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Hentai () is a style of Japanese pornographic anime and manga. In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exist in a variety of media, including artwork and video games (commonly known as eroge).
The development of hentai has been influenced by Japanese cultural and historical attitudes toward sexuality. Hentai works, which are often self-published, form a significant portion of the market for doujin works, including doujinshi. Numerous subgenres exist depicting a variety of sexual acts and relationships, as well as novel Sexual fetishism.
| + ! ! Development of the term "Hentai" | |
| Meiji era (1868–1912) | Hysteria |
| 1917s | Abnormal sexual desire. |
| 1920s–1930s | Perverted sexuality. Topics related to homosexual relationships. |
| 1940s–1950s | Hentai seiyoku or "perverted desires". Homosexual relationships are still a major theme. |
| 1960s | The term becomes increasingly heterosexualised. The word "ecchi/etchi" appears for the first time. |
| 1970s and afterwards | Development into a loanword in English with its own meaning, referring to a specific pornographic genre. |
| 2000s | In Japan, refers to male heterosexual perversion rather than a wide range of sexual practices and identities. Also refers to the cartoon genre. |
In Chinese, 變 is primarily a verb meaning to "change," and secondarily a noun meaning "troublesome event," but in Japanese, it was extended to an adjectival noun meaning "different," "unusual" or "strange" (compare other compounds such as as in hentaigana, and as in henkaku katsuyō). This led 變態 to become a noun phrase meaning "strange state," thus "abnormality," instead of the original "to change to another state," in modern Japanese and Chinese publications, particularly in psychology and physiology. A psychological application of this meaning is found in the phrase 変態性欲 ( hentai seiyoku ), which has been cited as being shortened (by ellipsis) back to just 変態.
Yet another meaning, "metamorphosis," which resemebles the original one, was first adopted by the Entomological Society of Japan and reintroduced into Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. This meaning is used in the English translation of the light novel , although it is not directly entomological, and it may also reference the semi-sexual portions of the work.
It is worth noting that 変態 is further shortened to H ( etchi), the first letter of its romanization. Both hentai and etchi (or ecchi in English parlance) are used to refer to sexual perversion/deviance, or people therewith, as well as smut. A person accused of sexual perversion may be derogatorily called hentai, while a sex scene in a film, TV show or Eroge is called Hシーン ( etchi shīn ). The distinction outside of Japanese contexts between "hardcore" hentai and "softcore" etchi is entirely artificial.
The history of the word hentai has its origins in science and psychology. By the middle of the Meiji era, the term appeared in publications to describe unusual or abnormal traits, including paranormal abilities and psychological disorders. A translation of German sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing's text Psychopathia Sexualis originated the concept of hentai seiyoku, as a "perverse or abnormal sexual desire", though it was popularized outside psychology, as in the case of Mori Ōgai's 1909 novel Vita Sexualis. Continued interest in hentai seiyoku resulted in numerous journals and publications on sexual advice which circulated in the public, served to establish the sexual connotation of hentai as perverse. Any perverse or abnormal act could be hentai, such as committing shinjū (love suicide). It was Nakamura Kokyo's journal Abnormal Psychology which started the popular sexology boom in Japan which would see the rise of other popular journals like Sexuality and Human Nature, Sex Research and Sex. Originally, Tanaka Kogai wrote articles for Abnormal Psychology, but it would be Tanaka's own journal Modern Sexuality which would become one of the most popular sources of information about erotic and neurotic expression. Modern Sexuality was created to promote fetishism, Sadomasochism, and necrophilia as a facet of modern life. The ero-guro movement and depiction of perverse, abnormal and often erotic undertones were a response to interest in hentai seiyoku.
Following World War II, Japan took a new interest in sexualization and public sexuality. Mark McLelland puts forth the observation that the term hentai found itself shortened to "H" and that the English pronunciation was "etchi", referring to lewdness and which did not carry the stronger connotation of abnormality or perversion. By the 1950s, the "hentai seiyoku" publications became their own genre and included fetish and homosexual topics. By the 1960s, the homosexual content was dropped in favor of subjects like sadomasochism and stories of lesbianism targeted to male readers. The late 1960s brought a sexual revolution which expanded and solidified the normalizing of the term's identity in Japan that continues to exist today through publications such as Bessatsu Takarajimas Hentai-san ga iku series.
