Examining ACG Culture under Engels's "Marriage–Prostitution" Framework: The Reproduction of Sexual Commodification and Dominative Logic

Summary: As the influence of ACG (Anime–Comic–Game) culture continues to expand globally, accompanying issues such as the objectification of women, sexual degradation, and depictions of characters resembling minors have drawn increasing attention. As a significant derivative form of this culture, the portrayal of sexual violence in adult anime (Hentai) warrants serious consideration. This paper takes Friedrich Engels’ concept of “prostitution” from The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State as its theoretical starting point, examining the dual social mechanism of “marriage–prostitution” and elucidating how this mechanism is reactivated and expanded under late capitalism through the commodification of sex and emotion. Building on this foundation, it proposes a comprehensive analytical framework—spectacularization, the logic of cuteness, moral disengagement, and sexual scripting—to reveal how this logic operates within Hentai and related ACG texts. The study argues that such works are not merely harmless cultural consumption but constitute the mediated reproduction of “prostitution” in Engels’ sense. Drawing on Marx, Ueno Chizuko, Althusser, and Goffman, it further analyzes the mechanisms reproducing female subjugation in ACG games and the operational logics of character production, revealing how contemporary ACG culture perpetuates a patriarchal gender order through its fictional sphere.