Researcher asks how much sex in erotic manga is consensual

Ero-manga (erotic manga comics) is associated with sex, of course, but not just any old sex. Great sex. Strange sex. Fetishes. And, let’s be frank, non-consensual sex.

But is that reputation justified? How much sex in ero-manga is actually non-consensual?

At the recent Niconico Chokaigi event, statistician Midori Makita presented a list of different ero-manga magazines along with the results of a survey examining what percentage of the sex they portray is non-consensual or consensual.

Here is the breakdown (first percentage is non-consensual; second is consensual):

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 Anthurium: 17/83
Comic Aun: 13/81
Comic Europa: 11/89
Web Manga 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

So, in fact, consensual sex greatly outnumbers depictions of sexual intercourse as rape.

However, we are not sure what criteria was used to determine if sex was consensual or not. A lot of adult video porn and softcore porn (pink film included) features sex that sounds or looks, to many Westerner’s perspectives at least, like rape.

Needless to say, the choice of magazines is also relatively mainstream. The percentages would surely shift when taking less mainstream and famous titles into consideration.