Quote from pearlesque

1. Are particular depictions of incest more common in manga, and if so, why?

2. Are some genres (e.g. shounen, shoujo, yaoi, yuri) more or less likely to feature incest? If so, why?

3. How close do you think manga is to real life in its depictions of incestuous relationships?

4. What do you think the depiction of incest in manga signifies in terms of Japanese culture?

From what I've read, mostly shoujo & josei but overall a bit of anything that sounded interesting -

1. Step-cest of various sorts seems fairly common in shoujo & josei, I'd guess because it has that "forbidden" feeling without actually being between blood-related people - a little taboo without going over the line. Also, a step-relationship puts the characters in closer proximity than just about anything else, providing lots of opportunities for the characters to get to know each other, take care of each other when sick, accidentally see each other in the bath, etc.

2. Can't really answer this one as there are several genres that I just don't read, however I'd guess that anything aimed at girls/women is more likely to have incest relationships simply because, as you've said elsewhere, manga aimed at women in simply more likely to deal with relationships.

3. I'd guess that manga about incestuous relationships is about as close to the reality of incestuous relationships as manga in general is close to life in general - not very!! 🤣 No one wants to read about ordinary, normal lives, they're just not very interesting. To make a good story, even one that's based in reality, a lot of drama gets added.

4. I think it's worth noting that a fair number of manga deal with other "forbidden" (or at least disapproved of) relationships. Examples: large age differences, older girls/women with younger boys/men, taller girls/women with shorter boys/men, one half of the couple being "cool" while the other is "geeky", one half of the couple being "nice" while the other is "bad", etc.

A lot of English womens' fiction (aka romance novels) also deals with forbidden/disapproved of relationships of one kind or another, but in all my reading I've found very little incest of any sort (except as something horrible that may have happened to a character, generally being molested as a child). I do think there is definitely a cultural difference between the US & Japan, but it's hard to clearly define it.

"[English] not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."
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YES ZOMG, I have often wondered why! In fact, in the reply I just made above, I note the fact that non-hentai incest seems to be more common in shoujo than in shounen. Very, very interesting. And I don't think it's necessarily because of a brother complex (cute idea, though!) but because the shoujo genre features more relationship-based stories in the first place. So naturally the ratio of incest relationships will be higher, because the ratio of ALL romantic relationships is higher in shoujo than in shounen.

Agree with you in every way there, I don't think I've seen one shounen manga with the theme of incest, mainly because what most shounen managas feature is action and fighting, with very little romance. As u said, because Shoujo is more relationship focused it definately maskes sense that there would be more incest themes in Shoujo. Everyone of the manga people have named here are mostly shoujo or yaoi anyway, to my knowledge.

anyway... thought I'd just add to the list

• Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru (brother/ sister)
• Angel sanctuary (ehhh... sorry this has been mentioned several times) brother/ sister
• lost child (twins- brothers)
• Bokura wo shihaisuru kotoba (step- brothers, very sweet story, though I'm not sure this one counts as incest).
• lies and kisses (two half- brothers, though this one might be abit smutty, it does have a slightly serious storyline)
• Our kingdom (cousins- boys, would this be considered incest in Japan?)

haha... realized most are yaoi and shounen-ai, but hope this helps.

Quote from melee86

Agree with you in every way there, I don't think I've seen one shounen manga with the theme of incest, mainly because what most shounen managas feature is action and fighting, with very little romance. As u said, because Shoujo is more relationship focused it definately maskes sense that there would be more incest themes in Shoujo. Everyone of the manga people have named here are mostly shoujo or yaoi anyway, to my knowledge.

I think the first and only real incest-themed seinen manga I found was Koi Kaze. I've had a tough time finding other shounen/seinen manga that features an incestuous relationship as the crux of its story, or at least as a very important part of its story. I guess Lament of the Lamb counts, but not any others I can think of...

Quote from melee86

haha... realized most are yaoi and shounen-ai, but hope this helps.

Please do suggest yaoi titles to me as well! I'm looking for any or all incest stories, regardless of sexuality. Thanks so much! 🙂

"They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm." - Dorothy Parker.

I think the first and only real incest-themed seinen manga I found was Koi Kaze. I've had a tough time finding other shounen/seinen manga that features an incestuous relationship as the crux of its story, or at least as a very important part of its story. I guess Lament of the Lamb counts, but not any others I can think of...

really? I always thought Lament of the lamb and Koi Kaze were shoujo, lol, oh well. I remember watching the animes for both of them and thinking they were shoujo. does angel sanctuary count as shounen? it involves a lot of action and fighting...

but anyway, yeah, I can see how there would difficult finding more stuff for shounen or seinen. I have trouble finding straight romance in most of the shounen/ seinen manga I know of anyway...

