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INTEREST: Manga Artist Sumito Ōwara Responds to Following CG Erotic Art of Child Characters on Pixiv

I don't see the problem with him saying "people overseas" because they were the ones that were complaining. Honestly, Japanese artists getting complained at and in some cases insulted or accused of being a criminal by people from outside Japan is starting to become a pretty common thing on the internet. The only time I ever really see Japanese people complain is when a character from a manga/Ln/whatever is being used to push a political stance. Other than that they don't seem to care what type of art you view or create and that's probably for the best imo.

Almost every time when i read hate comments on loli post they are in English.
Also you underestimated the number of otakus in Japan
https://www.pixiv.net/info.php?id=5800
Just the pixiv account holders number in Japan are 60%of 50 million=30 million about 1/4 if the total population ... Most of the remaining 20 million are still from Asia

We can go back and forth on the "they're not real children" debate until the cows come home. The simple fact is it's not just "western ideals" pushing a social or political agenda against such drawings. I guarantee you that 9 out of 10 random normal people not into anime/manga (let alone this niche within it), would be grossed out by such drawings and act differently around you moving forward if they knew you were into it.

Girls pass, approach the shrine, sweep back their hair with both hands in ritual obeisance.

“They ask for a good night, a customer who treats them kindly,” observes my friend.

Under the third precept of Buddhism, which demands abstinence from all moral misconduct, 20 groups of women are listed as forbidden. Whores are not included among them.

To all the people who defend this sort of art by trying to make it into an issue of "western ideals" that are ruining this hobby I have a suggestion for you. Let's call it a scientific experiment. Pick 10 random people in your life that you know who are NOT a fan of anime or manga. Not simply people who don't like this specific niche within the fandom, 10 people who simply aren't into anime or manga as far as you know. They can be coworkers, friends, family, your mailman, the barista at your local Starbucks, whoever. Go to those 10 people and show them each a handful of such erotic artwork images. See how they respond and what their "interest" in such art is. See if they don't look at you differently, seem uncomfortable, or try and actually get some physical distance from you. See what your parents think of it.

We can go back and forth on the "they're not real children" debate until the cows come home. The simple fact is it's not just "western ideals" pushing a social or political agenda against such drawings. I guarantee you that 9 out of 10 random normal people not into anime/manga (let alone this niche within it), would be grossed out by such drawings and act differently around you moving forward if they knew you were into it. You are more then welcomed to be into this art if you want. Your choice. It is other people's choice to be weirded out by it to say the least. The fact that they would likely be grossed out by it has nothing to do with any sort of political or social agenda, and your probable reaction from most people would be the same regardless of your location and if you lived in Japan, America, Canada, Spain, South Africa, Turkey, Russia, or the International Space Station. It would be no different than if you went around showing those same people drawings of some erotic monster girl art or erotic fantasy art (Luis Royo for example).

Granted that Nick is not talking about Loli art here, but I think it illustrates the huge cultural difference between eastern and western attitudes towards sex, and there's no doubt some of that has trickled down to make loli art especially offensive to many westerners. This difference is also discussed at length in Pink Samurai by Nicholas Bornoff.

Most people also wouldn't check who you follows since unlike Twitter, other people won't see them (as notification or reccs) unless they specifically go to the artist' following page or bookmark (if it's public bookmark/follows). Owara follows 400-ish artists, while certainly not much (some people follow thousands), still take alot of time to check. That kind of dedication to find someone else' dirt is very creepy stalker-ish.

It wasn't art of young-looking characters in swimsuits (there was a small portion of that); the large majority of the art was child-like characters with large, adult men engaging in sexual acts.

To all the people who defend this sort of art by trying to make it into an issue of "western ideals" that are ruining this hobby I have a suggestion for you. Let's call it a scientific experiment. Pick 10 random people in your life that you know who are NOT a fan of anime or manga. Not simply people who don't like this specific niche within the fandom, 10 people who simply aren't into anime or manga as far as you know. They can be coworkers, friends, family, your mailman, the barista at your local Starbucks, whoever. Go to those 10 people and show them each a handful of such erotic artwork images. See how they respond and what their "interest" in such art is. See if they don't look at you differently, seem uncomfortable, or try and actually get some physical distance from you. See what your parents think of it.

I agree with you 100% that likely 9 out of 10 people would indeed react in a manner like you described. Any sort of weirdo fetish would have the same effect.
But I also feel that's not looking at the whole picture. In my opinion it's quite obvious that the US, at least, has a certain puritanical leaning against anything sexual.

Why would I or anyone have to defend anything let alone go with this moral litmus test? Let alone the process of defining who would classify as "normal" to you.

The point the author is making is not caring what other people think of his interests. He resides in his own social bubble that carry the same likes/dislikes. Subject matter, art style those kind of things. Like many of us in the anime community. Anecdotally I can say I have a great friend that finds girls doing cute things shows as skeevy. However he respects my choice because it's something I enjoy and doesn't admonish me for liking said thing.

This is whats happening. People whom disagree with a persons likes and are trying to shame/change him from doing so.

That argument kind of fails on specificity as ANY outlier fetish is likely to produce that kind of reaction. For example, pick 10 random strangers who also aren't into anime or manga, or hell, just choose the same 10 people as above, and show them each a handful of some of the riskier BL works. I wouldn't be surprised if the reaction be likely the same as what you just described...

I'm not debating that nor even disagreeing with it. I actually would agree. However, that is comparing apples to oranges with my point. My point was specific in regards to people who like to complain about other people's, or country's, moral intervening as a way to ignore that their very niche sub-genre in a hobby would be found gross, or at least uncomfortable, by the vast majority of people regardless of their geographical location. That's it. I find that people that make those sorts of specific arguments are just blowing out a smokescreen to not have to admit they actually like that sort of artwork personally. It's much easier to go on the moral tirade or claim "western morals" or "she's really 1000 years old" rather than say "i like sexualized drawings of what appears to be little children".

Oh, so your actual argument was using a book to justify an aversion to child prostitution as Puritanical. Well, that changes things then.

Stop with the smokescreen moral tirades claiming you (generalized sense), or your hobby, are being unfairly marginalized somehow, just so you can avoid having to admit aloud "i like sexualized drawings and art of what looks like underage children".

Psycho 101 wrote:

Stop with the smokescreen moral tirades claiming you (generalized sense), or your hobby, are being unfairly marginalized somehow, just so you can avoid having to admit aloud "i like sexualized drawings and art of what looks like underage children".

I have never denied I indeed do like that kind of material(not the hardcore stuff though), so at least in my case that's an unfair accusation to make...