I'm a Lolicon." (Blunt)

Taniguchi: "I'm currently working for 'Daikairaku'. So I'm thinking this while looking at the other writing members, but perhaps I'm not the biggest Lolicon." Manga Daikairaku: Link

──"There's always someone insisting 'I'm not a Lolicon!'."

Taniguchi: "At least not a violent one."

Kawamoto: "I'm a Lolicon. In the strictest sense of the word. Recently, there's been all sorts, like Heidi Complex or Alice Complex among other types. I'm just in it for the sailor suits (laughs)."

──"Next, while I don't need to ask, but..."

Azuma: "I'm different." (Blunt)

Everyone: "Not this again."

──"Well, let's leave the arguing aside. What about you, Hayasaka-san?"

Hayasaka: "Everyone says I have it, so it must be true."

──"Any noticeable symptoms?"

Hayasaka: "Nothing more than my trembling hands."

Hirukogami: "My dream is I want to hold my chest high and declare 'I'm a degenerate'."

──"What's the difference between a degenerate and a Lolicon?"

Hirukogami: "The difference is in action."

──In any case, everyone has been speaking their minds, but what about you Azuma-san?

Azuma: "Eh?"

──"Earlier you mentioned you're different, that you're a Lolicon during work."

Azuma: "... Something like that...."

──"So you don't love anime Bishoujo?"

Azuma: "No (laugh). Please don't ask just me; I came here to study what Lolicon are like today."

Hayasaka: "Ah—is that so?"

──"Though many people have awoken to Lolicon after reading Azuma-san's manga."

Azuma: "I don't know. Are there really people like that?"

──"Kawamoto-san has been handling Azuma-san's works for quite some time in 'Peke'." Monthly Peke: Link

Kawamoto: "I'm tooting my own horn, but I've been something of an important turning point in Azuma-san's life. I've turned the second-rate Azuma-san, who was drawing for Akitashoten and Futabasha, into a third-rate mangaka working for 'Peke'. Also, I had him draw Bishoujo manga for 'Shoujo Alice'. That was just turning him from an 'SF-mania artist' into a 'Lolicon artist', it feels like I'm changing him from one bad thing into something worse."

Azuma: "Ah, that's true (laugh)."

──"I believe Noguchi-san also started his career as a Lolicon artist in 'Peke'."

Kawamoto: "He made his debut with the 'OUT' newbie manga award. And it was then I was wandering around the editorial department of Minori Shobou, trying to devise a cheap idea to make his manuscript fees cheaper." Monthly Out: Link

Noguchi: "This is the man I first heard the word Lolicon from (laughs)."

Kawamoto: "Back then, it wasn't popular at all. But I had some interest in it, so I asked Noguchi-kun to draw it since he had the qualities of a Lolicon."

Noguchi: "I'm the type who's happy so long as he gets to draw girls (laughs)."

──"Though looking at what Taniguchi-san published in 'Pafu', his girls were already very cute since then. That's why everyone's always insisting you must be a Lolicon." Pafu: Link

Taniguchi: "There's a noticeable difference between what the readers say about me and what I say about me not being a Lolicon, they're on separate wavelengths. Recently, I've started to understand their side, so if the readers insist I am one, then I may as well give in and accept it."

──"Though I believe you have a fixation on drawing sailor suits."

Taniguchi: "Not at all. ... When it comes to sailor suits these days, the tops are fine, but I don't care much for the skirts."

Everyone: (Laughs)

Azuma: "Do you like short skirts?"

Taniguchi: "When it comes to skirts, I prefer midi, pretty much. The part where you can see half the knee makes midi the cutest."

──"I knew it, so you enjoy drawing those kind of works."

Taniguchi: "Well, I enjoy it, but... Saying that is enough to make me fine with this is a bit..."

──"So it's a forbidden pleasure? (Laughs)"

Hayasaka: "I wonder if the people being called Lolicon by society are people with little sisters. I've been wondering if that only applies to me."

Hirukogami: "My friend has a little sister and he's been writing a novel about violating a little sister with her name."

Everyone: "That's sick. (laughs)."

Kawamoto: "There might be some truth to that. Like a desire for a little sister."

Taniguchi: "True."

──"Something like if you actually had a little sister, you want her to be like this?"

Hayasaka: "I'm not conscious of it, but I believe it's there."

Hirukogami: "That would make everyone who has a desire for a little sister into a Lolicon. If I also had a little sister, I would do this." (Gestures)

Everyone: (Laughs)

Azuma: "Please behave yourself! (Laughs)."

──"In Tezuka Osamu's early works, he often concluded it with a 'become my little sister' 'sure', so now I'm wondering if perhaps Tezuka-san is the grandfather of Lolicon."

Azuma: "Ah, it feels like that."

Taniguchi: "Some parts of 'Phoenix' felt incestuous. Having sex with a little sister and mother, and creating a bunch of descendants." Pheonix by Tezuka Osamu: Link

Hirukogami: "The motif of incest is common in Lolicon."

Kawamoto: "I'm currently working on an ero-book, but I often write confession notes for that reason. Whenever I write a confession note for incest, I always talk about my little sister. I have an older sister, but no younger sister. It's probably because I cannot delude myself into doing it with my older sister no matter what. She's like a mother to me. The only things I can imagine that make for attractive material is stuff about doing it with a little sister. But when I think about it carefully, lines like 'become my little sister' are really raunchy ones (laughs)."

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■Where are the Lolicon Civil Rights?

Kawamoto: "I believe everyone potentially has the elements of a Lolicon. It's only by chance in this period we have things like anime Bishoujo characters, Azuma-san's manga, and the Bishoujo Noguchi-kun draws."

Noguchi: "What I draw aren't Bishoujo. They're Biyoujo!" 美幼女 (Biyoujo) are anime girls younger than 美少女 (Bishoujo)

Kawamoto: "(Laughs). I believe there's places that grant social status where it's fine for Lolicon to be into that sort of stuff."

Noguchi: "Lolicon gained civil rights?"

Kawamoto: "In our current situation, suppose we have neither Azuma-san nor Noguchi-kun, nor the Bishoujo characters from Toei, how would there be Lolicon? I believe there's now places where you can publicly show you're a fan of Azuma Hideo as a Lolicon. In other words, couldn't you say we're accepted?"

Noguchi: "I went to a marriage interview the other day."

Everyone: (Bursts into Laughter)

Noguchi: "You see, the matchmaker introduced me to the other party as a mangaka. So the woman in question didn't have any further background information beyond that. And when we met and did our greetings, she asks 'what kind of manga do you draw?'."

Everyone: (Bursts into Laughter)

Noguchi: "The reason I couldn't answer confidently at the time was because I thought I still didn't have civil rights. So I told her 'I draw all sorts' (laughs)."

──"So what you're saying is despite the boom, you still don't have civil rights?"

Azuma: "What I don't understand is why Lolicon is booming. Could such a thing have a boom?"

Hirukogami: "In the past, Lolicon had a dark image, but thanks to Sensei, the image of a Lolicon is bright and fun. Noguchi-san's manga are especially fun. Like you're having fun drawing them. Like they're trying to turn me, who was indifferent to such, into a Hentai."

Noguchi: "I won't deny that (laughs). Someone told me this, but even if the girls I draw wind up ravaged, the girls don't look hurt. He said he didn't get the impression they were being bullied from my manga (laughs). I'm the kind of guy that totally has fun drawing. After all, it's fun drawing girls."

Azuma: "Do you like bullying?"

Noguchi: "No, I inherently dislike the sight of blood; however, when I see an article about a young girl being bullied in the newspaper, it makes my heart skip a beat."

Azuma: "That may be you in the future."

Noguchi: "Only if I make a misstep (laughs)."

──"It seems there was actually a person called Noguchi Masayuki in Yokohama who was arrested for bullying young girls."

Noguchi: "Ah, you're right. The editor of Tatsumi Publishing called me over the phone to check up on me. And he was like 'Huh? You're there?' (laughs)."

Azuma: "He was certain it was Noguchi-san (laughs)."

──"But the name of the policeman that was arrested for climbing onto the stage during a live performance at a strip show theatre was Azuma Hideo, was it not?"

Everyone: (Burst into Laughter)

Azuma: "Uumu."

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■My Bishoujo

──"How do I word this? At what age is someone a Bishoujo to you?"

Hirukogami: "For me, if they're past 14, they're past their prime (laughs)."

Kawamoto: "I don't really find age to be relevant. The inner nature of a girl is more important than her actual age. On the one hand, the Tokyo high school girls are terrifying; they all look like female gang leaders. On the other hand, the high school girls riding on Roadpals around Gunma are very cute, they're so pure."

──"Azuma-san, I believe you said a Shoujo is a Shoujo even if she's well-developed in the chest." The God of Lolicon is into Oppai Loli.

Azuma: "Yeah, I believe I said that. But what about Hirukogami-san...?"

Hirukogami: "Her chest must be completely flat." Explains his fashionable choice of clothing.

Everyone: (Burst into Laughter)

Azuma: "That's why we're different. He's unable to have a normal marriage."

Kawamoto: "Well, Lolicon are usually unable to have normal marriages. When I called Azuma's home for the first time, his wife picked up and I thought she was totally a middle schooler."

──"So Azuma-san didn't have a normal marriage (laughs)."

Azuma: "It was normal. What are you saying? I also have children. Is it that unbelievable for a Lolicon to have kids!?"

Hirukogami: "I think it's about time you put up a wire fence around your home."

Azuma: "Everyone's after my daughter (laughs). Someone's gotta do it."

──"So you wanna keep her by your side and never let her get married for the rest of her life?"

Azuma: "No, nothing of the sort. Cause I'm a normal human."

Everyone: (Bursts into Laughter for some Reason)

■Sailor Suits and Randoseru

Azuma: "Sailor suits, they're part of Lolicon, right?"

Taniguchi: "Well, you see (he's been quiet till now, so he's suddenly leaning his body forward). Err, those things had a boom 10 years ago, didn't they? The protagonists during the boom back then were all wearing sailor suits. So isn't this just a prolongation of that?"

Hirukogami: "I'm bad when it comes to high school girls; whenever I hear their high-pitch voices, it makes me want to pull out the ropes to tie them up, and..."

Everyone: "So you want to do that (laughs)?"

Kawamoto: "After all, the ideal is the middle school sailor suit. Tokyo high schoolers don't look good in them. Budding breasts and a height around 155cm, those kinds of girls should wear sailor suits."

Hirukogami: "Their sailor suits are worn all year round, so no matter how you slice it, they're filthy. Glistening with their skin oils."

──"By the same token, are the glistening skin oils on Hirukogami's Randoseru good?"

Hirukogami: "Ah! Randoseru are good alright. I recently got a hold of one, but it's been used for 6 years, so the sweat-soaked red Randoseru is irresistible."

Kawamoto: "(Laughs). I bet you were wearing the Randoseru over your head and rolling around."

──"Did you bring it with you today?"

Hirukogami: "No way. I have it carefully on display back home."

Everyone: (Laughs)

Kawamoto: "I'm just your regular guy wearing bloomers and rolling around."

Taniguchi: "Ah, bloomers are nice."

Kawamoto: "Not just Chouchin-bloomers, but a form-fitting jersey. Those are nice." Chouchin-bloomers (ちょうちんブルマー) are a specific kind of bloomer.

──"How do you feel about leotards?"

Kawamoto: "Umm. Girls in leotards aren't cute, to be honest."

Taniguchi: "(Nodding). They're uncute."

Kawamoto: "I would rather have a school swimsuit than a leotard."

──"You're a very plain man."

Kawamoto: "I want to keep it simple with stuff that has their name written on the chest."

──"How does that make it good?"

Kawamoto: "Um, you see, they're all dressed the same. So it makes the cute girls stand out."

■Licca-chan Doll Craze

──"How does everyone feel about dolls?"

Taniguchi: "Dolls are nice, aren't they?"

Hayasaka: "Hirukogami-san is unchallenged when it comes to dolls."

Hirukogami: "I like them. I have about 20 Licca-chan dolls. Of course, it's boring playing with them normally. Superhero dolls are about the same size as Licca-chan so having Ultraman don Licca-chan's outfits is pretty cute. I also have dolls called G.I. Joe. Though I only have about 5 of them. If I combine the G.I. Joe and Licca-chan dolls, they perfectly encapsulate the body shapes of an adult and child." Licca-chan (Link)

Everyone: "Guwaah (laughs)."

Hirukogami: "I enjoy posing them in various positions."

Azuma: "Y, you're sick (laughs)."

Kawamoto: "You're twisted (laughs)."

Noguchi: "Hirukogami-san dropped by my place the other day, and showed me a big fight between Licca-chan and G.I. Joe (laughs). Ever since then, my impression of dolls has been pretty positive."

Azuma: "So you're doing a Licca-chan doll delivery service?"

Hirukogami: "I wouldn't quite call it a delivery service."

──"Do you have any Petite Angie dolls?" Her Majesty's Petite Angie (Link)

Hirukogami: "Yeah, there's 5 kinds of those. From Takara. Well, I have a big and small one. It's already an old anime, so they're hard to come by. Even though Candy Candy is currently selling, Petite Angie is way cuter and has a better personality! I dislike hypocritical characters like Candy Candy." Candy Candy (Linkj)

──"Azuma-san is also pretty particular about Petite Angie."

Azuma: "Yeah, I also like her. I'm a close match for him in that area. Though I'm still a loser; only have 3 of them."

Everyone: (Burst into Laughter)

Hirukogami: "Do you have any cels?"

Azuma: "Well, I received 2 or 3."

Hirukogami: "Gentlemen, he has cels for Petite Angie."

Taniguchi: "However, not all of them."

Azuma: "Yeah, just the ones where she's tied up at the watermill."

Hirukogami: "Somehow, that's really cute. Ufufufufufu."

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Azuma Hideo's Waifu: Petite Angie. His obsession for this character extends to him expressing a desire to become Angie.

■Lolicon is an Ideal


──"I'm of the opinion Takemiya Keiko's 'Fly Me to the Moon!' is the perfect Lolicon manga." 'Fly Me to the Moon': Link

Azuma: "Ah, I agree."

Kawamoto: "However, I believe women do not understand Lolicon on a fundamental level."

Noguchi: "I also think so."

Kawamoto: "Most of them are Fashionable Lolicon."

Hayasaka: "The ones called female Lolicon like small, cute girls, but they also like cute boys and cute children."

Kawamoto: "They lack distinction and principle, you could say they lack the ideal."

──"The ideal?"

Kawamoto: "All Lolicon have an ideal."

Noguchi: "Sounds like you're trying to split hairs (laughs)."

Kawamoto: "No, I'm making a point. There are Lolicon that stick to school swimsuits, there are Lolicon that stick to Randoseru, but when it comes to female Lolicon, the only thing that matters to them is whether something is cute. They're unprincipled Lolicon, so I cannot recognise them as Lolicon. After all the path of a Lolicon is much deeper."

Noguchi: "Ah, so it's a matter of depth? (Laughs)."

Hayasaka: "For some reason, I'm starting to feel afire with desire."

Hirukokami: "I'm still a long ways from that."

Hayasaka: "You'll need to seclude yourself in the mountains with a Randoseru for about three years (laughs)."

Kawamoto: "Though it's been getting a little crazy lately, Lolicon isn't dark at all. In fact, I believe someone said this but, Shoujo are beautiful, but we who love those Shoujo aren't beautiful. That is to say, some are coming into this with the misconception Lolicon is beautiful. I believe Azuma-san's manga provides a cover for that; 'I'm not a Lolicon, but I am a fan of Azuma Hideo'. That's why it's become very cool to call things Lolicon. I think that's a bad trend. After all, those who love Shoujo aren't beautiful in the slightest."

Hayasaka: "It's not beautiful, but it's defiant. That's why you have those saying doing ○○ and ×× is Lolicon."

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The perfect Lolicon manga according to the moderator.

■Lolicon is Sexual Science Fiction


Perhaps you don't know anything about Lolicon being sexual science fiction, but it's not limited to Lolicon; Homo, Lez, Sado, Maso, and all the other sex besides the so-called 'normal sexual relationships' are akin to science fiction. Perhaps you could call them science fiction of the lower body. Among their commonalities are suppressed desires, possibility and imagination, and a degree of hatred towards 'reality', Lolicon and SF are very similar in the aspect where they're strangely pessimistic.

However, that is not to say most of what is being written is Lolicon SF. There are many SF where girls appear, but those aren't necessarily Lolicon, just like having a girl appear doesn't make something a porno.

That said, it's not completely out of the question. Out of all the works I'm going to mention, if I have to give a perfect example, is Hoshi Shinichi's early work 'Moon's Light'. This is the story of a middle-aged man who keeps a mixed-race girl as a pet. Though the girl was an abandoned child, the man did nothing to educate her as a human, instead he raised her as a beautiful pet. The pet girl was attached to the man. The man, of course, didn't do anything to her. He was merely fascinated by her presence. Hoshi Shinichi (Link)

Robert Young's 'The Dandelion Girl' is also a romantic Lolicon SF. Her dandelion hair dancing in the wind, a girl standing in the afternoon sunshine comes from a future two hundred forty years away. The man admonishes his agitated self. 'Hey, hey, I'm forty-four.' Young, very much a Lolicon, introduces charming girls even in his 'Jonathan and the Space Whale'.

Speaking of charming, Mitsuse Ryuu's 'Asura King' also has a different kind of charm. In 'Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights', he introduces an androgynous Bishoujo who possesses a sublime beauty that transcends gender. Though there's many nostalgic stories about boys by Ray Bradbury, the 'April Witch' is a short story that symbolically depicts the fluttering heart of an adolescent girl. (Kobayashi Katsuaki) This person (小林克彰) shouldn't be confused for the Guilty Gear CV of the same name. So far, this is the only time I've seen this name mentioned.

Unlike the other pieces written alongside the roundtable talk (i.e. one about male crossdressers commenting on sailor uniforms), I felt this one was important to translate to show how important western science fiction media was to budding artists in Japan and Lolicon itself.

The Lolicon Boom mentioned earlier in the talk was happening alongside a Star Wars boom, and as Uchiyama Aki (Noguchi Masayuki) later mentioned in an out-of-panel note in an issue of Lemon People, there isn't a single Japanese mangaka who hasn't been influenced by American comics.

The reason Azuma is treated with such high regard is because Japan was importing the dark Lolicon from Europe and North America (Junior Idol-type pornography), and he turned that dark image around to something fun and positive with his manga Lolicon. The manga and anime industry wouldn't be the way it is right now if it weren't for the above artists influencing all the artists that gained recognition overseas like Takahashi Rumiko, Nagai Go, Toriyama Akira, among others.

Despite that, most of these people haven't really transitioned to the internet age.
Taniguchi Kei, the Lolicon Gekigaka, is still alive and well, posting on the internet.
You can find his Pixiv account here:
In fact, it's thanks to this tweet by Taniguchi,
I went to the trouble of picking up this issue of Fusion Product amidst Covid:


ET336fwUUAAabe5.jpg
 
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Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
(川本耕次) Kawamoto Kouji (Lolicon Editor)
This is bizarre; there's absolutely no mention of this man in English when I googled his name in relation to Lolicon. I had to triple check to ensure I didn't make an error.
He doesn't turn up in any historical or academic texts, nothing. He's well-documented in Japanese; as the talk presented, he's the one that set all of the pieces into motion that has led to the popularisation of the word 'Lolita' and 'Lolicon' in regards to manga and anime.


It really goes to show how poorly this topic has been researched in English. This thread is the only Google result in English for this man's existence.
It's even stranger finding out someone translated the Japanese Wikipedia entry for Hayasaka Miki into English a couple years ago.
Perhaps there's value in me translating the article Hirukogami Ken, the doujinshi artist into linear beauty, wrote in a 1986 issue of 'Lolicon KISS' where he gives his own summary of the events that has led to the Lolicon Boom. When I read it, it was just information I already knew and thought would be common knowledge, but apparently, this is not the case.
 
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Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
Source: "ロリコンKISS 86/04"
This magazine went through several incarnations, and trying to find old issues of its first couple incarnations is difficult (I don't even know how many issues exist of the older stuff; it's that undocumented and obscure).
COMICモモ→ロリコンKISS→月刊COMICロリタッチ→コミックBeat

But It Was Supposed to be Fooling Around, Self-Aware It Was The Evil Path From The Very Beginning!?

Hirukogami Ken



It all started in the manga Doujinshi world. A reserve army of mangaka wanting to show others the creations they drew, bringing and selling works to one another published at their own expense, there was once such an exhibition giving the vibe of those playing house.

From such a place, works called 'Lolicon Doujinshi' began to circulate from the late 70s to the beginning of the 80s. Amateur creators who grew up under the influence of anime and Shoujo manga began drawing ero-manga with the style of those mediums.

At first, it was a kind of joke... They were supposed to be fooling around, aware they were treading the evil path. Always at the bottom of their hearts, they knew they would become proper professionals and have legitimate manga to draw one day. That's precisely why, despite the sense of shame on both the side of the seller and buyer, there was instead a twisted sense of camaraderie.

And while my love for manga was swept up within that current, I, who was aiming for pure literature, was also silently writing ero-novels with the motif of 'Shoujo' and creating copybooks. The very first Lolicon manga Doujinshi was called 'Cybele', and the written Lolicon magazine I was doing was called 'Youjo Fancier' (幼女嗜好) . Cybele (Link)

It wasn't until the boom when all the gears started to go crazy. Though I'm speaking severely, young people with neither shame nor shyness began to form lines for Doujinshi that were nothing more than ero-books, and similar ero-Doujinshi began to shoot up like bamboo after it rains.

It was, well, nice. A generation, whose dicks couldn't get it up to the art of Gekiga, encountered a media which excited us for the first time. However, what is strange is the mysterious trend where such base ero-books were misconstrued to be some kind of grand, cutting-edge fashion. Though up until now, this was only possible within the closed Doujin world event local to Tokyo.

Those who pioneered the commercialisation of Lolicon caught the eye of the manga critique magazine for maniacs 'Fusion Product', who featured it in their 1981 October Lolicon special.

In the editorial department, we had the notorious Ootsuka Tooaru (大塚某) and Ogata (緒方 源次郎). On top of that, we had the notorious Takatori Ei (高取英) and Kawamoto Kouji (川本耕次) coming in and out. All the noise generated from that damn ridiculous Lolicon Boom was mostly the work of these four people. Nowadays Ootsuka goes by Ootsuka Eiji (大塚英志) and Ogata goes by Ogata Katsuhiro (小形克宏).

For an amateur creator, 'commercial magazines' were things with a colossal appeal no matter the subject. I was bewitched by that appeal and made my debut as a result, so whether it could be regarded as fortunate or unfortunate, the ero-novels I was doing for fun turned into a serious job. I cannot tell for certain whether humanity made a misstep somewhere.

The very first magazine specialising in Bishoujo manga, 'Lemon People', was published in the 57th year of Showa (1982). It all started when a member of the Doujinshi 'Puppet Princess' (人形姫) was introduced to Kuboshoten by Uchiyama Aki. They, too, became professionals for the stuff they were doing half-in-jest and they weren't naïve to that fact. I also seized my opportunity and was in charge of reading articles, and had my first serialisation.

Most of the creators were friends who hanged out with each other prior, and that sense of fellowship was what became the conscious drive to 'liven up the magazine together'. That's how we turned the early issues of 'Lemon People' into a magazine with extraordinary power. However, that eventually resulted in the birth of Nareai; the fact Kubo-san had a plain and absentminded personality also put them in the good graces of the magazine's creators. Nareai (collusion of mutual interests based on implicit consensus without following the procedures normally taken)

In addition, we weren't cut off from the Doujinshi world and were treated as 'heroes that came from our family', producing a race of drum-bearers proud to say 'I'm ××-sensei's friend', flattering us with 'Sensei, Sensei'... In this way, we were sheltered from the harsh publishing world by that magazine which was as comfy as a tepid hot spring.