To define erotic manga, a definition for manga is needed. While the Hokusai Manga uses the term "manga" in its title, it does not depict the story-telling aspect common to modern manga, as the images are unrelated. Due to the influence of pornographic photographs in the 19th and 20th centuries, the manga artwork was depicted by realistic characters. Osamu Tezuka helped define the modern look and form of manga, and was later proclaimed as the "God of Manga". His debut work New Treasure Island was released in 1947 as a comic book through Ikuei Publishing and sold over 400,000 copies, though it was the popularity of Tezuka's Astro Boy, Metropolis, and Jungle Emperor manga that came to define the media. This story-driven manga style is distinctly unique from comic strips like Sazae-san, and story-driven works came to dominate shōjo and shōnen magazines.
Adult themes in manga have existed since the 1940s, but some of these depictions were more realistic than the cartoon-cute characters popularized by Tezuka. In 1973, Manga Bestseller (later known as Manga Erotopia), which is considered to be the first hentai manga magazine published in Japan, was responsible for creating a new genre known as ero-gekiga, where gekiga was taken, and the sexual and violent content was intensified. Other well-known "ero-gekiga" magazines were Erogenica (1975), and Alice (1977).Gravett, Paul (2025). 9781856693912, Laurence King Publishing and Harper Design International. . ISBN 9781856693912 The circulation of ero-gekiga magazines peaked in 1978, and it is believed that somewhere between eighty and one hundred different ero-gekiga magazines were being published annually.
The 1980s saw the decline of ero-gekiga in favor of the rising popularity of lolicon and bishōjo magazines, which grew from otaku fan culture. It has been theorized that the decline of ero-gekiga was due to the baby boomer readership beginning to start their own families, as well as migrating to Seinen manga magazines such as Weekly Young Magazine, and when it came to sexual material, the readership was stolen by Gravure idol and pornographic magazines. The distinct shift in the style of Japanese pornographic comics from realistic to cartoon-cute characters is accredited to Hideo Azuma, "The Father of Lolicon". In 1979, he penned , which offered the first depictions of sexual acts between cute, unrealistic Tezuka-style characters. This started a pornographic manga movement. The lolicon boom of the 1980s saw the rise of magazines such as the anthologies Lemon People and Petit Apple Pie. As the lolicon boom waned in the mid-1980s, the dominant form of representation for female characters became "baby faced and big chested" women. The shift in popularity from lolicon to bishōjo has been credited to Naoki Yamamoto (who wrote under the pen name of Tō Moriyama). Moriyama's manga had a style that had not been seen before at the time, and was different from the ero-gekiga and lolicon styles, and used bishōjo designs as a base to build upon. Moriyama's books sold well upon publication, creating even more fans for the genre. These new artists then wrote for magazines such as Monthly Penguin Club Magazine (1986) and Manga Hot Milk (1986) which became popular with their readership, drawing in new fans.
The publication of erotic materials in the United States can be traced back to at least 1990, when IANVS Publications printed its first Anime Shower Special. In March 1994, Antarctic Press released Bondage Fairies, an English translation of Insect Hunter, an "insect rape" manga which became popular in the American market, while it apparently had a poor showing in Japan. During this time, the one American publisher translating and publishing hentai was Fantagraphics on their adult comic imprint, Eros Comix, which was established around 1990.
The earliest pornographic anime was , created in 1932 by . It was the first part of a two-reeler film, which was half complete before it was seized by the police. The remnants of the film were donated to the National Film Center in the early 21st century by the Tokyo police, who were removing all silver nitrate film in their possession, as it is extremely flammable. The film has never been viewed by the public.
Two early works escape being defined as hentai, but contain erotic themes. This is likely due to the obscurity and unfamiliarity of the works, arriving in the United States and fading from public focus a full 20 years before importation and surging interests coined the Americanized term hentai. The first is the 1969 film One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, which faithfully includes erotic elements of the original story. In 1970, , was the first animated film to carry an X rating, but it was mislabeled as erotica in the United States.
The Lolita Anime series is typically identified as the first erotic anime and original video animation (OVA); it was released in 1984 by Wonder Kids. Containing six episodes, the series focused on underage sex and rape, and included one episode containing BDSM bondage. Several sub-series were released in response, including a second Lolita Anime series released by Nikkatsu. It has not been officially licensed or distributed outside of its original release.
The Cream Lemon franchise of works ran from 1984 to 2005, with a number of them entering the American market in various forms. The Brothers Grime series released by Excalibur Films contained Cream Lemon works as early as 1986. However, they were not billed as anime and were introduced during the same time that the first underground distribution of erotic works began.
