So, What Makes, or Doesn’t Make, a Character a Loli?
With all the recent “thicc” comments about Kanna, from Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon, I thought I’d go into that potentially-police-attracting realm of loli characters. Specifically, what makes a character a loli?
The term loli is short for lolicon, which itself is short for lolita complex, describing someone who is interested in lolitas. Lolita, as a term, came to Japan via the 1955 novel Lolita about a middle-aged man who is obsessed and sexually involved with a 12-year-old girl. It gained traction in two different manners in the 1970’s: as a fashion statement and as a descriptor for erotic doujinshi involving underage girls.
Given the etymology, it makes sense to start with lolicon for determining what exactly makes a character a loli. Lolicon very specifically implies sexual feelings toward an underage female character. A person who watches shows about children because they wish that they had children of their own to nurture and raise is clearly not a lolicon. Neither is someone who watches a show about children because they’re bored, their friend is watching it, or it happens to come on between two other shows that they watch. It has to be sexual. Lolicon doesn’t exactly equal pedophile, because it applies primarily to characters, not real people, but it’s an admittedly blurry line for some.
If we start with lolita as our etymological term instead, we arrive at a similar place. Lolita, in terms of its common use, refers to an underaged, female, sexual character. Given both of these, you might assume that a loli is then any female character who is underage and presented in a sexual manner.
However, anime has managed to ruin this nice, simple explanation with characters like Oshino Shinobu. In her child form, one would be hard-pressed to deny her as a loli character, but her actual age is over 500.
Besides these much-older-than-they-appear characters is Megumin in KonoSuba, who tries to deny her loli-ness to Kazuma by insisting that, as a 14-year-old, she has just recently graduated from loli status. Kazuma denies her assertion, telling her that looking like a loli makes her a loli — this probably makes more sense in the web novel, which has her as 17 or so instead, but anyway… On the other hand, there are characters like Yoko, from Gurren Lagann, who are underage but don’t look it. She’s not a loli, despite her age and definitely sexual presentation.
So, perhaps, it’s any character who appears to be underage and is depicted in a sexual manner.
Enter Masamune’s mother in Masamune-kun no Revenge — or any other adult female who isn’t particularly displayed in any sexual way, but looks like a child. She’s described as a loli character, but she’s never given any sexual characteristics beyond being of an age to have had Masamune. This adds a non-sexual side to lolis.
However, we can’t simply move on to any character who appears to be underage. In Amaama to Inazuma, Tsumugi is almost certainly not a loli, but she both is and appears to be underage. The main reason she’s generally not considered a loli is because she’s not presented in an even slightly sexual way (even when she, herself, is attempting to do so), reintroducing sexuality into the definition.
S0, combining the above, what we can conclude is this: a loli is a character who appears to be underage and, if they actually are underage, is depicted in a sexual manner.
Back to Kanna.
Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon has a child dragon — so, regardless of age in human years, definitely underage — named Kanna, who takes the form of a human child and appears to be underage. Given my previous definition, this means that, to be a loli, she has to be depicted in a sexual manner. This is where things get subjective.
There is another girl her (apparent) age, Saikawa, who is attracted to Kanna. As a child, she probably doesn’t have a firm idea of what exactly she’s wanting of her, but she often displays ahegao-type expressions because of Kanna. Without going too far into it, on an older character, this would be a definitely sexual expression. This is what makes her character ambiguous when it comes to her loli-ness. Kanna doesn’t do much that is inherently sexual, but she and Saikawa do get into situations that, between older characters, could be sexual despite the innocence of the situation itself. Some viewers see these situations and, because of Saikawa’s reactions, view them as sexual. Others see them both as children and don’t view it as sexual at all.
This subjectivity is the main point of contention between people when they argue whether a character is a loli or not. I can’t say that Kanna isn’t a loli, because some people see her in a sexual way, and I can’t say that she is either, because some people don’t.
In conclusion: a loli is a character who appears to be underage and, if they actually are underage, is perceived in a sexual manner. This definition is a little unsatisfying, since it leaves a character’s loli-or-not status in the eyes of the beholder for characters that are actually underage, but it’s probably the most conclusive definition that can be given at present.
