Shotacon/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: An adult (usually but not always a woman) in a relationship with an underage boy.

  • Played Straight: Bob is 10 years old and in a relationship with Alice, who is 20.
  • Exaggerated: Bob is 8 years old and Alice is a Christmas Cake.
  • Up to Eleven: Bob is 2 and Alice is Really Seven Hundred Years Old.
  • Downplayed: Bob is 12 years old coming to 13 and Alice is 15 years old.
  • Justified: Bob is the resident Kidanova, and just happens to have a thing for older women.
  • Inverted: Precocious Crush
  • Gender Inverted: Lolicon
  • Subverted: Bob is Older Than He Looks
  • Double Subverted: ...Because Bob was moved ahead several grades and Alice is older than she looks.
  • Parodied: Alice carries Bob down the isle because he is barely old enough to walk.
    • or: Alice is only one year older than Bob, but everyone still calls her a Shotacon.
  • Deconstructed: First of all, it would be considered illegal in today's day and age, and secondly, the emotional and mental maturity required to be in a relationship is perhaps too much for a young, un(der)developed boy, and not to mention the possibility that Alice could be manipulating him...
  • Reconstructed: Bob is Wise Beyond His Years, and the two of them don't care about societal customs.
  • Averted: Bob only dates women or girls who are his age or around his age.
    • Bob is Asexuality and more importantly, a-romantic.
  • Zig-Zagged: Bob dates girls in a variety of different ages.
  • Lampshaded: "Seriously, Bob? She's old enough to be your mom!"
  • Enforced: The work in question has this setup as part of Author Appeal, hence why there would be a Token Shota on the team.
  • Defied: Alice acknowledges that Bob is attractive, but holds off from making a move on him until he is of reasonable age.
  • Discussed: "Isn't Bob a little young to be even interested in girls? Let alone older women?"
  • Conversed: "Isn't Alice a little old to be even considering Bob? He's hardly into puberty for Pete sakes!"
  • Played for Laughs: Bob's reputation as someone who Likes Older Women is something of a Running Gag, and he's made advances on everyone from his teacher to the female lead protagonist.
    • Or, Alice's attraction to younger boys has lead her to receive the nickname "Shota-gal!"
  • Played for Drama: Alice is really The Vamp playing on Bob's lack of maturity/experience in dating girls, and all she really wants is to use him.
    • Alternatively: Alice genuinely loves Bob, but Bob is too immature to handle (or even care about) a relationship, and has no idea why this "nice lady" is behaving this way.

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