This is hugely generalizing. Sure there are authors who abuse the concept of SA and insert it with no real consequences, but that doesn't necessarily mean the only reason ANY author is doing so is because they want to make it as "fanservice." That puts an entire group of people and industry into a box.
The culture in manga circles there is very different and unless you’ve immersed yourself in it you’re not going to get how normalized this stuff is. Authors, even mainstream ones that don’t make smut, often have alt accounts or openly call themselves loli/shotacons because it’s not stigmatized in anime/manga cultures there vs in the west where people have started to push back and call it what it is (pwdophilia) and to question all the manga that casually show panty shots or weird scenes like the weird rape metaphor and scenes in Dandadan for ex. I know you think it sounds extreme but it’s genuinely not a leap or generalization. One of the biggest Japanese pop stars called herself a shotacon and was openly flirting with a boy employed by her. Japan is a country where cp is legal as long as it’s drawn which is not the case in most countries. A gl that started getting popular died off bc people found out the author made a BUNCH of cp of kids…coincidentally the same age as his imaging vampire protagonist in his non pornographic work.
I’m saying ALWAYS question it. Question when something is shown explicitly, esp when it’s a child. Question why it’s depicted, how’s it’s depicted, and the creators motives. If it’s in a smut, then it’s 100% part of the authors fetish. Why do you think rape, esp gang rape, is so common in BL? That’s not fkn normal. It’s not just to move the plot along or to “bring awareness”. It’s just really not.
These authors brains are truly rotted…that was so jarring and out of place. Ever since I read about authors including this stuff as FAN SERVICE these random sexual assaults have started to make sense as to why they’re included when they add seemingly no value. I think people outside of Japan don’t know that the SA included in bl is there as fanservice. Even when it seems really dark, if they show it, it’s for fan service. If it’s implied, it’s not. You can read translations of authors afterwords where they say how “cute” or “sexy” drawing their characters getting assaulted was… you can also find that a lot of them make…illegal (obviously not in Japan) content too. Obviously not all, but it’s shockingly common