Interest
Statistician Midori Makita Calculates Percentage of Consensual Sex in Erotic Manga
posted on by Kim Morrissy
Although Japanese pornography is frequently stereotyped overseas as a scene dominated with hardcore fetishes, the stats tell a different story, according to self-proclaimed "erotic manga statistician" Midori Makita. Makita has been researching doujinshi for 12 years, with a focus on male-targeted erotic manga. He regularly posts erotic manga-related statistics on Twitter under the hashtag #エロマンガ統計 ("Eromanga Stats") and presents panels at various events.
On April 28, Makita publicly shared the poster he used for a recent panel at the annual Niconico Chokaigi event. This poster presents a snapshot of various statistics related to erotic manga in 2019, including what percentage of intercourse is consensual across 19 erotic manga publications.
According to Makita's statistics, the average rate of consensual sex in the publications was 79%, while only 19% of scenarios were non-consensual. The rates at each publication are in the table below:
| Publication | Non-consensual | Consensual |
| ANGEL Club | 76% | 24% |
| Comic Kuriberon | 50% | 38% |
| Magazine Siberia | 44% | 56% |
| Comic Yumutensei | 31% | 69% |
| Comic Taka | 21% | 79% |
| Men's Gold | 21% | 79% |
| Comic X-Eros | 17% | 83% |
| Comic Ansurium | 17% | 83% |
| Comic Aun | 13% | 81% |
| Comic Europa | 11% | 89% |
| Web Maga Bangaichi | 10% | 90% |
| Comic ExE | 10% | 86% |
| Comic Kairakuten | 10% | 86% |
| Penguin Club | 8% | 83% |
| Action Pizatsu | 8% | 92% |
| Comic Naman | 6% | 94% |
| Comic LO | 5% | 90% |
| Comic Bavel | 5% | 95% |
| Magnum X | 0% | 100% |
As for how "consensual sex" is defined in this context, Makita posted a definition in a later tweet posted on the same day. He wrote that consensual sex involves situations where "no drugging, alcohol, or other means were involved to remove one's capacity for judgement" and "no physical force or intimidation was used." He explicitly drew from Article 177 of Japan's penal code, which covers the definition of rape, but mentioned that he is always open to tweaking the standards because there is always an element of subjectivity involved when passing judgement.
Makita's data also focuses on another interesting bit of trivia: how many maids are in adult works. The following graph shows the number of adult works with a "maid" theme over the years, with the orange representing the number of works on paper, while the blue represents the number of works overall. It appears that maids hit their peak in popularity in the 00s. Makita commented: "Through the changes in trends over time, you can see that what people find erotic is easily subject to change."
Makita's data also showed that erotic stories with a maid theme were more likely to be consensual on average. Maid stories overall have an 82% rate of consensual sex, compared to the 90s overall average of 60% and today's average of 79%. However, the data also shows that the man (i.e. the "master") is significantly more likely to be the initiator of intercourse in a maid story compared to the average. 63% of male protagonists in maid stories are the initiator, compared to 36% overall in the 90s and 46% today. Makita concluded that while violent and possessive acts are less frequently depicted, the maid is overall a submissive figure, and the power differences between the man and woman can be observed.
The poster concludes with some of Makita's personal thoughts. He wrote that even outside the realm of pornography, modern society is very compartmentalized so that people can only see what they're personally interested in. That is why a person who isn't too aware of the big picture concerning erotic manga may feel that it is too excessive or violent. "That's why it's important to know what other people like when it comes to porn so that we can learn to be more tolerant of each other," he concluded.
Image via Midori Makita's Twitter account
Source: Midori Makita's Niconico Chokaigi 2019 poster via Otaku USA (Joseph Luster)
