Shotaro was a character from the early days of modern manga. He was a "cute little boy"-type character who constantly outsmarted the adults of the story. He spawned much obsession with such a character archetype and thus is considered to be the first target of shota-con, the romantic involvement of an underage boy and another (usually an older male, but there have been shounen-ai/yaoi stories written in which both characters are the same age.