Unreal Boys

Three young men in Tokyo explore the limits of fantasy through the manga genre shota, which features fictional boys in sexual situations. We follow an aspiring artist who wants to “live in a fantasy forever”, a youtuber who records his interactions with a shota game, and a manga artist driven by nostalgia. While trying to understand a controversial phenomenon that blurs the borders of actual and virtual realities, the filmmaker participates actively in the shota culture and ends up realising something important about himself. Unreal Boys is based on extensive fieldwork and part of a master’s thesis in visual anthropology.

• USA