The American release of licensed erotic anime was first attempted in 1991 by Central Park Media, with I Give My All, but it never occurred. In December 1992, Devil Hunter Yohko was the first risque ( ecchi) title that was released by A.D. Vision. While it contains no sexual intercourse, it pushes the limits of the ecchi category with sexual dialogue, nudity and one scene in which the heroine is about to be raped.
It was Central Park Media's 1993 release of Urotsukidoji which brought the first hentai film to American viewers. Often cited for inventing the tentacle rape subgenre, it contains extreme depictions of violence and monster sex. As such, it is acknowledged for being the first to depict tentacle sex on screen. When the film premiered in the United States, it was described as being "drenched in graphic scenes of perverse sex and ultra-violence".Richard Harrington. "Movies; 'Overfiend': Cyber Sadism". The Washington Post. Washingtonpost Newsweek Interactive. 1993.
Following this release, a wealth of pornographic content began to arrive in the United States, with companies such as A.D. Vision, Central Park Media and Media Blasters releasing licensed titles under various labels. A.D. Vision's label SoftCel Pictures released 19 titles in 1995 alone. Another label, Critical Mass, was created in 1996 to release an unedited edition of Violence Jack. When A.D. Vision's hentai label SoftCel Pictures shut down in 2005, most of its titles were acquired by Critical Mass. Following the bankruptcy of Central Park Media in 2009, the licenses for all Anime 18-related products and movies were transferred to Critical Mass.
Because of vague definitions of what constitutes an "erotic game", there are several possible candidates for the first eroge. If the definition applies to adult themes, the first game was Softporn Adventure. Released in America in 1981 for the Apple II, this was a text-based comedic game from On-Line Systems. If eroge is defined as the first graphical depictions of Japanese adult themes, it would be Koei's 1982 release of Night Life. Sexual intercourse is depicted through simple graphic outlines. Notably, Night Life was not intended to be erotic so much as an instructional guide "to support married life". A series of "undressing" games appeared as early as 1983, such as "Strip Mahjong". The first anime-styled erotic game was Tenshitachi no Gogo, released in 1985 by JAST. In 1988, ASCII released the first erotic role-playing game, Chaos Angel. In 1989, AliceSoft released the turn-based role-playing game Rance and ELF Corporation released Dragon Knight.
In the late 1980s, eroge began to stagnate under high prices and the majority of games containing uninteresting plots and mindless sex. ELF's 1992 release of Dōkyūsei came as customer frustration with eroge was mounting and spawned a new genre of games called . Dōkyūsei was unique because it had no defined plot and required the player to build a relationship with different girls in order to advance the story. Each girl had her own story, but the prospect of consummating a relationship required the girl growing to love the player; there was no easy sex.
The term "visual novel" is vague, with Japanese and English definitions classifying the genre as a type of interactive fiction game driven by narration and limited player interaction. While the term is often retroactively applied to many games, it was Leaf that coined the term with their "Leaf Visual Novel Series" (LVNS) and the 1996 release of Shizuku and Kizuato. The success of these two dark eroge games would be followed by the third and final installment of the LVNS, the 1997 romantic eroge To Heart. Eroge visual novels took a new emotional turn with Tactics' 1998 release . Key's 1999 release of Kanon proved to be a major success and would go on to have numerous console ports, two manga series and two anime series.
It was also because of this law that the artists began to depict the characters with a minimum of anatomical details and without pubic hair, by law, prior to 1991. Part of the ban was lifted when Nagisa Oshima prevailed over the obscenity charges at his trial for his film In the Realm of the Senses. Though not enforced, the lifting of this ban did not apply to anime and manga as they were not deemed artistic exceptions.
Alterations of material or censorship and banning of works are common. The US release of La Blue Girl altered the age of the heroine from 16 to 18, removed sex scenes with a dwarf ninja named Nin-nin, and removed the Japanese blurring dots. La Blue Girl was outright rejected by UK censors who refused to classify it and prohibited its distribution. bbfc (30 December 1996). " LA BLUE GIRL Rejected by the BBFC ". Retrieved 27 November 2009. In 2011, members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan sought a ban on the subgenre lolicon but were unsuccessful. The last law proposed against it was introduced on 27 May 2013 by the Liberal Democratic Party, the New Komei Party and the Japan Restoration Party that would have made possession of sexual images of individuals under 18 illegal with a fine of 1 million yen (about US$10,437) and less than a year in jail. The Japanese Democratic Party, along with several industry associations involved in anime and manga protested against the bill saying "while they appreciate that the bill protects children, it will also restrict freedom of expression". The law was ultimately passed in June 2014 after the regulation of lolicon anime and manga was removed from the bill. This new law went into full effect in 2015 banning real life child pornography.
