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Part 1 English: https://e-hentai.org/g/3145033/007250b7c0/

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Reminder that the author of Rurouni Kenshin was caught with so much CSAM material, authorities thought that he was a wide distributor

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^ right, but what in the FUCK does that have to do with this doujinshi. Nothing. Let people enjoy their hentai titties.

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Source for your claim that Nobuhiro Watsuki was "was caught with so much CSAM material, authorities thought that he was a wide distributor", David? I've read up on the case, and Youtubers like BonsaiPop have given good breakdowns and explanations of the context, arguing quite rightly that for most of Watsuki's adult life, it had been lawful and commonplace to purchase magazines and DVDs featuring early teens or older pre-pubescents in sexual scenes. [ See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWIzGng2WLY ]. This doesn't make Watsuki a "distributor." More likely that he failed to dispose of porn he'd once purchased lawfully, within the throwaway grace period the Japanese government gave its citizens. Info I've read suggested he had "around 100" (i.e. less than 100) DVDs alleged to depict minors in his home, so not thousands or "distributor" level amounts. He was tried and in February 2018, and fined ¥200,000 or about US$1,500, which could be read as suggesting the level of harm or severity was judged to not be particularly high at the time... [For general reading, see https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-11-21/rurouni-kenshin-creator-nobuhiro-watsuki-charged-with-child-pornography-possession/.124308 ].

As is known, after Watsuki's arrest and The Hokkaido Arc's haitus, Viz Media, the American publisher of Shonen Jump, stopped publishing further English translations of Watsuki's new work. By contrast, however, their Japanese counterpart Shueisha resumed publication, with the second volume of the Hokkaido Arc arc being one of the top-selling manga for the first half of 2019.

This seems to have worked out well for everyone involved - Watsuki didn't have his entire life destroyed and end up hurting himself or others, and the world gets more of a story it loves - Rurouni Kenshin - from an author who to my knowledge has never been in legal trouble again. (Maybe, just maybe, like the Nordic countries, more humane and evidence-based systems have more positive outcomes overall? But of course, that depends on what you see as a "positive outcome"...)

I worked as a science writer for years who specializes in non-normative sexual behaviors and identities, so I'm familiar with the scholarship on what we now call "Chronophilias," or attraction patterns based on age. Although I saw no inkling at all from reading his manga, in his deposition, Watsuki allegedly said that he "liked girls in late elementary school to around the second year of middle school." But, I'm unclear whether this is his predominant sexual attraction or just one part of it, which we often refer to as "exclusive" / "non-exclusive" or "preferential" in scholarship. (See, e.g. Crystal Mundy's research)... I don't have the info to debate his attractions, and care more about what he does than what he thinks or fantasizes about per se, so I'll just state I'm aware of no evidence that Watsuki has ever raped or imposed himself sexually on any other person; not now and not then... There's tons of relevant scholarship I could bring up to highlight relevant debate on these issues, from Michael Seto (2012), to Steven Angelides, Paul Okami, Allie Kilpatrick, Theo Sandfort, Terry Leahy, Bruce Rind. Historians like Amanda H. Littauer with her seminal ''Queer Girls and Intergenerational Lesbian Sexuality" (2020), or Rachel Hope Cleves' award-winning work on Norman Douglas. Scholars who write on marriage and the young in surprising and bravely reasonable ways like Hoko Horii or Nicholas Syrett, or unpack the history of childhood itself (George Rousseau (2007 book, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_and_Sexuality ), Danielle Egan and Gail Hawkes).

It's really interesting and I name drop these scholars for the critically minded and interested readers amongst you. You can find their works easily via Google scholar, Library Genesis or Annas Archive, or look up scholarly papers and paste their DOIs into Sci-Hub to gain free access. Unfortunately, we all know these are highly sensitive issues, and scholars now tend to keep a low-profile to avoid being cancelled like Allyn Walker, Jacob Breslow, Stephen Kershnar and Karl Andersson, amongst others in recent years. In Karl Andersson's case, which is all about Shotacon / Shota Doujin research, senior prof. Casey Brenzia argued that there's a potential "chilling effect", when scholars are treated as heretics for reporting their findings / conclusions (see Brenzia, "The Masturbation Article Affair", 2022). I very much agree and know of scholar's who live in fear of the online mob, so it can often be easier to look to older research in less censorious times.

