Phenomenon Called Hentai. What Hides Behind The Enormous Popularity Of Japanese Animated Pornography?

One can go to a brothel with silicone virgins, watch a video in the comfort of one's home, even in virtual reality, or explore the limits of what can be attractive to us through animated films, where anything can happen.

Let's head to the east Asia, to the island of Japan. The land of the rising sun has already proven many times, that it can give life to countless things that an ordinary European may not fully understand. But when it comes to porn, more and more people are getting a taste for a specific genre of Japanese animation for adults.

The numbers don't lie

The statistics speak clearly. If we look at PornHub's annual summary, we can deduce the evolution of the popularity not only of this genre, but of Japanese porn as a whole. In 2016, the keyword "hentai" did not even make the top seven most searched terms on the web. Users searched for the keyword "lesbian" most often, followed by "step mom", the third was "MILF", the fourth was "teen", and the term "step sister" rounded out the top five.

Hentai placed eighth. Japanese animated pornography rose by three places compared to the previous year. The ten most searched terms were closed by the keyword "japanese", which rose by four positions.

In addition, the keyword "hentai" was the most searched for in Asia at the time. Specifically, these were the areas of China, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan. On the other hand, the word "cartoon" also scored points in the West at that time - specifically in the United States, Canada, Brazil or Scandinavia, although the first places belonged to Mongolia, Turkmenistan or Chad.

However, over the years, the position of hentai has changed. People typed it into the search engine much more often - in 2017 it became the second most searched keyword on PornHub, ahead of "lesbian". Even the word "Japanese" rose by two places. A year later, the situation in the first two places has not changed, but the keyword "japanese" has rose by another three places. In the last pre-pandemic year, the keyword "japanese" even became the most searched, overtaking "hentai" in second place.

The statistics for 2021 took over and clearly showed the dominance of Japanese porn genres. The keyword "hentai" reached the first place, overtaking the keyword "japanese" and conquering the search engine, and in the overall statistics of the most watched categories, it finished in 4th place (it was watched most often in Russia, Belarus, Brazil, Chile or Peru).

The keyword "anime" even appeared in 13th place. Hentai has also become the most searched keyword in the United States, whose residents make up the vast majority of viewers on the site. Japan is a distant third in comparison.

What is interesting, however, is that hentai is a more popular genre than regular anime production, according to the number of viewers. It is also watched by people who usually do not watch other productions. This is proof that Japan has a perhaps unexpectedly large influence on the sexuality of the Western world. But what is behind this phenomenon? Before we answer that, let's find out where it actually came from.

Some of the creations of Japanese hentai artists look truly realistic

Hentai dictionary

From impressions to concepts. We wanted to find out more about this trendy genre of porn, so we tried our luck and attended a lecture on the history of Japanese animation. In the end, the topic of hentai came up and the speaker answered. The lecture was given by an expert - Pavel "Grek1" Chmel.

He doesn't claim the expert role himself, he calls himself an anime fan, but the fact remains that he is also a speaker at Czech conventions and co-author of a YouTube show about anime called Anime Circus. He willingly shared his hentai expertise with us.

According to him, the term hentai is used by Western fans of anime and manga mainly in connection with exclusively heterosexual porn. "When you say porn, no one primarily imagines homosexual content," he said to REFRESHER.

Homosexual Japanese pornography is divided into two other groups: jaoi (yaoi) and yuri. The first term depicts exclusively sexual intercourse between two men or boys. "The word originated in fan fiction as a sound compound of the words jama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi, i.e. no peak, no point, no meaning, which was supposed to describe the content of these works, where it was, so to speak, only one thing," Chmel describes.

The audience composition of jaoi is very special. "Despite its content, it is a form of pornography that is overwhelmingly consumed by girls and women. In the otaku community, they are referred to as jaoi-fangirls,” he clarifies. So you can probably guess what yuri means. “In Japanese, the meaning of this word is lily. It is the designation of pornography depicting sexual intercourse between two girls or women," adds Grek1, adding that men and women watch this genre in equal numbers.

However, eroticism in Japanese animated film does not only exist in an uncompromisingly explicit act on the screen. The viewer can also indulge in more titillating scenes in which sex does not take place or is not directly visible. This genre is called ecchi and, as Chmel describes, they contain "a greater degree of accented eroticism."

"This is, for example, frequent depictions of figures in underwear, in swimwear, in the spa, in the sauna, with a focus on the crotch or chest, but they always remain somehow covered by fabric, steam, reflections in the water, etc.," he describes.

"It can also be about frequent scenes of a sexualized nature, when the characters get into situations of close physical contact, even in intimate parts, or they "unfortunately" run into each other while changing clothes, in the shower or on the toilet. All of this is often accompanied by a verbal analysis of sexual themes," he says, stating this is common in the  fiction genre, bringing up the Baywatch series as an example.

