Hentai
With Hentai ( Jap. 変態 "abnormality, perversion") outside is called Japanese-speaking countries pornographic manga and anime . This includes, on the one hand, pornography in the style typical of Japanese anime and, on the other hand, pornographic representations of well-known characters from comics, cartoons or video games; originally these came exclusively from Japanese templates.
Hentai anime accounts for five to ten percent of all anime produced in Japan. Many hentai anime can also be assigned to other genres such as fantasy , science fiction or magical girl .
In contrast to pornography with real people, hentai is characterized by the fact that there is a very wide variety of representations that would not be possible or forbidden in real life (such as animals, tentacles, fantasy beings, Lolicon , Shotacon or Futanari ) .
generalization
Early examples of sexual representations that were imported into the West were mostly from the horror genre, e.g. B. Urotsuki Dōji , in which young girls are raped by monsters with tentacles. Often unusual practices and fetishes are also depicted, e.g. B. Bondage and voyeurism . In fact, all manga and anime with explicit sexual representations, even if these correspond to the norm, are referred to as hentai . Hentai as a spectacle is sometimes more accepted than simple porn if it is disguised as a horror film, thriller or the like. Paradoxically, because of hentai, erotic anime became socially acceptable early on in the West and has retained its reputation even after pure manga porn found its way into the West. These animes often play with the viewers' sexual fetishes.
Terms and sexual fetishes in hentai
- Yaoi , homoerotic representation of (mostly more feminine) men, addressed to a female audience.
- Bara , homoerotic representation of masculine men, aimed at a gay audience.
- Bakunyū , the representation of women with large breasts.
- Futanari , the representation of hermaphrodites or female intersexuality .
- Incest , sexual activity with family members.
- Lolicon showing prepubescent girls.
- Shotacon , the suggestive or erotic portrayal of prepubescent boys .
- Omorashi ( オ モ ラ シ / お も ら し / お 漏 ら し ), erotic satisfaction through the sensation of a full bladder, sometimes up to wetting.
- Netorare , get relaxed .
- Tentacle erotica , the representation of creatures with tentacles and sometimes also of fictional, imaginative or otherwise creatures who have sex with girls and less often with men or who practice sexual assault.
- Ahegao ( ア ヘ 顔 ), a facial expression of fictional characters in pornographic video games, manga, and anime during intercourse.
misunderstanding
In Japan, pornographic manga are usually referred to as ero manga ( エ ロ マ ン ガ , “erotic manga”), his komikku ( 成年 コ ミ ッ ク , “adult comics”), adult manga ( ア ダ ル ト 漫画 ) or as 18-kin manga ( 18 禁 漫画 , “ 18+ Manga ”), but it can also be described as etchi na manga ( エ ッ チ な 漫画 ,“ dirty comics ”). The same goes for anime.
Etchi is the Japanese form of the English pronunciation of the letter H, which is why you can alsowrite H na manga ( H な 漫画 ). Etchi / H is most likelyderivedfrom hentai . Also, H (na) Manga is mostly wronglyreadas hentai manga by western fans, which has led to the fact that hentai is now used as a genre name in the West.
Differentiation from related terms commonly used in the West
Hentai and etchi are often mixed up in the west. Unlike in Japan, both words are used to designate manga and anime with sexual content, but differentiated according to the severity of the presentation. In contrast to the term Etchi , which is usually used in the West for rather soft-erotic anime and manga and whose transition to fan service is fluid, Hentai stands for hard drawn pornography in all varieties. The opinion that can also be found among German-speaking fans that it would be exactly the opposite is probably derived from the specialist magazine AnimaniA , which disseminated this view until its editors changed.
Computer games with hentai elements are called eroge . The only German dubbed is the role-playing game Knights of Xentar and at the time was included with various magazines on CD-ROM in a USK-12 version suitable for young people .
background
In Japan, works of art with erotic content appeared early on. Even during the heyday of the ukiyo-e , the so-called Edo period , the woodcuts contained pornographic scenes with often surreal elements.
The Japanese concept of profanity is quite different from that of other cultures. Even children's anime can include bare characters, as in Sailor Moon , where the characters are shown naked in a non-sexual context during their transformation. Many mangaka draw erotic scenes as part of the fan service.
Although pornographic comics and cartoons are also produced in the West , the popularity of hentai remains unmatched to this day. This is mainly due to the fact that western comic artists who have a talent for pornographic content tend to limit their productions to the mainstream . In Japan, on the other hand, there are a great many artists who specialize exclusively in drawing hentai.
