Hentai is a Japanese word that, in the West, is used when
referring to sexually explicit or pornographic comics and animation,
particularly those of Japanese origin such as anime, manga, and eroge. The word
hentai is a kanji compound of 変 (hen; "change",
"weird", or "strange") and 態 (tai;
"attitude" or "appearance"). The term is used as a
shortened form of the phrase 変態性欲 (hentai seiyoku) meaning
"sexual perversion". In Japanese slang, hentai is used as an insult
meaning roughly "pervert" or "weirdo".
The English use of hentai is more similar to the way the
Japanese use the slang term エッチ (H or ecchi), which refers to any
sexually explicit content or behaviour. The Japanese seldom use the term hentai
to refer to pornography in Japan. Instead, terms such as 18-kin (18禁?,
"18-prohibited"), meaning "prohibited to those not yet 18 years
old", and seijin manga (成人漫画?, "adult manga") are
used. Less official terms also in use include ero anime (エロアニメ?),
ero manga (エロ漫画?), and the English acronym AV (for "adult
video").
History
The
earliest association between anime and adult animation occurred preceding the
release of Fritz the Cat when American distributors attempted to cash in on the
publicity garnered from the rating by rushing out dubbed versions of two other
adult animations from Japan, both of which featured an X rating in their
advertising material: Senya ichiya monogatari and Kureopatora, retitled One
Thousand and One Arabian Nights and Cleopatra: Queen of Sex, respectively.
However, neither film was actually submitted to the MPAA, and it is not likely
that either feature would have received an X rating. One Thousand and One
Nights was the first erotic animated feature film, and at 130 minutes, it
remains one of the longest animated films.
The Lolita
Anime series was the first hentai original video animation (OVA), released in
1984 by Wonder Kids, which mainly focused on underage sex, rape, and bondage.
Cream Lemon, which contained many themes found in hentai today, was released
later that year by Fairy Dust and contained some in-depth storylines and
classic (late 1970s to early 1980s style) artwork. The Brothers Grime was a
three-video cartoon-pornography series produced by Excalibur Films in 1986,
1987, and 1988, using titles primarily from the Cream Lemon series, the most
popular of Japan's erotic anime before Urotsukidoji.
Following
the tentacle scene in Guyver: Out of Control in December 1986, the Urotsukidoji
anime series by Toshio Maeda was released on OVA beginning in 1987 and released
in America in 1992 by Anime 18. It is most famous for being viewed as the first
in the tentacle rape genre, though only one scene in the first OVA actually
contains any tentacle rape. Tentacle rape was not present in the Urotsukidoji
manga, but was featured in a series that he would publish years later called
Demon Beast Invasion. Demon Beast Invasion created what might be called the
modern paradigm of tentacle porn, in which the elements of sexual assault are
emphasized. Maeda explained that he invented the practice to get around strict
Japanese censorship regulations, which prohibit the depiction of the penis but
apparently do not prohibit showing sexual penetration by a tentacle or similar
(often robotic) appendage. Maeda went on to create La Blue Girl, which departs
somewhat from its predecessors by lightening the atmosphere with humor, lightly
parodying the tentacle rape genre.
In November
1994, A.D. Vision released their first title, The Legend of Lyon, under its
hentai label, Soft Cel Pictures. A.D. Vision put out 19 Soft Cel Pictures
releases during 1995 and 12 through the first half of 1996, some of which were
rereleases of previous A.D. Vision Films titles in their unedited form. Soft
Cel Pictures shut down in 2005 and most of its titles were acquired by Critical
Mass.
Critical
Mass was created in 1996 when The Right Stuf made a deal with Manga
Entertainment to release an unedited edition of Violence Jack, which they
deemed too intense for their normal line. Critical Mass has since released a
large number of hentai titles. Most of their titles are associated with The
Vanilla Series, a series of hentai titles produced in Japan by Digital Works
which are tied-in with eroge games of the same title. When Central Park Media
went bankrupt in the year of 2009, the licenses for all Anime 18-related
products and movies were transferred to Critical Mass.
Censorship
is practiced differently in Japan and in the USA, due to their different laws.
Japanese law discourages showing of genitals in hentai, while the United States
is more concerned about forbidding the display of sex acts involving people
under 18, so the characters in hentai have to look 18 or older. Hence, there
are censoring mosaics in Japan, and scene removals and different ages of
characters in America.[4] While not featuring the censoring mosaics of the
original Japanese version, the US release of La Blue Girl was edited during the
initial VHS release and all scenes featuring Miko's companion Nin-Nin engaged
in a sexual act were removed, probably to avoid the charge of pedophilia, in
spite of the fact that the character is not a minor but a dwarf ninja. For
similar reasons, the age of the heroine was also altered: initially stated to
be a 16 year old high-schooler in the original Japanese version, she is an 18
year old college student in the US version. The DVD release contains this
edited version. In the UK, the British Board of Film Classification refused to
classify it, thus prohibiting its distribution.
