The Myths of "Virtual Harmlessness" and "Innocent Fantasy": Sexual-Violence Scripts and Real-World Risks in ACG and Adult Anime

Taking the common defenses of "virtual harmlessness" and "innocent fantasy" as its organizing thread, this article develops a two-part argument. The first part synthesizes empirical research on sexually violent pornography, female-objectifying media, and the limited existing work on Hentai, and points out that exposure to content featuring sexual violence and objectification is associated with heightened aggression, reduced empathy toward victims, and increased rape myth acceptance and proclivity toward sexual aggression. Drawing on observations of on-site sexual harassment at anime conventions, bodily gazes directed at cosplayers, and joking or derisive commentary, it further shows how virtual scripts are re-enacted and normalized in offline interactions, thereby undermining the myth of "virtual harmlessness." Building on this, the second part proposes the "Swiss-cheese × Pyramid" model of sexual-violence risk, which stratifies behavioral levels from L0 (attitudes and fantasies) to L3 (non-consensual penetrative assault), and distinguishes a high-risk population of potential perpetrators jointly produced by structural conditions and exposure to extreme pornography. The article argues that violent scripts which appear to "remain only in fantasy" can, by expanding the L0 base, increase the overall scale of sexual violence. At the same time, it notes that systematic empirical research on Hentai remains scarce, and that the inferences advanced here require further testing in future studies.