What exactly defines a 'loli'

Jan 5, 2016 7:25 AM

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Oct 2015

491

Title...

Really how do you define a loli, does she have to be under a certain age? Does she have just be flat and/or lack curves?

Jan 5, 2016 7:27 AM

romagia

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Feb 2013

17582

loli is only for le sick otaku perverts
lol is paedophilia
something about pictures of children and sexualization
reeeeeeeeee

but this should be a survery tbh fam
the subleties of loli genre are not to be underestimated

Jan 5, 2016 7:29 AM

NeoAnkara

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Mar 2012

18960

Loli is about body structure. Age is irrelevant in this.

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Jan 5, 2016 7:36 AM

Sslacker

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May 2014

Here's good answer to your question:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4z4O_NGHlI

SslackerJan 5, 2016 7:42 AM

Jan 5, 2016 7:38 AM

silvers0ul

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Mar 2015

706

i don't know but this guy is the definition of lolicon

silvers0ulJan 5, 2016 7:40 AM

Gin-chan said:
Anime - it's not something that can be thought of in a hall for conferences. It is made out of strange juices current from the brain of animators.

Jan 5, 2016 7:39 AM

Okashi

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Jul 2014

13353

NeoAnkara said:
Loli is about body structure. Age is irrelevant in this.

I'd say the behavior plays a big role as well.

Jan 5, 2016 7:39 AM

-Rainy-

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May 2015

2530

Loli is a body structure that got confused with age so people think loli's are all underage and that lolicon's are pedophiles.

Flat is justice though.

every single one of my forum posts is dumb and invalid except for 1, I don't claim them it was a different person it was all fake

Jan 5, 2016 7:41 AM

YizelTro

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Feb 2015

3751

Loli = Little girl?
i don't know who make that word and for what purpose someone make that word but for me, i think loli is a little girl. and lolicon is a pervet who love little girl.

Jan 5, 2016 7:41 AM

Z-Dante

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Aug 2015

3777

Anime cute little girl figure with proper nutrition !

Z-DanteJan 5, 2016 7:59 AM

Jan 5, 2016 7:42 AM

#10

KaiqueCW

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Oct 2015

302

Loli are girls in which the body has not grown yet, think old account since you do not see old loli

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Jan 5, 2016 7:43 AM

#11

AllenNoah

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Aug 2014

896

Tevens said:
Loli = Little girl?
i don't know who make that word and for what purpose someone make that word but for me, i think loli is a little girl. and lolicon is a pervet who love little girl.

It's short for "Lolita" which is the title of a famous novel, I believe.

Jan 5, 2016 7:44 AM

#12

-Rainy-

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May 2015

2530

KaiqueCW said:
Loli are girls in which the body has not grown yet, think old account since you do not see old loli

>you do not see old loli
Have you not heard of Grandma Loli?

every single one of my forum posts is dumb and invalid except for 1, I don't claim them it was a different person it was all fake

Jan 5, 2016 7:45 AM

#13

AltoRoark

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Jun 2015

3948

NeoAnkara said:
Loli is about body structure. Age is irrelevant in this.

This. Also, in order to fit the definition of "loli", it has to be depicted in an erotic or suggestive manner. In other words, fap material. Characters such as Taiga Aisaka and Illyasviel do not apply.

EDIT: Oh wait, I forgot about Fate/Kalied. So I guess Illya qualifies as a loli after all.

AltoRoarkJan 5, 2016 8:30 AM

Jan 5, 2016 8:09 AM

#14

Z-Dante

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Aug 2015

3777

AltoRoark99 said:

NeoAnkara said:
Loli is about body structure. Age is irrelevant in this.

You kidding ? Illya is one of the best loli ever.
And loli isn't always have to be erotic or fap material. As long as someone's cute and girly and childish , you can consider her loli.
Illya , Shinobuu , Last Order , Ayumi everyone is a loli if you consider this. On the other hand Naru from Barakmon isn't a loli cause she doesn't look girly.

