Ask John: What are the Couple Friendly Hentai?

Question:
Is there anything like a list of hentai that doesn’t have rape in it? It seems to me like there would be lots of films (and a huge market for) hentai films that don’t feature rape, or a lot of other hentai elements that are considered not normal or generally offensive in America, and even in the context of American pornography. However, all the hentai I seem to be running into nowadays seem to be pretty offensive, and I’m not interested in viewing or buying anything that has any rape, coercion, or bondage/sadomasochism in it.

Answer:
Themes of coercion, bondage, rape, and sadomasochism within Japanese erotic art should be no surprise to anyone vaguely familiar with Japan’s history of erotic entertainment. Anime fans may immediately associate “inju” tentacle sex with the Urotsukidoji and La Blue Girl anime of the 1980s, but respected artist Hokusai’s “shunga” illustrations from the early 1800s, including “Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife” represent Japan’s earliest known imagery of literal tentacle sex. The popular live action “pinku” films of the 1960s and 70s were exploitation films characterized by rape and violence against women. So the prevalence of similar themes in contemporary erotic anime is merely a natural progression of traditions in Japanese entertainment art.

Japan has been a dominantly patriarchal society since its foundation, pinpointed at 660 BC. Traditionally the woman rules the household while men rule everything else. So while modern awareness of sexual equality and mutual respect affects social relations in Japan, just as in every modernized nation, the masculine fascination with dominance still floats beneath the surface, primarily surfacing in cathartic fiction entertainment media. Erotic anime, in Japan, remains a largely segregated media. Conventional hentai anime is designed for men to watch alone. Yaoi is primarily designed for female readers and viewers to appreciate on their own. So hentai anime for men frequently deals in themes of exerting domination and masculine power as a means of appeasing Japanese male insecurities about lacking masculinity and ineffectual male presence. In a society strictly regimented by formality, politeness, and delicacy, erotic anime provides a safe, private, vicarious means for Japanese men to exert natural aggressive and sexual urges. That satisfying function explains why rape and domination themed hentai anime are so popular and so common. But not all erotic anime serve that end. There are comical, romantic, and even dramatic adult anime that employ strictly consensual sex, albeit not always “conventional” sex.

I don’t watch a particularly large amount of erotic anime. And, to be honest, because so many adult anime are produced on small budgets and have the same goals, I find that a lot of erotic anime seem to blur together in my memory. I don’t like to reductively criticize that they’re all the same, but sometimes it does seem like a lot of adult anime are practically the same. I’ve compiled a short list of “couple friendly” erotic anime titles commonly available on American DVD. I’m sure that my list isn’t comprehensive, and I can’t guarantee that all of these titles are strictly free of rape or coercion themes. My recollection is just not that precise. I’ll also forthright state that not all of these titles may be especially good. And individual reception naturally varies among viewers. But I do hope that this short list provides, at least, a starting point for exploration.

2 x 1
A Heat for All Seasons
Akiba Girls
Angelium
Anyone You Can Do… I Can Do Better
Boin
Boobalicious
Booby Life
Chu 2
Class Reunion
Cleavage
Consenting Adultery
Cosplay Sex Machine
Destined For Love
Dirty Laundry
The Erotic Adventures of Tom Thumb
F3
Forbidden Love
The Hills Have Size
Like Mother Like Daughter
Lover-in-Law
Maids in Dream
Maple Colors
My Classmate’s Mother
One: True Stories
Professor Shino’s Classes in Seduction
Ringetsu
The Roommate
Slight Fever Syndrome
Virgin Touch
Wet Summer Days
Wife Eater
Wife With Wife
Women At Work