Demographics
As with
other forms of Japanese pop-culture media, publishers of erotic media target
material to specific demographic groups. For manga, the most typical divisions
are:
Types which
are pornographic by definition
© ero-manga or seijin (成人?, literally "adult"), aimed at (presumptively heterosexual)
men
© ladies' comics (redīsu komikku or
redicomi), originally meaning any manga for adult women (see josei) but now
often applied specifically to pornographic manga for women
© Types which often (but do not
necessarily) contain pornographic content
© gei comi or menslove (ML), often
called bara in the West, for gay men
© boys' love (boizu rabu or BL),
predominately aimed at the shōjo and josei markets (also see below)
© teen's love (TL), a more explicit
type of shōjo romances, likewise aimed predominantly at the shōjo and josei
markets
© yuri or girls' love (GL), which has
long been a component of both men's ero-manga and shōjo gender-exploration but
has more recently arisen as a genre in its own right, in both seijin and josei
flavors (also see below)
Classification
Lolicon art
often blends childlike characteristics with erotic undertones
Hentai that
features mainly heterosexual interactions occur in both male-targeted (ero) and
female-targeted ("ladies' comics") form. Those that feature mainly
homosexual interactions are known as yaoi (male-male) and yuri (female-female).
Both yaoi and, to a lesser extent, yuri are generally aimed at members of the
opposite sex from the persons depicted.
Yaoi
commonly features males of ambiguous gender—in both physical appearance and,
frequently, mannerism—called bishōnen, literally "beautiful boy".
Some feature biseinen ("beautiful man"), males of more adult or
masculine appearance than bishōnen. Less common are bara—larger, often heavily
muscled and sometimes hairy males, the yaoi counterpart of the "bear"
in gay pornography—as well as oyaji (meaning "daddy" or
"uncle"), featuring middle-aged and elderly men; these types are
mainly found in material aimed at gay men, which may be called bara or 'men's
love' (ML), and is considered to be distinct from yaoi. Yaoi also extends
beyond the hentai genre, since it applies to any anime/manga material that
includes male homosexuality, except for that actually aimed at a gay male
audience. In Western usage, yaoi is distinguished from shōnen-ai (literally,
"boy-love"), in which two males merely express romantic feelings for
each other without actually having sexual relations; however in current
Japanese usage this term most commonly refers to pornographic shotacon for men.
Women interested in Yaoi are called "Fujoshi" (腐女子), a pun which translate loosely as "rotten girl" or
"rotten woman".
Yuri is
very similar to yaoi, except that the focus is on female homosexual
interactions. The characters in yuri are typically "bishōjo", meaning
"beautiful girl" (this term is not specific to yuri but is applied
generally to depictions of attractive women for a male audience; for example,
in the term "bishōjo game"). Shōjo-ai ("girl love") is a
western term for the female equivalent of shōnen-ai; in Japan these works are
also called yuri. Yuri may be aimed at (presumptively heterosexual) male,
heterosexual female, or lesbian female audiences.
Hentai is
perceived as "dwelling" on sexual fetishes, including:
Bakunyū,
the depiction of women with large breasts. Literally translated to
"bursting breasts".
Futanari,
depictions of hermaphrodites or transsexuals that have both phallic genitalia
(penis with scrotum, only a penile shaft, or an enlarged clitoris) and vaginal
genitalia, or, alternatively, a feminine hourglass shape including breasts
combined with a penis and scrotum.
Incest,
sexual activity with legal family members; noticeably seen in The Sagara
Family, a hentai computer game.
Lolicon,
depicts prepubescent or preadolescent girls.
Omorashi (オモラシ / おもらし / お漏らし?) in which individuals struggle
with a full bladder before finally wetting themselves (also known as
watersports).
Shotacon,
the depiction of young boys, either with other young boys or older men, or
depicting young boys with older women (known as "straight shota" in
western jargon).
Tentacle
erotica, the depiction of tentacled creatures and sometimes monsters (fictional
imaginative or otherwise, also includes alien-like creatures) engaging in sex
or rape with girls and, less often, men.
Hentai media
Hentai
manga on display at a Japanese bookstore.
Adult
anime, or hentai anime, is anime that relies primarily on sex.
Adult
manga, or hentai manga, is manga designed for purely pornographic purposes.
Plot is still used to develop character and setting, but most of the time, the
ultimate goal is to show scenes of sexuality with few exceptions. Adult manga
is often sold in convenience stores, book stores, and magazine stores in Japan,
and also other public places such as airports, and is far more prolific and
accessible than the U.S. adult comic book market. It is usually distributed in
digest format, containing several stories by different artists (e.g. an
anthology).
Adult CG
artwork includes individual drawings by artists. Art can be available on
websites, CD-ROMs, or in printed art books. CG artwork is used frequently in
adult video games.
Adult video
games, or eroge, are games with a pornographic element. They can include
bishōjo games that involve character driven plots, and can exist as sex
simulations.
Adult
dōjinshi, or H dōjinshi, refers to a type of work that uses copyrighted
characters presented in sexual situations. It usually refers to printed manga,
but can also refer to any type of visual work depicting copyrighted characters,
including video games, animation, and CG artwork. Familiarity with a particular
character or setting can add a sense of relating to the character over a
generic character used in mainstream hentai, making dōjinshi more appealing to
fans of a particular work. Despite not representing characters and licensed
properties as intended, companies often view these works as a free form of
license recognition and advertising through dedicated fandom. Some manga
artists create hentai dōjinshi with characters from their own manga, such as
Maki Murakami creating dōjinshi of Gravitation.
Lemon
In Western
fanfiction circles, hentai-based works are popularly referred to as
"lemon", based on a more popular hentai anime anthology series called
Cream Lemon. Fictions referred to as "lime" are ones in which the
characters do everything short of having sexual intercourse with each other.
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