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Young boys from shonen series, which often have only incidental female audiences, are often featured in shota-con dojinshi. A much milder version of the fetish is often seen in shojo, where a high school character dotes and fusses over a middle schooler as one would a pet. She would simply be joked to have a 'little brother' complex or a kawaii 'fetish'.
Traditionally, shota-con was considered a subgenre of yaoiThe word Yaoi was originally used to refer to fan manga (such as dojinshi) that focused on a homosexual relationship between two male characters, especially two bishonen the manga equivalent of slash. The term is an acronym derived from ya ma nashi, o chi, under the grounds a young male audience would find the idea of heterosexual shota-con (i.e., an older woman sexually attracted to a young man) quite appealing and not needing to be catagorized as a fetish to avoid possible association.
By contrast the male fetish for a somewhat older woman is often called a 'josei complex', especially if the male is teenage or younger. In the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in this is more crudely described as a MILF complex.
The phrase derives from "Shotaro complex" (Shotaro is a hero character from Tetsujin 28-Go and is a popular generic name for young male characters in anime) and is sometimes contracted further to shota. Shotaro, in those anime and manga, often outwitted and was never afraid to say what he had to against ungainly grownups. Except for few occasions where his physical limits failed him, he had everything that could be had for an adult. His appearance was also deemed cute.
Where this Shota-con concept developed is hard to prove but one of the earliest root of this syndrome can be traced to readers responses to detective series written by Edogawa RampoEdogawa Rampo ( Edogawa Ranpo (born Hirai Taro October 21, 1894 July 28, 1965) was a Japanese author and critic. He wrote many works of detective fiction. Kogoro Akechi was the primary detective of these novels. Rampo was a great admirer of western myster featuring a cool detective Kogoro AkechiKogoro Akechi ( Akechi Kogoro is a fictional character and the creation of Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Rampo. He first appeared in the stody "The D Slope Murder case" in 1925 and continued to appear in stories for a quarter of a century. Edogawa Rampo. In it, Yoshio Kobayashi and his friends form "Shonentanteidan" (Junior Detective Group, similar to the Baker Street Irregulars of Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th century, created by British author and physician Arthur Conan Doyle. He is famous for his prowess at using logic and careful observation to solve cases. Holmes was said to have lived)) to aid Mr. Akechi. Kobayashi was written as a perfect young teenager who, some might say, had a strong 'dependency' to Mr. Akechi. Every time he appears, he is either worried about Akechi's well-being or helping Akechi set the trap for criminals. On numerous occasions that he was captured, Akechi swooped in for a timely rescue. He even lived together in the Akechi's house who happened to be not married. In short, he acted almost as though he was Akechi's wife and no doubt not few female readers had read stories picturing them to be in Kobayashi's position.
Different definitions are available. Some define it exclusively as comic art (usually anime or manga), depicting a sexual relationship between an underage boy (usually prepubescent) and another male (adult or child.) Others use a looser definition, including any fiction (not just comic art), and sexual/erotic art depicting a lone underage boy, or an underage boy with a woman or older teenage girl. Some also use it refer to anyone (male or female) who's attracted to underage boys (and is not him/herself underage).