As punishment for their complacency, creators were unable to shed their skin and stopped progressing, even though they had a chance to go major, they lost the strength to simply take advantage of it. This spoiled constitution soon began to dominate the entire industry. The number of infantile creators—hurt, victimised, and insulted just from being spoken to in a slightly harsh manner by editors—increased in number.

What destroyed the monopoly of 'Lemon People' that lasted for 2 years and awoken us from our peaceful dreams was 'Manga Burikko', a magazine by Ootsuka Tooaru released under Byakuya Shobo. After that, 'Melon Comic' (メロンコミック) and Ogata's 'Alice Club', and the many imitation magazines, were born and vanished. Though it's currently booming like the Sengoku period, only the aforementioned constitution has been traditionally inherited. Manga Burikko (Link); Alice Club (Link)

Whatever the magazine, though it may be interesting at first, it will eventually descend into Nareai. Recently, I've been thinking. This industry, the creators, editors, and their miscellaneous feelings as well, are they all consumables?

Petit Pandora (Petitパンドラ) Editor-in-Chief: Hirukogami Ken
 
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Scornful Gaze

varishangout.com
Regular
Patron of the Forums
Late response, but thanks for posting this. This is all highly useful. Are there any websites, blogs, or anything that you'd recommend for finding similar information? I'm fairly out of the loop when it comes to otaku-centric cultural studies outside of the very obvious sources.
 

Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
Late response, but thanks for posting this. This is all highly useful. Are there any websites, blogs, or anything that you'd recommend for finding similar information? I'm fairly out of the loop when it comes to otaku-centric cultural studies outside of the very obvious sources.
I'm guessing you either read or listened to everything academic and casual by Patrick W. Galbraith? It's weird how little of his work has been disseminated among the English-speaking anime fandom. He did an interview with Pause and Select about Moe, Miyazaki Tsutomu, and then Lolicon with some high production value, and of course as soon as the word 'Loli' is mentioned, people start losing their minds in the comments (without watching the video).


That said, I don't know what is a very obvious source. So I'll just list some stuff, and you can tell me if it's too obvious, or if you were actually looking for something else. I'm basing this on your question of finding similar information.

In English, I found these blogs to be useful:
http://lemoncomics.lolislove.us/
Finnish/English blog by users who went to the trouble of scanning and uploading vintage issues of Lemon People. Unfortunately, they haven't updated their blog in 11 years, so I'm curious what they're up to now. Reading what people have to say about 'Lolicon' is different from actually seeing the actual 'Lolicon' and understanding its complexities firsthand.

Helped the above blog scan issues of Lemon People. I commented on one of his older blog entries so I can more easily find it through google (had to do this and then found out he replied to my comment, though I didn't read it since I can only imagine him being angry at me). Saying he's obsessed with Iczer-One is putting it mildly.

On 4chan's /h/ board, I ran into an old guy from Alaska using a tripname 'friendsofsandwiches', and he says he has many, many issues of Lemon People from when they were shipped in bulk to his local comic book shop back in the 1980s. He scanned a coloured comic that was water-damaged by Konoma Waho (狐ノ間和歩), who was one of the guys that helped Azuma Hideo do Doujinshi. I translated the comic for friendsofsandwiches, and he said he had more stuff on his Imgur account, but I'm unable to view them, since registering an account requires I own a mobile phone.

If you can gain access to his gallery, I would be curious what he has available on there. Or better yet, I would appreciate it if you can send him a message and convince him to join this board, so he can communicate and share information more freely (he says he hates twitter).

In Japanese, I found these websites to be useful:

If there's anyone deserving of the title 'Lolicon Expert', it's this man. If you want books, papers, and other stuff to research in regards to otaku-centric cultural studies, he has them listed in his sources; many rabbit holes for you to tumble down. He goes over every definition of Lolicon, and gives a thorough history. He also did a slide presentation in English, though it's very basic, and his English is weird:

There's way too much anime and manga for a single person to consume. So I generally focus on Kemonomimi-themed stuff, and this guy makes my life so much easier. He also wrote books on Kemonomimi history, which is deeply entangled in the Lolicon (Otaku) sub culture. It's through here I originally learned about the 'Lolicon Boom' many years ago.


Manga Burikko's homepage with all information related to their magazine. The above link is to Nakamori Akio's (中森明夫) columns where he came up with the word Otaku to express his feelings towards the Lolicon readers with a 2D-Complex (二次元コンプレクス). Later, he wrote a book with Eiji, the magazine's editor, about Miyazaki Tsutomu, and that book is where the word Otaku leaked to the mass media.

~★~

The Japanese internet is messy and everything is scattered. Some people do useful stuff, and you have to dig to find it through google and the wayback machine. Like the current thing I'm working on translating is scanned from this blog:

If you look at the rest of his blog, practically none of it is anime or Otaku related. Just a guy slowly going over old stuff and scanning it for posterity. So it's natural the 1982 magazine he scanned in relation to the Lolicon Bom has a more general audience; its piece on Lolicon is almost essentially 'get a load of these weird dudes drawing porn of Shoujo manga characters as young as 4 years old in commercial magazines'. But it gives the definition of words like Alice Complex, which—until now—I assumed was just an age related complex that would later become the quintessential Lolita to some younger Japanese internet users.
 
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Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
Source: 「MR.DANDY 129号 82/11」

MRDD01.jpg


Like the Fusion Product article, this was published in 1982, way before words like Moe and Otaku existed. Lolicon was the word to describe concepts such as Bishoujo Hentai, Waifu, and so on. The writer has spoken to many important individuals, including Senno Knife (Official Twitter), who I was already very familiar with before researching these older Mangaka. Kawamoto Kouji, the man who popularised the word Lolita when it comes to Manga, also had some comments worth reading and considering.

Some things that interest me are the actual dialectics between the Hard and Soft Lolicon Manga fans; I've been on the Japanese internet for 2 decades, and haven't really seen the equivalent of such factions online. There's a couple parts I'm unsure about, like one regarding the Disco murderer incident. So I may need to update and fix this translation in the future.


Name Cheat List:
(Azuma Hideo, Uchiyama Aki, Senno Knife, Kawamoto Kouji, Takakuwa Tsunehiro, Hirukogami Ken, and Hara Maruta)
(吾妻ひでお・内山亜紀・千之ナイフ・川本耕次・高桑常寿・蛭児神建・原丸太)
Also bear in mind that Noguchi from Fusion Product roundtable talk is Uchiyama Aki, the 2nd most influential Lolicon Mangaka.

The Oppressed Sexuality of Modern Society Lurking Behind the Lolicon Manga Boom

Mekata Kairi (目方海里)


These days, high school girls are aunties! It's the Lolicon period where the women that move men are between 3~4 years old to middle school. However, why are they so excited over the incest, gangbang, SM, and rape of these small children? Also, their treasures seem to be the red Randoseru and uniforms from elementary school, and dress-up dolls. I have asked the Mangaka and editors involved in the Lolita Boom about this boom.

■Where Did This Boom Come From?

"Yaa, Maa-chan's gotten big. (It's been half a year... I'm even touching Maa-chan's bum.)"

"Iyaan, Onii-chan, this isn't... Hurry, hurry, let's go to our room!"
(Omission)
"Afu, afu, Onii-chan. P, please don't hurt me... OK?"

"C'mon, Maa-chan, relax your legs."

"Ahh, oww... Onii-chan! It hurts."

"As I thought, it's still impossible."

"Sorry, Onii-chan."

(From Uchiyama Aki's 'Lolicon ABC' Published by Kubo Shoten.)

This is a passage from a 'Lolicon Manga' of the current boom. An extract from Uchiyama Aki's Manga, one of the two great Lolicon Manga authorities. I quickly read one Lolicon work after another. The Lolita introduced were from 3~4 years old to middle school. There was rape, there was incest, there were gangbangs, there was SM (S men and M Lolita), there was defecation and urination, there was Guro. For every pure Lolita, there was a plethora of lewd Lolita. Even pure anime characters meant for elementary schoolers were a source of thrills. If Manga only isn't enough, there's a deluge of real Lolita photo collections. Why have Lolicon gone so far? Hirukogami Ken (蛭児神建), who calls himself a Lolicon miscellaneous writer, says it's a 'Blooming Youth's Young Magazine!'. The Lolicon Doujinshi researcher, Hara Maruta (原丸太), said "'I am a Lolicon' is a means of communication among the youth". But this boom, where did it come from?

010106968010.jpg

Lolicon ABC by Uchiyama Aki

■The Doujinshi that Lit the Fire of Loli Manga

Around 10 years ago, a Shoujo photobook called 'Europe 12-Year Old Mythology' (Bronze-sha) was published. Afterwards, there were 'Holy Shoujo' (Fuji Art Publishing), Sawatari Hajime's (沢渡朔) 'Shoujo Alice' (Kawade Shobo Shinsha), 'Little Pretenders' (Million Publishing), and various other clothed and nude Bishoujo photobooks were published. The light-type edition of 'Little Pretenders' was published in 1954, but this August, a deluxe edition was released with the subtitle 'Forever'. As time glided by, these sorts of books were gradually being sold. The buying demographic were geezers around their 40s exhausted from work. A portion among them were docile and meek college students. The publishers hadn't the foggiest why these were selling.
Bronze-sha (Link)
Kawade Shobo Shinsha (Link)
Million Publishing (Link)


'Adult slits are no good, but if it's a child's, then it's permitted. The same slits can be photographed and properly shown, so it sells.' That's the way it's been hypothesised. There were certainly individuals who bought them for that reason. But in reality, it's now thought it's the encapsulation of a portent for something much different.

Around the time this has been happening, the age of talent in the television world has begun to grow younger. If you consider it simply, children were becoming precocious, the heroes and heroines matching them in age were born, and well, while the age-group of the heroine's fans may be of a young demographic, the older demographic were still there.

Hara suspects the appearance of Agnes Lum, or in other words, the appearance of heroines with the bodies of adults and the faces of children were the harbingers of this. But what ultimately (and extravagantly) ignited the Loli Manga Boom was the Doujinshi world.

According to Hara, Japan's first Lolicon magazine was 'Arisu' (愛栗鼠), which was first published in December 1978 (Tokyo・Alice Mania Group・Carroll House Publishing Group). He said it was put in paper bags during Comiket 10 (Comic Market, a comic Doujinshi exhibition and sale site) and sold in secret. It was a little later that 'Cybele', the originator of Lolicon, was first published in April 1979. A special 'Lolita' edition of 'Arisu' was published in April 1979, but neither of those have yet to lead to the boom's arrival. During the summer Comiket 15 of 1980, 'Clarisse Magazine' (Tokyo・Clarisse Magazine Editing Office) appeared, featuring Anime Bishoujo characters without any sexual depictions. The Lolicon magazine 'Lotali' (Tokyo [Chiyoda]・Lotali Club) also appeared, but it was nothing more than a 13 part copy book. Then in the December 1980 issue of Anime magazine 'OUT', the 'Manga Modernology for Sick People・1st Part: Lolita Complex' by Yonezawa Yoshiro (米沢嘉博) was published, and the word leapt forth, marking its first moment in the spotlight. I should translate the OUT article next, since it kind of ties Takahashi Rumiko and Toriyama Akira to the whole Lolicon phenomenon.

Afterwards, magazines specialising in Lolicon began to be released in the Doujinshi world one after the other.

It's a foregone conclusion the flames would spread to the all-age magazine world. In the world of Shounen Manga, the mainstream is Action. Resulting in epics plus gags. The people who grew tired of such began temporarily dabbling in the world of Shoujo Manga. And the souvenir they brought back was a spiritual and lyrical world. However, in the end, Shoujo Manga wasn't a perfect fit, so what was released for male readers was Lolicon Manga that focused on Bishoujo.

According to Terayama Osamu (寺山修), in the same way the 'virgins and girls, harlots and dolls' in the cosmetic commercial films have become 'free', the 'Bishoujo that 'can be free' has become the mainstream. Of course, Ero-guro, SM, and others of their ilk accompanied them, but according to the editor of the 'Lolicon Complete Work' (Published by Gunyusha), Kawamoto Kouji (川本耕次), those were trends for sadomasochists and perverts. 20 years ago, Seppuku and women in Fundoshi lopping off heads were all the rage, but now the target are Lolicon.

The eroticism in Lolicon was the result of what middle and high school, or good university students who never seen an ero-book, desired, but he says even Ero-gekiga books have taken advantage of the new Lolicon eroticism. You could call this a new area of development. In the Manga world, the world of fantasy, Loli Manga began to escalate in a powerful way——.

Incidentally, the ones who supported Loli Manga were the Anime generation. When it comes to Anime, it's mostly filled with childish characters. According to Shimizu Kazuo (志水 一夫), a researcher of paranormal phenomena, heads that compose a third of one's height garner common feelings of affection and paternality among mammals. Though there's a division of anime with full-scale bodies poking their heads out here and there, the generation who grew up with Anime are unable to leave the nest. According to Hino Youko (火野妖子), a rare female creator of Loli Manga, 'they're clinging to Anime despite themselves growing older'. As a result, their sexual objects have become Anime characters, or to put it simply, young girls, and they've become the important individuals who support Loli Manga. On one hand, the ones with extreme scenes that mostly depict sexual erotica, or rape and SM are called 'Hard Lolicon Manga'. And on the other hand, there's 'Soft'.

In Shounen Manga, these would be the 'Wishy-Washy Manga', the ones that have taken the mentality of Shoujo Manga, but since it's a Shounen magazine, you can't just show the girl getting ploughed. The setting situations are Shounen, so they cannot be Hard. But the same cannot be said for Soft. Most of the genuine Soft exists in the Anime generation. Lolita-chan is their answer. However, there are people who constantly fantasise about these Lolita in their heads and don't even want them to take their clothes off. According to the Mangaka, Senno Knife (千之ナイフ), these guy's rooms are 'completely feminine, covered in girlish things and lacy curtains' as they fervently proceed to self-identify and become one with these Lolita.

41lsN7ruauL.jpg

Agnes Lum, the Harbinger of Lolicon (?); then again, Lum from Urusei Yatsura was the most popular Lolita in the 1980s, so perhaps it fits.

■Concerning Lolita Complex

We've been saying 'Lolicon' and 'Lolita' for some time now, but what exactly is 'Lolita Complex'? If you trace it all the way back to where it started, you will find it originated in the Soviet Union in 1955.

A soviet writer Vladimir Nabokov published a novel called 'Lolita'. It is a novel where a geezer called Sir Humbert falls in love with a girl called Lolita, but shortly after publication, the names Lolita and Humbert began to be used in clinician reports in the book 'Lolita Complex' by the American psychoanalyst, Russell Trainer. Nabokov says a 'Lolita' needs to be 9~14 years old, and a 'Humbert' (the lover) needs to be at least 10 years older, generally a 30~40 year age difference. Well, if you're a university Lolicon, you could satisfy the 9~14 condition, but if you're a middle schooler, then it would have to be a toddler under 5 years old. However, Lolicon Manga fans and Lolicon really don't care about this sort of definition. The reality is that this is nothing more than a borrowed word. Their definition of 'Lolicon' is really complicated.

There are those who prefer girls on the cusp of becoming adult women, there are those who prefer bona fide girls, and well, there are those who prefer infants. Depending on the age, these types would be classified as Lolicon, Alicon (Alice), and Heicon (Heidi, Girl of the Alps). I like how it's just Alice; everyone knows what he's talking about.

According to Senno Knife, you can also separate them by Lolita=Shoujo Harlot and Alice=Shoujo Virgin. And then the aforementioned 'Soft Faction' and Hard Faction' are added. In the magazine that crafted 'Lolicon & Bishoujo Comic' called 'Lemon People' (Amatoria-sha), a 'Lolicon controversy' is unfolding with the Hard and Soft sides arguing with each other and it sounds like their squabble isn't going to end anytime soon.

However, despite such fancies still being fine for middle schoolers, there's something strange about high school and university students going crazy over Anime heroines. Are they charming enough to drive people crazy? You may be thinking how they could be better than a girl who lives in the 3rd dimension you can actually touch, and have her show you her twat-chan that you can have sex with, but——you don't understand. They dislike girls the same age as them (although some have girlfriends their age, these are unprincipled guys from a pure Lolicon's point of view). There is a 'Lolicon Virgin Theory' that both Kawamoto from before and Takakuwa (高桑常寿), the editor of 'Lolicon Hakusho' (Byakuya Shobo) gave their seal of approval and stated 'it's a fact!'.

Takakuwa says this is 'virgin desire mixed with the elements of Mother Complex and so on'. Men who have an inferiority complex when it comes to sex desire girls as a replacement for 'women'. The people who will visit the publisher directly when the bookstore is out of stock. They all seem to have the appearance of 'docile and meek men unable to persuade a woman to go out with them'.

Even in Waseda University, which is hailed as Bankara, they supposedly have a 'Virgin Alliance' and 'Puffed Sleeves Club' (also known as a Sailor Suit fan club). They may be trying to play around and act cool, but perhaps they're putting on a Tatamae mask to camouflage their true parts.
Bankara (Link)

Kawamoto's stories were much harsher. These Lolicon are very good boys that obediently listen to their mother's instructions with a 'yes, yes'. Heibon Punch and Playboy are both 'Ero Books', so because they shouldn't look at them, they don't look at them. They're serious and delicate, and believe sex itself is a 'sin'! Rather than being unable to keep up with the development of girls their own age, they seem to believe adult women's genitals are weird and gross! However, their body's development is of a healthy and growing boy. So naturally while there is a gap, they don't know how to stretch and express those desires. So they made the genitals of girls pretty. According to Kawamoto's harsh words, they have no choice but to run towards 'violence', 'homo (in execution)', or 'Lolicon (fantasy)'.

■Why do They Desire Imaginary Shoujo?

Here's the problem, we know they're into 'girls' so why are they into imaginary girls on paper...? Wouldn't Ito Tsukasa (伊藤つかさ) or Matsumoto Iyo (松本伊代) be good enough targets for them? We need to get to the reason behind this Anime generation. To do that, we must first consider the notion they're a species that has been left behind in the development of normal boys.

For them, a real heroine is too direct. To be real means to be alive. Living women that won't become theirs are hateful and terrifying. So they can safely enter the 2-dimensional world of imaginary heroines. Lolicon are currently saying they have a '2D Complex'. But, you see, there's the opinion that there's no longer truly pure heroines in the television world. In the past, there was Yoshinaga Sayuri-san (吉永小百合), who was a pure enough person, but there's no such heroines like her these days.

The vileness of female high schoolers and middle schoolers has long been exposed. Like the articles in Shoujo magazines, men's magazines say stuff like 'how to tell the OK gestures when a woman is into you', but that's exactly it! The Disco murderer's middle school would've been better off if they had used a contraceptive ring and the girl hid her vulgarity. I believe Burikko coming into fashion is the result of girls instinctively knowing the merits of hiding their true nature. But in the end, Burikko is Burikko, so from the perspective of a pure man, her true nature beneath the mask is transparent. Burikko (Link)


■A World of Delusion, not Fantasy...

Allow me to introduce you to Hirukogami, a Lolicon miscellaneous writer. One of his quotes.

"It's a mixed mentality of wanting to protect, wanting to care for, wanting to bully, and wanting to attack."

Yeah, I wonder if this is the quintessence of the Hard Lolicon. Looking back on history, 12 year olds were already adults. Indeed, in Ancient Rome, India, Europe, Japan's Heian dynasty, and modern day primitive tribes, all girls got married off at a young age. According to Hirukogami's data, the ideal first sexual experience age is one year after menarche. In other words, the longer the years of education, the longer childhood is extended and the greater the gap between physical perfection and societal oppression. So he says Lolicon is the natural form that transcends that gap. Female university students are completely outside his strike zone.

According to him, 'women are mysterious and unknown', so he's drawn to them. He goes on to say modern women have exposed their raw forms, diminishing their mystique. In the words of one female writer, 'if man knew how women pass the time when they are alone, they'd never marry'. Certainly, that unconscious wisdom worked when women sought comfort and safety under the rule of men requiring they put on a mask to disguise their nature. However, now with female liberation and women earning more money, women have discarded their masks, and this may have spread to middle and high school.

A distrust and disillusionment towards women who no longer give the impression of charm, social oppression. For example, due to the influence of the exam wars and Kyouiku Mama (there's a word called Mamagon, but now that I think about it, that also originated from the Anime world), the desire to return to their fun childhood days is a plus.

Leave things to mothers for the increase in Mothercon that does whatever Mama (Caramel Mama) wants, these guys were only able to love small girls——. Docile, good and gentle young men have become humans broken by the stress of their oppression. The girls they earnestly desire are honest and pure, capable of satisfying a yearning for which they don't understand, a creature shrouded in a mysterious veil like a fairy with a hint of mischief.

However, there's a gap between their own physical desires! Do they actually want to attack these girls? In their books, there are things like 'how to toy with girls', 'little girl sex positions', and 'making little girls drink cock juice', but it's precisely because those things are fiction that they are extreme. The guy who would commit such acts, even from the perspective of his Lolicon buddies, would be called a Hentai and a scumbag. Besides, according to Japanese law, anyone who does any obscene or adulterous act to those under 13, even without coercion or intimidation (meaning, even with consent), will go to prison. Resulting in the 2D world becoming more and more extreme to satisfy these carnal desires. They may subconsciously know what would happen if they do wicked things to girls, turning them into sluts or the nasty girls of these guys who hate sex. This is what Hirukogami has to say. 'It's a delusion, not fantasy, a delusion! It's barren, a barren world'. Even if the basic premise is doing whatever they want with countless girls, it is a 2-dimensional world that won't lead to execution. Beautiful dreams remain beautiful, he's content to violate them merely in his head.

Ken_Hirukogami.png

Image Credit: Mushizuka Mushizou (虫塚虫蔵) (Pixiv Booth). Hirukogami Ken, it's kind of obvious the writer of this column mostly refers to him when he goes on to talk about dolls and such. He's also the only creator here that is adamant about his flat-chest fetish, probably the closest to the incorrect western definition of Lolicon.

■The Mangaka Who Created the Boom

So then, what are the Mangaka gentlemen, who are the actual suppliers, creating in their heads?

One of the two great artists, Uchiyama Aki, is a man who draws adults and then turns them into children. He is the principle of honourable death and no surrender. Since he's no good, he started no good and then attacked. People are forking over their money to buy his stuff, so he has to make it interesting. With the spirit of service, he draws from the perspective 'I'm done flipping skirts' and became like this. Manga doesn't have a direct dialogue with the reader, so the shame that was there at first vanished and escalated. 'Manga, you see, is my excrement'. It's a fantasy world, so you can do whatever is impossible in reality. So the result is I will publish all the weird stuff everyone has lurking at the bottom of their hearts they cannot share outside.

He calls himself 'an ordinary pervert'. Completely normal. When I met Senno Knife who draws worlds with a mean-spirited image, I was shocked. He is a bright and cheerful guy. 'In real life, I prefer older women, so my lover is also older than me,' he says. 'It's a simple docking of the cute characters from Anime and Shoujo Manga into a sensual world,' he goes on.

Now, if a Bishoujo were to appear, then it's Lolicon. My gut instinct says if she were to play, she would play right to the very end. However, 'men of the same generation as me are childish; I feel as if they're trapped as boys'. This person is also normal. The female creator, Hino Youko (火野妖子) is also normal. (Unfortunately, I'm unable to show a photograph of her face. It seems she's hiding the fact she's a Lolicon from her parents. Hirukogami from before says if her parents found out, they would look down upon her. It's hard being a Lolicon.) She says she set her sights on drawing Manga for a school magazine. When she started drawing children, she immediately turned into a Lolicon Mangaka. People who are called Lolicon Mangaka tend to be like that, but when people called her a Lolicon Mangaka, she immediately realised it.

