The phrase is a reference to the young male character Shōtarō ( 正太郎) from Tetsujin 28-go (reworked in English as Gigantor). It can also apply to post-pubescent (adolescent or adult) characters with neotenic features that would make them appear to be younger than they are. A cutoff of 'about 15' has been suggested as the dividing line between shotacon and BL. In others, he is paired with a female, which the general community would call 'straight shota.' In some works, the shota character is paired with an older girl or woman, which is known as oneshota (おねショタ), a blend of onē-san (お姉さん, older sister) and shota. In some stories, the young male character is paired with a male, usually in a homoerotic manner, which is most common in yaoi/Boys' Love (BL) works meant for female readers, but some of these works are male-oriented, such as Boku no Pico. The term refers to a genre of manga and anime wherein prepubescent 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).
Shotacon ( ショタコン, shotakon), abbreviated from Shōtarō complex ( 正太郎コンプレックス, shōtarō konpurekkusu), is, in Japanese contexts, the attraction to young (or young-looking) boy characters, or media centered around this attraction.
