Loli Pop Culture: The great divide

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Twice now I've been called on my labeling of anime characters as lolis, when I thought I was near-certain that they were.

And aside from launching me off on awkwardly and one might say disturbingly statistical arguments - if you look at the Primula one - it set me off to thinking?

What in the heck really is a loli?

It's kind of anime's "weapons of mass destruction". A term that sends a lot of people recoiling, without them knowing really what it is. I could point to a character very easily, much like I could point to a nuclear missile, and say "This is a loli."


The character, not the missile. Please don't tell me I'm wrong this time.

And I could point to a piece of styrofoam, and say "this is not a weapon of mass destruction," much like I could wield Akiko Minase as an example that yes, there are girls in anime over 18 and decidedly non-loli.

Then, y'know, there's the in-betweens. Those that are young in age but old in looks, or those that are young in looks but old in age. What really counts as a loli, anyway? A lot of people have a sort of shudder, knee-jerk "BAD!" reaction to the term, evidenced much by the Kodomo no Jikan manga scandal, but there are many varied forms of lolis out there, some pure, some perverted, and far too many borderline to count.

This ends up so that when one starts thinking about why they hate lolis, it's difficult to come up with an argument other than "they are bad," because nobody knows what they really are.

So here's another editorial, an impromptu second part to the Moe Rising article from last time, about what a loli really is.

As always when I'm busy looking up something often considered as disturbing by the anime fandom or the real world, I head to my favorite harem-master over at Hontou ni Taihen Desu for some balanced, level-headed commentary on things that would raise quite a few eyebrows in other, perhaps more sane places.

I had remembered an old post of his, now celebrating its one-year anniversary, regarding his definition of what a loli was. As pure as his child-loving nature is (feel free to cough suspiciously) he does note that loli has taken on a highly sexualized connotation, and I can't help but agree.

If you've ever wondered what loli meant before, you've probably asked around and gotten the canned answer that it was spawned from that one Russian novel Lolita about, in short, some old guy sexually interested in some young girl named, yup, Lolita. I'm not sure how exactly it started getting thrown around in anime circles so much - I've rarely-to-never seen it used outside of an anime context - but the link to this book has never really been lost, as the use of the word 'loli' by some people has always had some dirty undertones to it, like "I see, you're watching a loli show."

And probably there's something to be said about the two character I claimed as loli - Ayu (Kanon) and Primula (Shuffle!) - not to mention 95% of most I could think could clearly fit the bill stemming from either eroge or visual novels. I will always stand behind the visual novel genre as a great combination of appealing characters, dramatic storytelling, and strong emotional appeal, but when the majority of your target audience is guys there is, admittedly, a lot of pandering going on sometimes, even if that is just so that the characters can break the mold.

Which leads to the second common way I've seen loli be thrown about, and that's in more of a physical context. A literal measuring stick like the ones you would see at an amusement park, that read "you must be shorter than this hand to be loli". Some might weigh the Delicious Flat Chest factor of a character as equally or more important than the height, as well. It's certainly easier to measure characters this way, as physical characteristics are typically more objective than subjective characteristics.

But yet, it's not foolproof. Exhibit A: Lucky Star.

How many lolis do you see in this picture?

There's that issue of art style playing up or down a character's physical portrayal. Lucky Star has this issue especially, drawing all its characters in a somewhat-deformed fashion, de-emphasizing physical characteristics. For instance, Miyuki is one of the 'larger' characters in the show, yet she is portrayed modestly, especially compared to cow-fests like Dragonaut. This has the side-effect of making most of the high school characters, right around 18 in age, look like short washboards.

Obviously there are a few for-certain lolis in the bunch - Konata wears it with pride, and Yutaka, I think, actually IS of young age relative to the cast - but there are one or two more of the cast in question. Most of the characters are mature enough to not seem childish, but the lovable Tsukasa certainly is on the borderline if anything else.

Or flip over to Shakugan no Shana - the titular Shana, for example. Short, flat, and immature. Undoubtedly she's actually pretty old, and she doesn't exactly fit the loli mold, but when you compare her to other females such as Kazumi or Ogata (?), a trend becomes apparent.

