Hentai
Hentai (変態) is Japanese animation ("anime") or comic-book-style magazines ("manga") with explicit sexual content (see Japanese pornography).
Meaning of the word
Hentai means "pervert/perversion" and "transformation" in Japanese. When used in English slang, it generally means Japanese animation or comics with explicit sexual or pornographic content. This usage is not found in Japan, where the word is never used to refer to "normal" sexual content or conduct. The term "18-Kin", literally "prohibited to those not reaching 18 years old", and "Seijin manga", "manga for grownup" are used.
The common English-language meaning of this word comes from the Japanese usage of "エッチ" ("H", or "ecchi") which is believed to be a shortened form of "hentai" used as a polite codeword in the 1960s (however, even in Japan its origins are not entirely clear). "H" in Japan is now broadly used to refer to all sexual content or activity, so "H manga" are manga with sexual content - however, "H" and "hentai" are no longer interchangeable.
Japanese Law
The actual amount of depictions of sexual activity in "hentai" manga or anime may vary. Article 175 of the 1907 Japanese Penal Code forbids publishing of "morally damaging" material, which is currently interpreted to include exposed genitals, so mosaic blurs or solid bars are usually found over the genitals in hentai images. Prior to 1991 this censorship law was also interpreted to include displaying pubic hair, a rule circumvented by simply drawing characters with no pubic hair. This has become very prevalent, even with the advent of a more relaxed interpretation. However, this has caused another problem when "hentai" anime videos with those characters were released to places like America and Europe. With characters drawn to be younger looking than most mainstream Western cartoons, this gave some people the impression that the videos were child pornography. It is quite interesting to note that female cartoon characters look 5 to 10 years older to an average Japanese person. A lesser known fact is that Japanese censorship is very strict on sexual animal-human drawings. While sex with imaginary monsters (which famously often possess phallic tentacles, in an attempt to circumvent the law relating to actual genitals) is allowed to circulate relatively freely, sex with existing animals has been targeted as something to persecute.
Anime Titles
See also
External Links
- The 'H' does not mean 'hentai' page at the Internet Archive