Lolicon (ロリコン, Lolicon?), also romanized as rorikon, is a slang portmanteau of the phrase "Lolita complex".[1][2] In Japan, the term describes an attraction to young girls,[3] or an individual attracted to such a person.[4][5] Outside Japan, the term is less common and most often refers to a genre of manga and anime wherein childlike female characters are depicted in an erotic manner. The phrase is a reference to Vladimir Nabokov's book, Lolita, in which a much older man becomes sexually obsessed with a twelve-year-old girl.[6] The equivalent term for the sexualization of or attraction to young boys is shotacon.

Some critics claim that the lolicon genre contributes to actual sexual abuse of children,[7][8] while others claim that there is no evidence for this,[9][8] or that there is evidence to the contrary.[10] Several countries have attempted to criminalize lolicon's sexually explicit forms as a type of child pornography.