Jan 5, 2016 8:12 AM

#15

Horatio_Nelson

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Oct 2014

272

I'd only consider the first of those girls a loli. The other two are just moe.
Loli=little girls=female organisms of a young age
Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

What Kabaneri Did Wrong:
- Edgelord protagonist
- Special snowflake girlfriend
- Giving humans powers
- Failing to create a unique/memorable setting

What Kabaneri Did Right:
...

Jan 5, 2016 8:12 AM

#16

OneTrueEmiya

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Mar 2015

5453

Loli = young girl who is most likely jailbait.

Jan 5, 2016 8:17 AM

#17

ciferenforfiren

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Aug 2013

196

AltoRoark99 said:

NeoAnkara said:
Loli is about body structure. Age is irrelevant in this.

<br />
This. Also, in order to fit the definition of "loli", it has to be depicted in an erotic or suggestive manner. In other words, fap material. Characters such as Taiga Aisaka and Illyasviel do not apply.

lol, Illya is sexy as fuck

OT: it's all about the body. For example, Shinobu is a loli but has like 600 years and save some scenes she acts like that

Jan 5, 2016 8:32 AM

#18

hoopla123

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Apr 2013

7288

It is all about the physique.

If the girl looks like a little girl, regardless of age she is a loli.

Jan 5, 2016 8:55 AM

#19

You

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Apr 2015

5601

If shes petite, she is loli.
Being underaged but tall is no loli
It has to be super petite like those from yuru yuri or like Victorique, characters like Aisaka Taiga isn't petite enough to be called a loli.
And also petite girls >>>> tall girls

Jan 5, 2016 9:07 AM

#20

zombie_pegasus

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Oct 2014

15722

From what I've heard if they're cute and female then they're a loli. Here are a few examples of adult lolis:

Cuteness comes from looking young as we have the instinct to protect people who look cute, primarily our own children.

Jan 5, 2016 9:09 AM

#21

hoopla123

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Apr 2013

7288

zombie_pegasus said:
From what I've heard if they're cute and female then they're a loli. Here are a few examples of adult lolis:

Cuteness comes from looking young as we have the instinct to protect people who look cute, primarily our own children.

Andou and Miyamori from Shirobako aren't lolis lol...

Jan 5, 2016 9:33 AM

#22

Aqutan

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Feb 2014

17731

Under age of consent girl, fuck what he who shall not be named has to say.

And fuck if he turns this thread into a shitting contest, I say ban loli topics as a reform.

#MakeMALGreatAgain #Nico2016

Jan 5, 2016 9:37 AM

#23

Daitomodachi

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Jan 2010

450

(For female lolis) Flat chested? Check.
Often get confused as a little girl despite her age? Check.
Acts like a little kid despite her/his age? Check.

Bonus points:
Is she/he a tsundere?

Jan 5, 2016 9:42 AM

#24

Rinrinka

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Dec 2014

21036

Loli is all about body size and looks....if she is small and looks young then she is a loli.

(っ◔◡◔)っ 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓭𝓪𝔂 ♥

Jan 5, 2016 9:44 AM

#25

zombie_pegasus

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Oct 2014

15722

Daitomodachi6 said:
(For female lolis) Flat chested? Check.
Often get confused as a little girl despite her age? Check.
Acts like a little kid despite her/his age? Check.

Bonus points:
Is she/he a tsundere?

"Male lolis" are called shotas. Learn your nomenclature, bro.

Jan 5, 2016 9:46 AM

#26

CatSoul

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Apr 2015

6731

The official definition is cute, little girl-like appearance. People can argue about the age thing all they want, but Problem Children/Mondaiji refers to this girl:

as a loli in the title of the second episode, despite being 1000+ years old.

"No, son, you may not have your body pillow at the dinner table!"

Jan 5, 2016 9:49 AM

#27

Pokitaru

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Jul 2015

1812

Definition #1

Definition #2

Jan 5, 2016 9:55 AM

#28

KonaKoffee

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Dec 2015

3462

loli is usually specifically defined to describe a girl between 4 and 16. Shota is defined to describe a boy between the same ages.

The lack of curves doesn't define someone being a "loli".

