Chart breaks down how often consent is given in manga from different publishers.

Once a year Japanese video-sharing website Niconico holds the Niconico Chokaigi, or “Niconico Super Conference.” The two-day gathering is a celebration of Japanese Internet culture, and the most recent iteration took place last weekend at the Makuhari Messe convention center, about 30 minutes east of downtown Tokyo.

Japanese Twitter user @hiroko_TB was one of the visitors in attendance, and while he was at the convention he stopped by a panel being held by Midori Makita (@midrill on Twitter), a professional statistician focusing on numerical data related to erotic manga. As part of their presentation, Makita put up a chart listing 19 different erotic manga magazines, along with what percentage of their sexual intercourse content is consensual.

The breakdown between forced and consensual intercourse per magazine was:

● Angel Club: 76/24

● Comic Kuriberon: 50/38

● Magazine Siberia: 44/56

● Comic Yumutensei: 31/69

● Comic Taka: 21/79

● Men’s Gold: 21/79

● Comic X-Eros: 17/83

● Comic Ansurium: 17/83

● Comic Aun: 13/81

● Comic Europa: 11/89

● Web Maga Bangaichi: 10/90

● Comic ExE: 10/86

● Comic Kairakuten: 10/86

● Penguin Club: 8/83

● Action Pizatsu: 8/92

● Comic Naman: 6/94

● Comic Lo: 5/90

● Comic Bavel: 5/95

● Magnum X: 0/100

● Total: 19/79

There are a couple of things that stick out in the list. First, even when thinking of titles for collections of comic pornography, Japan’s love of cuteness can’t be entirely suppressed, as evidenced by the innocent-sounding publication Penguin Club. Second, in erotic manga there’s apparently a significant amount of gray area as to what constitutes consent, at least in how Makita defines it, as for nearly a third of the magazines (Comic Kuriberon, Comic Aun, Comic ExE, Comic Kairakuten, Penguin Club, and Comic Lo) the forced and consensual intercourse numbers don’t add up to a complete 100 percent. And third, things are apparently very, very rapey at Angel Club.

However, @hiroko_TB had a much more concise take on Makita’s findings, as along with the photo of the chart he tweeted:

“Erotic manga has a lot of consensual sex.”

Unlike the dry world of statistics, though, linguistics is a much more fluid field, and whether or not Makita’s numbers are evidence of “a lot” of consensual sex is a debatable thing. On the one hand, 79 percent is a pretty big majority, but on the other, though, 19 percent of sexual activity being of the forced variety would be an immensely troubling, completely unacceptable phenomenon were it occurring in the real world, especially since the judgement call of the unclassified two percent might push that even higher in some people’s judgement.

Source: Twitter/@hiroko_TB via Hachima Kiko

Top image: Pakutaso

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