Many, many scholars have been critical of what they see as ineffective, increasingly punitive and expansive laws around pornography, particularly so when IWF reports from the 2020s have found that over 90% of porn of minors is now produced by minors themselves (see, e.g. https://annualreport2022.iwf.org.uk/trends-and-data/self-generated-csam/ ). A problem that's been discussed in scholarship and brewing since the increasing adoption of mobile phones, for some time now tbh...

So, I'll give a few scholars relevant to the porn debate... First off, for English scholarship on Lolicon, Patrick Galbraith is your guy. For Shotacon, it's Karl Andersson. You can find a detailed review of his book "Unreal Boys" here: https://wapercyfoundation.org/?page_id=279 If you want empirical studies on porn, e.g. it's lack of impact on male sexual aggression, there's too many to name. The most impactful single studies imo are probably Milton Diamond's, arguing that in all countries which legalized porn possession, rape and sexual assault rates went down. (Diamond et al., Pornography and Sex Crimes in the Czech Republic, 2011). And the massive content analysis allegedly performed by Dutch authors Schuijer and Rossen (1992), http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume4/j4_2_1.htm ). For criticism around real-life material, you could read Alan McKee ('Does Porn Harm Young People?', 2010), Harris Mirkin (The Social, Political, and Legal Construction of, and Shadowland), Melissa Hamilton, Mark McLelland, Carissa Byrne Hessick, Ethel Quayle, Suzanne Ost and Alisdair A. Gilliseppe, amongst many, many others. There's a lengthy critical review of a book on Michel Foucault and Sex Crime that's relevant and fun to read: https://wapercyfoundation.org/?page_id=2052

Unfortunately, no one reads, and least of all scholarship. But, you're on a hentai site, so you're probably all good at reading and might enjoy some research that challenges your preconceptions and makes you think. Certainly I do.

As "theboredotaku" puts it, "what in the FUCK does that [Watsuki's conviction] have to do with this doujinshi. Nothing. Let people enjoy their hentai titties." For me, I'll go further and say that fantasy doesn't equal reality. Fantasy doesn't equal action, and there's a wide gap between fantasy and reality. I've played Grand Theft Auto but never felt the need to car-jack someone, and I've seen porn depicting non consensual themes but never felt the urge to rape someone... Personally, I'm happy to see people like Watsuki who are not violent rapists, thriving and giving back to the world. I can't control how people feel - the literature on "praying away the gay" (or the P) is pretty clear that it's not possible - and at best I'd want to support people to avoid breaking the law in the first place. Only a few countries, usually in Europe and sometimes Asia, care about what academics and experts think, though. They're usually much more egalitarian and safer, nicer places to like (Norway, for example). Most sex crime laws in the West are made in what scholars call a "knee-jerk reaction," after a rare, high-profile case shocks the nation and government feels compelled to act swiftly and satiate public outcry. That's understandable, but from where I sit as a sex researcher with years of experience, our feelings are indivisible from culture and are best kept in check by introspection and education. A lofty goal, I know, but with the information at our fingertips thanks to the internet, is there really any excuse?...

Japan has its own heritage of the Wakushu, relationships between adolescents and older males amongst the samurai, which legitimized a form of intimate male same-sex behavior at a time where it was otherwise despised and punishable by death elsewhere... In China, similar thing with the "passion of the cut sleeve"... Presumably, the Japanese samurai didn't feel the inherent disgust and outrage we are all supposed to feel? Presumably, those feelings and perspectives are learnt, not something inherent in the human condition? When I was just starting out on my scholarly journey, I remember being shocked to see that people were condemning 17-year-olds getting with 19-year-olds; remembering my ow teenage years of being squarely attracted to peers and older women, it didn't make sense... Now, that doesn't mean I approve of everything, there needs to be some limits, but in Watsuki's case he had DVDs and magazines which throughout his life had been lawful and ordinary to purchase and possess. Like the author of Toriko who was convicted of "compensated dating" with a high-school prostitute selling her wares, these were normative features of Japanese culture until more recent times. Both have had wonderful careers and given great art and stories to the world; personally, I'm happy for them...

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk :p

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