>>3658373I see many reasons for this:
- "Older shotas/lolis" or teenagers are in a range where they are young and pretty but old enough to let people desire them without "feeling guilty" for being attracted to "drawn children".
- Many of the most popular characters in anime, manga and cartoons are teenagers, so the pool of artists drawing them is bigger than in other
- A big part of the users are in their late teens or twenties, so they feel closer to the teen characters than to older ones (25+).
- /y/ absorbed (and still does) most of the users who prefer older-looking males, contributing to the predominance of young characters in /cm/ (and /d/).
>>3658440>Defining shota sounds hardIt's really simple once you understand that Japan and the west have different definitions of loli and shota.
In Japan loli and shota cover kids and teens up to 15yo (and "adults" who look that young), but a bunch of artists prefer to use a different term for those in the 3-8yo range (on Pixiv they use "pedo") while leaving "loli and shota" for those in the older side (9-15yo). Keep in mind that this isn't a standard and many artists use both tags at the same time or just the loli/shota tag.
Meanwhile, in the west, the terms loli and shota are used to describe preteens and early teens between 6 and 13yo (with some exceptions again), with the made up term "toddlercon" (that doesn't exist outside of the west) for those aged 5 and lower.
So in few words:
Toddlercon (western term): 0-5yo
Pedo (Japanese term): 0-8yo
Loli/shota (western definition): 5-13yo
Loli/shota (Japanese definition): 0-15yo but mostly used for characters between 7 and 13yo.
Lolicon/shotacon: either used as the long version of loli/shota or to describe those attracted to lolis/shotas.
