Hentai is the Japanese form of sexually explicit cartoons that are drawn for the pleasure of viewers in form of both comics and animation. Broadly there are two main classes in which Hentai is categorized. These two categories include het which includes the heterosexual cases of sex and the homosexual class of sexual relationship. Homosexual category of hentai is further subdivided into two categories. These are Yaoi and Yuri. Yai category covers the male homosexual relationship whereas Yuri generally covers the lesbian relationships.

Here, you must notice that in Yaoi, the males in most cases are of an ambiguous gender. This ambiguity is present equally in the form of the character’s mannerisms and in his physical appearance. The commonly accepted term for such character is bish?nen. When translated from Japanese this becomes “beautiful boy”. In some cases, you may come across biseinen which translates are “beautiful man”. In this case the male characters show more manliness while still maintaining their ambiguity of gender. In extremely rare cases, you may come across bara which is used to represent big men with heavy muscle buildup and sometimes hairy men. This is also substituted by oyaji which represents a middle aged maan, generally an uncle.

You must keep in mind that yaoi is not just restricted to the sexually explicit hentai genre. It is the common term for any type of male homosexuality being displayed in anime and manga as well. At the same time, it is not equal to boy-love, which is termed as sh?nen-ai . In the case of sh?nen-ai, while the two males do express that they have romantic feelings for each other, they are not actually involved in any sexual relationship. In case a woman is interested in Yaoi, this is classified as a rotten girl or a rotten woman and termed in Japanese as Fujoshi.

At the same time, Yuri, which stands for female to female homosexual relations (lesbian relations) has somewhat similar classifications and terminology. Generally the characters which are involved in such a relationship are known as bish?jo”, which stands for a “beautiful girl”. At the same time, Sh?jo-ai which means “girl love” is considered the female version of sh?nen-ai which as told earlier stands for boy love. The term Sh?jo-ai may sometimes be used interchangeably with Yuri though in most cases the shorter term Yuri is used because of general popularity of the term and its simplicity which makes it easy for most of the people to remember pronounce.

Keeping the finer nuances aside, the broad classification of hentai is not much different than the major classification of sexual relationships. The focus of relationships in hentai is primarily on the sexual interaction which is the heart and soul of any form of hentai. Like any western pornography section, you get to choose from heterosexual and homosexual relationships. Further you get to choose from male homosexual and female homosexual relationships etc. If you can remember the appropriate terminology, getting your hand to appropriate type of hentai would not be a big issue.

Hentai is fast becoming popular as a genre of Japanese and far east Asian animation and comics which are sexually explicit in nature. The term Hentai is Japanese is a compound term. It is used to depict a person or an object that is sexually perverted. The origins of the term can be traced to Shunga with the earliest date as far back as 1300. With the passage of time, the term hentai has evolved in its current form where it is a common name for comics and animation orginating from Japan that carries sexually explicit material.

The portrayal of human genitals is frowned upon in Japan so the people have found an alternative in the form of Hentai. Since actual people are not depicted in Hentai but only hand drawn and computer animated pictures, the regulations restricting the display of human genitalia can be circumvented. In the western world, Hentai has emerged as both and art form and a material for sexual pleasure. You must keep in mind that the term Hentai does not cover any and all typed of animated pornography. In fact the term Hentai has gained extreme popularity as compared to other Japanese cultural contributions like Samurai, Kimono and Yakuza. Sushi might be the only thing which is more popular than Hentai as a contribution of Japan.

In the current scenario, the term Hentai is also shortened for H by the west. In Japanese, this is equal to ‘ecchi’ and is not an accurate depiction of the term Hentai. This is because there is a difference in the meaning of terms. H, when used in Japanese means anything that is dirty. It is only when the term is used as a noun that the sexually explicit connotations come into picture. While the term Hentai has lost old meanings and found new ones as it crossed the various seas and continents. As of now the connotation used by the western worlds seems to have fit in. Yet the words are known to be redefined by people who hear and use them so the meaning of Hentai may differ with the passage of time.