Another of the two great artists, Azuma Hideo, dislikes the term and feels reluctant to describe himself that way. Lolicon-style girls were appearing among his characters since long ago. So he doesn't understand why there's a boom. But when I asked him, he admitted he was a fan of Agnes Chan. And now he's a fan of Wada Akiko. 'Isn't Agnes both motherly and girlish?' A suggestion he received from one of his editors. There's a theory going around that Azuma Hideo is a Mothercon. Holy shit, the Father of Lolicon was a fan of Agnes Chan, the woman who has built herself a reputation over a decade ago in trying to eradicate Manga Lolicon. Facts are stranger than fiction.

Senno Knife also says he often hears hate and complaints about mothers from the mouths of Lolicon. Overly noisy mothers, Kyouiku Mama, overprotective mothers. If you flipped them over to their opposite side, then you have the equation for Shoujo.

I heard 'virgin desire' from Uchiyama, but the one saying 'manga is all about having fun' is Hara. "Because if a male virgin desire is genuinely 'my thing', then I wouldn't be able to show the readers rape scenes and sensual scenes of such characters. It's a character I'm exposing to the reader's eyes, so of course they'll play!" This is a sharp point. The Hard phenomenon in the Doujinshi world seems to be simply adapted to the needs of the buyers. Among the 900 to 1000 Doujinshi, I'm told the phantasmic Lolicon magazines that were sold for 300 yen have gone up to 10,000 yen. Among them is a book called 'Catch Me if You Can'. Since Doujinshi folk aren't doing it for the money, so for those that go to Comiket to sell, they find themselves in a situation where they have to sell everything before they can return home. It seems the extreme situation of Doujinshi is that 'Lolicon that suits needs' is getting even 'Harder'. The Manga world is in the end the Manga world, it seems the docking of sensual depictions and Bishoujo of ever decreasing ages from the unexpectedly simple virgin desires into Lolicon Manga by Manga fans who like new things are the true Lolicon. Speaking of which, the Bishoujo nude photobooks also had that element and sucked in the child pornography that were made illegal and video fans in as well.

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(Loli-Loli World) "Uchiyama Aki, is a man who draws adults and then turns them into children."
The most concise sentence I've seen that describes Lolicon Manga.


■Recent Explosion of Girl Lolicon!

Recently, the number of girl fans has also increased. It seems the phrase 'I'm a Lolicon!' has replaced Burikko and means 'I'm a Bishoujo!', but from the sounds of what they say, their true intentions are 'I also want to be treated like the Shoujo protagonist'. Regarding the Hard, they approve, saying 'that stuff is natural since it's a normal male desire'. Boys who are Lolicon Manga fans are happy thinking 'it's only a fantasy 2D world', yet these girls want such to be recreated in the 3D world via 'I want that to also happen to me!'. Aah, this gap! Men are delicately seeking purity on their desks while women are gunning towards the actual meat.

There's a word for the Lolicon folks are making a fuss about right now. Geezers past their 40s bullying little girls are a different story, but Lolicon haven't even passed the normal love and sex stage. People who cross the line and rape little girls, they're another story. These people have yet to go beyond their world of delusion. They call the executors 'Hentai'. There's also another thing they call 'Hentai', those who aim to identify with Shoujo in the form of 'Soft Lolicon'.

They weren't kidding about Shoujo 'can be free', they have become the Shoujo. They have slipped into the world they yearn for and are remaining there. Buying sailor suits and passing their arms through its sleeves, determined to decorate their room with their Shoujo hobby. Others enter the world of fetishism, collecting panties or stroking red Randoseru. And others become doll fanciers, returning home to play with dolls; there are collectors for many things but their development has turned them into monomaniacs. Collecting all manner of Anime character products (sometimes even wanting to steal from people), buying videos to preserve Anime and the Lolita of commercial films, collecting posters at any cost, and researching their professional affiliation. Nevertheless, this is the desperate proof of their sad existence. But how pitiful it is to live in such a world—!

As Kawamoto says, the 'Hard Faction have normal physical desires, so it's still possible for them to get married. However, for the Soft Faction, once they pop, it's already over for them'. Aah, is there no tomorrow for the Soft? Despite what Hirukogami, Kubo, and Hara said, everyone still has a desire for a pure and innocent childhood. The fact that it is only spontaneously manifesting itself in males is perhaps proof of how strong females are in reality——. Women desire herself to be the Lolita men want, and men desire a woman——a Lolita they can love from the bottom of their hearts. So that's why I believe the Lolita desire is a pure heart hidden in everyone's heart.

However, as the years pass, the body also becomes an adult, and problems such as social responsibilities and feeding oneself manifest themselves. At that time, there are those who smoothly tuck their dear Lolita away in the deep recessives of their hearts (or forget) and turn the key with a *kachari* to lock her up, and there are those who are unable to hide, still swimming in it. The difference I believe seems to be tied to the origins of their Lolita Complex. They are said to be 'lacking the ability to deal with reality', but their inability to cross that line is the modern world and its environment. But if it's at all possible, I would like them to meet good women (which may be difficult and even if they did, I doubt whether these women could love them) and discover a fun 3D world.

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Magazine Scan Credits: F (Blog)
He says it's alright to use his material without permission, but his blog is still interesting all the same.
Photographis in Order of Appearance:
1) Azuma Hideo
2) Senno Knife & Uchiyama Aki
3) Kawamoto Kouji
4) Hirukogami Ken (he was cosplaying as a proto-Otaku before the stereotype image manifested itself, since most 'Otaku' back then would just be delicate-looking high school and university boys and girls rather than fat, ill-dressed men with coke-bottled glasses).
 
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Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
Even in Waseda University, which is hailed as Bankara, they supposedly have a 'Virgin Alliance'
Apparently, Waseda University had an article written about them in Manga Burikko, the Lolicon Manga Magazine where the word Otaku originated, in their September 1982 issue:

The above is also worth reading, but just to quote a couple passages.
June of this year, two months later after the 'Virgin Alliance' was launched, 15 female university students from 12 universities formed their own 'Nice Middle Research Club'. Nice Middle is slang for a man over 35 years old.
"Whenever we enter a Saten (Kissaten; Tea House), they fluster over what to order. Anyways, boys these days aren't clear at all. They're indecisive and very stingy. We're ashamed of being from the same generation as them. Unlike them, a nihilistic and lone wolf-type Nice Middle is far more charming. If possible, we would like to have a close relationship with a man like that... that's why we created this club." (Manager Yamamoto Yumiko-san=Pseudonym=Hosei University Literature Department 2nd Year)
As a result, where did the male students, unable to have an 'equal' relationship with their fellow female students, flee? You guessed it, they found their answer in 'Lolicon' that is experiencing a big boom.
Like the Mr Dandy article, they ultimately blame mothers and Mother Complex on the rise in high school and university boys becoming Lolicon.
In some cases where they're always forced to tinker with machines, like the engineering club at Kansai University, a tendency to prefer younger girls who moved at the flick of a switch like a machine appeared.

I feel like the above quote is something to keep in mind in the coming OUT article.


Source: "月刊OUT 1980/12"

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Manga Modernology for Sick People Issue 1: Lolita Complex
by Yonezawa Yoshihiro (米沢嘉博) (Wikipedia)

Yonezawa is the co-founder of Comiket, so he's been in the thick of things when it comes to everything that has happened in the Doujinshi sub culture transpiring in Tokyo. I believe many of his works, including this one, are cited in books and academic papers, though one English paper translated 'sick people' as 'perverts'.

This is the beginning of a 14 part series. And for Yonezawa, Lolicon took precedent over the following things he later covered (Monthly OUT Contents):
1981 Jan: Mecha Fetishism,
Feb: Homosexualism
March: Sadism and Masochism Part 1
April: Sadism and Masochism Part 2
May: Collector Syndrome
June: Grotesque Syndrome
July: Pygmalionism
August: Triviailism
September: Mother Complex
October: Nymphomania
November: Vulgar Syndrome
December: Infantile Regression Syndrome and Senile Dementia
1982 Feb: The Final Syndrome


Lolicon as a Sickness


In the field of psychopathology, there are people who are only sexually interested in girls between the ages of 3 to 10, known as paedophiles, which is regarded as a mental illness. Lolicon, which is a popular word these days, is a variant of this, but its etymology comes from Vladimir Nabokov's best-selling novel 'Lolita'. It's a story about an intelligent middle-aged man called Humbert Humbert who falls in love with a 13 year-old girl called Lolita, though the contents are about him going mad, it became popular when Stanley Kubrick turned it into a movie. Psychopathologically, when one is unable to have a normal relationship with a normal woman, it is said men will tread the path of turning their attention towards non-sexual 'Shoujo'. Typically, Lolicon is both a curse and compliment thrown towards girl lovers. However, like the mathematician Lewis Carroll who loved girls, when you go for much younger ages called 'Alice Preference', that's when one begins to show signs of danger. Heidi Complex, Heicon, Babycon, Lanacon, Mayucon, Hildacon... Of course, the ones called Maicon and Toucon are slightly different, but somehow, many variants of Lolicon are spreading out. Lanacon: A Character from Future Boy Conan (未来少年コナン); I can source the others, but it should be obvious they're mostly heroines from various properties.

Lolicon-infested Manga World


Now then, as the middle-man of this terrible sickness known as Lolicon, the new host, Manga, is attracting attention.

People should have noticed it when men began to say they would look at Shoujo Manga, especially Ako-tan's Otome-chic love comedies. Or if people paid attention when the girls in Eguchi Hisashi's 'Susume! Pirates!!' and Kamogawa Tsubame's 'Macaroni Horensoh' became popular for being cute.
Mutsu A-ko (陸奥 A子; Link); Eguchi Hisashi (江口寿史; Link); Kamogawa Tsubame (鴨川つばめ; Link)

No, no, we should've used prudence during the pantie-shots in Kanai Tatsuo's 'Izumi-chan Graffiti and when girls began to appear in Yanagisawa Kimio's 'Flying Couple'.
Kanai Tatsuo (金井たつお; Link); Yanagisawa Kimio (柳沢きみお; Link)

But it's too late. Azuma Hideo has been lionised, Takahashi Rumiko's 'Urusei Yatsura' is quite popular, Hosono Fujihiko's 'Sasuga no Sarutobi' is interesting, and Arale-chan from Toriyama Akira's 'Dr. Slump' is NOW creating a sensation. It's far too late.
Takahashi Rumiko (高橋留美子; Link); Hosono Fujihiko (細野不二彦; Link); Toriyama Akira (鳥山明; Link)

Takahashi Yousuke's 'Yoiyamidoori no Bun' and Fujiko Fujio's 'Esper Mami' also had a hand in this. Nakajima Fumio, Muraso Shun, and Uchiyama Aki, the Tankoubon of these so-called third-rate Gekiga technicians sold well. The various Shoujo photobooks, like 'Little Pretenders' and 'Small Fairy', are piling up next to cash registers. The world is now full of Lolicon!!
Takahashi Yousuke (高橋葉介; Link); Fujiko Fujio (藤子不二雄; Link); Nakajima Fumio (中島史雄; Link); Muraso Shun (村祖俊; Link); Uchiyama Aki (内山亜紀; Link)

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Left→Right: Uchiyama Aki's '気ままな妖精’ and Azuma Hideo's '水底'

Manga Introduction for Lolicon

So, you may be asking 'what's wrong with being a Lolicon'? There's nothing particularly wrong with it, it's only natural for men to be pleased with cute girls in Manga. It's much more proper than becoming a girl and enjoying Shoujo Manga.

However, little by little, your case history will violate you.

First Stage Symptoms:
Begin to grow curious about cute girls in Manga, start chasing after only those sorts of Manga. Your preferences become Otome-chic love comedies by authors like Yuzuki Hikaru, Takahashi Yousuke, Azuma Hideo, and Takahashi Rumiko.
Yuzuki Hikaru (弓月光; Link)

Second Stage Symptoms:

Begin to realise that your own hobbies are Lolicon, start to care more about real girls than the aforementioned Manga by the above. Begin raiding vending machines for 'Shoujo Alice' (released on the 6th of every month), begin collecting 'Little Pretenders' and '12 Year-old Mythology, and even start stealing Hiroko Grace (ひろこグレース) and her friend's posters.

Third Stage Symptoms:
As the sickness worsens, you will start to gather towards like-minded individuals and publish Lolita-centric Doujinshi and talk about girls. You will record those kinds of commercial films by hand and try various things in search of girls. For example, Licca-chan dolls and Junior novels. You cannot see anything other than girls, everything you think about is connected to girls, and then you take action.

If all of that doesn't bother you, then let's take a gander at the Lolicon (?) Manga or Manga that stimulate Lolicon.

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Yuzuki Hikaru: 'エリート狂走曲', 'ボクの初体験', etc...
Strong girls and masochist boy's love comedy. It's easy to tell it has many male fans. Bishoujo Rating: B.

Takahashi Rumiko: 'うる星やつら' and 'ダストスパート'...
Boisterous Bishoujo SF Comedy. Rising in popularity; Bishoujo Rating: C.

Nakajima Fumio: '幼女と少女がもんちっち'...
Although he's an Ero-gekiga-type author, this work and 'Monshiro Choucho no Pantsuya-san' (もんしろちょうちょのパンツ屋さん) are exquisite. Bishoujo Rating: B.

Uchiyama AKi (Noguchi Masayuki): '気ままな妖精'...
His whole body of work are Lolicon Ero-Gekiga for Lolicon. Bishoujo Rating: A.

Azuma Hideo: 'みだれモコ', 'オリンポスのポロン', '純文学シリーズ', etc...
Lolicon mania's Idol. The man needs no further introduction; Bishoujo Rating: A.

Besides these folks, there's Wada Shinji (和田慎二) of Alice Mania for Hilda fans, the Shoujo manga by Chiba Tetsuya (ちばてつや), and Kawasaki Sonoko's (川崎苑子) 'Apple Diary' among many others, but works like 'Jurinko Chie' are a matter of taste. If you ever come across a Manga Doujinshi called 'Cybelle' at Comiket, buy it; its contamination rate is 90%.
Wada Shinji (Link); this author is first recorded instance of the word Lolita Complex appearing in Manga in 1974

The Lolicon germs will begin to spread through these hosts. Although the route of infection remains unclear, eradication is believed to be a distant pipe dream. From what I hear, the only means of escape is to flee to Antarctica.

Well, for that reason, I hope the best for those who are sick and for those who wish to become sick. However, you ought to know beforehand that Lolicon as a hobby and Lolicon as a sickness are fundamentally different. Cause being sick is now in fashion. However, I'll finish this off by saying it's proper for boys to love girls.

Next time, I will stick to the details as I deal with Mecha Fetishism and those who indulge in Mecha.

Well then, I hope you stay well without getting sick. Sorry.

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Page 121 of Wada Shinji's manga with the earliest known instance of Lolita Complex being used. According to the owner of 'Pepe' (ぺぺ), the abbreviation 'Lolicon' first appeared in an issue of the underground Lolicon magazine Candy (キャンディ; not to be confused with another magazine in the 1980s) in the late 1970s. However, it's an underground magazine, so it's probably difficult, or impossible, to verify this.

It's also kind of funny Yonezawa would rate Rumiko as a C when she would later become the richest woman in Japan thanks to her story-telling and Bishoujo (Lolita) having the strongest appeal overseas. I sometimes type Azuma Hideo's name into Youtube to see if someone, anyone, is going to do a proper video about him in English, and this year, I did finally find a short video about Azuma Hideo, and it's by someone obsessed with Takahashi Rumiko who was doing pieces on the mangaka connected to her, and of course, the video creator mistakenly treated Rumiko's presence as being one of greater influence on Azuma when it's more complicated than that as one can see with the above when Yonezawa just treated Rumiko as a rising star gaining popularity, and Azuma as a big deal with no need for further introduction. In a later issue of OUT, Yonezawa interviewed Azuma Hideo, and they both recommended people read works by 'Tori Miki' (とり・みき;
Link).

I'm still on the fence about whether Yonezawa is being facetious about his stages of development in Lolicon. Well, this is in 1980, so the number of people who would've developed what would be known as a 2D Complex would be few and far between with most older individuals still expressing an interest in idols and talents. Heidi Complex has always been treated as a joke by Japanese Lolicon fans with the old fans calling fans of such Byouki (sick) and modern day Lolicon calling those types of characters 'ペドい' (Paedoi), insisting they're not Loli.

If you're curious about what else is in this 1980s issue of OUT, please check out Demedeku's blog
 
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Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
Source: "月刊OUT 1982/04"

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Yonezawa decided to write this 2 years after the above when it became clear to him that 2D-Complex was a thing developing among the Japanese Anime and Manga fandom. The last part gives his own timeline for the Lolicon Boom that can be compared to the timeline by Hirukogami Ken in Lolicon Kiss and Mekata Kairi in Mr. Dandy.

Let's Talk About the Lolicon Boom——We Like Cute Girls. But Think About It——Don't You Find Lolicon as a Fashion to be Twisted?

by Yonezawa Yoshihiro (米沢嘉博)

Right now, the Lolicon Boom is at its peak in our society. And it seems the mass media has taken advantage of this Lolicon Boom to do various things. However, wait a sec, isn't it strange Lolicon have begun to prance around triumphantly? So says Yonezawa Yoshihiro. Yonezawa, who is said to be the man who spread the sickness known as Lolicon into our society, will critique the attitude of the current boom that is running in a twisted direction!

■Bishoujo Characters Make Me Happy, But...


I think it's only natural for Shoujo to appear in Shoujo Manga, and even in Shounen Manga, where most of the protagonists are Shounen, it's natural for Shoujo to appear as companions. Of course, most Anime is made for children, so it's completely natural Shounen and Shoujo are the protagonists. In other words, no matter what anyone says, things like Manga and Anime are the worlds of Shounen and Shoujo.

Essentially, Anime and Manga are centred around Shounen and Shoujo. So, there's nothing significant about the Shounen and Shoujo being charming, is there? Well, so long as it isn't a parody, the heroes and heroines will try to create an image most humans will find to be charming. In this way, Anime and Manga are drawn full of cool and charming heroes, and cute and beautiful heroines. You get what I'm saying? Simply put, it's easy to find images of cute girls that suit your preference in Manga or Anime. By the same token, it's easy to find the image of your ideal hero. In reality, finding such individuals would prove to be extremely difficult. Look around you, nothing but pigs and pig-ugly guys. So perhaps it's better for our mental health if we turn our attentions to the ideal 2D lovers found in Manga or Anime.

Though it appears Shoujo Manga were the early worms when it came to drawing charming Shounen as their protagonists, Shounen Manga has also pushed charming Shoujo to its fore. When a girl says Oscar or Gilbert, all the boys around her cannot help but lose. It's for this reason people started paying attention to the Bishoujo in Shounen Manga. Izumi-chan and her pantie-shots and Kei-chan from 'Flying Couple' (翔んだカップル) being quite popular.

Because of that, when we see a Bishoujo in Manga and say she's cute, the word we get branded with is 'Lolicon'. Carrying with it a completely different meaning from middle-age geezers attracted to young girls, 'Lolicon' has begun to make a stir. Simply saying a Bishoujo from a Manga or Anime is cute is enough for people to respond, 'You're a Lolicon!'.

That's because the cute Shoujo drawn in Manga and Anime are drawn with the intention to be cute and loved by everyone, so many people believing they're 'oh so cute—' is simply the creator hitting their mark, nothing short of a job well done. If everyone thinks the girl the creator drew is 'cute', then it's not the reader's fault, it's the creator's ability to hit the right wavelength.

It feels good looking at cute girls, and whenever a Bishoujo we think is cute appears in Manga or Anime, it makes us happy. There's nothing really wrong with welcoming such trends. I believe it's proper to put effort into the artform of girls and character creation.

However, if you put your body and soul into it and get absorbed in Lolicon play, then it may become a bit of a problem. Because, in the end, these girls can only live in fiction. And even there, just barely.

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Text: Tsukasa's Butt Eats a Snowball—Diagram~♥

■In Valuing Psuedo-Stimulation


So, if there was a problem, I believe it may be in our way of reading or our reading of the work. Or it may be a problem of the reader's perceptions and way of life extending all the way to their reading of the world beyond Manga or Anime. What are Manga and Anime? Speaking journalistically, they're forms of mass entertainment, but that's not really saying much. For us, no, for our readers, what is Manga and Anime? Let's begin there.

Truth be told, they're pseudo-realms of fiction. No matter how much they depict reality and how realistically they progress, no matter how moved or immersed we are in those worlds, they're fictional worlds that don't exist anywhere in reality.

The stimulation we taste from looking at Manga and Anime is nothing more than pseudo-stimulation. The thrills, excitement, and laughter are from another world that exists on paper or cathode-ray tubes. That's the way fiction has always been. In the worlds we fabricated, we sympathise with the protagonists, and enjoy and are emphatically moved by their adventures, battles, and romances.

For those living in a dull, not-so-interesting life where we need to take great care in how we live, fiction gives us the joy of living in another world to forget our daily lives for a moment. Everything we call mass entertainment has this element. Fiction has the power to refresh our moods to try living our daily lives once more.

Of course, that's not all. They have the power to let us experience other worlds so we can see our current world with different eyes. If we experience a utopia in fiction, then we can begin to think about the form of reality we ourselves live in afterwards. If we see a living hell, then we can think about not wanting to live in such a world.

If we sigh at the beautiful lovers on the silver screen, then we will yearn for such love. However, no matter how their story develops in their everyday world, even if it uses realistic details, they're nothing more than fictional worlds. Because the sender is merely creating 'objects' to impress, excite, and charm the receiver.

Do you get what I'm saying? However, it feels as though the difference between the pseudo-experience of fiction and the weight of actual experience are vanishing before our very eyes. It's fine to make the fictional emotions our own, but it feels like we're giving priority to those emotions that give us comfort.

Let's return to the beginning of our discussion. Simply put, because the Shounen and Shoujo in fiction feel cool and cute, it might be dangerous if we place too much importance on those things.

Well, girls being cute is nice, so it's natural we like things that make us feel good and it's understandable experiences that are exciting and thrilling are wonderful. However, I don't believe feeling in the body and knowing in the head are comparable to the same dimension. Physical, physical... I don't mean to sing, but the experiences of Anime and Manga are pseudo-experiences; it goes without saying the fact the characters drawn in them don't exist anywhere is a prerequisite for our enjoyment of fiction.

There may be nothing but dark and light people in our society, but the darkness includes all the heavy, difficult, and tiresome things as well. And the light is 'ah, light', it seems. It probably doesn't exist. This is the relationship between reality and fiction. Everyday life is dark, pseudo-experience is light. Perhaps you're getting my point.

However, should the fictional world be cherished so dearly? We mustn't waste our everyday lives, and besides, this peaceful life we live is unexpectedly uncertain. For starters, in our everyday life, we can talk about pseudo-worlds and other worlds.

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■Concentrating on Society and Our World

Well, anyways, I won't deny the importance of living through pseudo-experience found in Manga, Anime, or TV, but those things kinda feel like being stuck inside a capsule. Expelling annoying stuff like interacting with people and having a relationship with the world, clinging to the things you like is nothing more than crawling inside your own, personal capsule.

——Ack, the topic has deviated from Lolicon. Let's see, discovering a Bishoujo that suits your tastes in Manga or Anime is great. Turning those Bishoujo into fan-fiction with nudes and parodies, so long as it's interesting, is also great. No one really has the right to complain about those things. The power of Manga and Anime is that they can be enjoyed that way, so that's why we find enjoyment in Doujin activities.

However, the Lolicon that's currently experiencing a boom feels a little different to me. I believe saying 'I'm a Lolicon!' so brightly and energetically is strange. Normally, such behaviour would be met with scorn.

It still doesn't matter if she's a real Bishoujo. If you're in your 40s or 50s, there may possibly be a problem, but whatever, it's fine. However, there's nothing good about shouting that you're passionate about the Bishoujo depicted in the art of Manga or Anime. I still get the point of cherishing your feelings of having discovered the cuteness and beauty in those characters, but it's still 'embarrassing' to make a mere drawing or the character themselves into an object of predilection. Even more so to publicise it.

Furthermore, this reverse-discrimination where you reject those who aren't Lolicon, the escalation where everyone needs to prove 'how much of a Lolicon they are' to their Lolicon buddies makes me, after all, want to say 'wait a minute!'.

