The creature of asexual love in 'My Name is Shingo'

Abstract

This article discusses the story of Kazuo Umezu’s book, Watashi wa Shingo (My name is Shingo) (1982-1986) within the context of asexuality. Readers see how two elementary school pupils, a girl named Marine and a boy named Satoru, fall in love and are blessed with a rather unorthodox child which happens to be a robot. This robot is called Shingo and the story recounts how its mind develops and how it travels the world in pursuit of its ‘parents’ whom it has never had the chance to meet. The reason why I would like to discuss the comic book, My Name is Shingo, is because it hints at children’s asexual reproduction, as well as child asexuality, which, I think, contributes significantly to the intensity and uniqueness of the story. In this article I would like to consider the meaning of ‘asexuality’ and whether there exists any similarities between asexuality of children and that of adults.