Classic media such as Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon also portray Asian women having intimate relations with white men, ultimately to their demise. Critics say this perpetuates the notion that value of Asian women is tied to their white lovers.
A popular trope in hentai places the woman in a more submissive role, playing into the "lotus blossom" stereotype where Asian women are thought to be more docile. The increasing Western audience of hentai exacerbates this portrayal of Asian women.
According to Ishikawa, this portrayal of Japanese women plays into the increasingly popularized Asian fetish in the Western world, specifically citing 2022's Pornhub statistics world wide trendy terms put "hentai" and "Japanese" as top two most searched words.
According to clinical psychologist Megha Hazuria Gorem, "Because toons are a kind of final fantasy, you can make the person look the way you want him or her to look. Every fetish can be fulfilled." Sexologist Narayan Reddy noted of eroge, "Animators make new games because there is a demand for them, and because they depict things that the gamers do not have the courage to do in real life, or that might just be illegal, these games are an outlet for suppressed desire."
Hentai is perceived as "dwelling" on sexual fetishism. These include dozens of Sexual fetishism and paraphilia related subgenres, which can be further classified with additional terms, such as heterosexual or homosexual types.
Many works are focused on depicting the mundane and the impossible across every conceivable act and situation, no matter how fantastical. One subgenre of hentai is futanari (hermaphroditism), which features a woman with a Human penis or penis-like appendage in addition to a Human vulva. Futanari characters are often depicted as having sex with other women, but many other works feature sex with men or, as in Anal Justice, with both genders. Futanari can be dominant, submissive, or switch between the two roles in a single work.
| Male homosexuality | |||
| Female homosexuality | |||
| Centered on prepubescent, pubescent, or post-pubescent underage girls, whether heterosexual (man-girl or boy-girl) or homosexual (woman-girl or two girls) | |||
| Centered on prepubescent, pubescent, or post-pubescent underage boys, whether heterosexual (woman-boy or girl-boy) or homosexual (man-boy or two boys) | |||
| Bakunyū / Hinnyuū | 爆乳 | A genre of pornographic media focusing on the depiction of women's contrasting breast sizes, with emphasis on large breasts and flat-chested breasts, respectively. The word can be literally translated to "exploding breasts". Bakunyū is a subgenre within the genre of hentai anime. | |
| Catgirl / nekomimi | 猫耳 | Human females with cat characteristics, such as cat ears, cat tails and whiskers | |
| Futanari | ふたなり | Depictions of women that have both phallic genitalia (penis either with or without scrotum) and a vulva | |
| Incest | 近親相姦 | Sexual activity with family members | |
| Netorare / Netorase / Netori | 寝取られ / ネトラセーゼ / 寝取り | Related to swinging, infidelity and/or cuckolding, abbreviated NTR; variations of being masochistically aroused by seeing or knowing that one's spouse or lover is having sexual intercourse with another person, whether they do so voluntarily or not, "being snatched away". In netorare, the protagonist's adultery partner wants to deceive and/or break up with the protagonist to be with the cheater. In netorase, the protagonist enjoys, actively encourages or even causes the partner to have sex with others, often with their informed knowledge and consent. In netori, the protagonist finds a cheater in a marriage or relationship and manipulates/ them away from their cucked partner. | |
| Hiyake Ato / After sunburn | 日焼け後 | Depictions of fetish revolves around , Gyaru and | |
| Futomomo / Mae Kara Mieru Oshiri | 太もも | Depictions of fetish revolves around thick thighs and large buttocks, respectively, that protrude to the front, making them visible from any angle; especially between the thighs when viewed from the front. Common in hentai and anime. | |
| Mekosuji / Camel toe | メコスジ | Depictions of fetish revolves around silhouette of women's vagina and men's penis and testicles, from tight or see-through underwear | |
| Omorashi | おもらし / お漏らし | A form of urolagnia | |
| Ryona / Gyaku-ryona / Onna Zako | リョナ / 逆リョナ / 女ザコ | Depictions of fetish revolves around a victim being physically assaulted or psychologically abused by an offender; | |
| Tentacle erotica | 触手責め | Depictions of tentacled creatures and sometimes monsters (fictional or otherwise) engaging in sex or rape with women and, less often, men | |
| Josō-seme / cross-dressing attack | 女装攻め | Depictions of a kathoey, Cross-dressing or sissy taking the lead (i.e. the " seme") or exhibiting dominance over a sexual partner |
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