"Liking this sorta stuff, you must be a Lolicon."

"N, no, it's not like that!"

——These are the normal reactions. There's nothing wrong at all about having a Bishoujo desire and Lolicon tendencies. We can still enjoy those things in our Manga and Anime.

Riding on the Lolicon Boom, it's a good thing the girls have gotten cuter, and it's acceptable that Shoujo itself is making an appearance in Manga and Anime as a theme. And it's a good thing for readers to discover in themselves the things they yearn for, we must know ourselves.

There may be incredible potential in incorporating such play in your life. ——However, if you escalate your play by sticking to Lolicon, it'll transcend mere hobby and fashion and become something twisted. Even excluding that, Lolicon as a fashion makes me imagine twisted situations.

Having no perspective where you can examine yourself objectively, your personal point-of-view will be to cancel your relationship with the world and retreat into a capsule. It'll be an age of capsulism, an age of immature individualism.

To put it simply, I believe we need to examine our society and the world more closely and what it means to know ourselves, we need to consider our place in humanity's perennial homework. Otherwise, we won't be able to get along well with people, and we won't be able to come to terms with reality. If the daily lives we live in worsen, we won't be able to enjoy fiction or even have spare time to fantasise. That's why.

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■The Flow and State of the Lolicon Boom

The term 'Lolita Complex' first became popular around the middle of the 1960s. It became established as a psychoanalytical term in America, and two or three years later, it came to be used in Japan as well.

In 1972, 'Europe 12 Year-old Mythology' (Kenmochi Kazuo; 剣持加津夫) was published, and while it was the forerunner of the Shoujo nude photobooks which became popular, it had no successor. However, as part of a reassessment of Lewis Carroll, a small 'Alice' boom occurred. This was around when Sawatari Hajime (沢渡朔) released his photobook called 'Shoujo Alice'.

And in 1978, there was a Shoujo nude mook called 'Little Pretenders' that sold explosively, so Shoujo photobooks took advantage of its popularity and appeared one after the other. Then in 1979, the specialty magazine (?) 'Shoujo Alice' was launched from a vending machine book publisher called Alice Publishing, and in the following years, Azuma Hideo's 'Pure Literature' (純文学) series began their serialisation. And this year, they're doing an 'Alice Special' in Alice Publishing's 'Groupie' (グルーピー).

In the Doujinshi world centred in Comiket, Doujinshi called 'Youjo Fancier' and 'Cybelle', if anything, eked out sales. However, that year, meaning in 1980, Noguchi Masayuki (Uchiyama Aki) was selling mainly third-rate Gekiga. And even 'Erogenica' (エロジェニカ) was leaning towards mainly Bishoujo.

Continuing from the previous year, Azuma Hideo's popularity had been on the rise, and Shounen Manga weekly magazines saw an increase in Manga featuring cute girls. The 'Shounen Sunday' lineup being the most prominent.

By the end of 1980, 'Lolita Complex' was brought up in 'Manga Modernology for Sick People', and it surged into the extraordinary popularity of 'Cybelle' in the winter Comiket. Around this time, 'Clarisse Magazine' was gaining popularity. ——It appeared as if everything prior was in preparation for 1980.

Of course, one mustn't forget the popularity of Clarisse and Lana among Anime fans, and the introduction of Bishoujo characters in Anime parodies increasing as well. Perhaps the reason for this may be the ratio of Manga and Anime fans gradually changing from female to male.

And then the 'Lolicon' boom began smack dab in the centre of the 1981 Doujinshi world. In the spring and summer Comiket, Doujinshi aimed at Lolicon rapidly increased with the rise of male fans. Fan magazines, like 'OUT' and 'Animec' began to often feature Bishoujo characters, and the word 'Lolicon' became a common word among Manga and Anime fans.

Which brings us here, Adachi Mitsuru (あだち充) is increasing in popularity mainly through 'Miyuki', and Takahashi Rumiko (高橋留美子), Hosono Fujihiko (細野不二彦), Shibata Masahiro (柴田昌宏), and other Mangaka are gaining popularity drawing cute girls, and magazines labelled as Lolita and Bishoujo are being introduced among third-rate Gekiga magazines. The number of magazines serialising Uchiyama Aki's works are increasing and magazines like 'Young Kiss' are being published.

In October 1981, the Manga information magazine 'Fusion Product' did a 'Lolita/Bishoujo Special Edition'. The special edition—that included Bishoujo characters, Lolicon Doujinshi, maps, and a roundtable talk—was well-received and the word 'Lolicon' began to fly around more than ever before.

Separating from the former word known as 'Lolita Complex', a truly light and beautiful new term known as 'Lolicon' was born. 'Lolicon' has been taken up by TV and weekly magazines, and 'Asahi Shimbun' (朝日新聞) recorded the emergence of the Lolicon clan as is their custom in 1981.

And this boom-like phenomenon, showing no sign of abatement, encouraged the launch of the Lolicon Manga magazine known as 'Lemon People' (Amatoria-sha), and its waves are reaching even major publishers. The first being 'Apple Pie' (アップル・パイ) published by Tokuma Shoten.

From this form of new 'play' for Manga and Anime fans, there's no telling how it will be incorporated into a commercial base, but I heard that Uchiyama Aki's 'Andoro Trio' (あんどろトリオ) released in 'Shounen Champion' is #1 in their popularity poll. Along with that, it seems his Tankoubon have also begun to be reprinted one after the other.

Adachi Mitsuru's Tankoubon are also selling as incredibly well as ever, the 'Lolicon Boom' that is happening in the Manga and Anime world has meant the re-evaluation of Bishoujo characters, and the restoration of male fans as well. It's not a bad thing at all for the charm of Bishoujo featured in these works to attract attention in Shounen Manga.

However, the current situation is that there are no new Bishoujo characters among Anime characters. In addition to the fixation on techniques where you'll be accepted so long as you deliver cute girls and eroticism. No matter how you slice it, it's not a bright ingredient for the future.

Since the moment the word called Lolicon began to take a life of its own, it ceased being a 'sickness' in its original sense, and instead became more like a 'hobby or trend'. In addition to being a 'tool' for play. It wouldn't have experienced a boom otherwise. ——Everyone is searching for lost words...



Unless I find something else related to Fusion Product. I believe any articles I translate would just be in relation to the topics and people presented in these five articles.

Hirukokami: "I'm still a long ways from that."
Hayasaka: "You'll need to seclude yourself in the mountains with a Randoseru for about three years (laughs)."
In the Fusion Product Roundtable Talk, Hayasaka Miki told Hirukogami Ken he needs to seclude himself in the mountains with a Randoseru, and much like Azuma Hideo, Hirukogami had his own disappearance, causing his friends and work acquaintances to wonder what happened to him (i.e. did he commit suicide). And as it turns out, he really did 'seclude himself in the mountains' by becoming a monk, changing his name and everything. Ootsuka Eiji, the editor of Manga Burikko, did a piece on Hirukogami's departure.
Wada Shinji (Link); this author is first recorded instance of the word Lolita Complex appearing in Manga in 1974
While doing research, I found this digital paper with sources that was very informative about Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland as it is related to Japan:
Fixing the Image of 'Lewis Carroll=Lolita Complex' Under Japanese Sub Culture (Click)
Things I learned from the above:
1) A book in Japanese about the man behind Lewis Carroll was released around 1968~1969.
2) This book started a myth about Lewis Carroll proposing marriage to a 13 Year Old Alice Liddell that has been treated as uncontested common knowledge ever since in Japan.
3) Lewis Carroll became the poster-child of Lolita Complex, so when Wada Shinji did a Alice in Wonderland parody in 1974, the character playing as Lewis Carroll is accused of being a Lolita Complex.

4) In 1975, Alice in Wonderland was retranslated by Kadokawa, and the translator had commentary about the author that included the 13 Year Old Marriage Proposal myth.

It puts some perspective on the whole Alice-mania in Japan and stuff like 'Shoujo Alice' by Sawatari Hajime (he's a famous Japanese photographer who went to London to create a photobook that included erotic nudes of an 'Alice' that was paraded around Japanese newspapers as high art; everyone who lived through this period looking back at this still find it unbelievable something like that was published and heralded without any backlash).

I heard that Uchiyama Aki's 'Andoro Trio' (あんどろトリオ) released in 'Shounen Champion' is #1 in their popularity poll.
This manga was one of the few all-age manga Uchiyama Aki published. It was being serialised alongside Tezuka Osamu's serial, and according to Taniguchi Kei, both Uchiyama and Tezuka would include references to each other's mangas and would trade words with each other at company dinner parties at Akita Shoten.

You can see a glimpse of this recorded here:

Taniguchi's Twitter Conversation:



In any case, while it seems like this board is more interested in Kiwi Farms and Something Awful-esque gossip, I hope the articles I translated were useful, and hopefully someone here does their own research, since this stuff really, really needs individuals who care about presenting things correctly and accurately. Too many people are writing articles and basing things on an intellectually dishonest or ignorant understanding of the past; ignoring stuff that is inconvenient to their narrative, never going so far as to try contacting any of these people who are still alive and well to have them calmly explain stuff so we don't have rubbish like 'Lolicon Boom and Castle of Doom' or this complete blank on people like Kawamoto Kouji...
 
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Hexasheep93

varishangout.com
Regular
Very interesting read, I always like to know
the origins and evolution of trends and subcultures.
Also the Lewis Carrol thing is not unique to Japan, some in western academia still believe that he wanted to marry a kid, it is not a majority though.

Anyways thanks for translating all of this, I can imagine that it took a lot of effort:flan-yea:
 

Scornful Gaze

varishangout.com
Regular
Patron of the Forums
In any case, while it seems like this board is more interested in Kiwi Farms and Something Awful-esque gossip, I hope the articles I translated were useful, and hopefully someone here does their own research, since this stuff really, really needs individuals who care about presenting things correctly and accurately. Too many people are writing articles and basing things on an intellectually dishonest or ignorant understanding of the past; ignoring stuff that is inconvenient to their narrative, never going so far as to try contacting any of these people who are still alive and well to have them calmly explain stuff so we don't have rubbish like 'Lolicon Boom and Castle of Doom' or this complete blank on people like Kawamoto Kouji...
It was beyond helpful, thank you! I've already passed this thread off to people who have a more academic interest in anime and manga subculture. Part of the reason I'm learning Japanese is so that I might be able to help bridge this gap in knowledge, as a lot of people simply don't know the very basic things available in English. I've seen more than a few common tidbits of 'group knowledge' circulate in anime spheres myself over the years, much of which could be solved by being aware of creator blogs.

As for this place being more drama focused... can't deny that lol. I often joke that Kiwi Farms is our onee-san forum and there's a pretty large kernel of truth in there. :cirno-laugh:

So, thanks again for your work and for breaking up the normal cycle for Varis.
 

Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
Very interesting read, I always like to know
the origins and evolution of trends and subcultures.
Also the Lewis Carrol thing is not unique to Japan, some in western academia still believe that he wanted to marry a kid, it is not a majority though.
Anyways thanks for translating all of this, I can imagine that it took a lot of effort:flan-yea:
You're welcome. The time spent translating these 2~6 page articles makes me respect those who have the wherewithal to translate entire books featuring similar packs of condensed information.

I probably worded things poorly to express the Lewis Carroll thing. Fortunately, you can read Kinoshita Shinichi's digital paper; it's very thorough in how easily false information can be treated as fact with no one ever going back to revisit it to ensure they got it right. The Alice in Wonderland books I grew up with never included anything akin to the 13 year-old marriage proposal myth, so unlike me, Japanese kids had the mental image implanted into their heads with the 1975 Kadokawa retranslation that Lewis Carroll loved Alice with all his heart (and his peepee). You can dedicate entire libraries to all the Japanese entertainment media that treats Alice as a sex symbol, or her visit to Wonderland as an allegory to going through puberty or experiencing a wet dream.
It was beyond helpful, thank you! I've already passed this thread off to people who have a more academic interest in anime and manga subculture. Part of the reason I'm learning Japanese is so that I might be able to help bridge this gap in knowledge, as a lot of people simply don't know the very basic things available in English. I've seen more than a few common tidbits of 'group knowledge' circulate in anime spheres myself over the years, much of which could be solved by being aware of creator blogs.

As for this place being more drama focused... can't deny that lol. I often joke that Kiwi Farms is our onee-san forum and there's a pretty large kernel of truth in there. :cirno-laugh:

So, thanks again for your work and for breaking up the normal cycle for Varis.
You're welcome.
I wish you well in your studies of Japanese.
Kiwi Farms is partially responsible for me translating this stuff; after Azuma Hideo passed away, I decided to search the western internet for mention of him, and there was a Kiwi Farms thread, and the users there were behaving incredibly aggressive and condescending simply over him being the 'Father of Lolicon', embarrassing themselves thoroughly; one of those users had an avatar of Lynn Minmay from Macross who was a Loli character Azuma Hideo helped popularise back in those days (Link).

One of the things I hope to learn is why the west has a completely different understanding of Lolicon from even the contemporary Japanese definitions. I find Galbraith's explanation that the west is basing their definition on the book Lolita to be unsatisfying cause both the book and the movie by Stanley Kubrick were available in Japan, and Yonezawa described the book the way Vladimir Nabokov meant it to be, which is a love story (Link). So if the book is responsible for the difference, it's not the book itself, but rather something else that has caused westerners to perceive it differently from Nabokov and the readers in Japan. If I typed 'ロリ' and some random adult idol's name (e.g. 田中瞳; Hitomi Tanaka) in Japanese, I would get results describing her as a 'ロリ' and I never quite figured out how contemporary western users misunderstood Loli to exclusively or primarily mean a prepubescent girl.

Uchiyama Aki's 'Andoro Trio' (あんどろトリオ)

Completely forgot to mention that this series has experienced a full remaster. Several years ago, Uchiyama Aki had a Japanese variant of kickstarter to fund some revival projects, and I thought that would just be related to his digital manga. But apparently, they went over the entirety of Andoro Trio and remastered using both the Tankoubon and magazine versions. It contains stuff from other mangaka, including the one Yonezawa and Hideo Azuma recommended people read called Tori Miki' (とり・みき), and a bunch of other things. Hopefully this sets a precedent for works by creators I'm personally interested in getting their own revivals and remasters.

Trailer for the Remaster:

Interview with Uchiyama Aki and Ai☆Madonna:

Patrick Galbraith also did a short interview with Uchiyama Aki around when he was doing the Kickstarter-like thing (Link*). The interview was originally meant for one of Patrick's casual books, but the western publisher got cold feet and didn't want to include the interview cause of the word 'Loli'. So Patrick had to include it for one of his academic books. The interview answered a couple questions I had, but ultimately, I found it unsatisfying; Patrick didn't follow up some of Uchiyama's answers with questions for him to clarify what he meant; Patrick was too focused on Andoro Trio and Uchiyama's joke reputation as the Diaper Emperor. I think anyone who read the Roundtable Talk and noticed Uchiyama's eagerness to call himself a Lolicon would also understand what I mean by the interview feeling less like an interview and more like Uchiyama doing some form of damage control. It's even more obvious when you read Japanese interviews with Uchiyama from the 1980s (scans of these interviews are on Sad Panda), or visit his personal website (Link).
※I just noticed my old site name 'Taruby Paradox' had 95 papers mention it including one by a supposed Cultural History researcher; though the edu site wants me to upgrade to find out which papers (I cannot imagine any of these are serious in nature).

Tezuka Osamu Website that has a section dedicated to Uchiyama Aki:

This article was created along with the Andoro Trio remaster, and explains Tezuka and Uchiyama's relationship in Akita Shoten.


Uchiyama's 2-Page Pin-up with his thoughts on American comics:
Lemon_People_1983-11_Vol. 22_120-121.jpg

Source: Lemon_People_1983-11_Vol. 22 (page 120-121)


Source: "Comic新現実 04/2005"

shingenjitsu_vol4.jpg


These are anthologies with sporadic release dates Ootsuka Eiji published back in the early 2000s. Unlike the previous articles, you can still purchase physical copies of these books through Amazon.co.jp (Link) and so on. Just be aware that the 6 volumes of 'Comic Shingenjitsu' are different from the 5 volumes of the regular 'Shingenjitsu' Eiji published earlier. I would only recommend acquiring the latter if your reading level is above and beyond a regular Japanese citizen; a common complaint is that Eiji is not an easy read and even for me, I'm not skilled enough to properly translate his writings. Comic Shingenjitsu is also mentioned on the Manga Burikko homepage, since that's Eiji's pet project (Link).

Special Edition: The Spiritual History of True Otaku (Bibliographical Introduction)

By Ootsuka Eiji (大塚英志)

Starting here, over the next three issues, we will be publishing the 'personal history' of Hirukogami Ken——or rather the priest who was once called Hirukogami Ken.

Explaining Hirukogami Ken is, in some sense, more difficult than explaining Azuma Hideo. At the same time, his name has been more forgotten than Azuma Hideo. If one were to suggest those who unilaterally shouldered the barrenness and difficulties of those days, Hirukogami Ken is the only one comparable to Azuma Hideo; furthermore, it is my opinion his sacrifice was much more extreme.

If you were to flip through the pages again, you'll notice a character wearing sunglasses, a white coat, and a cap sometimes appearing in Azuma Hideo's works from the 1980s. Before 'Otaku' became public, this character that exhibited the public image of a 'Proto-Otaku' as a 'degenerate' is Hirukogami Ken.

In fact, he showed up at events like Comiket wearing such an outfit. He himself has already spoken about how he committed to the origins of 'Lolicon Manga' in the Doujinshi and publishing worlds, so I won't repeat that here. However, when trying to make those sorts of expressions public, I recall him being reasonably self-aware that he will naturally be under public scrutiny, so he dressed himself in such an outfit in advance.

On one hand, it's not light enough to be called 'Cosplay' and it's too risky to his personal well-being to be called 'parody', but on the other hand, it would still be problematic to dismiss it as 'masochism' or 'boasting of his own faults'. He was a being even I didn't want to look at directly. However, it's proof his strange appearance turned into the faintest critique of his contemporaries. It should be noted that before Nakamori Akio (中森明夫) caricatured the people who gathered at Comiket from outside with the word 'Otaku', Hirukogami Ken's disguise was already a 'critique' of himself being an Otaku. Even for me, his disguise was distressing enough I couldn't help but avert my eyes. Hence why the only vague memory I have of him, either the day Kagami (かがみ) passed away or the day afterwards, was the moment I passed by him somewhere in Byakuya Shobo (白夜書房) and exchanged a greeting that was neither a bow nor a nod.
Kagami Akira (かがみ あきら) (Link)

The Genesis Lolicon/Bishoujo Manga creators that gathered towards Azuma Hideo had no choice but to fade out in the form of being devoured by the following generations (generally the delicious parts of new genres and styles are entirely kidnapped by the groups that come around two generations afterwards). Among them, the disappearance of Hirukogami Ken puzzled us in a way that was different from that of Azuma Hideo. At some point in time, rumours circulated, like an urban legend, that Hirukogami Ken had left home to become a priest. They sounded too good to be true, and to be honest, I didn't believe them, but every time he was mentioned, someone would say he left home and became a priest; however, no one knew where the rumours originated. Certainly, that outfit of his spoke volumes about the depths of karma in his 'Otaku expression', but since it was a part of him he unilaterally shouldered, saying he left home to become a priest was taken as a joke that was too good to be true. However, there was perhaps a selfish desire among his contemporaries that would allow at least one person to live that way.

That being said, if I hadn't started 'Comic Shingenjitsu', my memory of him would remain in my mind simply as an episode of an urban legend.

However, in the previous issue when I visited Azuma Hideo for the first time since returning from his second disappearance, Hirukogami's name unexpectedly came up. Suddenly, a letter arrived saying it was alright to make copies and show others. Indeed, it was difficult to simply look upon the author of 'Disappearance Diary' (失踪日記) before my eyes, but I was reunited with the 'current' Hirukogami Ken without time to prepare my heart. In the letter, the name was different from his old name, it was his name as a priest.

Meaning he actually left home to become a priest. It wasn't an urban legend. And when I read that Kagami's death was one of the decisive reasons for his own fade-out, everything rang true.

I almost 'suicided' my magazine in the wake of Kagami's death (nevertheless, I announced a suspension of publication without permission which became a big issue with the agency). I believe I was driven by feelings I cannot be here any longer. Furthermore, anywhere that wasn't here, no specific place, aah, it was a sense of resignation and determination that I must be getting old.

I'm aware some creators still resent me for trying to 'suicide' the magazine. However, the matter of both me and them staying 'here' forever is also my way of accepting Kagami's death.

Hirukogami Ken wasn't directly involved with my magazine, but the 'Lolicon Manga magazine' that was almost a joke project sold like crazy, and as the colours of the eyes of the publishers and the people gathered there changed, Kagami died and taught us in the tides of opportunity that 'jokes' have their limits.

Hirukogami Ken also 'left' that place after Kagami's death, but he literally left it to become a priest. Suffice it to say, it would've made sense back in those silly days.

The originals of his private letters will be serialised in the coming three issues from this one, written at the recommendation of Azuma Hideo. After we published the previous issue, the letter reached me. Azuma Hideo wrote him in recommendation that he write. After reading through them, I thought I had no choice but to publish them.

One is, of course, a testimony of the times. The testimonies of the parties concerned regarding the prime origin of 'Moe' are extremely important as primary sources. When I wrote 'Spiritual History of Otaku', I wrote that with the desire to see a number of testimonies about my contemporaries, but so far, none have come out. In that sense, there's value in making them public. As I wrote in the afterword of my book, it would be problematic if that book became the 'official history'. However, more than that, I felt those who lived during that period had a responsibility to accept his way of life in his later years.

Some young writers don't appreciate the fact I read Azuma Hideo's 'Disappearance Diary' in the memory of my contemporaries, but that is just an excuse for their failure to accept what they should have accepted even in their own time. Even in their own time, there should be people who lived like Azuma Hideo and Hirukogami Ken.

I'll reiterate, whether you find Azuma Hideo or Hirukogami Ken disappearing or leaving home to become a priest to be facts that are 'funny', or even if you try lifting the facts themselves, there's no meaning in it. Even if it's 'funny', the unfunny parts still remain.

The important thing is to not avert your eyes from the points where their words and existence are thrown out. Of course, readers may simply reach out to them out of curiosity just for 'fun', but in that respect, they are far more skilled in 'art' than in 'literature'. However, just because it's funny doesn't mean you'll be forgiven, so something like a difficult sediment will remain within you. Stances of 'amusement' or 'critique' are ultimately nothing more than flinching at foreign objects, so it's important to simply flinch and swallow their carefree lives with the sediment.

The sediments that are swallowed will one day become their words within each reader. And——. I don't care about the rest. They say Hirukogami Ken sometimes acts as a begging priest in the crowd, so if you see a begging priest in the crowd, I don't care if it's him or not, donate some change from your pocket. For now, let's pray for world peace out of respect for him who loves Mother Theresa.

Hirukogami Ken laughingly said that some Yakuza had trouble collecting money by making foreigners dress up as priests, but even if you bow your head to a fake priest, I believe it's not a bad way to pray.


It's interesting that Kagami Akira was never mentioned in any of the previous articles in this thread. For anyone that is a fan of mecha anime, particularly the kind that feature cute girls and mechs, Kagami Akira was a huge influence, but sadly passed away at the age of 26, only achieving 2~3 years of professional work. It's unfortunate he still doesn't have an English Wikipedia page dedicated to him. Ootsuka Eiji dedicated the first volume of Comic Shingenjitsu to Kagami Akira, since he was an important figure in his Manga Burikko Lolicon magazine.

shingenjitsu_vol1.jpg

Here's some scans of the contents and a brief summary shared by Ehoba (Link).

Kagami Akira Fanpage:

The host of this website is super dedicated to recording everything Kagami Akira. Be sure not to overlook the button to go to page 2.
 
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boloros

varishangout.com
Noguchi: "I went to a marriage interview the other day."

