Comics and cartoons from Japan, or manga and anime, are an increasingly common feature of visual and popular culture around the world. While it is often observed that these media forms appeal to broad and diverse demographics, including many adults, eroticism continues to unsettle critics and has even triggered legal action in some jurisdictions. It is more urgent than ever to engage in productive discussion, which begins with being informed about content that is still scarcely understood outside small industry and fan circles. Erotic Comics in Japan: An Introduction to Eromanga is the most comprehensive introduction in English to erotic comics in Japan, or eromanga. Divided into three parts, it provides a history of eroticism in Japanese comics and cartoons generally leading to the emergence of eromanga specifically, an overview of seven themes running across works with close analysis of outstanding examples and a window onto ongoing debates surrounding regulation and freedom of expression in Japan.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Translators’ Introduction: Eromanga in the Global Now
- Eromanga, Japan and Translation
- A Roadmap to Regulation and Resistance
- The Manga Industry, Diversity and Eroticism
- Positioning Eromanga in Debates about Pornography
- Toward an Expanded Eromanga Studies
- Introduction: The Invisible Realm
- Part 1: A History of Eromanga
- Memes Spread
- 1. The Gene Pool of Manga and Gekiga
- The 1940s to the 1950s: The Genome King, Tezuka Osamu
- Gekiga as a Counter Response
- The 1960s: Garo, COM and Gekiga for Young Men
- Shameless Boys Manga
- The Early 1970s: Beginning with Ishii Takashi and Sakaki Masaru
- 2. The Rise and Fall of Third-Rate Gekiga and the Eve of Bishōjo-Style Eromanga
- The Mid-1970s: The Third-Rate Gekiga Boom
- The Magnificent 49ers and the Golden Age of Shōjo Manga
- The Source of Erotic Comedy is Love Comedy, Darling!
- The Alternative Circuit called Dōjinshi
- The End of the 1970s: The Decline of Third-Rate Gekiga and Arrival of Bishōjo
- 3. Bishōjo-Style Eromanga Takes the Stage
- The First Half of the 1980s: The Revolutionary Outbreak of Lolicon
- Early Lolicon Manga
- The Second Half of the 1980s: Two Key Figures
- The Golden Age of Eromanga
- The First Half of the 1990s: The Winter Years of Eromanga
- The Second Half of the 1990s: The Adult Comics Label and Bubble Period
- Shota and the Rise of Female Artists
- The Wave of Refinement and High-End Style
- New Expressions and Recurring Expressions
- The Age of “Moe”
- The 2000s: Permeation, Diffusion and Waning Fortunes
- Part 2: The Various Forms of Love and Sex
- Subdividing Desire
- 4. Lolicon Manga
- Introduction
- What is Lolicon Manga?
- Early Lolicon Manga
- The Additional Line by the Name of Sin
- The Excuse is for the Sake of the Reader
- Fiction is Fiction
- The Pleasure of Sin
- Inner Demons
- I am I
- The World of Children
- Lolicon Manga Once More
- 5. Big Breasts and Manga
- Introduction
- From Lolicon to Baby-Faced and Big-Breasted
- Breasts, Symbolic from the Start: Thumping Heart, Ms. Minako!
- The Big-Breasted of Big-Breasted: Blue Eyes
- Big Breasts and Added Value
- The Expression of Big Breasts
- 6. Little Sisters and Incest
- Introduction
- If There is Love, Even Close Relatives Cannot Stop It
- Ideal Mothers, Real Mothers and Slutty Mothers in Law
- Without Love and Without Morals
- Sweet Role-Play with an Imaginary Little Sister
- 7. Disgrace and Training
- Introduction
- Disgrace, Gekiga and Neo-Gekiga
- Resentment and Communication
- Rape Fantasies
- Training and Brainwashing
- Brutes and Vulnerability
- 8. Love Stories
- Introduction
- A Genealogy of Romantic Eromanga
- Girly Style and the Lum Type
- Pure Love Love
- Conservative Romantic Values
- The Abyss of Love
- 9. Sadomasochism and Sexual Minorities
- Introduction
- Sadomasochism and the Performing Body
- Sadomasochism, Absolute Devotion to the System
- Desire Deviating from the Sexual Organs and Polymorphous Perversity
- 10. Gender Mayhem
- Introduction
- “Shemales:” The Meaning of Breasts and a Penis
- “Shemales” and Related Territory
- Real Male Sexual Organs and Fantasy Female Sexual Organs
- Shota, or Autoeroticism
- Part 3: Addition to the Expanded Edition (2014)
- Eromanga in the Twenty-First Century
- Deterioration of the Market and Restructuring of the Industry
- Maneuvers Surrounding “Non-Existent Youth”
- Youth Become the Focal Point of Regulating Expression
- Is the Internet the Enemy of Eromanga?