Banner credit to @turnip

Jan 5, 2016 9:59 AM

#29

removed-user

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Jul 2018

561912

loli is basically any character under the legal age by a LONG way (like 12 say)
Lolicon is a adult who has a more child like body or look

Jan 5, 2016 10:01 AM

#30

Daitomodachi

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Jan 2010

450

zombie_pegasus said:

"Male lolis" are called shotas. Learn your nomenclature, bro.

Damn. The one time I decide to be PC I'm incorrect. Guess Tumblr been rubbing off me.

Jan 5, 2016 10:01 AM

#31

ExTemplar

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Nov 2014

9843

This think again? When will pedos stop trying to find a reason for this to be ok.

Jan 5, 2016 10:02 AM

#32

Fintan

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Apr 2011

2916

Noun. (usually uncountable, plural lolicons) (uncountable, anime) The sexual attraction to young girls. (countable, anime) An individual fixated on young, generally prepubescent, girls. (uncountable, anime) Erotic or suggestive art depicting prepubescent females.

Jan 5, 2016 10:02 AM

#33

Info-Chan

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Dec 2015

187

A loli is a character design which is typically of a short stature and emphasizes qualities that most associate with the adjective cute. A loli-type design can be used for a character of any age, but usually it is used for relatively youthful characters.

♪ (ʘ ཀ ﾟ )っ♥ Cᴏɴsᴜᴍᴇ Mᴇ—sᴏ ᴛʜᴀᴛ I ᴍᴀʏ Cᴏɴsᴜᴍᴇ Yᴏᴜ ♥⊂( ﾟ ཀ ʘ) ♪

Jan 5, 2016 10:02 AM

#34

You

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Apr 2015

5601

If loli is about age then the will be no legal loli duh
But that teacher on NouCome and that elder on Astalotte no Omocha are legal lolis.

Jan 5, 2016 10:10 AM

#35

SodiumChloride

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Jul 2015

3643

Whenever you're watching anime and your I'm-about-to-get-arrested-by-child-protection-services sense starts tingling then you know that you've found a loli .

Wohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Jan 5, 2016 10:10 AM

#36

ishiZY

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Apr 2015

285

Loli is young girl or with youthful characteristics.
Lolicon is paraphilia.
Pedophilia is considered a paraphilia to one both sexes.

ishiZYJan 5, 2016 10:11 AM

Is it GreanPeace? I don't think so - whine to your parents or tell'em to buy sth for ur buttpain. Those ppl won't help you.

.. ..

Jan 5, 2016 10:14 AM

#37

Zalis

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Jun 2007

4106

Any female character who looks under 25, is shorter than 6'0", and has smaller than F-cup breasts, apparently.

Everything that connects to MAL

Contains Ecchi, but not Tagged Ecchi: Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

Jan 5, 2016 12:11 PM

#38

bobzanny

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Jan 2015

2743

I don't know, but whenever one appears on screen it's kinda obvious.

Big Order (TV):great anime or greatest anime?

Jan 5, 2016 12:14 PM

#39

dontnoticeme

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Jan 2015

553

Ask yourself, if these are real people would I be going to jail.

If the answer is yes, then it is a loli.

Jan 5, 2016 3:02 PM

#40

Maz

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Sep 2015

3501

Body type as opposed to age. If I see a child in an anime, I'll call them a child.
If I see an adult in a child-sized body, then to me they're a loli.

Ergo, I don't think children class as lolis. Not as far as I'm concerned.

It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether!
It's an entirely different kind of flying.

Jan 5, 2016 3:07 PM

#41

Tewi-sama

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Nov 2013

1469

Petite body structure. Many wouldn't consider nepgear a loli. However, a 5000 year old vampire is considered loli by most.

Jan 5, 2016 3:13 PM

#42

KonaKoffee

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Dec 2015

3462

I found a pretty good research article on the lolicon trend (which they define lolis to be underage, but it seems like many who like lolis will say differently so I won't argue with that).

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/viewFile/127/98

Banner credit to @turnip

Jan 5, 2016 3:21 PM

#43

zetsubousei_hero

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Mar 2013

1362

If they are old and loli then they are a loli baba.