Everyone: (Bursts into Laughter)

Noguchi: "You see, the matchmaker introduced me to the other party as a mangaka. So the woman in question didn't have any further background information beyond that. And when we met and did our greetings, she asks 'what kind of manga do you draw?'."

Everyone: (Bursts into Laughter)
pff

Azuma: "Yeah, just the ones where she's tied up at the watermill."

Hirukogami: "Somehow, that's really cute. Ufufufufufu."
Glad to know he had some fun and bonded with others, even the mirrored localization of Disappearance Diary is a gripping manga. A must read, he even made it a fun one.

1667783759458.png
 

Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
Glad to know he had some fun and bonded with others, even the mirrored localization of Disappearance Diary is a gripping manga. A must read, he even made it a fun one.
Unlike nowadays, Doujinshi were collaborative efforts, so Azuma was on friendly terms with all sorts of people like Konoma Waho (狐ノ間和歩) who helped Azuma with Cybele. According to Kazuho's disciple, Kazuna Kei (計奈 恵; Twitter), Kazuho's still alive, just retired.

Disappearance Diary had all realism removed and the unfunny parts omitted; Azuma Hideo shares the realistic and unfunny stuff in the 3rd issue of Comic Shingenjitsu, and later in the supplementary book '逃亡日記'. He also did a second part of Disappearance Diary called '失踪日記2 アル中病棟' I believe hasn't been translated into English yet.

The scene with Angie tied up at the watermill was also included in the Lolicon Complete Works (ロリコン大全集) that Hirukogami Ken edited and supervised, and then was substantially edited by Kawamoto Kouji (川本耕次) and Ogata Katsuhiro (小形克宏) from Gunyusha:
i-img750x522-1652328500li6o1g648068.jpg

"Since it's the Lolicon period~, let's release the definitive edition! The 'Lolicon Complete Works'!!" (Kawamoto Kouji)


Source: 『創』1982/12

The_Tsukuru_1982_12.jpg


'The Tsukuru' is a magazine that values freedom of speech and expression, and offers articles about various industries one wouldn't find in the mass media. Their early issues are sparse on photos or illustrations, but this article by Takatori Ei, a man who used to work as the third editor-in-chief of Erogenica, the magazine Taniguchi Kei debuted, offers its own flavoured perspective on the Lolicon Boom. It introduces many more names and focuses on certain individuals more clearly, making it a good starting point to getting to properly understand the kind of hostile environment creators like Hirokugami Ken will find themselves in before their fade-outs.

The Tsukuru 1982 December Issue Contents: Link
You can also read digital samples of their more recent issues.



The Masterminds of the 'Lolicon Boom' Over the Youth

By Takatori Ei (高取英) (Wikipedia) (Twitter) *Current Status: Deceased (2018)

■The Majority of Lolicon Students are Virgins

Currently, it is said 'Lolicon' is growing popular among the youth.

Since the publication of Vladimir Nabokov's novel 'Lolita', the term Lolita Complex had been psychologically established as an indicator towards a certain sexual proclivity. Nakobov's novel 'Lolita', released in 1955, is a work in which a middle-aged man, Humbert Humbert, is seduced by the sexual charm of a 12 year-old Bishoujo, Lolita.

The Lolicon that is currently booming among the Japanese youth is not like the novel where a middle-aged man embraces a girl. It's a much softer boom, in fact, it refers to the proclivity towards loving Bishoujo found in photographs and Manga, that has come to be called a '2D Complex', rather than real girls.

If you were to translate the word Lolicon, then it would be Bishoujo Fancier or Bishoujo Preference. Of course, what's supporting the boom are imaginary girls, so realistically speaking, they're nothing more than objects treated as an onanism pet. A platonic love towards the Bishoujo in photographs, Anime, and Manga composes the Lolicon that is popular among the current youth.

That is to say, the Lolicon that is in vogue is an idea that mainly includes the elements of a game.

The 'Lolicon Complete Works' (ロリコン大全集) (Gunyusha Publishing; Toshi to Seikatsusha Release) is a Tankoubon that acts as a compilation for the youth of the Lolicon Boom. Its first edition of 23,000 copies sold out, and currently 40,000 copies are in print.

This book was edited by Kawamoto Kouji (Age 29), who acted as the editor-in-chief of the vending machine magazine 'Shoujo Alice' from 1980~1981.

The first editor-in-chief of 'Shoujo Alice' was Komukai Hitomi (小向一実), who was also the president of Alice Publishing at the time. Soon after, Kawamoto Kouji became editor-in-chief, and was in charge of editing 'Kannou Gekiga' (官能劇画) and 'Monthly Peke' (月刊Peke) at Minori Publishing.

The 'Lolicon Complete Works' is a collection of Lolicon works chosen by Kawamoto Kouji.

He succeeded in getting Hideo Azuma, whom he had known during his days as a Manga editor, to draw erotic Bishoujo Manga.

Hideo Azuma is a cult figure with enthusiastic fans, and a Mangaka who has won the SF Nebula Award in the Manga category. Hideo Azuma, who was a fan of Hayashi Hiroko (林寛子) and Agnes Chan (アグネス・チャン), serialised Bishoujo Manga in 'Shoujo Alice', and received passionate support from Lolicon Manga fans.

A quote from Kawamoto.

"It's not just Azuma-san, even exceptional Mangaka like Fujiko Fujio (藤子不二雄) and Tezuka Osamu (手塚治虫) have a Lolicon disposition. Manga is a moratorium. The current youth continue to read Manga cause none of them want to grow up. Since Manga-mania are moratorium humans*, for them sex equals Lolicon. University students are Mothercon when they enter and become Lolicon when they graduate. Due to them being raised in co-education from a young age, they hold no admiration for women of their generation. When you do co-ed, you get disillusioned to insolent women. Most Lolicon students are virgins. Since women are realistic, they seek permanent employment (marriage), but men are becoming romantic. In fact, they're starting to desire elementary schoolers that cannot have sex as a dream."
※T/L Note: Moratorium Human (モラトリアム人間) is used to describe young people who find it difficult to adjust themselves to an adult world.

When co-education was introduced in 1948, boy students were thrilled to sit side by side with the girls they pined for. Ishizawa Youjirou (石坂洋次郎) depicts a love letter incident in 'Blue Mountain Range' (青い山脈), turning the heartwarming co-ed episode into a novel.

Its theme song of both avalanches disappearing and flowers blooming to a bright, young singing voice, over time, was sung as if we take hands in a folk dance, it will smell sweetly of black hair in 'High School Third Year' (高校三年生) by Funaki Kazuo (舟木一夫).

In the movie 'Blue Mountain Range', it depicted Shinko also shouting back to the confession of the male student shouting 'I love Shinko-san—!' with 'I also love Rokusuke-san—!'.

In the movie 'High School Third Year' publicly released in 1963, high schoolers by the names of Kuraishi Isao and Sugata Michiko were depicted in a scene where they kissed by the riverbed.

The love hymns of co-education ends here.

In 1973, the third year middle schooler Yamaguchi Momoe sang 'whatever you wish, I'll do anything' and straightly expressed her desire in 'Blue Fruit' (青い果実). You would suppose male students of the same generation being pressed down by the entrance exam wars being what's worsening the relationships between men and women, but on the contrary, it is believed Yamaguchi Momoe suggestively sang the mentality of female students, ashamed of their virginity, leaping towards sexual adventures. Yamaguchi Momoe sang 'I'll give you a girl's most precious thing' in 'One Summer's Experience’ (ひと夏の経験) and 'his voice is different, his age is different, his dreams are different. His moles are different. Forgive me, I’m comparing him again with my last year boy' (Imitation Gold). Later she begins to sing, 'you only embrace me or not according to your mood. After all, a woman always waits. Boy, where the heck did those ideas came from?' (Play Back Part II).

A magazine for high school girls writes '16 years old is a sexually experienced age', and in comparison, boys, unable to fall in love, must have grown addicted to their onanism pet (2D Complex).

When speaking of the Lolicon Boom, even including Ito Tsukasa (伊藤つかさ) and Matsumoto Iyo (松本伊代), the mass media calls them Lolicon. However, it is quite normal for university students to yearn to be high school stars.

With the succession of high teen idol singers, it's very naturally a strategy of the music industry to make these girls target the admiration of the university and high school demographic. What's more, the number of students remaining virgins even after becoming university students is increasing, and having no actual sexual relationships with female university students of their generation, they're obsessed with idol singers. From the perspective of an older generation, their infantile side should be highlighted.

In other words, in the universities that have been converted into a leisure land after the school wars, focusing on studying for exams, one of the 'plays' for students, who are adults in body but children in mind, are the Sailor Suit Research Club in Kyoudai (Kyoto University) and the Virgin Alliance in Waseda University.


■The Product of Onanism Pet Culture

Assuming the youth are becoming Lolicon, the origin is the spread of the masturbation is harmless hypothesis resulting in their infantalisation, their moratorium where they refuse to become adults.

In the mid 1970s, the 'Gekisha' (激写) by Shinoyama Kishin (篠山紀信) of 'GORO' became a hit, and 'Weekly Playboy' (週刊ブレイボーイ) and 'Heibon Punch' (平凡パンチ) became more and more popular. As magazines trended towards pin-ups (onanism pets), eventually vinyl books appeared. Features on 'how to persuade women', and magazines that once published practice and theory changed into pin-ups to provide onanism pets.

Excluding some cases, the sexuality of university and high school students isn't being freed. Instead, virginity is increasing massively. Unlike their male peers, the sexuality of female university and high school students are advancing in practice and theory, and despising the virginity of the 'gentle generation', they've started to run towards middle-aged and sexually open partners. Lolicon is the product of the onanism pet culture of the youth who abstain from sexual experience.

This process can be diagrammed as the following.

Early 60s: men learn to be professionals, and women cherish virginity.

Late 60s: the hypothesis that masturbation is harmless spreads and the slogan becomes 'from masturbation to sex' and for women, 'from love to sex'.

Early 70s: for men, from cohabitation to marriage, and for women, premarital sex is the norm and virginity is considered shameful.

Late 70s: for men, virgins that only masturbate increase, and only some work hard. For women, middle-age men are considered wonderful, and amateur sex techniques are reproduced in women's magazines.

Early 80s: men run towards wank magazines and vinyl books, the Lolicon youth appear. Women are fine with female university students working as vinyl book models or at no-pantie cafes. Sexuality gradually escalates to magazines writing to high teens that '16 years old is a sexually experienced age'.

Onanism pets are, in the end, an object of adoration, an illusion. In fantasy, that which can be depicted with complete freedom of their pose are not real women.

The youth disappointed by real adult women, including those with virgin desire, changed their object to female elementary schoolers and turned into Lolicon.


■The Originator of the 'Alice Boom'

Before the Lolicon Boom, after the early 70s, there was an Alice Boom.

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), the author of 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass' known for their illustrations by Tennyson, was a professor of mathematics under his real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He, like Humbert in 'Lolita', is unable to stifle his feelings and falls in love with the girl who used to model Alice and proposes marriage, but is rejected. Lewis Carroll is also said to have been obsessed with photographing girls and even taking pictures of them nude.

It could be said that this Lewis Carroll was the originator of the current Lolicon youth.

In the 1970s, Kuwabara Shigeo (桑原茂夫) (Age 29), who is the current representative of the editorial production Kamaru-sha (カマル社), edited the 'Supplement Modern Poetry: The World of Lewis Carroll' (別冊現代詩手帖 ルイス・キャロルの世界) (Shichou-sha; 思潮社), which featured photographs of girls by Lewis Carroll, and edited Sawatari Hajime's photobook 'Shoujo Alice' that used the 8 year old girl Samantha as its model. 'Shoujo Alice' includes nude photographs that do not hide the 'slit' of the girl, and is currently referred to as the Lolicon Bible.

A quote from Kuwabara Shigeo.

"It all started when I was editing Lewis Carroll and I saw Carroll's girl photos in the German magazine 'DU' by Tanemura Suehiro (種村季弘), and I thought 'oya'. I was a fan of Shiratori Mizue (白鳥みずえ) in her ballerina costume when she modelled for a Shoujo magazine back in middle school. I wonder if everyone has these sorts of proclivities? Regarding Alice, though there was nothing sexual about it, you could call it sexually stimulating, but the current Lolicon Boom is too direct and hesitant in whether they want to touch little girls. The model, Samantha, recently visited Japan*, but it wasn't made public. The beautiful girl wants to be left alone as a mysterious girl, and doesn't want to ride the Lolicon Boom."
※Note: Samantha Gates, who was an actress, would've been between 14~17 years old when she made this visit to Japan. She played Daisy in the BBC's 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' TV Movie and she and her brother were photographed for a Led Zeppelin album cover.

Writing the plays called Shoujo such as 'Shoujo Kamen' and 'Shoujo Toshi', Kara Juurou (唐十郎), who developed a particular Shoujo theory by referring to the Shoujo in Tsuge Yoshiharu's (つげ義春) manga as the 'theory of bobbed-cut Shoujo that don't laugh', writes in the afterword of 'Shoujo Kamen', 'boys, before the sea, dream of all sorts of adventures, but girls, opening the disposal lid of the cafe's toilet, peer at the end of their life'.

A quote from Kuwabara, who is the editor of that 'Shoujo Kamen'.

"Everyone was scattered but doing similar stuff. You could say at the time, they all had a Shoujo Complex."


■The Bishoujo Lineup Appearing in Third-rate Gekiga Magazines

The Alice Boom that centred on Kuwabara Shigeo was not directly followed up by the Lolicon Boom. That's because the Alice Boom image was in 'literature' and the Lolicon Boom image was strongly in 'Manga'. However, in 1979, as 'Shoujo' (Kawade Shobo Shinsha) is edited by Kuwabara as the culmination of 'Shoujo Complex', 'Manga Erogenica' (漫画エロジェニカ) (Kaichosha・1979 June Issue) used the word 'Lolita Complex', introducing it in a form that foresees the following Lolicon Boom.

'Image Adventure 4 Shoujo—Mysterious and Erotic Fairy—' (イメージの冒険4 少女-謎とエロスの妖精-) (Kawade Shobo Shinsha) was published. This is the 4th instalment in the series, following 'maps', 'picture books', and 'literature'.

In any case, the chronic Lolita Complex is growing, and 'Shoujo' special features illuminate the situation in our Japanese archipelago.

In addition to the favourable essays by geniuses who are Shoujo patients in the current Japanese archipelago, these bizarre books with Shoujo pictures, Shoujo photos, and Shoujo movies were published at the same time as Shinoyama Kishin's '135 Girlfriends' (Shougakukan), and surprisingly when compared to best-sellers, they changed into an epidemic of deep and quiet long-sellers.

This article treats the Lolicon Boom as a disease. It goes without saying 'Lolicon' and 'Sick' are two words showing signs of becoming buzzwords, written half-in-jest.

And this is how Kuwabara Shigeo, the mastermind behind the Alice Boom, and 'Manga Erogenica', which was the first Ero-Gekiga magazines to adopt Lolicon, are connected.

'Manga Erogenica' was the earliest Ero-Gekiga magazines to take the 'Bishoujo Lineup' and narrow the target to Shoujo being the sexual objects. The main authors that drew Shoujo rape were Mangaka such as Nakajima Fumio (中島史雄) Muraso Shunichi (村祖俊一) and Dirty Matsumoto (ダーティ松本), but Taniguchi Kei, who is currently known as a Lolicon Mangaka, made his debut from this magazine.

The characters drawn by Uchiyama Aki, who is said to be Emperor of Lolicon Manga after Azuma Hideo, are more Biyoujo than Bishoujo. Uchiyama, who drew for Ero-Gekiga magazines, is serialising his 'Andoro Trio' in 'Shounen Champion', and is being called a Mangaka who granted civil rights to Lolicon. He draws little girls in diaper play and SM play even in the Shounen magazine 'Shounen Champion' without dropping the voltage, and gained popularity among boys. This is proof the sexual curiosity of boys has grown even stronger since Nagai Go's (永井豪) 'Harenchi Gakuen' (ハレンチ学園).

While the Shoujo Azuma draws are Alice (Shoujo Virgins), the Youjo Uchiyama draws are Lolita (Shoujo Harlots).

Harenchi_Gakuen_Vol_06.jpg

Harenchi Gakuen by Nagai Go. This manga single-handedly turned Shounen Jump into the best-selling Shounen magazine. Nagai gave the elementary and middle schoolgirls the bodies of Playboy models, earning him the ire of the Japanese PTA, who would harass him constantly for being a poor influence on boys. In the comic's finale, Nagai had the PTA show up with the American reserve army, driving tanks into the elementary school, firing mortar shells and machine guns, to murder all of the children.

■The Boys Who Read Shoujo Manga


What played a major role as a layer of the Lolicon Boom are Manga Doujinshi (Fanzines).

According to Hara Maruta (原丸太), Japan's first Lolicon fanzine was 'Arisu' (愛栗鼠) (First Issue December 1978), which called itself a Lolicon literary magazine, but what triggered the boom was the Lolicon Manga magazine 'Cybele' (シベール), which continued from April 1979 to April 1981.

Since then, Lolicon Doujinshi began being published one after the other, making it so there are 20~30 magazines appearing at Comic Market, a spot sale of Manga Doujinshi. The target of erotica for a number of Lolicon Manga Doujinshi were the Bishoujo Clarisse who appears in the anime 'Lupin the Third', and the Bishoujo Hilda, who appears in the anime 'Future Boy Conan'.

One of the factors that supported the Lolicon Boom were the youth (some of whom were girls) of the Anime generation, and the youth who read Shoujo Manga. The youth that began to enthusiastically read Shoujo Manga were from around when Hagio Moto (萩尾望都), a Mangaka born in 1949 and part of what is known as the Year 24 Flower Group (花の24年組), Ooshima Yumiko (大島弓子), Takemiya Keiko (竹宮恵子), and Yamagishi Ryouko (山岸涼子) started producing excellent works, but for the Lolicon youth, the Bishoujo Marybelle from 'The Poe Clan' (ポーの一族) (Hagio Moto) and the Bishoujo (who is a cat) Suwano Chibi Neko from 'The Star of Cottonland' (綿の国星) (Ooshima Yumiko) were also objects of adoration.

Lolicon Doujinshi mixed in the elements of Anime, Shoujo Manga, Shoujo hobbies (Otome-chic), and Ero Manga to produce the many things that followed.

The majority of the people at the centre of the Lolicon-type fanzines are of university age. Many of these groups are the kinds of dummy groups that make up the university Manga and Anime research clubs.

The current so-called Lolicon fanzine boom is largely due to the power of Azuma Hideo (previously mentioned), an all-mightily popular Mangaka for boys, girls, and adults, and it should be considered his influence spread even further into the general public through 'Cybele'.

And with this boom, the taboo of sexual expression in Manga and fanzines was shattered, and in addition to the influence of those like Uchiyama Aki (Noguchi Masayuki) whose roots stem from erotic Manga (so-called Ero-Gekiga or Third-Rate Gekiga), it is now currently in a sort of an avalanche state.

Hirukogami Ken is an illustrator that draws Youjo rape and Youjo SM in the Doujinshi 'Youjo Fancier' (幼女嗜好) (Published September 1980). He made his appearance in a mysterious style at Comic Market, which sells Doujinshi, wearing a coat, hunting cap, sun glasses, and a mask around his face. At Comic Market, which has the elements of a carnival with youngsters walking around dressed as Manga characters, Hirukogami became a Lolicon-mania star with his perverted criminal looks.

Of course, this is also a game of pretending to be a 'perverted criminal'.

"Well, how do I put this? At first, it was a bad joke, you see. But when I heard 'Nii-san, Nii-san, there's an interesting Doujinshi' from every corner of the venue dressed like this... it turned out to be very nice."

Hirukogami Ken answered such in an interview for the October issue of 'Fusion Product'. He answers the reason he doesn't feel attraction to adult women with 'I guess you could say I have a disgust towards mothers'. He says, 'Shoujo are beings I want to protect and also beings I want to attack', but of course, that's all in illustration; he's nothing more than an imaginary abuser.

Though he's named as the person responsible for supervising the 'Lolicon Complete Works', it was because of his popularity as a character that Kawamoto Kouji edited it.


■Hentai and Executers are the Evil Path?

There are already fifty kinds of Shoujo photobooks being published. After Sawatari Hajime's 'Shoujo Alice', the most acclaimed works are 'Little Pretenders・Small, Prim and Proper Girls' (リトルプリテンダー・小さなおすまし屋さんたち) (Million Publishing) photographed by Yamamoto Takao (山本隆夫). They say it has sold 70,000 copies of five girls in various poses. Right before the Lolicon Boom.

'Romance' (ロマンス) (Takeshobo), photographed by Aida Garo, is said to have sold over 100,000 copies. As is the case with the photobooks, the buyers of these books aren't limited to the so-called Lolicon youth, but are believed to be mostly normal adults. That is to say, since the parts that need to be smeared with ink on adult women isn't necessary for Shoujo models, they would seek them out in exchange for adult women.

The people that say 'make the poses more explicit' and 'don't cut out the slits!' are likely not Lolicon. Lolicon don't think that way, they instead say such things like 'it doesn't need to be nudes, just show us more cute girls', 'they don't have to wear makeup', or 'frilly clothes are better than nudes'. Being naked isn't an important element for them. ('Bishoujo Photobook Collection Lolicon Don't Obsess Over Nudity' Mutsu Katsuhashi)

Of course, there are extremists in every world. That is the Doujinshi 'Mutation' (突然変異) which aims to 'challenge all taboos'.

This Doujinshi, that became the centre of Keio University students, ran articles such as Omoshiroi-ism Anti-Principle Research, including the obituary of Ishihara Yuujirou (石原裕次郎). As the '6th Year 4th Group Class Newspaper', it also ran Lolicon articles such as 'Pubic Hair from Murata Kyouko-chan's (村田恭子) Bloomers!?'. At some point, 'Hey! Buddy' (ヘイ!バデイー) (Byakuya Shobo) began to be serialised in the '6th Year 4th Group Class Newspaper', and touching upon Article 175 of the Penal Code, in an article written in 'Lolicon Hakusho' (ロリコン白書) (Byakuya Shobo), they called out to middle schoolgirls, and thinking something was weird, mothers were informed and then they were promptly scolded, receiving a warning from the Metropolitan Police Department, deviating from the somewhat kind-hearted Lolicon youth.

As for this 'Mutation', when the mass media picked up the Lolicon Boom, it turned out to be good material for labelling it as 'Hentai' and 'Sick'. Even on TV Asahi's 'Tonight', they have a bitter experience highlighting this point.

Lolicon can be divided into the following:
①Majority Idealists=Azuma Hideo Bishoujo fans.
②Hentai=Underground 'Bepi' club members that take nudes of little girls without the parents' permission.
③Executers=Things that lead to crime like the Roman Polanski Shoujo rape.

Besides these groups, there's the money-making groups who create Lolicon photobooks and Shoujo vinyl books that cannot be sold elsewhere.

Of course, 'Mutation' aren't Executers. However, it's true most of the kind-hearted Lolicon youth are looked upon with disdainful eyes by society due to the Hentai and Executers.

Furthermore, it is believed the most extreme Lolicon as a fantasy is the lurking desire to destroy angels (Holy Being=Shoujo).

Mutatation_01.jpg

The cover of the first issue of Mutation (突然変異). The mini-magazine was created as an excuse to talk to girls and take pictures by three of the Keio University students (Kurumada, Nishimura, and Ootsuka). They took cameras and a notebook, and went to Kurumada's elementary school, where he used to be beaten by the vice-principal, to conduct an interview with 4 students.

■The Future of Lolicon University Students


The Lolicon Boom is a mixture of photobooks, illustrations, Manga Doujinshi, Ero Gekiga magazines, and so on.