Please do suggest yaoi titles to me as well! I'm looking for any or all incest stories, regardless of sexuality. Thanks so much!

welcome! 🙂 I can think of a few more, but unfortunately there only ones with ALOT of sex and very little plotline. Yaizu brothers and brother are a few, if u want to have a look, both yaoi, but VERY little story. Actually those types kind of bug me anyway... haha 😀

Wow, incest has a large following, the admions might think about adding a new genre title to help find incest. ( and also to help people to stay away )

I think i germany a couple ( brother and sister ) with 4 children a fighting a law suite to decriminilize incest , or make it possible to marry. So soon Germany will be flooded with japanese incest couples who want to marry. Sounds like fun!

I have a little sister and largely because of that i really don't enjoy incest. It's a different thing if i a manga ( any work of fiction ) relatives meet after they grew up. ( such as koi kaze )

And no, it isn't a poplar topic in seinen, but if you consider Hentei also as seinen, we young males have put a lot of thought about incest.

Quote from bully_jesus

Wow, incest has a large following, the admions might think about adding a new genre title to help find incest. ( and also to help people to stay away )

Thats not gonna happen. 😀

Most stuff with incest can most likly be found in shoujo or hentai (maybe ecchi). That narrows it down enough, I think.

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come on, lets introduce a lot of new genres, such as multiple partner, cheating wife, ....
the possibilitys are endless,....... 🙂

no, back to being serious, since incest really disturbes many people it would be nice if people put a incest warning into the plot summary, just the same way other things are warned for sometimes. Well, i do put in those warnings sometimes, for extrem brutality for example.

I think there are more female mangaka who write stories about incest because they believe in the idea 'you can find love anywhere'...or something along those lines 🙄

Oh, and I remembered another thing with incest! There was a Gravitation remix where...okay, never mind since it's hard yaoi and the strangest threesome ever 😲 It was almost non-con 😀 Pretty disturbing imo 😲 Please ignore this 😀

Quote from bully_jesus

come on, lets introduce a lot of new genres, such as multiple partner, cheating wife, ....
the possibilitys are endless,.......

There are already several yaoi archives that tell you the different pairings (i.e. teacherxstudent, teacherxteacher...), maybe you can find one like that 😀 I bet there are even hentai/ecchi ones 😀

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mmmh i didnt even read it. just saw the movie. and i aint sure it's what you're looking for because

they dont know they are father and daughter and it's not the main theme of the manga, but its seinen. ! old boy

wooow this topic got big

oh well did anybody play this game :Kana Little Sister Adult PC Game

they say it's good but problem it's Adult...

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@Kaioh, I don't think that it's fair to say that because most of the admins live in America, we will go with the American definition of incest...
Personally I come from a place where cousin marriage is regarded as normal, and I have a good number of family members who are married to their cousins. And I personally regard it as perfectly normal as well.
And even in the US, I think it is possible to marry ones cousin anyway. (It probably depends on the state and stuff... but who cares, the fact that it's still possible remains valid)
And stepbrother/sisters? what's wrong with that? consider the other scenario... a guy and a girl get married, and through that, their parents meet... and decide they like each other... Is that incest?
Anyway, for me, just the same as cousin marriage, stepbrother/sister is extremely normal, and happens often.

@bully_jesus, I think I heard about the case your talking about. They didn't know they where brother and sister, got married had children and then they discovered it. And I think that the law forced them to cancel their marriage... Sad story.

And to add a manga to the list:
I think ayashi no ceres had an incest element, It's been a reaaaaaly long time that I read that though. So not so sure anymore.

Quote from Stealth

I think ayashi no ceres had an incest element, It's been a reaaaaaly long time that I read that though. So not so sure anymore.

yeah that reminds me it has a incest element but thats not the main plot, it has Cousin incest...not sure if that is incest...cause it's very common and regarded as normal or even prefered in some families in my country, as they say to the guy or girl to first look inside the family, if you can't find a compatible partner, then you look outside, this may sound strange to some but to us it's completely normal 😃

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Quote from ranmaru

Quote from Stealth

I think ayashi no ceres had an incest element, It's been a reaaaaaly long time that I read that though. So not so sure anymore.

yeah that reminds me it has a incest element but thats not the main plot, it has Cousin incest...not sure if that is incest...cause it's very common and regarded as normal or even prefered in some families in my country, as they say to the guy or girl to first look inside the family, if you can't find a compatible partner, then you look outside, this may sound strange to some but to us it's completely normal 😃

Cousin? 😕 Oh yeah, that's right.

In the second volume Kagami starts making the moves on Aya to bring out Ceres; is that what you were getting at? Well, actually I think Stealth is referring to the relationship between Aki and Aya, the twin brother and sister. ! Cuz after Aki became 'evil' or whatever, he was posessive of Ceres like he had been in the past, but I guess it doesn't really count then since Ceres was in Aya's body or something like that... I'm pretty they even kissed at one point...

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Quote from lakesurface and it's not the main theme of the manga, but its seinen.[spoiler

old boy[/spoiler]

how could i forget old boy?

Are you guys going off topic or did I miss something incest in old boy?

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