Read also

Do Women Care About Penis Size And Are Toys In Bed A Sign That A Man Has "Failed"? Debunking Most Common Myths About MenDo Women Care About Penis Size And Are Toys In Bed A Sign That A Man Has "Failed"? Debunking Most Common Myths About Men

History

Japanese cartoon pornography has its origins where classic pornography itself has its origins. That is, at the very beginning of the media that reproduced them. The fans' desire to contribute to the work with their own fan creation subsequently moved it further among the public. But if we wanted to talk about the creation of manga and anime and their milestones, the most fundamental is the art of Osamu Tezuka. 

Tezuka was nicknamed the "father of manga" because he gave cartoon characters a distinctive look. "Thanks to him and his followers, manga (as well as anime) acquired a distinctive look after World War II, which today appears as a girlish character with large saucer-shaped eyes, a slim figure, and multicolored hair," he states.

If we were to take his work as a major milestone, we would say that hentai began in the 1950s. The first manga with this distinctive look, Astroboy, began publication in 1952.

However, the link with Tezuka's work is also concrete here, as the first film with sexual content, which was a proclaimed marketing element, was created in the Mushi Production studio, which he founded. It was A Thousand and One Nights from 1969, which was the first of a trilogy of films for adults. Cleopatra followed in 1970 and Belladonna of Sadness in 1973. "The first pornographic anime intended for video distribution is Lolita from 1984," mentions Grek1.

Hentai vs. "Live-action" porn

Hentai is, to put it simply, "porn like any other", it has no special status in Japan, as it is one of the forms of adult films.

However, within this genre, there are scenes in which the penetration by tentacles appears - it can be, for example, an octopus, an alien entity from space or, for example, a human mutation caused by a special pathogen, but this is not the norm. Chmel states that this is one of the elements of the genre that is practically on the same level as specific elements in feature pornography. So the tentacle = hentai equation is not valid.

When we came across comparisons with live-action pornography, we were wondering what real porn actors thought of hentai. "I've seen hentai and I find it interesting," porn actress Angel Wicky tells REFRESHER. "Some of it is very nicely and attractively made, and I understand why people love and watch it so much," she is not surprised. However, in general, hentai, which has leapfrogged in popularity over all other genres of game porn such as "MILF", "step mom" or even "step sister", in her opinion, is not addressed in the industry.

"Honestly, there's more or less no opinion on it," she says. The connection between these two worlds only rarely occurs. "Sometimes a Japanese, Korean or similar company will fly to Europe and make hentai-style videos," she adds. Nothing more is said to be happening as part of the collaboration.

Anyway, another similarity we can notice is the blurring of the genitals during the act. However, legislation mandates special measures that creators of JAV videos (Japanese adult video) must follow. Specifically, Article 175 of the Japanese Penal Code imposes it:

“Japanese censorship laws prohibit the depiction of penetration of the vagina. Many production companies also apply this to the depiction of exposed genitalia," adds Grek1.

The same restriction is practiced in the manga. However, there are ways to avoid this limitation. “This regulation can be circumvented in production intended purely for markets outside of Japan. To circumvent it, it is also possible to bring these titles distributed abroad back to Japan," he reveals.

Read also

I Tried Tantric Massage. Gentle Touches Were Replaced By An Intimate Massage Using The "Infinite Vagina" TechniqueI Tried Tantric Massage. Gentle Touches Were Replaced By An Intimate Massage Using The "Infinite Vagina" Technique

Beware of the dark side

The artist Lin or EaSei, who shares her work on social networks under the name Box of Limbs, began to develop a relationship with anime from an early age through fairy tales, and as she got older she also found her way to manga. As she states, she got into "romantic acts" as early as puberty. "In all honesty, it was still just trial and error, because I had hardly developed my own style, be it manga or semi-realism," she says

But she found her style and now uses it in hentai or so-called not-safe-for-work drawings, which she also works on. "In my personal case, the process of erotic drawings is not so different from others. Sometimes you just need to come up with the right and interesting composition that will be dynamic, attractive, but at the same time not unflattering," he says.

"Inspiration can be drawn in different ways. If it is fan art, then for example from the original background - poses from the game, series, manga, etc. If nothing can be invented from which the character of the character can be known, then in artistic photos with nudes or models. Someone can even pose for themselves. Or then in live porn," she explains, adding that it usually depends on the target group the cartoonist wants to present the work to. The artist has to be careful about what can be seen and what needs to be censored.

"The work as such is not often pushed under the nose of attention. It could be compared to such an undercounter. Not everyone can find such content pleasing to the eye," mentions the jaoi lover. "Its originality and limited content attract attention in itself," she reminds.

But hentai also has a dark side to it. The genre also has its underground, which Lin draws attention to. "Few people have the courage to share a ticklish creation. Content bordering on pedophilia, zoophilia and similar perversions can be found in the underground. But since it's fiction, the content isn't all that objectionable, which can't really be said about the author. This regardless of whether it was a contract or your own idea," she warns.