As of now, Hentai is an umbrella term that is being used to depict various things with sexual overtones. This includes ‘ecchi’ that covers posing and nudity and may or may not include actual intercourse, the depiction of sexual intercourse etc, rorikon or shotakon which covers depiction of characters below the age of consent involved in sexual activity, Futanari which is a depiction of transsexual characters involved in sexual activity etc. Apart from this, there are extreme cases like Guro which involves mutilation. Than there is Dojinshi which uses various famous fictional characters involved in sexual activity. This includes copyrighted characters and generally the work in not done by the artists who work on the real version of the character.

Hentai has diverse connotations and while all of them revolve around sex or depict it in a large way, it has built a reputation for itself that is very different from regular pornography.

According to some people, the very term Hentai stands for pervert in Japanese. This means that there is a lot of scope in Hentai for sexual fetishes and you would not be disappointed either. Apart from the common homosexual relations at male and female levels, there is wide range of fetishes that is depicted in hentai.

Bakuny? is the category which covers the fetishes related to large breasts. The term itself translates to “bursting breasts”. Then there is an extremely wide range of fetishes to Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission and Sadism and Masochism (BDSM) categories. This includes a complete set of sexual interactions including those activities of consensual sex which are not exactly mainstream but are considered to be kinky. The common cases of BDSM portrayal in Hentai is that of power exchange and spanking though the depiction of sadomasochism is also gaining popularity.

Another important genre which has gained popularity in the BDSM category of Hentai is the Breast Bondage section. This one particularly focuses on breast bondage. Here the focus is primarily on torture where breasts are the victims and it covers different type of torturous activities. Another category that is gaining popularity in the breast related fetishes in Hentai is erotic lactation. In this category, the adults get sexual satisfaction from being breastfed. This is also gaining popularity because of growing acceptance of Adult Nursing Relationship.

A completely different genre is that of Futanari. In this genre, the focus is on depiction of transsexuals and hermaphrodites. This is the case where the characters have both female and male genitalia. This may include a proper penis with a scrotum, just the penile shaft along with an enlarged clitoris. In some cases, this may include breasts, along with a penis and a scrotum. Bestiality is also becoming a popular sexual fetish in Hentai. In this particular genre, the focus is on display of sexual activity between a human being and an animal. Both the human being and the animal may be of either sex but generally homosexual human-animal sexual interaction is not depicted with a human female, generally a male animal would be depicted. At the same time a male human would be involved in sex with a female animal.

Tentacle rape is another common fetish that is portrayed in Hentai. In this case, commonly the female characters are portrayed as undergoing non consensual sexual activity with a tentacled creature. In most cases the creature is fictional or alien but octopuses have also been used for such depictions. There have been instances of such depictions of men being raped by a tentacled creature but these are very rare. Another common set of fetishes is the one related to Lolicon and Shotacon. This is a genre which is in legal trouble because at the basest level, it is nothing but paedophilia. Whereas Lilicon is the depiction of preadolescent or prepubescent girls inveolved in sexual behavior, Shotacon is the depiction of such boys involved in sexual behaviour. As said earlier, the legality of this genre is in question in many countries.

Japan is the home country of Hentai so the common perception in Japan has always been swinging. The most common criticism has been that of crossing the limits of being an art form and treading in the territory of being an obscenity. In January 2004, Monotori Kishi, one of the country’s most prominent Hentai manga writers and illustrators, was convicted on charges of creating and spreading obscene material. He was thrown in the prison far an year. His graphic novel Misshitsu (’Honey Room’ in English) was judged as obscene.

Justice Yujiro Nakatani, who was presiding over the trial ruled that the artist drew bodies in the most lifelike manner. The artist did not make any attempts to conceal the genitals either. It must be noted that mere portrayal of genitals is considered obscene in Japan and can land the accused in considerable legal mess. Such portrayal was deemed by the judge as pornographic material and hence Kishi was pronounced guilty as charged.