Jan 5, 2016 3:28 PM

#44

15poundfish

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Jun 2015

1949

Small cartoon character and annoying voice by 20-30 year old asian female.

Jan 5, 2016 3:30 PM

#45

Paul

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Jan 2008

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ItsMaz said:
Body type as opposed to age. If I see a child in an anime, I'll call them a child.
If I see an adult in a child-sized body, then to me they're a loli.

Ergo, I don't think children class as lolis. Not as far as I'm concerned.

Still loli. It just means they're a true loli. If they're past age of 18 then they're a legal loli.

Jan 24, 2019 1:30 PM

#46

Zetophi

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Mar 2016

From my understanding.
Loli = Lolita = Child Like Female...
However I did look up this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_(term) Which says Loli and Lolita are the same.
And it is rather disturbing.

And this is pulled from the Article.
" Now I wish to introduce the following idea. Between the age limits of nine and fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travelers, twice or many times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic (that is, demoniac); and these chosen creatures I propose to designate as 'nymphets.' "

Jan 24, 2019 1:33 PM

#47

ItsYaBoiSkana

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Aug 2017

825

It's exactly 20 years in prison, that's what.

Jan 24, 2019 1:36 PM

#48

Alcoholicide

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Feb 2010

34615

Well, you had to ask so here is my way too detailed take on the different ways the term loli is and can be used. Open at your own discretion.

Technically there is no right or wrong definition. It gets used in many different ways. There's a certain list of characteristics and depending on how many you need to apply to still think of a character as a loli, opinions will very much vary on which characters to include in the definition. Even in animanga (aka the 'source') you can find very different usages, not to mention the (western) fandom. But to me there is always a meaningful way of using words that gives them distinct meanings, and a pointless one where you stretch definitions, water them down and dissipate the borders between it and similar terms until they all mean everything and nothing and are so vague that you always have to ask for clarification to really understand what people mean. So it's less about right or wrong and more about meaningful and pointless ways of using the term.

At its core, in its origin and also in most practical use (how wiki defines it, how the loli tags on sites like Nhentai work, the majority of animanga usage of the term etc...) it's prepubescent little girls but usually ones at the start of puberty (12 or 13) are still included while starting with 14 (technically 13, but the borders are fluent and middle schoolers (12-14) are generally also referred to as lolis by anime characters or in doujins) they start being teenagers which I'd say is distinctly different from being a loli. High Schoolers are never lolis, imo.

You can also talk about loli artstyles (that make everyone look much younger than they are, but that's another topic) or loli as a bodytype (independent of age or personality). For the latter I never understand why people don't just use 'petite' or something like that for older characters with small bodies, but instead want to water down the loli definition to mean a bunch of different things that don't necessarily have the same appeal. It just gets confusing when you call them lolis even if they behave like and have the personalities of adults, because the body/design is just a tiny part of any character, the personality is much more relevant to its overall categorization (as seen by the dere archetypes being solely defined on personality, for example).

The childlike innocence and personalities are at the core of the loli appeal, alongside the tiny body ofc but definitely not overshadowed by those design aspects. You can't ignore the personality aspect of the term without being reductive. People who only like 'legal' lolis, don't really like lolis at all in my experience. They just like petite women, not little girls. Very different thing imo, so why use the same term and make things more confusing? That's my best argument against using loli for anything that's tiny and petite. I know even anime sometimes uses loli to refer to adult or ageless characters which makes it difficult to ever get rid of that notion, but I still find it to just be complicating things for no real reason.

Ofc there's cases where a character is loli-like in more than just appearance even when they aren't of the appropriate age and those cases are what make it really complicated. When they look AND act like a prepubescent little girl, but are allegedly much older (mothers, teachers in anime etc...) it's hard to classify them. Often even I would just see them as 100% lolis if I didn't know about their age. But I just see that as part of the general anime issue of 'random age attachment' that isn't limited to lolis but can be seen throughout the whole spectrum of characters. Often the age attached to them will seem completely arbitrary and unfit for what we've seen of that character, isn't that right? So in those cases, if everything feels and looks and sounds like a loli except the age doesn't fit to make them 'legal', I think they can be called lolis and their age just seen as arbitrary.