Take the other side of the coin; Aoi Oribe from Myself;Yourself. Mentally and vocally, she might as well be a ten-year-old, with a voice lifted straight from Chiyo (Azumanga). Physically, she's probably the most built of the cast. What's your verdict?

I doubt you'll find anyone who will call Aoi a loli, which gives a bit of preference for physical over mental characteristics in the loli definition, but also brings to mind an interesting concept I believe in; relative loli.

Lolis nowadays are all over the map; they are, believe it or not, not just sexualized little kids meant to make church pastors happy in the pants, but also, an excellent way to portray the concept of maturing in characters. As Owen has professed over Hinako from the same series, they can be surprising when they act like adults, or try to, and break the typical stereotype of little kids. Quite often they are childlike only in look, hiding a deeper personality inside, as Fuuko from Clannad could attest to (well, most of the time). They can hide great insights that more 'adult' characters overlook, as is the case of Koyori in sola.

And as such, the word 'loli' a lot of time has shed its sexualized meaning and become more of a general descriptor, in the same vein as 'tsundere'; there are many variations of it, and the term serves only as a sort of starting point for a character, a quick way to point viewers in the right direction, that doesn't really pin a lot of who they are down.

I say 'relative' loli because a lot of characters I label loli, might not be as such, but are clearly so compared to the rest of the cast. Primula, of Shuffle, may, apparently, be too tall and too busted for a canon loli, but when you compare her to Sia, Asa, Nerine, Kaede, and all, it's pretty clear-cut to me. Not to mention, the role she fits as the 'pseudo-adopted child' certainly fits in that loli section as well, right down to the way she acts.

Ayu, may be too mature, too old for loli status outright, but considering her easily amused, cheerful demeanor, and her being a head down on most characters, she can easily be described with the word 'loli'. (Not to mention, any spoilery reasons about why she is so.) It's not like Yuuichi is going to get busted for being a pedobear any time soon, but Ayu is definitely one that could be recgonized as 'the loli one' if I were to off-hand it, just as if I called Mai 'the quiet one' or Sayuri 'the laughing one'.

Is this diluting the word? Probably. But it seems to be used more and more as a casual word, at least to describe characters. It's not a positive nor a negative connotation - most of the time - but more widely used as a 'of this type' descriptor, kind of like the visual novel genre as a whole.

Not all visual novels may be the same - some are more dirty than others, some are slightly different in approach - but you know the gist of what you're getting when you get into one.

Likewise, a 'loli' has become a mix of characteristics, mostly physical, but also reflecting on the mental side as well; the physique will make or break a 'loli' status, but the state of mind is reserved for judging characters that are more borderline (Konoe, from Shana II, might be a good example). It doesn't always imply sexuality - although there are some that use it in such a way, that I reserve the 'lolicon' branding for - although it usually has at least a slight undertone of physical attractiveness.

(For instance, the cast of Cardcaptor Sakura is not loli, because they are not built to be physically, but rather emotionally, attractive. Many magical girl heroines, like Amu Hinamori, fall into this category.)

Will 'loli' ever lose its negative stigma? Probably not - the issue of pedophilia is a touchy one, especially in the United States, and when this name crossed the wrong people, it really became sort of a 'brand of evil' to stamp on things. Kind of like how some people brand things "moe trash", they call things "blatant lolicon pandering". Of course, neither is true, as there are good parts to both sides, and not just to dirty minds, either.

To be honest, I cannot vouch personally, but I am venturing out to try Kodomo no Jikan, the manga, as an experiment (one that, unfortunately, does not involve a lot of kissing). We will see whether I will come back with sanity and libido unscathed.

-CCY

One more - you make the call.

(Incidentally, at my age, being a lolicon probably isn't illegal if I'm on the upper edge of shota myself. For the record, though, I don't have any bias towards or against loli characters, barring those that are over-sexualized.)

(Yes, that KimiKiss link was random, but there's a lot of ace discussion going on about this 'unpredictably predictable' - am I allowed to quote myself? - romance anime.)