In 1982, the Lolicon specialty magazine 'Lemon People' (Amatoria-sha), co-authored by Ero Gekigaka and Doujinshi Mangaka, was launched. 'Hey! Buddy', an Erograph magazine with a strong flavour mainly featuring Kondou Masayoshi's (近藤昌良) Shoujo photographs, was given the subtitle 'Beloved Lolicon Magazine' since its May issue. However, 'Lemon People' did not sell many copies, so the number of pages was increased to become a luxury book and was converted into a magazine for maniacs, and 'Hey! Buddy' did not sell well in the Lolicon magazine issue, and has now abandoned the catchphrase 'Beloved Lolicon Magazine'.

It seems things are starting to 'settle down' again. Publishers are groping in the dark for the next boom. However, the Bishoujo fanciers will never vanish. So long as romantic and sentimental youngsters don't vanish.

A quote from Takakuwa Tsunehiro (高桑常寿) (Age 27), editor-in-chief of 'Hey! Buddy'.

"I believe the Lolicon Boom is due to the fact female university students have become strong and high schoolgirls have mostly lost their illusion. The people who come directly to our company to purchase 'Hey! Buddy' are meek individuals like school teachers showing off photos of their students, the kind that thought the elementary schoolers were cute. I heard that the person who drew for the Manga Doujinshi 'Cybele' was also a middle school art teacher."

The majority of the youth responsible for the Lolicon Boom are not like the movie director, Roman Polanski, who actually committed Shoujo rape, and they're not Humbert Humbert who was caught in Shoujo Lolita's coquetry, they're closer to Lewis Carroll, unable to embrace Shoujo Alice, who is said to have remained a virgin all his life, passionate about Shoujo photography.


Harenchi Gakuen by Nagai Go.
Speaking of Nagai Go, Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora (夢次元ハンター ファンドラ) was Nagai Go's foray into creating a Hard Lolicon Anime, featuring lesbians and SM, but the original draft was rejected by Kaname Productions; they wanted to do an anime they could sell overseas. So most of the hardcore elements were tuned down with just the preparatory remnants of Nagai's original draft and the merging of his manga style and the Lolicon artstyle remaining.
Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora.jpg

Mutation (突然変異)
This Doujinshi is infamous due to its head editor Ootsuka Masami, who mostly goes by the penname Aoyama Masaaki (Wikipedia). Takatori Ei, who wrote this article for The Tsukuru, also contributed an article to Mutation, hence his familiarity with it despite not mentioning Aoyama by name. There's a lot to say about Aoyama in regards to what effect he had on Japan, so I'll quote the following.

"Aoyama Masaaki made his mark in the legendary campus magazine 'Mutation' (突然変異) while a law student at Keio University, and a genius editor who had the most negative impact on Japan in the 80s and 90s, changing the Ero-magazine 'Hey! Buddy' (ヘイ!バディー) for fathers into focusing on Lolicon. He spread drug culture through 'Dangerous Drug' (危ない薬), and towards the end of the century, set trends in bad taste and brutality in 'Dangerous No.1' (危ない1号). A punk-type think tank Tokyo Corporation representative. He committed suicide by hanging on June 17th, 2001. Passing away at 40 years old."

Aoyama was a pioneer of demonic writers that would discuss a wide range of underground scenes from drugs, Lolicon, scatology, and freaks to cult movies, techno, frontier music, heresy, and spiritual worlds. Among Japanese writers who wrote about drugs, he was unique in that he advocated for hedonism. If you fancy yourself someone that would mock people over the internet for being 'unable to separate fiction from reality', Aoyama would put you to the test in trying to separate his fiction from reality. Any serious study of Lolicon in Japan would require researching Aoyama's writings to get an idea of the environment that would come later when Otaku Bashing was in season.

Mutatation_02-04.jpg

The covers for issue 2~4 of Mutation. Despite its appropriately unsettling appearance, Lolicon is a main focus of the mini-magazine. Aoyama wrote an article in the first issue going into detail about his plan to kidnap an orphan. He describes himself going to the children's department of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to obtain a child welfare facility list that included locations, telephone numbers, capacity, and so on. Then he would later talk to these facilities on the telephone to narrow down which ones would hire a man, and went through the legal hoops to register himself properly as an achievement over losers who have to deal with parents, like the teacher he described that got 6 elementary schoolgirls pregnant and got screwed over cause he picked the Japanese Teacher's Union that dismissed the guy with no retirement allowance. Aoyama says the guy should've joined the Ministry of Education; if you're not a union member, you would get double the retirement allowance during a dismissal.

But regardless, I'll probably translate a couple things Aoyama had to say in regards to the Anime and Manga industry, or the Photobook industry as it relates to overseas (i.e. the United States). I could translate one of his ordinary articles that puts Bob Saget's filthiest joke in history to shame, since unlike Saget, Aoyama's genius IQ puts him in a security mindset where you can imagine the filthy stuff he describes happening in reality.
 
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Hexasheep93

varishangout.com
Regular
Interesting. I just skimmed your post so Ill probably edit this after I read it with more time.

-doujinshi.
Im not that familiar with the industry, but I was under the impression that doujishis were still collaborative efforts is that not so anymore?

-translation

Its fascinating that, at least from my westerner perspective, a lot of this seems to be the result of some type of counter culture that rebelled against Japanese traditionally conservative views on sex, art and expression.

I actually had heard about the whole executioners underground thing before.
Not exactly the best chapter in the story:senko_disgust:

Ive not heard of Aoyama before but you certainly made me curious about him. I like to think Im pretty resilient with this stuff but if that excerpt about the orphanage is any indication. It may me too much for me😅

Still, I think I can see what he is trying to say with all that... I think
 
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Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
-doujinshi.
Im not that familiar with the industry, but I was under the impression that doujishis were still collaborative efforts is that not so anymore?

-translation
Ive not heard of Aoyama before but you certainly made me curious about him.
Nowadays, people mostly do their doujins solo; I wouldn't be surprised if I were to learn at least 95% of the Doujinshi comics for Comiket 100 didn't even include a simple guest illustration. Like I helped several Circles translate their stuff, and only one of them, a Taiwanese artist called Kanko Bokujou, credited a couple of his friends for helping him complete his work. Most everyone else I helped was a loner suffering from minor to severe social anxiety.

I couldn't find a single result for Aoyama Masaaki in English, so that isn't surprising.
Despite his absolutely foul mouth, the only time he ever got arrested I believe was in the 1990s for cannabis possession.

Blog detailing the mass media reaction to Mutation issue 2: Link
Aoyama Masaaki's World Articles: Link
(Aoyama's World) Click '次回の記事>>>' to proceed to the next article(s) (total 83). It's not short, but neither is his Wikipedia page. It has illustrations and stuff of the magazines and other stuff he either dipped his toes in or edited. Aoyama also contributed to the 'Lolicon Complete Works' Hirukogami Ken did; in one article, Aoyama would mention how he got to interview the first Otaku before the word Otaku existed.


Source:『宝島30』1994/09
Takarajima30_1994_09.jpg


Name Cheat Sheet:
Aoyama Masaaki (青山正明)
Genius Keio University law student.

Shimizu Kazuo (志水一夫) (Wikipedia)
Shimizu did a Doujinshi review in Fusion Product under the penname Hara Maruta, so he's been a presence that's been mentioned in this thread previously. He's the one that makes this talk Manga or Anime-related, so ctrl+f Shimizu if you're only interested in that.

Saida Sekiya (斉田石也):
A writer who worked with Kawamoto Kouji.

This was written in 1994, but goes over the stuff that happened in the previous decades, and also provides some information on the evolution of Lolicon and its spread overseas.



Lolita Period


Aoyama Masaaki, Shimizu Kazuo, and Saida Sekiya Three-man Talk "Exams, Women's Rights, and Lolita Culture"

Three men involved in Lolita media since its inception speak about what went on behind the scenes of the current boom!? The excessively kitsch Lolita culture born from high mass society!

Moderator: Takechi Futoshi (武市太)


──"There is a word called French Lolita, but today I would like to discuss the so-called Japanese Lolita, and I would like to hear what you have to say. The special characteristics of the Japanese Lolita Boom, the background it was born in to become a boom, and the following trends. I would like to capture it in the widest possible perspective, but first, could you tell us about the time Lolita was born in Japan?"

Saida: "1966, the photobook called '12 Year Old Mythology' was first, you see."

──"Can we consider that as the beginning of its commercial, its visual development? In the literary world, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko (澁澤龍彦), for example, talked about Lolita in a much earlier stage."

Saida: "If you're going that far, then things start to get messy. For example, depending on how you read it, Kawabata Yasunari's (川端康成) 'The Izu Dancer' (伊豆の踊子) and 'Snow Country' (雪国) would also be included in this category."

Aoyama: "By the riverside, there's stuff like 'Sleeping Beauty' (眠れる美女)."

Shimizu: "If I remember correctly, 'The Izu Dancer' was 14 years old. The same age as 'Sailor Moon' (laughs)."

Saida: "So you're suddenly connecting 'The Izu Dancer' to 'Sailor Moon' (laughs)?"

Aoyama: "Why not? What he said makes sense (laughs). Strictly speaking, it has been around for quite some time in the world of painting and literature. For example, 'Pepi's Experience' (ペピの体験) published by Fujimi Roman Bunko. Back in 1971, it was serialised several times in an underground erotic magazine called 'Erochika' and the original work was around long before it entered Fujimi Roman Bunko. Well, even if it had the foundation for one to enjoy such paintings and literary works as a personal hobby, it wasn't established as a single world. The thing that came out as a portent of the genre was '12 Year Old Mythology'."

Saida: "That's right. But that wasn't made with Lolicon in mind."

Shimizu: "Back then, it was more or less pure photography."

Aoyama: "It was art (laughs). So, continuing from there, the ban on pornography was lifted in the Netherlands, Denmark, and other countries around the early 70s, and stuff like child porn started coming out. Like 'Moped*' swept through Japan with a 'dah'..."
※Moped came from the United States; the material was from a nudist colony.

Saida: "You mean stuff like 'Nymph Lover', right? From around 77 to 78, men embracing girls began to enter Japan."

Shimizu: "I believe 'Little Pretenders' was a big deal. Everyone was looking for it cause the slits were properly photographed (laughs). And then it was immediately reprinted (laughs). It was all just a substitute for the real thing. Cause the ban on showing pubic hair hadn't been lifted then like it is now."

Aoyama: "Hair was bad, but slits were perfectly fine. That was their reasoning, wasn't it?"

Saida: "That was how it was back then. Nosaka Akiyuki's (野坂昭如) trial, Takahashi Keiko's (関根恵子) nudes, whatever, hair was hair. If it didn't have hair, it didn't count as a sex organ. So a child's genitals still didn't count as a sex organ, it was just an excretory organ."

Shimizu: "Also, so long as you're young, it didn't matter if you had an adult body. But that would be different from Lolicon in the truest sense."

Saida: "The one that catered to all those needs was 'Shoujo M' (少女M) with its completely grown-up bodies."

Aoyama: "When I saw 'Shoujo M', it reconfirmed my latent desires, giving me a sense of relief that made me go 'ahh, thank god', it became my excuse..."

Saida: "Hm, so it wasn't just me."

Shimizu: "Everyone were going 'thank god~♥' (laughs)."

Aoyama: "Since then, more and more books came out and there must've been quite a few people who were newly awakened to Lolicon. Whether it be a desire of turning Shoujo into a sexual object or a seedling of a mentality, it feels like those instincts began to expand rapidly."

Saida: "At the time, there were university students that treated being a Lolicon as if it were a fashion, like they were on the cutting edge of fashion."

Shimizu: "There was a story about the Lolicon-type stuff disappearing from the neighbourhood vinyl bookstores whenever there was an SF convention in Asakusa (laughs). They say those guys that went to the SF convention would buy them on their way home*. They'll do anything that's fashionable."
※This incident was covered in the 1981 issue 17 of Animec.

Aoyama: "I heard about that as well. They must've been excited during SF conventions, having everything sold out."

Animec_1981_17.jpg

The 1981 Issue 17 of Animec cover; the article in question has been transcribed here (Link). Maybe I'll translate it, since it's kind of funny.

■Lolicon as an Atavism


──"Even if Lolita nudes came out as a substitute, when you consider the difference in the West, for example, there is a Christian ethic against sexuality in the West, and they're much stricter in the way they treated their kids. So why is Japan turning to Lolita rather than fully mature women...? Is Japan special?"

Shimizu: "Perhaps it has something to do with the fact Buddhism forbids sexual relations between normal men and women. Hentai has been considered fine for a long time in Japan, people didn't mind Kabuki or Takarazuka, but normal relationships between men and women were regulated. On the presumption women couldn't be brought to the battlefield, homosexuality traditionally existed, and girls' love was also a tradition since the period of 'The Tale of Genji'. Homosexuality wasn't taboo in Japan until the Taisho Period. The Taisho democracy suddenly made it bad. I never got the reason why, though."

Aoyama: "I read a book called 'Sexual Word Records' (性の世界記録), and during the Edo period, in Yoshiwara, there were things that couldn't be described as anything other than babies that were raised exclusively for fellatio. In those days, people got married by the age of 12 or 13. It would be like if 6th graders or middle schoolers got married, but that's pointing out the obvious."

──"When you consider the special soil in Japan, I was shocked when the Lolita photobooks came from overseas, I thought I went back to my ancestry."

Aoyama: "Right. What we took as a given had been repressed for a lo~ong time, then thanks to that coming, images of guys doing strange and Hentai stuff started floating to the surface."

──"The Lolita at the time would've been like a hundred flowers blooming in profusion, right?"

Aoyama: "That would be from the early 80s to the mid-80s when 'Hey! Buddy' was being published. Around the 80s, the town magazine 'Pia' gained popularity, and people decided that boys and girls should play together, so more playgrounds were built, and they played together, but the reality was awful. The illusion was broken, and a whole army corps came stampeding for the girls."

Saida: "Back then, with the tone of 'Hey! Buddy', it must've felt like collecting photobooks and reading books wasn't enough. So people went out into the city to take pictures. Like whenever they had a chance, they would slip into the shadows (laugh). There's a page called 'Shoujo Bullying Photos' and it felt like you were there in the room, stripping her..."

Shimizu: "You're talking about 'mostly criminal photos', right?"

Saida: "It's nothing other than a crime (laugh). However, it was a period where the readers could immediately become the creators. The current contribution magazines weren't like that. From around 'Hey! Buddy', the number of pages for reader submissions increased dramatically, like one day, some guy shows up with a cardboard box saying 'I took this many Shoujo photos' and later that guy became a Sensei. I, myself, contributed to 'CANDY'."

Aoyama: "I also wrote about how to get European child pornography in my university's mini-magazine, and then I was called by the editor-in-chief of 'Hey! Buddy' (Takakuwa Tsunehiro) (laugh). Even when I started creating Lolita books, the people I worked with were not professional writers or artists. There were only people like Saida-san, who was a salaryman, at the time."

Shimizu: "The same thing happened when Anime boomed. When it comes to the people who know Anime, it was nothing but fans. And they had a problem where they had a small budget, so there were mook editors who had amateurs make them in the back. There were even cases of independent filmmakers suddenly making a movie and turning professional."

Saida: "If you look at it from the perspective of Lolicon magazines, you would see the Manga 'Lemon People' and the photo mag 'Hey! Buddy' side by side. After that, you would see stuff like 'Manga Burikko' and Taiyoh Tosho's 'Alice Club'."

Shimizu: "'Manga Burikko' wasn't always like that, and then it suddenly switched to Lolita. It was doing special features on Lolicon Mangaka one after the other."

Aoyama: "It was the same for 'Hey! Buddy'. It used to be an ordinary ero-book, and then it turned into Lolita."

Shimizu: "Wasn't 'Shoujo Alice' a big deal in the late 70s? The vending machine book. In there, Azuma Hideo-san drew Lolita Manga. It was big. The vending machine books back then had all sorts drawing for them, it was interesting."

Aoyama: "Vending machine books weren't just about Lolita, they were also about scatology, drugs, and the occult, a lawless zone. They were truly the most interesting media."

Manga_Burikko_Timeline.jpg

Manga Burikko (漫画ブリッコ)began in 1982, but its poor sales caused its original editor-in-chief to pass the baton to Ootsuka Eiji six months later in 1983, who turned the magazine into the 2nd Lolicon Manga magazine after Lemon People. Under Eiji, half the readership demographic were reported to be teenage girls.

■Lolicon's Connection to Manga Doujinshi


Aoyama: "The guys doing Manga Doujinshi started to draw more and more in the Lolicon-style, but how did that unfold?"

Saida: "At first, they were parodies. Stuff like 'Heidi, Girl of the Alps', 'Candy Candy', and 'Urusei Yatsura'.

Shimizu: "Shortly before those, it was the first time a heroine with a bust appeared in an Anime. Tsuji Masaki-san (辻真先), who's currently active as a detective writer, wrote the main scenario for 'Mahou no Mako-chan' (魔法のマコちゃん). Before then, none of the girls had breasts (laugh). After that, the same staff made 'Cutie Honey' (キューティハニー), and then 'Majokko Megu-chan' (魔女っ子メグちゃん). With the same main staff."

Shimizu: "So after a while, the people who came and went to Azuma Hideo-san's place got to know each other at Manga Gallery (まんが画廊; a Manga Café) and invited Azuma-san as a guest to create the Doujinshi called 'Cybele'. Azuma-san was a pioneer of the work drawn in Seinen magazines with a Shounen magazine artstyle, but with a clearly sexual bent."

Shimizu: "However, when it boomed, it was suddenly discontinued. Everyone became frustrated and started publishing their own Doujinshi one after another. It was a time you could sell anything, it would disappear in all the excitement. Even the stuff with my art sold (laugh)."

Shimizu: "Also, the existence of 'Gundam' was big, 'Gundam' was awesome. The bodies of the female characters were all carefully drawn and you could tell who they were even if they hid their faces or wore the same clothes. So doing nudes of 'Gundam' in Doujinshi became common."

Shimizu: "Copies were secretly being made as it was going around until then, but the one that properly did it first in Doujinshi was the female character nudes special edition of 'Gundam', a Doujinshi by 'Nonki' (のんき), who's currently working as a professional. Also, there was 'Venus' that was the Anime-version of Vinyl books acting like its sister magazine. These two had been recalled by the print shop."

Shimizu: "After that, now it's 'Comic Box', but back then, there was an article asking 'What is Lolicon Doujinshi?' in the Bishoujo special feature in 'Fusion Product'. I wrote it in 1981 (laugh), there I introduced the contents of 'Cybele', but for the others, I only had the cover pages. Everyone had the illusion that since 'Cybele' was the only one shown, while the others were not, that 'Cybele' was the best (laugh). So when people went to the next Comiket, they had it in their checklist and bought it (laugh). Back then, nude scenes were all the rage in Anime. There was also the influence of Lum-chan; there were enough nude scenes in that Anime to be videotaped and released as a Doujinshi (laugh)."

Shimizu: "However, the very first nude scene in Anime, apart from 'Honey', was Mori Yuki's warp scene in 'Yamato'. Also when the word Lolicon was used in Miyazaki Hayao-san's 'Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro', it must've been triggered by the Bishoujo special feature in 'Animec' as a way of accepting it. The person in charge of the special feature is the current editor-in-chief of 'Newtype' (ニュータイプ). The people associated with Lolicon back then are getting ahead in life (laugh)."
I'm imagining everyone spaced out as Shimizu went on this rant. But all roads lead back to Fusion Product. Also, he's referencing the same issue of Animec as the one above.

■Lolita as the Ideal Female Image


Aoyama: "The Anime and Manga types were also the same as the photo magazines and Executers. They all had their roots, but the same trigger. With a 'well then, me too, me too'. The number of people turning into artists and the number of fans were steadily growing. In parallel with such a boom, the relative status of men has steadily declined. It's a matter of fact the stronger a woman becomes, the more she loses her innocent side."

Shimizu: "Right around the Lolicon Boom, wasn't there an Onee-san Boom? In short, for the Lolicon, there's girls they can deceive, and for the Onee-sama, there's women who'll deceive them. There's a theory they all share the same root."

Saida: "The term Peter Pan Syndrome became popular."

Aoyama: "Also, I believe the exam system and the development of the sex industry are linked. For example, men in the past would go to the red-light district when they're around 16, but now there's an unspoken understanding to put that off until you enter university. So, they're being repressed."

Aoyama: "It's only natural for delusions to expand when you repress them, and taking advantage of that, erotic media was developed and porn mags were sold, leading to a rapid abundance of masturbation. Then with the videos and magazines, their delusions rapidly expanded and when they're finally the age they can do the real thing, they end up masturbating instead. Whether they like it or not, their delusions towards women steadily expanded until, at last, they enter university and the ban is lifted."

Aoyama: "However, the reality is that dating is annoying; you have to buy them all sorts of things, you have to keep taking them somewhere, and the sex is heavy and stinks (laugh). It never meets the pink nipple they were imagining. There's a huge gap in that area."

Shimizu: "Women demand a fifty-fifty relationship, but it's a fact men are in the end saying they don't want to do that."

Aoyama: "Around the time 'Hey! Buddy' collapsed, Takasugi Dan-san (高杉弾) said this during the 'Playboy' roundtable talk, but in short, he said until he reached the third year of high school, he masturbated with his penis upright, full of energy and vigour, but when he entered university and had sex with women, he said that no matter how many times he tried, he couldn't muster the interest to get it up. That kind of thing is very common."

Shimizu: "That's a very symbolic story."

Aoyama: "They no longer desire university students, and either lower the target age, or raise it up to Onee-sans or mothers. Sending them off to a rich masturbation life in a sea of delusion. I feel this area's the base of the boom. They thought nether regions were pretty and beautiful, but the reality is they look like leftover Sukiyaki meat. 'Huh, what's this?' (laugh). And so they run off into their pseudo-worlds. Starting with something from Manga or photos. What they're seeking there are the ideal and innocent Lolita-type female. Ones with firm and supple skin, and pretty, pinkish nipples."

Shimizu: "Even among the Mangaka-sans who appeared from the so-called Lolicon Doujinshi, there's plenty who draw them for their own use (laugh)."

Saida: "As for that, even in the world of novels, it was the same for me (laugh). Writers such as ○○ and ×× are still doing it now. They wank when they write, they wank when it's being edited by the proofreader, and then they wank again as they read the end result (laugh)."


■Adult Albeit Lolita

──"In the Lolita world, I get the impression sub-divisions are always forming. For example, Lolita with big breasts; I doubt such things exist in reality, but there isn't any problem there, is there?"

Aoyama: "In the world of Manga and Anime, when you draw a pure, adult woman, she's a fake; she's been set in such a way anyone can tell it's a lie. In order to have a certain degree of realism, you have no choice but to lower her age."

Saida: "From my perspective of writing novels, the situation has already regressed. If you write with the vision of elementary and middle schoolers who live on the cutting edge of reality, you will fail. To have a pure middle schooler, who is mostly ignorant about sex, you would need to prepare something realistic, like a cram school teacher or cram school. However, that's just doing the same thing as the kids from the old days."

Shimizu: "In Manga, there would be things like aliens or androids. Then there's the kind of patterns where a cute cat changes into a girl. Like a pet."

Aoyama: "Make it old-fashioned, bring home a cat, she came from outer space, or she's a goddess (laugh). That's the only way to think about it. With an innocent face and a plump, adult body, she's the boxed garden work being demanded."

Saida: "In that sense, the worlds of Anime and comics are better able to bring such things into being."

Shimizu: "There's talk of Agnes Lum being a harbinger, or a prelude, of that. A baby-face with a well-developed body. It's directly connected to Lum-chan from 'Urusei Yatsura' (うる星やつら).

Maji_Bura_Burning.jpg

The 1990s dabbled in describing ロリ (Loli) characters with 巨乳 (Big Breasts). The earliest instance of the compound ロリ巨乳 (Oppai Loli) I found was in 2001 as the tentative title of the manga '禁断のロリ巨乳(仮)' (Kindan no Rori Kyonyuu) by '据虎涼' (Suetora Ryou). A manga by that title wasn't released, but another manga by the same artist was released in 2002 called 'マジ・ブラ・バーニング' (Maji Bura Burning), and it has '乳萌え作品' (Boob Moe Work) written on the cover.