But, to name my favorite example, I don't like calling someone like Shinobu from Monogatari a loli because she is an adult (more than adult) women with a lot of life experience and an air of maturity that is completely the opposite of the appeal of a loli which centers around childlike innocence and a lack of life experience and maturity. Sure, sometimes shinobu acts like a child, but it's always obvious she's acting and that her real personality is much more adult and experienced which is why I like her as a character but never found her appealing as a loli, unlike Hachikuji for example who has that innocence and playfulness to a much larger degree and therefore tingles my lolicon senses more even when I find her less interesting than Shinobu as a character.

Oh and there is also another possible distinction to make things even more confusing, which is only using 'loli' for sexualized (in the broadest sense) little girls in anime (or little girls in sexualized anime), but not for 'normal' kid characters. So Hachikuji or the girls in Ryuuou no Oshigoto or Death March would be lolis, while Rin from Usagi Drop, the Hinamatsuri girls, the Non Non Biyori cast or Naru from Barakamon would not be lolis, but just 'kids'. I do find that distinction to somehow reflect my approach to these shows. It's almost always pretty clear to me whether I see a loli character as a fanservice character that is written to be enticing or even arousing, or just as a regular kid. I don't have any interest in doujins of the latter and the thought of sexualizing characters like Rin, Naru or Renge even disgusts me as a lolicon, while I don't mind it at all when it happens to the first category because very often these characters will already be written in ways that make them very different from normal children, mainly in terms of having an unrealistic seductiveness or romantic or even sex drive for their age, or just be in the context of a show where they are pretty much fanservice from the start.

So in that definition lolis would actually be characters that adopt all the attributes of regular children (body, personality, age) but add another layer, the layer of sexualization on top of it, turning them into characters that are not comparable to actual children because they possess unrealistic attributes that only serve in making them romantically or sexually appealing and aware. The sexuality of an adult in the body and mind of a child, basically. Something that can inherently only exist in fiction and therefore can't be compared to any real-life attraction to children.

It's a very useful definition to make that argument about the distinction between lolicons and pedophiles, because that aspect of sexualization, of internalized sexual awareness in those lolis, is purely fictional and will never be found in real prepubescent children so liking lolis because of that obviously means just that - liking lolis. Not real kids who never are and never will be anything like that.

But at the same time not many people use that distinction regularly and it's also the hardest to make because 'sexualization' can often be very subjective and there simply are too many borderline cases. For example Misha from the gif on my profile. For the most part she isn't sexualized in terms of how she is written, her personality etc... But the show does sexualize her with scenes like in that gif and most importantly by the female MC constantly lusting over her in romantic, albeit not explicitly sexual, ways.

So in individual cases it can be very hard to apply this sexualized/non-sexualized distinction which is why it is more of a theoretical concept. I usually know my personal stance towards any given loli in anime, but that's just my intuition and hardly a useful argument. I tried to use some of the most obvious examples I could think of to explain the difference I mean, but even there people might disagree. There's erotic Non Non Biyori dakimakuras after all so even when the anime is very 'clean' it's hard to argue that no sexualization happened regarding these characters. Someone will always sexualize everything.

I happened to write this up recently in a profile comment conversation so I just copypasted it for this occasion. I consider it the ultimate treatise on lolis :>

AlcoholicideJan 24, 2019 1:39 PM

I probably regret this post by now.

Jan 24, 2019 1:39 PM

#49

CureEtude

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Nov 2014

3218

It's a tough line, especially since guys out here givin 14 year old girls D-Cups smh.
Everyone's got different thresholds now so the terms been rendered pretty broken.

Personally I'm pretty reserved in applying the loli tag. Like Rom and Ram would be the only lolis in Neptunia by my metric.

EDIT: Ooh, good copypaste Pullman. I can vibe with the majority of that.

CureEtudeJan 24, 2019 1:42 PM

Poyon-poyon, poyoyoyoyoooon! Poyorin chu~!

Jan 24, 2019 1:40 PM

#50

removed-user

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Jul 2018

561912

Loli is the fastest way to meet FBI. Try 'em out.

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What exactly defines a 'loli'

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