Ask John: Do Mainstream Creators Also Create Hentai?

Question:
I have come to notice that the creator of Tenchi Muyo has apparently made one, if you want to call it, softcore hentai flick and another that seems more hardcore called “Masquerade.” What is up with that?

Answer:
Masaki Kajishima, the co-creator of Tenchi Muyo, did indeed provide character designs for 2 series worth of Gosenzo-san E (the first series has been released in the US as “Masquerade”) and for Space Opera Agga Ruter (released in the US as “Spaceship Agga Ruter”). Kajishima is not alone in working on adult anime series. Kenichi Sonoda, the creator of Gunsmith Cats and Gall Force, has provided character designs for numerous ecchi Idol Fight Suchie Pai console adventure games and for the Suchie Pai OAV series. Toshihiro Hirano, creator of Iczer-One and Dangaio, provided the character designs for Legend of Lyon: Flare and for the two Mako episodes of the Cream Lemon video series. The manga artist Oh Great! is famous for both his hentai manga including Junk (released in America under the name “Silky Whip”) and Engine Room (released in the US as Silky Whip Extreme), and for his mainstream manga hits Tenjo Tenge and Himiko-Den (released in America as “Legend of Himiko”). Yuji Moriyama, animation director of Project A-ko and Geobreeders, also worked on the fourth Cream Lemon OAV, Pop Chaser. Johji Manabe, creator of Outlanders, has created some hentai Outlanders art, along with several volumes of hentai Dirty Pair doujinshi. Satoshi Urushihara, best known for his work on Legend of Lemnear and Plastic Little, provided some of the character designs for U-Jin’s Konai Shasei series (released in the US as the “Tales” series), and U-jin, who created Sakura Tsushin (released in the US as Sakura Diaries) is much more prolific and better known for hentai manga series including Angel and Juliet than mainstream titles. Yasuomi Umetsu, who worked on the new Gatchaman OAV series and Robot Carnival, has created several hardcore adults only anime titles- Kite (the uncut version), Mezzo Forte and Yellow Star (part of the Cool Devices series), and runs the Arms Studio production house that produced hentai OAV series including Wordsworth and Imma Seiden. Masami Obari’s animation work has always had an element of sexuality, as seen in the amounts of “fan service” included in titles like Gowkaiser, the Fatal Fury movie, Toshinden, Dangaizer 3, and Virus. Earlier this year Obari finally “went all the way” by creating his 3 episode Angel Blade OAV series which combines the “super hero” style of Dangaizer 3 and Gowkaiser with hardcore pornography.

And the production of both mainstream and adults only anime is not limited to only individual creators. AIC Studios, one of the fandom’s favorite animation studios and the creators of Megazone 23, Vampire Miyu, Bubblegum Crisis, and Tenchi Muyo, is also the studio behind numerous adults only anime series including Call Me Tonight, Cream Lemon, Zankan, Trouble Evocation, Countdown, Magical Twilight and Dragon Pink. Essentially, the stigma of pornography common to Western thought and stereotype is simply not the same in Japan where it’s considered perfectly acceptable and not at all out of the ordinary for manga and anime creators to dabble in both erotica and “mainstream” genres.