■Collection Libido


Saida: "I don't know much about porn media, but when it comes to the so-called readers of the current ero books, you have the Lolicon on one side and on the other, you used to have those obsessed with female university students, but now not so much; they couldn't empathise with them and when they went to high schoolers, they were exposed to bloomers and sailor suits, it's no joke to say they're finally flowing to middle schoolers."

Saida: "So the reason things swelled up now is due to the guys flowing in from the bloomers and sailor suits. To put it bluntly, isn't what's stirring the current industry 'timid perverts' rather than Lolicon? I believe the former are much more common. The Asashi Shimbun reporter incident and the Yoshimoto Kogyo comedian incident were widely reported, things got scary for men to stick their hands out, so in the end, they had no choice but to escape into the world of media."

Aoyama: "A world where the specialty magazine 'Alice Club' publishes 80,000 issues."

Saida: "So the most distinctive change is the cataloguing of intentions. Looking at the reader contributions, it's such that they shout 'ya—y, I got it' when they obtain a 30,000 yen book at premium market price at the bookstores for 20,000 yen. Then there's the one who bought the photobook taken by the late Kiyooka Sumiko (清岡純子) 'Petit Fairy' for 450,000 yen. Just collecting. Such individual maniacs that cannot get an erection unless it's a Shoujo or feel nothing but loathing and disgust if there's hair may be hiding in a dark and narrow world, but I don't get that feeling so much from the readers of 'Alice Club'. Also, what feels like media is coming in contributions to my place as 'well, well, such a momentary thing'. Whenever it turns hot on the news any day or month, there's some incident where children are playing in the river in only their underwear or something at school, where there's girls in bloomers wandering around the corner of the screen."

Shimizu: "They must be running their videos 24-7."

Saida: "They must be. They're always looking for stuff like that. What in the hell are they looking for? I wonder if they would be satisfied with being hired."

Aoyama: "Libido bends more towards their collection than ejaculation. For them, that's somehow better than an orgasm. Well, there's also computers and various sorts of things, but..."


■Japanese Lolita takes the World by Storm!

Aoyama: "In the future, I believe Japanese Lolita will expand overseas. Meaning if you give the Japanese sex industry money, they'll provide the same service. I did some data collecting in Hawaii before, but from what I hear, America is different. Negotiations begin after purchase, and if they don't want to do something with you, they say no and keep all the money. In the end, it seems they've been brought into a normal relationship between men and women. Since their customs require that men be submissive, I asked if there were anything like Otaku there, and there were (laugh). There's enough groundwork to flow right in and set up shop."

Saida: "In fact, during the boom, I heard an overseas business department came to buy books in bulk from certain Lolicon shops in Tokyo. Books without a bookstore code such as 'Candy' or 'Alice'.

──"Sounds like America is accepting some of it, eh?"

Aoyama: "I heard that 'Urusei Yatsura' and 'Aah, Megami-sama' (ああっ女神さまっ) are already out there."
The greatest irony is the number of Americans unaware these titles are Lolicon-related.

Shimizu: "The title there is 'Oh, My, Goddess' (laugh)."

Saida: "The same is true for porn media; the reason 'Petit Tomato' went crazy was cause American porno shops were importing more and more Japanese stuff, which later was considered a problem. I couldn't help but laugh when I heard it, but it seems there's no problem so long as it was a Japanese Shoujo. But when a book with three white girls drifted in along with the rest, they said 'this is outrageous' and were caught. So, people wondered what the hell Japan was doing, and it seems 'Petit Tomato' were quickly caught."

Aoyama: "Even when I was doing Lolita stuff, I received many letters from Holland. They wrote that they'll pay big if they're sent Japanese Lolita photos."

Saida: "Something like that's practically unheard of in America, so whether it's embracing or just standing there naked, that stuff is very valuable for them."


■Being a Man is Hard

Aoyama: "The reproduction of illusions will be continuing into the future, after all, I wonder if men will desire Shoujo in the real world. Or if it's legally impossible, I wonder if international marriages will become popular. Most of them may not be Lolita, but there's men marrying innocent-looking Asian females. This isn't directly related to the Lolita phenomenon, but I believe it's a similar trend. Purity feels like it only exists in the media world or the third world. I mean, in a man's mind."

Saida: "Even in the visual world, a practical problem is that if you create purity guys don't want, it won't be accepted by the readers."

Shimizu: "Even in SM novels, they use the word choice in 'Tokyo Story' (東京物語) (laugh). Over the mountains, far to travel, people say, purity dwells."

Saida: "When it comes to that, I wonder if Lolita media will keep going as it is now. In a place like an unfulfilled dream."

Shimizu: "Perhaps, but then Lolicon Manga will get boring (laugh). People with no experience pretty much just imitate other people's Manga. Everyone's the same."

Aoyama: "Getting bored with the state of media is a huge problem! Not only Lolita, but even scatology and pregnancy stuff, makes you want to take a burp from the media consumption."

Saida: "Desire itself is already expanding further and further, so..."

Aoyama: "If it keeps going, even looking at an average women will make you say 'someone like you is just no good'. What I'm trying to find is if there's anything other than a woman that can make a dick stand erect. There isn't much, though (laugh). Well, the conflict between men and women, even if you separate it from Lolita, will keep expanding endlessly. Women have an overwhelming sense of reality, like going somewhere or having sex. At first glance, they seemed to have evolved, but they're doing it with old dudes."

──"Put a switch on a woman and a man would be a fool to go out to play (laugh)."

Shimizu: "That's a way to put it."

Aoyama: "It's strange for a woman to desire a third year high school guy. Since that kind of guy is someone pushing through the centre of the exam system, he must be immersed in a pseudo-world to some extent. Rather they are choosing construction workers or vocational school students. Despite being a construction worker, his face is that of Kusakari Masao (草刈正雄) (laugh)."

Saida: "Such a guy doesn't exist (laugh)."

Aoyama: "I believe OL of first-class companies with a strong libido will be combining construction workers and vocational school students. On second thought. It's not Adam and Eve, but genitals are better if they're hidden; there's a story in America where everyone who joins a nudist colony becomes impotent. Cause they're looking at cocks and pussies all year round. I've also seen thousands of pussies, including photos. I'm already tired of such things. When I think about it that way, sexual liberation may not have been a good thing. People can easily buy porn videos and porn books, and if you pay money, you can get a cute girl in through customs. If you keep doing that sort of stuff, your... thoughts will sink lower."

──"Well, women may have it good, but it's really hard 'being a man' (laugh)."



There's a bunch of extra articles giving context to some of the stuff mentioned in the talk, but practically none of it is Anime or Manga related. Just stuff 'Hey! Buddy' and about whether the photobooks will experience a revival through overseas Otaku, the extreme child pornography that came from the United States and Europe, how overseas there are paedophile organisations trying to lower the age of consent and similar political groups not existing in Japan despite there being so many Lolicon, concluding the lack of those groups is due to most Japanese Lolicon being content with simple media consumption through comics, video, and gravure. Aoyama wrote a couple, but it's just him mentioning how there's all sorts of Lolicon and what truly piques his curiosity are the bona fide, clinically-diagnosed paedophiles and crap about tricking girls to ingest semen through yogurt and water fountains.
 
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Hexasheep93

varishangout.com
Regular
I think that has become something of a common trend among many japanese artists, even those not working on lewd stuff seem to be quite withdrawn. I wonder why:anime-think:

Theres a lot of stuff westerners like that they are unaware or just refuse to believe its related to lolicon. I mean the whole rebecca thing from cyberpunk comes to mind.

This section was certainly... different lol Im just gonna say Im glad it aint the 70s or 80s anymore.

This is probably a dumb question but would you consider yourself a lolicon?
 

404

varishangout.com
Thank you for sharing that was a really interesting read that gave me a lot to think about, especially on the psychological side.
I will do my own research as you suggested as I have very little knowledge on the history of lolicon and now I want to know more!
 

Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
This section was certainly... different lol Im just gonna say Im glad it aint the 70s or 80s anymore.

This is probably a dumb question but would you consider yourself a lolicon?
Hm, I'm not sure what you're referring to; like if you're talking about the readers becoming creators and running around with cameras, taking photos of girls without their permission, then 2020 is magnitudes worse with every man, woman, and child possessing a palm sized computer (smart phone) that can digitally stream awful stuff to the internet. It's so bad, I read Facebook moderators require therapy sessions, since the people mostly uploading the awful stuff are normal and nice looking folks, shattering the illusion one can trust another individual based on their eyeballs and gut-instinct.

As for the question, considering I sexually imprinted on fictional characters so that I find the ones with a Loli-face to be the only kind of face I find attractive, I would technically be a Lolicon as per the Japanese definition much like everyone else who grew up with such media. But as these articles show, there's many kinds of Lolicon, and Otaku came along to separate the Lolicon 2D-Complex types between Anime Otaku and Idol Otaku, and Moe came along as Lolicon 2.0. The most useful definition of Moe, before it was ruined by the idol industry, is that in the 3D world, one has a fetish, and in the 2D world, one has a Moe. So like how there's Alicon, Lanacon, and so on in the 1980s to differentiate the various Lolicon camps, I would have Kemonomimi-Moe. The bottom attached image would be my bible:
Kemomimi_Culture_Research_2022.jpg

The Kemonomimi blog writer, Shironekoma, I mentioned several months ago finally compiled his decade-worth of research he's been slowly releasing as Doujins into a 300-page hardbound book detailing everything Kemonomimi-related. Its entire 50 years of history, the details on various titles catering to specific ear types, its spread overseas, and so on (Amazon Link).
Thank you for sharing that was a really interesting read that gave me a lot to think about, especially on the psychological side.
I will do my own research as you suggested as I have very little knowledge on the history of lolicon and now I want to know more!
You're welcome. I hope your own research bears fruit. If you can read Japanese, the best digital paper to start with is this one (Link).

Also, I would be quite appreciative if someone with an imgur account could access friendsofsandwiches' gallery. He says he has many vintage issues of Lemon People, which is a gold mine of Lolicon history. I would gladly chip in to help cover the costs of him acquiring a large enough scanner so he can scan magazine double-pages if I had the means of contacting him privately.

Another book someone should acquire and scan is this one (Link). Its original pricetag was too hefty for me upon its release, but resellers want even more for it (on Suruga, the seller wants 9,000 yen). It's a magazine dedicated to the history of PC88, it contains interviews with many people, including the Mangaka who did the Lolita Syndrome game for Enix as part of their programming contest to scout for talent. It also has a bunch of stuff Nihon Falcom related, so it might be possible to get those Falcom-maniacs to chip in. It also includes a CD with restored PC88 games you can play on Windows (Table of Contents).


Source:『ACROSS』1996/09

ACROSS_1996_09.jpg


Just a short one this time by people I expect are familiar names rather than forgotten ones.

Otaku Subculture Free Talk
"Broaching the Greatest Otaku Taboo: What is Otaku Sex?"


Takekuma Kentarou (竹熊健太郎) (Wikipedia):
Writer and manga author; wrote the instructional book 'Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga'.

Okada Toshio (岡田斗司夫) (Wikipedia) (Youtube):
The founder of Gainax; self-proclaimed Otaking with his own Youtube channel discussing everything Otaku-related.


Unpopular, Lolicon, 2D-Complex... When it comes to heterosexual relationships, Otaku don't have a particularly good image. What do they want in sex? The long unspoken Otaku mystery is now revealed.

Moderator: Ui You (宇井洋)

■Why are Otaku Lolicon?


―—Though the theme for this occasion is Otaku and sex, let's begin by discussing the ecchi books for Otaku Okada brought for us.

Okada: "Ero books can be roughly divided between photos, Manga, and novels, but what's seen a recent growth are Lolicon novels for Otaku. For example, France Shoin (フランス書院), who are famous for their ero-novels, publish them, but I've leafed through a quarter of the ero-novels for Otaku published in Japan."

Takekuma: "Do you like them? (laughs)."

Okada: "I like sex through media."

Takekuma: "As for ero-books for Otaku, the longest established one is 'Lemon People'."

Okada: "Though it's long established, its popularity is waning. What's alive and well is 'E-LOGIN'. It's an Eroge book being published by ASCII (アスキー), but through another company called Aspect (アスペクト). Cause Eroge are the computer games most people are playing. What's supporting Japan's PC98 are nothing but Eroge."

Takekuma: "Okada-san, himself, was originally a guy making bank through Eroge."

Okada: "Yes. But Takekuma-san was also writing for the Lolicon magazine called 'Manga Burikko' back in the 80s."

Takekuma: "That's because I couldn't find work anywhere else but there at the time. Everyone was like that back then. It was a place they could take up the pen. That's why I, myself, didn't have very many of what you would call Lolicon hobbies. However, everyone around me had those hobbies, so I got to see the process of the Lolicon Boom from up close."

Okada: "Back then, Lolicon was an idea. Actually, girls didn't mind and the idea known as Lolicon was treated as cool. I wouldn't say it was morally corrupt, but it was twisted. Back then, the Lolicon photobooks didn't sell very well."

Takekuma: "I was in my first or second year of high school when Sawatari Hajime's photobook 'Shoujo Alice' came out. Well, though it was a girl, surprisingly her slit was photographed. I also bought it. Lolicon maniacs from our generation were mostly shocked by 'Shoujo Alice'. Well, if I went towards Lolicon from there, I didn't tread very far. It's just the people around me who started along that path. The First Impact is the photobook 'Shoujo Alice'. I believe there's no doubt about this. Before that, Lolicon only existed among the dilettantes. The real underground. But that book was how it immediately spread above ground."

Okada: "Afterwards, there was a middle-aged female photographer called Kiyooka Sumiko (清岡虹子) (Mama). She had a photo collection called 'Petit Tomato' that spanned 12 volumes, and Karasawa-san (唐沢) saw them at the used bookstore for 17,000 yen. I was thinking 'uwaah', but they really were 17,000 yen per volume."

Takekuma: "That's already a legend among the dilettantes. I just thought of them as dirty photos."

Okada: "Ever since she passed away, their used value went up."

Takekuma: "In any case, in the late 70s, before the Anime Boom, 'Shoujo Alice' came out. So the Anime Boom happened. And with that, the cel-art maniacs came out of hiding. That was probably around 77~78. So, around 79, the Ero-magazine called 'Gekiga Alice' from Alice Publishing was released. In there, Azuma Hideo started doing something like a deep and surreal erotic gag Manga. They were incredibly popular among the Otaku. Him doing something so outrageous with the cute, Tezuka Osamu-style was quite the shock. In Japan's Lolicon history, this would be the Second Impact. Around that time, Lolicon Doujinshi began appearing at Comiket. Linking them to the beginning of Anime parodies. First, there was the Anime Boom, then the desire to violate pure Anime, like Heidi or Anne of Green Gables (赤毛のアン), naturally welled up. Among maniacs, the medium where you could honestly draw that were Doujinshi. I believe it was around the 80s when that trend began to manifest itself."

Okada: "Speaking of crossing the final line, it was the Hiromori Shinobu's (currenly Nonki) Lana violation Manga. By then, Miyazaki Hayao lost complete control over the guys drawing any kind of Anime fan ero-parodies."

Takekuma: "Those who violate that which is holy."

Okada: "Speaking of which, Hiromori Shinobu did that sort of stuff to both Lana-chan and Clarisse (both Miyazaki Anime heroines). The guys who saw them thought he was a fiend, so that's how he got his break. Since then, everyone could get away with anything."

Takekuma: "It was around 82~83 when Hiromori Shinobu broke through like that. Well, at the time, he was an inept Mangaka."

Okada: "Otaku called it Lolicon, but it was a style. They play at being Lolicon outside, but once they return home, they're mostly mild-mannered. Similar to how the people who used to be involved in student movements were forced to read Marx and Engels when they gathered in their clubs, they play at being a Lolicon while outside and read Shounen magazines when they're back at home. That's where they diverge from normal people. Outside, most of them had not just photobooks of girls, but Lolicon books in their club rooms, but when they return home, they find that stuff boring. So when the Miyazaki Tsutomu (宮崎勤) incident happened, what surprised those around me was that there was someone in this world who actually liked little girls. I thought it was just a style, but there was someone who was serious about it."

Takekuma: "Well, regardless if it's a dilettante's hobby, reality is reality, hobbies were mostly hobbies, it's just like Okada-san says. At first, it might've purely been wank-off material. They figured out it was fine to photograph a little girl's nether regions. It was fine before she grows hair down there."

Okada: "When I was doing an Anime company in Osaka, I read Lolicon Manga with the staff and there was a commotion. Only one among them was the real deal. He was around 30 years old, and he said 'I also took photos of stuff like that'. When he said that, everyone pulled away (laugh). They pulled away all at once saying, 'wah, the real deal's here'. It was as if a real soldier came to a place where everybody was pretending to have a war. At that moment, we realised we ourselves weren't Lolicon, but fashion."

Takekuma: "Well, when the fashion guys grow in number, some among them will misunderstand and the real deal will also show up. Besides, I believe there is some percentage of the population who are genuine, regardless of fashion."

ACROSS_1996_09_Lolicon_for_Otaku_eng.jpg

I find it interesting they used ロリコン顔 (Lolicon Face). I wonder if that's an error for ロリ顔 (Loli-face) by the moderator, or if that is an actual term used back in the 1990s. France Shoin is also responsible for their Bishoujo Bunko (美少女文庫) brand, it's been around so long, I even imported erotic light novels from it. Though one of the writers, Wakatsuki Hikaru, said on her blog those kinds of books are called Juvenile Porno (ジュブナイルポルノ), which is the most awkward choice of words to describe erotic novels that use Anime and Manga style for their covers and illustrations (Wikipedia).

■Otaku Cannot Get Drunk on Themselves


Takekuma: "When it comes to understanding relationships between the opposite sex, I believe there is a big turning point in adolescence where you decide between going to Manga and Anime, or going to music. The point that decides whether you're an Otaku or a fashion bastard."

Okada: "It's my opinion, but it's the difference in whether you want to be the 'manly guy' or the 'big dummy that cares only about looks'."

Takekuma: "When you join a band with a guitar, isn't there generally a style you need to fit in with the guitar? If it were nowadays, they would be DJs rather than guitarists. People need to make sure their fashion is appropriate for the occasion."

Okada: "Also, Otaku don't drink. I believe we have something in common in that regard, but Otaku aren't good at getting drunk. On both alcohol and on themselves."

Takekuma: "Ah, there's quite a few. I've also been drinking a beer or two recently, but I don't drink till I'm drunk."

Okada: "Basically, people who go into fashion or music are drunkards, drunk on themselves. Themselves and their opinions."

Takekuma: "Yeah, you might be onto an important point."

Okada: "I've been thinking about this for a long time, but Otaku don't get drunk. So, they're basically sober. There's something cool about that. Otaku go in the direction of increasing their ability to understand the world or heighten their cognitive skills to become humble old geezers."

Takekuma: "They might be getting drunk on humbleness (laugh). Meaning, they're embarrassed to be seen by people in an absent-minded state. That's why I also don't like people seeing my sleeping face."

Okada: "Also, they don't understand pleasure."

Takekuma: "They believe they make a stupid face when they have sex, and that alone makes them feel cold. Sex is not a world where you can immerse yourself. Perhaps there's a part that finds it embarrassing to being seen with such a stupid face. In Otaku psychology."

Okada: "In my opinion, the most severe Otaku can't even masturbate."

Takekuma: "Yeah, those exist, don't they?"

Okada: "I believe they probably do. Cause no matter what anyone says, stimulation alone is not enough. They need to imagine something. I wonder if the guys who can't do it are the exception. However, despite saying such, I believe that's a way of thinking the intoxication-types don't understand. Even in relationships with girls, when faced with the reasoning of normal people who say 'but you'll be unpopular with the ladies', Otaku would respond, 'then why do you need a girl?'. Is what they're doing sex with a woman, masturbation with a woman, or masturbation with a right hand? Whether it's masturbation with only a right hand partner, or basically an illusion in their head. Since it's an illusion, it's a woman they can fall in love with. This is my personal theory, but looking at it plainly, there's no creature as ugly as a woman."

Takekuma: "So, it's fools watching dancing fools, but Otaku are the fools watching. So while mocking the dancing fools, they enjoy watching the foolish dance of the dancing fools. But from the point of view of the dancing fools who know the joy of forgetting themselves, Otaku are lonely people. Building a wall around themselves. I also cannot even go to a disco. After all, I was with my friends and they were like 'let's go to a disco', so I went, but I didn't know how to behave."

Okada: "Unable to get drunk. Karaoke is the only way Otaku have found to get drunk in the last few years."

Takekuma: "Karaoke with normal customers was no good. Cause they don't want to see themselves getting drunk. So the creation of the Karaoke Box may have been a great idea."

Okada: "But I cannot do Karaoke. I cannot associate myself with things that don't interest me. That's why I don't go."

Takekuma: "But that's a point I understand. I may not be as cool as Okada-san, but I'm also the same."

Okada: "Otaku don't really go to prostitutes, either."

Takekuma: "They don't go."

Okada: "They don't go to prostitutes, they don't hang out with girls, that's why so many of them are virgins. So that just leaves them with masturbation. It's one of the greatest taboos that has yet to be put into complete words."

Takekuma: "After all, they themselves are riding the cutting board. To be honest, though we're all Otaku, we don't really know what other people are like. Can you really generalise them?"

Okada: "In a typical all-male circle, the topic of sex is excluded because the deviation value is low, so they don't understand other people's sex lives."

Takekuma: "Although some may concede and bring up the topic of masturbation."

Okada: "That's because an Otaku's money goes into their hobbies, they don't go out with girls."


Okada has a robust video library on his Youtube, but here's a few in regards to Lolicon. I also found his Back to the Future retrospective interesting, cause that's a movie I also enjoyed.

"Everyone in Japan is a Lolicon—Lolicon as a National Trait, but what is it?"


"Gundam's Director, Tomino Roars—Sins of a Lolicon, Sins of a Genius."
 
Last edited:

NretsewThePerv

varishangout.com
Regular
Hm, I'm not sure what you're referring to; like if you're talking about the readers becoming creators and running around with cameras, taking photos of girls without their permission, then 2020 is magnitudes worse with every man, woman, and child possessing a palm sized computer (smart phone) that can digitally stream awful stuff to the internet. It's so bad, I read Facebook moderators require therapy sessions, since the people mostly uploading the awful stuff are normal and nice looking folks, shattering the illusion one can trust another individual based on their eyeballs and gut-instinct.

As for the question, considering I sexually imprinted on fictional characters so that I find the ones with a Loli-face to be the only kind of face I find attractive, I would technically be a Lolicon as per the Japanese definition much like everyone else who grew up with such media. But as these articles show, there's many kinds of Lolicon, and Otaku came along to separate the Lolicon 2D-Complex types between Anime Otaku and Idol Otaku, and Moe came along as Lolicon 2.0. The most useful definition of Moe, before it was ruined by the idol industry, is that in the 3D world, one has a fetish, and in the 2D world, one has a Moe. So like how there's Alicon, Lanacon, and so on in the 1980s to differentiate the various Lolicon camps, I would have Kemonomimi-Moe. The bottom attached image would be my bible:
View attachment 11940
The Kemonomimi blog writer, Shironekoma, I mentioned several months ago finally compiled his decade-worth of research he's been slowly releasing as Doujins into a 300-page hardbound book detailing everything Kemonomimi-related. Its entire 50 years of history, the details on various titles catering to specific ear types, its spread overseas, and so on (Amazon Link).

You're welcome. I hope your own research bears fruit. If you can read Japanese, the best digital paper to start with is this one (Link).

Also, I would also be quite appreciative if someone with an imgur account could access friendsofsandwiches' gallery (Imgur Gallery). He says he has many vintage issues of Lemon People, which is a gold mine of Lolicon history. I would gladly chip in to help cover the costs of him acquiring a large enough scanner so he can scan magazine double-pages if I had the means of contacting him privately.

