Introduction

Eroticism and sexuality are like magma, fluid and multi-layered, polysemous and full of energy. These are things that cannot be fully grasped in narrow discussions of pornography. Trying to channel and curtail the flow of magma, the modern paradigm makes the family system and marriage the base of the nation-state and establishes male-dominant heterosexuality as the standard. Looked at structurally, pornography complements this system, because it serves as a device to release built-up pressure from the magma and cool the surface layer. While the paradigm is effective, few notice the system in which they live; alternative expressions exist in niches. Once the paradigm begins to waver, however, the limits dissolve; the magma is no longer under control. Monstrous apparitions and spirits of the mountains and rivers burst into general areas and disseminate far and wide.

While bishōjo-style eromanga carries an expectation of being pornographic, it can betray that expectation. In other words, it transcends the limits of the pornographic framework, deviates from it, interbreeds, integrates, imports, forges linkages, segments and becomes chaotic. In so doing, it widens the bandwidth. As if responding to changes in the paradigm, radical forms appear at the fringes of eromanga, or are introduced there; they invite diverse reading, and permeate and diffuse throughout eromanga as a whole. Given that their borders overlap, there are more than a few instances of this permeation and diffusion in eromanga extending to manga in its entirety. The reverse is also true. Numerous memes from any and everywhere come into eromanga. In the expressive world of manga generally and eromanga specifically, countless memes appear, or hide themselves, are passed on atavistically, mutate and transition.

That things are born from the edges or begin to enter from there is not unique to eromanga, but it is quite visible in this content. Keep in mind that the golden rule in the historically loose world of eromanga is that “Anything goes as long as it's erotic.” Precisely because of this relaxed atmosphere, the fringes of bishōjo-style eromanga have become a site for experiments with expressions of eroticism and sexuality. From there have come subcategories and tropes such as “sadomasochism,” “shemales” and “shota,” which permeate and disseminate throughout the whole of eromanga. This side of eromanga also makes it a platform for creators with strong voices and identities such as Kago Shintarō and Machino Henmaru.