The meaning here is that even though considerable artistic freedom is given in the country, some lines have been drawn as well. 45% of the books that are sold in Japan are manga with sexual overtones. Yet there are limits on what is allowed and what isn’t. As the Internet has made Hentai a worldwide phenomenon, these borders have started to become porous. The anonymity that is brought in by the Internet has fueled a number of sites which carry uncensored Hentai content. Time and again, the Japanese government and western governments along with other monitoring bodies have openly criticized these sites but no big case of legal action has been noticed so far.

Outside Japan the debate about Hentai has been heated as well. In most cases Hentai has faced criticism for unrealistic portrayal of bodies. The west is the major source of this criticism. It has primarily focused on the unrealistically sized breasts of particularly young or thin characters. This has been said about the portrayal of male characters as well where the size of penis or the speed of erection have been considerably increased. In a number of cases, this has been defended as an expression of the desires of the artist and his perception of what the patrons of Hentai as an art form would enjoy. The material like rorikon and shotakon have always been criticized along with the portrayals of bestiality.

Export Related Issues:

As the only legit source of manga and anime outside Japan is the licensed material, getting legit Hentai outside Japan is like going half way around the world on a wild goose chase. The portrayal of ecchi has caused considerable complications in such international licensing cases. This has also been regarded as a clash of cultures. In both Japan and West comics are created with the market of young adults in focus. Whereas Japanese do not really have problems with comics per se, West has generally frowned upon comics and accepted them with considerably less enthusiasm. In the case of Hentai, the things have become much more pronounced.

Internet has brought the world extremely close and has made it possible for people to peep into other countries’ lifestyle and society with extreme ease. One such instance of a rather local phenomena making it big in the world is that of Hentai. Hentai is the depiction of cartoon characters involved in sexual activities. With the emergence of Internet, Hentai has gained extreme popularity.

As of now, there are a number of sites which are focused on creating awareness and dissemination of such content. There are a number of cases where bootlegged content can be downloaded from. There are also sited which sell DVDs and VHS Home Video tapes carrying Hentai content. As Hentai is a type of anime and is copyrighted material, it is subject to the same copyright laws as regular anime.

ADV films is one of the biggest anime makers and though the company is not directly involved in production of Hentai, it takes frequent legal action against sites disseminating bootlegged anime. This also impacts the distribution of Hentai. Due to complications in international intellectual property law, if the site is hosted outside Japan, the things become a lot more complicated. This has lead to formation of a rather enduring source of Hentai on the Internet.

Because of the incompatibility between international intellectual property laws and the cross border nature of Internet, it is extremely hard to get properly licensed anime and Hentai content outside the Japanese archipelago. The result is that distributors have to either resort to creating their own content or have to license the low quality Dojinshi works. The problems can also be attributed in part to the communication gap between the Japanese and Western societies.

At the same time, it must be noticed that for some time now, there have been rumors that major Japanese Hentai production companies would set online shops to sell their content in both Japanese and English to the audience across the globe. None of these rumors have materialized so far and the chances of any such thing happening in reality are also rather unlikely. As of now the focus of these Hentai production companies has been on their local market where they make money by DVD sales. This may be attributed to two main reasons, one being the wide diversity between the laws regulating sexually explicit content from country to country. Another reason is that most of these companies find that the international market is a big risk is the level of piracy of content that Hollywood has to go by is any thing to refer from.

The Internet has been instrumental in getting Hentai to the levels of popularity where it today stands. Hentai is in demand from all parts of the world and in the near absence of legitimate distribution channels, most of the people who procure Hentai through the Internet have to rely on bootlegged content available either from file sharing web sites, discussion forums and the nearly ubiquitous, peer to peer file sharing networks like Bit Torrent and Gnutella.