This form of Japanese art became famous primarily through the internet . In the meantime, a large number of websites have been created that are only dedicated to the presentation of hentai. Hentai dōjinshi for well-known mangas and anime are also very popular.
Censorship and protection of minors
Pornography is illegal in Japan. The definition of profanity is vague, but includes the detailed and realistic representation of sexual organs and the sexual act. Although the name is forbidden, we believe that pornographic material may be sold in Japan under the name erotica as long as the obscene areas are covered with bars or alienated with computer mosaic effects. Age restrictions have long been in place for photographic pornography: so-called adult videos ( AVs for short ) may only be given to people over the age of 18, but such an age restriction has only been in place for comics since the early 1990s.
In Japan there is no testing center for pornographic material in the strict sense of the word. Only after publication can a work be found to be obscene and then banned. The manufacturers must therefore exercise self-censorship in order to avoid confiscation, which is expensive for them. But since less censored works sell much better, the limits of obscenity are constantly challenged and exceeded again and again. Particularly daring comics are often published on a trial basis in small editions in order to keep the financial risk low. In the event of a confiscation, a more censored second edition will appear and the copies of the first edition that have already been sold will become coveted collector's items on the used market.
But the legal definition of obscenity allows various loopholes: So only the presentation were banned from adult genitals in an earlier version of the law, which the success of so-called Lolicon -Manga (short for Loli ta Com plex may have encouraged). The law was changed at the end of the 1980s to prevent the prevalence of sex comics with some very young girls: The previous ban on pubic hair (a criterion for adult genitals) was abandoned and the representation of all genitals was expressly prohibited. Therefore, especially in early Eromanga, the pubic area was simply left blank, or only the silhouette of a penis was drawn. More detailed representations had to be covered with bars. Another loophole are phallus-like objects such as dildos or tentacles, which are exempt from such censorship - at least until they penetrate a vagina. Ultimately, censorship cannot be avoided entirely.
Even in mainstream works that would not necessarily be considered pornographic, the portrayal of sex became increasingly daring, and in the early 1990s comics like Blue by Naoki Yamamoto and Angel by U-Jin sparked controversy that eventually led to the Introduction of his comic label. This imprint means comics for adults and marks the age restriction mentioned above. Since this officially created a genre of comics for adults and established a system for the protection of minors, the way was also paved for less censorship. From then on, the bars became smaller and smaller and usually only cover part of the glans or clitoris, or it is pixelated and you can see less of the intimate zones. On February 25, 2008 it was announced that a revision of the Youth Protection Act in Japan would begin. The causes cited are the sharp rise in cases of children being victims of pornography and the US allegation that child pornography is allowed in Japan.
In terms of content, Eromanga have always covered a broad spectrum of sexual practices and fetishes. The plot was hardly affected by the censorship and is therefore sometimes much more extreme than it would be possible in the West. Changes to the content are therefore made for Western publications (e.g. dialogues, age of the people appearing, etc.). However, a lot of unadulterated Japanese original material is also distributed on the Internet under the name Hentai.
Public perception in Germany
Anime is still often equated with hentai, especially in German-speaking countries . This has mainly to do with the media (newspaper as well as television): Often their reporting on manga and anime is limited to the hentai genre according to the principle of "sex sells". The fact that the characters in hentais sometimes look very young does the rest. In addition, the proportion of hentai in anime video publications in Germany was very high (over 30 percent) until the mid-1990s, and many video stores did not offer any other anime at all. In addition, anime are sometimes referred to as hentai, which occasionally contain sex scenes that are unusually explicit for German viewing habits, but cannot actually be assigned to this genre, such as Ninja Scroll or Wicked City .
literature
- Thomas Schwarz: Hentai Porn and Manga Sex Movies . In: Martina Schuegraf / Angela Tillmann (ed.): Pornography of society. Perspectives from theory, empiricism and practice . Konstanz: UVK, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86764-334-4 , pp. 147–155.
Web links
- Colonizing Sex: Sexology and Social Control in Modern Japan, Sabine Breakfast, 2003 (English)
- A Short History of 'Hentai', Mark McLelland, 2006 (English)
- Genders, Transgenders and Sexualities in Japan, Mark McLelland and Romit Dasgupta, 2005 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Japan looks to close child porn possession loophole. In: asiaone news. February 25, 2009, accessed February 20, 2009 .