Unless you have lived under a rock for the past five or so years, you have probably heard of an anime called Boku no Pico. Several reaction videos have come out of it, and the anime community on a whole was appalled at the yaoi, shotacon anime. Having seen the reaction videos first, and after hearing all my friends talk about what a train wreck this anime actually was, I decided to sit down and watch this OVA with an open mind, although keeping those notions of a train wreck in the back of my mind. However, after watching Boku no Pico, it left me wondering why there was such a back lash about a yaoi OVA?
As I was driving down the road one day, I started thinking what if Pico has been an actual girl, not a cross-dressing(i.e. trap) boy. Would that have changed anything about the story line of the anime of the relationship between Pico and Tamotsu? The conclusion I came up with would have been no, except for the fact it would have been forbidden feelings of lolicon instead of homosexual feelings for a shota. There are many lolicon hentai OVA out there, such as Lo re: sukusuku no Mizuki-chan, Garden, and even a whole T.V. series by the name of Kodomo no Jikan. Although Kodomo no Jikan got back lash due to the fact it was the third grade girls making the advances despite no depictions of sex in the anime, the other two did not receive any backlash, although sexual contact was made on the girls by older men.
The other case I had pondered was what if Boku no Pico had an all female cast. Would there be any back lash from an older woman making sexual advances on a little girl? Thinking long and hard on it, I decided that it might have gotten a little bit of back lash, but not the near amount that the all male cast had gotten. I think that if Boku no Piko had been an all female cast, I feel like possibly it would have been geared more towards men and yuri fans and the hentai OVA would have done better.
That brings me to my third and final point of while I was watching, I did not know at which audience Boku no Pico was actually directed at. Shota anime is typically aimed at women, along with the yaoi factor. However, the whole trap aspect of it felt like it was aimed at men, who typically don't enjoy yaoi anime. In theory, the anime was aimed at both audiences, but actually failed to please either one. The women were so disgusted that it was little boys and the men were disgusted by the same fact.
