Shotacon (ショタコン shotakon), short for Shōtarō complex (正太郎コンプレックス shōtarō konpurekkusu), is Japanese slang describing an attraction to young boys and is shota in manga. It refers to a genre of manga and anime wherein pre-pubescent or pubescent male characters are depicted in a suggestive or erotic manner, whether in the obvious role of object of attraction, or the less apparent role of "subject" (the character the reader is designed to associate with), as in where the young male character is paired with a male, usually in a homoerotic manner, or with a female, in which the general community would call straight shota. It can also apply to postpubescent (adolescent or adult) characters with youthful neotenic features that would make them appear to be younger than they are. The phrase is a ref