- Diversifying Representations and Desires
- Conclusion: Permeation, Diffusion and What Comes After
- Pornography Without Sex
- Afterword (2006)
- Afterword to the Expanded Edition (2014)
- Index of Artists and Individuals
- List of Images
- Image 1 A sample from Nagai’s Violence Jack. This is eroticism in manga-style drawing.
- Image 2 A sample from Ishii’s Angel Guts. This is gekiga-style drawing treading into the erotic.
- Image 3 Cover of the January 1978 issue of Manga Erogenica. There was a boom in magazines like this in the 1970s.
- Image 4 A sample from Takemiya Keiko’s The Song of Wind and Trees (Kaze to ki no uta, published by Shōgakukan from 1976). This shōjo manga features sex between male characters.
- Image 5 A sample of Takahashi’s Urusei Yatsura. Featured is Lum, an iconic bishōjo or cute girl character.
- Image 6 Cover of the February 1982 issue of Comic Lemon People. This was the first commercial lolicon manga magazine.
- Image 7 Cover of Kamimura’s Oh No! Ms. Luna (Ikenai! Runa-sensei, published by Kōdansha from 1986). The artist got caught up in debates about harmful manga in the 1990s.
- Image 8 A sample of Unite Sōji’s Prima Materia (Purima materia, published by Fujimi Shuppan in 1999). Working across categories of content, female artists like her brought new memes to eromanga in the 1990s.
- Image 9 A sample of Wanyan’s “Mayu and Chisato.” The protagonist is dressed as a girl and involved in public groping play. Note the depiction of an adult penis, and how the heroine toys with him.
- Image 10 A sample of Machida’s Naked at the Graduation Ceremony. The artist struggles with destructive desires, even as the complexity of his characters has attracted female readers.
- Image 11 A sample of Watanabe’s Thumping Heart, Ms. Minako! Note the combination of baby-faced and big-breasted.
- Image 12 A sample of Nishimaki’s Blue Eyes. Note how increasingly large breasts are drawn.
- Image 13 A sample of Kotoyoshi’s Breast Play. The breasts become the focus of sexual activity, which de-centers genital pleasure.
- Image 14 A sample of Makafushigi’s Hina Labyrinth. The work depicts an insatiable desire, which begins with a forbidden relationship.
- Image 15 A sample of RaTe’s Incest + 1. A big sister introduces her little brother as her boyfriend.
- Image 16 A sample of Takarada’s Sister’s Heart. This is a representative “little sister work.”
- Image 17 A sample of Kino’s “Fever Application.” Note the bald principal, who is a collection of nasty traits.
- Image 18 A sample of Uziga’s Poisonous Bizarre Picture Book. The hideous cruelty is difficult to look at, as our imagination and body respond to the pain.
- Image 19 A sample of Uchiyama’s “Cinderella in a Diaper.” The work shows clear influence from shōjo manga.
- Image 20 A sample of Kagami’s Dream Fitter. During the lolicon boom, Ōtsuka Eiji envisioned “shōjo manga for boys,” which is clearly realized here.
- Image 21 A sample of Tanaka’s Helpless Darling (Itaike na dārin, published by Fujimi Shuppan in 1999). The artist depicts the heroine seen from a first-person perspective and looking at the reader.
- Image 22 A sample of Shiromi’s Naburikko: FraKctured Red. The work explores the master-slave relation of sadomasochism.
- Image 23 A sample of Onibara’s Queen and Slave. The heroine tells the story of her fall, and the reader both gazes at and empathizes with her.
- Image 24 A sample of Momoyama’s Sheep Faint in Pain. The ideas of torture have become the object, irrespective of sex.
- Image 25 A sample of Kitamimaki’s “The Human Ranch.” The work invites the reader to identify with the “shemale.”
- Image 26 A sample of Yonekura’s Pink Sniper. The protagonist, dressed up in a girls uniform, has vaginal intercourse with a dominant younger classmate while a dominant female teacher straps on a dildo and inserts it in his ass.
- Image 27 A sample of Akio’s “Tamamimi.” The boys touch each other’s ears. Note the similarity between them.
- Image 28 Cover of Matsuyama’s My Wife is an Elementary Student. The work was singled out during the debates about “unhealthy publications.”
- Image 29 Cover of Hiiragi’s Boy Housemaid Curo. Note the cute boy in female clothing. By this point, male characters are objects of desire in eromanga.
- Image 30 A sample of Barasui’s Strawberry Marshmallow. The older female character responds to one of the girls, who wears a cat-eared hat and adopts anime-style cat speak.
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