Another book someone should acquire and scan is this one (Link). Its original pricetag was too hefty for me upon its release, but resellers want even more for it (on Suruga, the seller wants 9,000 yen). It's a magazine dedicated to the history of PC88, it contains interviews with many people, including the Mangaka who did the Lolita Syndrome game for Enix as part of their programming contest to scout for talent. It also has a bunch of stuff Nihon Falcom related, so it might be possible to get those Falcom-maniacs to chip in. It also includes a CD with restored PC88 games you can play on Windows (Table of Contents).


Source:『ACROSS』1996/09

View attachment 11941

Just a short one this time by people I expect are familiar names rather than forgotten ones.

Otaku Subculture Free Talk
"Broaching the Greatest Otaku Taboo: What is Otaku Sex?"


Takekuma Kentarou (竹熊健太郎) (Wikipedia):
Writer and manga author; wrote the instructional book 'Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga'.

Okada Toshio (岡田斗司夫) (Wikipedia) (Youtube):
The founder of Gainax; self-proclaimed Otaking with his own Youtube channel discussing everything Otaku-related.


Unpopular, Lolicon, 2D-Complex... When it comes to heterosexual relationships, Otaku don't have a particularly good image. What do they want in sex? The long unspoken Otaku mystery is now revealed.

Moderator: Ui You (宇井洋)

■Why are Otaku Lolicon?


―—Though the theme for this occasion is Otaku and sex, let's begin by discussing the ecchi books for Otaku Okada brought for us.

Okada: "Ero books can be roughly divided between photos, Manga, and novels, but what's seen a recent growth are Lolicon novels for Otaku. For example, France Shoin (フランス書院), who are famous for their ero-novels, publish them, but I've leafed through a quarter of the ero-novels for Otaku published in Japan."

Takekuma: "Do you like them? (laughs)."

Okada: "I like sex through media."

Takekuma: "As for ero-books for Otaku, the longest established one is 'Lemon People'."

Okada: "Though it's long established, its popularity is waning. What's alive and well is 'E-LOGIN'. It's an Eroge book being published by ASCII (アスキー), but through another company called Aspect (アスペクト). Cause Eroge are the computer games most people are playing. What's supporting Japan's PC98 are nothing but Eroge."

Takekuma: "Okada-san, himself, was originally a guy making bank through Eroge."

Okada: "Yes. But Takekuma-san was also writing for the Lolicon magazine called 'Manga Burikko' back in the 80s."

Takekuma: "That's because I couldn't find work anywhere else but there at the time. Everyone was like that back then. It was a place they could take up the pen. That's why I, myself, didn't have very many of what you would call Lolicon hobbies. However, everyone around me had those hobbies, so I got to see the process of the Lolicon Boom from up close."

Okada: "Back then, Lolicon was an idea. Actually, girls didn't mind and the idea known as Lolicon was treated as cool. I wouldn't say it was morally corrupt, but it was twisted. Back then, the Lolicon photobooks didn't sell very well."

Takekuma: "I was in my first or second year of high school when Sawatari Hajime's photobook 'Shoujo Alice' came out. Well, though it was a girl, surprisingly her slit was photographed. I also bought it. Lolicon maniacs from our generation were mostly shocked by 'Shoujo Alice'. Well, if I went towards Lolicon from there, I didn't tread very far. It's just the people around me who started along that path. The First Impact is the photobook 'Shoujo Alice'. I believe there's no doubt about this. Before that, Lolicon only existed among the dilettantes. The real underground. But that book was how it immediately spread above ground."

Okada: "Afterwards, there was a middle-aged female photographer called Kiyooka Sumiko (清岡虹子) (Mama). She had a photo collection called 'Petit Tomato' that spanned 12 volumes, and Karasawa-san (唐沢) saw them at the used bookstore for 17,000 yen. I was thinking 'uwaah', but they really were 17,000 yen per volume."

Takekuma: "That's already a legend among the dilettantes. I just thought of them as dirty photos."

Okada: "Ever since she passed away, their used value went up."

Takekuma: "In any case, in the late 70s, before the Anime Boom, 'Shoujo Alice' came out. So the Anime Boom happened. And with that, the cel-art maniacs came out of hiding. That was probably around 77~78. So, around 79, the Ero-magazine called 'Gekiga Alice' from Alice Publishing was released. In there, Azuma Hideo started doing something like a deep and surreal erotic gag Manga. They were incredibly popular among the Otaku. Him doing something so outrageous with the cute, Tezuka Osamu-style was quite the shock. In Japan's Lolicon history, this would be the Second Impact. Around that time, Lolicon Doujinshi began appearing at Comiket. Linking them to the beginning of Anime parodies. First, there was the Anime Boom, then the desire to violate pure Anime, like Heidi or Anne of Green Gables (赤毛のアン), naturally welled up. Among maniacs, the medium where you could honestly draw that were Doujinshi. I believe it was around the 80s when that trend began to manifest itself."

Okada: "Speaking of crossing the final line, it was the Hiromori Shinobu's (currenly Nonki) Lana violation Manga. By then, Miyazaki Hayao lost complete control over the guys drawing any kind of Anime fan ero-parodies."

Takekuma: "Those that violate that which is holy."

Okada: "Speaking of which, Hiromori Shinobu did that sort of stuff to both Lana-chan and Clarisse (both Miyazaki Anime heroines). The guys who saw them thought he was a fiend, so that's how he got his break. Since then, everyone could get away with anything."

Takekuma: "It was around 82~83 when Hiromori Shinobu broke through like that. Well, at the time, he was an inept Mangaka."

Okada: "Otaku called it Lolicon, but it was a style. They play at being Lolicon outside, but once they return home, they're mostly mild-mannered. Similar to how the people who used to be involved in student movements were forced to read Marx and Engels when they gathered in their clubs, they play at being a Lolicon while outside and read Shounen magazines when they're back at home. That's where they diverge from normal people. Outside, most of them had not just photobooks of girls, but Lolicon books in their club rooms, but when they return home, they find that stuff boring. So when the Miyazaki Tsutomu (宮崎勤事) incident happened, what surprised those around me was that there was someone in this world who actually liked little girls. I thought it was just a style, but there was someone who was serious about it."

Takekuma: "Well, regardless if it's a dilettante's hobby, reality is reality, hobbies were mostly hobbies, it's just like Okada-san says. At first, it might've purely been wank-off material. They figured out it was fine to photograph a little girl's nether regions. It was fine before she grows hair down there."

Okada: "When I was doing an Anime company in Osaka, I read Lolicon Manga with the staff and there was a commotion. Only one among them was the real deal. He was around 30 years old, and he said 'I also took photos of stuff like that'. When he said that, everyone pulled away (laugh). They pulled away all at once saying, 'wah, the real deal's here'. It was as if a real soldier came to a place where everybody was pretending to have a war. At that moment, we realised we ourselves weren't Lolicon, but fashion."

Takekuma: "Well, when the fashion guys grow in number, some among them will misunderstand and the real deal will also show up. Besides, I believe there is some percentage of the population who are genuine, regardless of fashion."

View attachment 11942
I find it interesting they used ロリコン顔 (Lolicon Face). I wonder if that's an error for ロリ顔 (Loli-face) by the moderator, or if that is an actual term used back in the 1990s. France Shoin is also responsible for their Bishoujo Bunko (美少女文庫) brand, it's been around so long, I even imported erotic light novels from it. Though one of the writers, Wakatsuki Hikaru, said on her blog those kinds of books are called Juvenile Porno (ジュブナイルポルノ), which is the most awkward choice of words to describe erotic novels that use Anime and Manga style illustrations for their covers and illustrations (Wikipedia).

■Otaku Cannot Get Drunk on Themselves


Takekuma: "When it comes to understanding relationships between the opposite sex, I believe there is a big turning point in adolescence where you decide between going to Manga and Anime, or going to music. The point that decides whether you're an Otaku or a fashion bastard."

Okada: "It's my opinion, but it's the difference in whether you want to be the 'manly guy' or the 'big dummy that cares only about looks'."

Takekuma: "When you join a band with a guitar, isn't there generally a style you need to fit in with the guitar? If it were nowadays, they would be DJs rather than guitarists. People need to make sure their fashion is appropriate for the occasion."

Okada: "Also, Otaku don't drink. I believe we have something in common in that regard, but Otaku aren't good at getting drunk. On both alcohol and on themselves."

Takekuma: "Ah, there's quite a few. I've also been drinking a beer or two recently, but I don't drink till I'm drunk."

Okada: "Basically, people who go into fashion or music are drunkards, drunk on themselves. Themselves and their opinions."

Takekuma: "Yeah, you might be onto an important point."

Okada: "I've been thinking about this for a long time, but Otaku don't get drunk. So, they're basically sober. There's something cool about that. Otaku go in the direction of increasing their ability to understand the world or heighten their cognitive skills to become humble old geezers."

Takekuma: "They might be getting drunk on humbleness (laugh). Meaning, they're embarrassed to be seen by people in an absent-minded state. That's why I also don't like people seeing my sleeping face."

Okada: "Also, they don't understand pleasure."

Takekuma: "They believe they make a stupid face when they have sex, and that alone makes them feel cold. Sex is not a world where you can immerse yourself. Perhaps there's a part that finds it embarrassing to being seen with such a stupid face. In Otaku psychology."

Okada: "In my opinion, the most severe Otaku can't even masturbate."

Takekuma: "Yeah, those exist, don't they?"

Okada: "I believe they probably do. Cause no matter what anyone says, stimulation alone is not enough. They need to imagine something. I wonder if the guys who can't do it are the exception. However, despite saying such, I believe that's a way of thinking the intoxication-types don't understand. Even in relationships with girls, when faced with the reasoning of normal people who say 'but you'll be unpopular with the ladies', Otaku would respond, 'then why do you need a girl?'. Is what they're doing sex with a woman, masturbation with a woman, or masturbation with a right hand? Whether it's masturbation with only a right hand partner, or basically an illusion in their head. Since it's an illusion, it's a woman they can fall in love with. This is my personal theory, but looking at it plainly, there's no creature as ugly as a woman."

Takekuma: "So, it's fools watching dancing fools, but Otaku are the fools watching. So while mocking the dancing fools, they enjoy watching the foolish dance of the dancing fools. But from the point of view of the dancing fools who know the joy of forgetting themselves, Otaku are lonely people. Building a wall around themselves. I also cannot even go to a disco. After all, I was with my friends and they were like 'let's go to a disco', so I went, but I didn't know how to behave."

Okada: "Unable to get drunk. Karaoke is the only way Otaku have found to get drunk in the last few years."

Takekuma: "Karaoke with normal customers was no good. Cause they don't want to see themselves getting drunk. So the creation of the Karaoke Box may have been a great idea."

Okada: "But I cannot do Karaoke. I cannot associate myself with things that don't interest me. That's why I don't go."

Takekuma: "But that's a point I understand. I may not be as cool as Okada-san, but I'm also the same."

Okada: "Otaku don't really go to prostitutes, either."

Takekuma: "They don't go."

Okada: "They don't go to prostitutes, they don't hang out with girls, that's why so many of them are virgins. So that just leaves them with masturbation. It's one of the greatest taboos that has yet to be put into complete words."

Takekuma: "After all, they themselves are riding the cutting board. To be honest, though we're all Otaku, we don't really know what other people are like. Can you really generalise them?"

Okada: "In a typical all-male circle, the topic of sex is excluded because the deviation value is low, so they don't understand other people's sex lives."

Takekuma: "Although some may concede and bring up the topic of masturbation."

Okada: "That's because an Otaku's money goes into their hobbies, they don't go out with girls."


Okada has a robust video library on his Youtube, but here's a few in regards to Lolicon. I also found his Back to the Future retrospective interesting, cause that's a movie I also enjoyed.

"Everyone in Japan is a Lolicon—Lolicon is a National Trait, but What is It?"


"Gundam's Director, Tomono Roars—Sins of a Lolicon, Sins of a Genius."

I found this post to be a fascinating read. Many of the quotes kind of hit hard. I'm going to have to add "fashion bastard" into my vocab.

I wonder if it would be possible to get someone to transcribe the youtube video on everyone being a lolicon in japan as it sounds interesting. even more encouragement to get back to my reps I guess.

anyway fantastic work cataloguing all this. it's always an interesting read. keep it up man.
 

Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
I found this post to be a fascinating read. Many of the quotes kind of hit hard. I'm going to have to add "fashion bastard" into my vocab.

I wonder if it would be possible to get someone to transcribe the youtube video on everyone being a lolicon in japan as it sounds interesting. even more encouragement to get back to my reps I guess.

anyway fantastic work cataloguing all this. it's always an interesting read. keep it up man.
You're welcome. I checked, and found out there's a separate channel that edits and adds proper Japanese subtitles to the videos.

Special Otaking Channel (Edits and Subtitles): Youtube
Fan Clipping Channel (Edits and Subtitles): Youtube

What's wrong with Lolicon!? It's a National Trait so it Cannot be Helped (JP Subs):

This is a Japanese subtitled version of the video you asked about, but there are article versions that complement the videos I shared earlier.

Why Just Japan? A Culture with so much Lolicon Anime:

This was written a few months before the video you're asking about, but it provides information mentioned in the video's question 'Is Everyone Who Watches Anime a Lolicon?'. Okada rejects the simplification of focusing on Anime watchers and proposes rather that everyone in Japan is a Lolicon, going into the same sort of stuff mentioned earlier about people in the past marrying 13~14 year old girls and how Japanese culture values 'cuteness' whereas America culture values 'strength'. To be honest, this kind of stuff feels like it would be common knowledge in the West, but if you think it's profound, I can transcribe the video when I have time.

Talk About the Tomino Yoshiyuki November 2010 Lecture:


It's a long lecture, so the article is also long with multiple sections. One of the sections goes over the possible adverse effects Lolita Anime has over girls through media like 'Pretty Cure'; blaming this media on the rapid rise in girls saying they're bisexual or lesbians, and whether there's value in continuing to create such Anime if it's going to cause real girls to fail in love.

The Theme of 'Fist of the North Star' is Lolicon' (JP Subs):

'Madoka☆Magica' is a Story for Lolicon where a Bishoujo becomes Jesus Christ:

Funny article, though I think Okada should do more research into Christianity; the earliest known depictions of Jesus was him as an effeminate boy with breasts and a face much like Apollo. It puts a wrench in his neat idea that people 2 millennium ago sought a masculine saviour while people in modern society are seeking a feminine saviour, and that only Japanese would have the latter sensibility. Ancient Christians were already seeking an Otokonoko (男の娘) Jesus.

Reader Question Regarding What he Should do About Possession of Banned Stuff:

This is somewhat related to the difficulties in preserving old media. Like I personally am curious about the very old issues of Manga Burikko, but those have nudes of junior idols, which isn't something I would want to have in my possession. One of my Japanese acquaintances talked about how you cannot borrow certain books or magazines from the Yonezawa Memorial Library. For example, the vending machine Third-rate Gekiga mag 'Shoujo Alice' (not to be confused with the photobook) Azuma Hideo did his ero-manga in are prohibited due to the other content in the magazine, making it hard for Japanese researchers since those kinds of books are also banned from the National Diet Library.


Regardless, this thread inspired me to order a copy of the 17th issue of Animec; it has a 35 page section on Lolicon, so I'm curious about that. I'm ordering that along with a bunch of other books like 'Mの世代―ぼくらとミヤザキ君' (the book where the word Otaku was leaked to the mainstream media) after I realised I had the wrong mental image of Nakamori Akio's feelings regarding Otaku when I saw who else contributed to it. I've read Nakamori's Otaku Research columns, and I've seen scans of the news articles that quickly adopted the word Otaku in their bashing, replacing Lolicon and Maniacs for the people who attended Comiket. Aside from some old Dragon Magazine issues with specials on Dragon Half, the only other old thing in the order is 'Magical Trip' by Studio Baki, a 254 page Doujinshi with contributions by Kagami Akira and Konoma Waho (bought it cause it had a catgirl on the cover):
Magical_Trip.jpg

Unfortunately, the Miyazaki book is running late, so I'm hoping it didn't get lost somewhere in Japan; first time this has happened to me. It'll likely be several months before they all arrive unless the EMS shipping rate isn't that much more expensive from SAL.


Source:『アニメック』1981/04
Animec_1981_17.jpg

Don't have the issue yet, but I did translate the column that was transcribed. I doubt it includes any illustrations, so I probably won't have to update this post with them. This includes the story about the porno shops and the SF conventions.


The Hyperbola of SF and Shoujo Lovers
The Recipe for 2D-Complex

By Azagami Manabu (安座上学)

Before I stuck my neck into the Anime world, I was a young man with a laughable ego. The same time I was feeling unease about my own predilection towards girls, I also nursed a private sense of superiority.

However, when I started stepping in and out of the editorial department of Animec, 'you're also a Lolicon~♪ I'm a Lolicon too~♪', it was a bargain sale of Lolita Complex to the point I deluded myself into thinking there were only Shoujo lovers in our society. In such a state, there was no longer neither aesthetics nor immorality. A competent young man by day and a young man who wandered the moonlit city in search of girls at night, I found the beauty of Shoujo hunting in a Moonlight Mask-ish (月光仮面) duality; I had revealed my base self and joined their party. The self-expression of SF fans and Anime fans were so indifferent and absent-minded, it was inevitable. In fact, today at this moment, if you aren't a Lolicon in the Imperial City, you couldn't call yourself an SF fan!
Moonlight Mask (Wikipedia)

One example of there being many Lolicon among SF fans. This is the experience of a 26 year-old SF fan at TOKON VII (the 1979 SF convention). After the first day was over, those who slipped out of their training camp ventured out to the porno shops in Asakusa. Of course, what they sought were those kinds of imported goods. However, everywhere the young man went, just the books that featured models around 10 years old were sold out, and at the last shop he stopped at, there was a corner that separated models by age, but there wasn't a single book left in the corner between 5 to 15 years old. Incredulous, the young man asks.

"Excuse me, do you have any photobooks of girls around 10 years old—?"

"Aah, guys with the same badges (for SF convention participants) as you bought 'em all. I have some 18 year-olds over here, how do you reckon? They're uncensored~."

"No thanks, I don't want 'em."

"That's what they all say~."

Shocked, the young man confirmed the next day's shipment and returned to his training camp in good faith. Then tomorrow arrives. He left the convention in the early afternoon and headed to the porno shop from the night before, but this time, the Shoujo porno mags were bought out by another group who arrived as soon as the shop opened. Left with no choice, he thought he would have to make do with 5 year-olds... and when he shifted his gaze to its shelf, they were also all sold out that day, make of that what you will.

This is a very extreme story, but I bet there's countless similar legends among our readers. As for me, whilst driving, a line formation of elementary schoolgirls caught my eye and I ignored the traffic signal. Every day, I'm surrounded by friends who purposefully bump into girls and utter 'oops, I'm sorry' in an attempt to touch their bodies. So what kind of correlation do you expect between SF and Girl Lover Syndrome? What does Shoujo mean to Anime fans?

A noteworthy work by Brian W. Aldiss is available. 'The Hand-Reared Boy' (手育てられた少年) published by Sanrio SF Bunko. If you're a reader of this magazine, you likely do not need an explanation, but Aldiss, known for his 'The Long Afternoon of Earth' (地球の長い午後), is the standard-bearer of British New Wave SF. 'Hand-Reared' is a work that depicts his adolescence. Unlike his SF, it's a middle-brow novel rich in its auto-biographical hue. It depicts the sexual development of a middle-class boy named Horatio. Of course, due to his age, there are many instances of his partners being girls. Hand-reared means sexual experience via foreplay and masturbation before sexual intercourse. A boyhood full of joyous sexual experiences against a backdrop of a rural town in England during World War II. Anyone who is a man undoubtedly turned the pages of this book with nostalgia for their childhood. It is worth noting the formative experience of Aldiss's SF is playing 'Farmer-san and Cow-kun' (in short, a variant of playing Doctor). For Aldiss, his first sense of wonder was such a sexual experience where a female friend touched their own small genitals and the pleasure he recalled from when he knew the girls' genitals were opening.

"Even at such a tender age, like an adult, I thought little of anything but sex (Translation: Ishihara Takeshi [石原武])."

Couldn't you say the driving force that led Aldiss to SF was the joy he experienced towards girls' genitals?

My theory is the SF mind is one born through the Law of Causality. The SF nature of each person forms depending on the intensity of their emotional experiences during childhood (particularly sexual instincts, curiosity, creative instincts, and experiences with bodily pleasure). Such childhood experiences are the original sense of wonder. Eventually, he'll grow up and discover SF on the shelves of his library. When he opens the pages, what he finds is the lingering scent of the original sense of wonder from his childhood. The pleasure of emotional experience submerged in his subconscious is revived by reading SF (and watching SF movies). Upon which, the outline of him becoming an SF-addict. Of course, for humans who don't possess the original SF experience, they won't understand the true taste of SF.

Scenes like the above can be witnessed in Azuma Hideo's 'How I Made SF' (こうして私はSFした), but the second encounter in SF is a very similar case for everyone. Azuma Hideo symbolically shows the characteristics of SF quite well in the scene where Esuko-chan (S) secretly meets in the rental bookstore to transform into the Shoujo called Efuko-chan (F).

This sort of SF writer nostalgia is not limited to Aldiss. What's more, the writer Ray Bradbury, who excelled at depicting boys, made us realise curiosity is the driving force behind SF. Vladimir Nabokov, the original author of 'Lolita' and the most fixated on 'memory', went the other way by writing SF and exposed the correlation between memory and SF.

It is clear the origin of Lolita Complex lies in our childhood experience with the opposite sex. (Without Annabel, Lolita wouldn't have been born.) Shoujo lovers are beings who cannot escape the shadow of the girls (the age difference differs between individuals) that were romantic objects from when they were boys. Which means they're strong proprietors of those emotional experiences from when they were boys. In this sense, a formula is created where Shoujo lovers are the type best suited to reading SF. (For real?) However, this alone cannot explain the swarm of Shoujo lovers and Bishounen lovers (these are girls of course) spreading throughout the Imperial City. In fact, it may be true most of them have a 2D-Complex where they hide themselves in the world of film, unable to touch the real opposite sex, rather than being the proprietors of pure aesthetics. Where can a city child surrounded by concrete find the space to play Doctor? I feel the SF they encounter is slightly different from ours.

However, upon careful consideration, I don't think it's good to be called Lolicon. I believe today's Shoujo lovers use this word too readily. If you apply this sort of discriminatory term to yourself and accept it, you will not awaken as a true Shoujo lover. Wouldn't it be unfortunate for Shoujo lovers to forever be confused with 2D-Complex? It should be possible for us to take a more creative approach (don't get any weird ideas).

Lewis Carroll, Poe, Nabokov...

We have great predecessors. Our aesthetics—thank the heavens for our ability to single out a handful of nymphets among dozens of girls in class photos—is infinitely expansive.


SFShoujo_Esuko-chan_01.png
SFShoujo_Efuko-chan_01.png

These aren't drawn by Azuma Hideo, but they're the only instances I could find of Esuko and Efuko done by a lady called Hashimoto Sachiko. Azuma's SF manga 'こうして私はSFした' can be seen here (Link).

On the topic of Animec, apparently, this Lum-obsessed guy called Brenten (Twitter) has been scanning his massive Urusei Yatsura collection. Though, I don't know where he's hosting it. His Internet Archive account just has issues of Animage (
Link), which is the magazine Miyazaki Hayao serialised his Nausicaä manga serial and the magazine that included Lolicon Trump Cards in one of its issues (you can see scans of the cards on Sad Panda). The weirdest thing about Brenten is that he's been a fan of Urusei Yatsura for 45 years, and he didn't know who Azuma Hideo was when he posted a tweet back in July:

Dunno if I should try contacting him; saw a post by him last year where he couldn't organise his collection cause he couldn't read Japanese very well. Still waiting for Elon to remove whatever weird algorithm keeps shadow banning my Twitter account.
 
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