Ask John: Why Does Hentai Exist?

Question:
What’s up with hentai? Why was it created? For viewers to become gay and rape their girlfriends? Or entertaintment to see if Card Capter Sakura or Rei from Evangalion get screwed and last without screaming? It’s not love, it’s sex gone wrong!

Answer:
Given how frequently questions like this seem to come up, evidently there seems to be a lasting misunderstanding about hentai largely rooted in conventional Western attitudes about human nature, sexuality and children’s cartoons. Anime is fiction. It’s not real; it doesn’t involve real humans; it doesn’t involve real life. It’s just colored drawings that move and make sound, or in the case of manga, it’s just lines on paper. Largely, especially in America, it seems to be assumed that anyone that creates offensive imagery or who enjoys such material must be socially maladjusted or psychotic. Japan, apparently unlike America, recognizes that an interest in sex is a natural, instinctive human desire, and also recognizes that an interest in sex does not automatically lead to sexual aggression or anti-social behavior. Especially in Japan, hentai is not “bad.” It’s just another genre of anime, no different from sci-fi, comedy, action or even children’s films.

Artistic, graphic depictions of sexuality in Japan date back hundreds of years. Pornographic “ukiyo-e” woodblock prints from the 17th through 19th century are now recognized worldwide as artistic masterpieces. As ancient Japanese art has evolved into contemporary manga and anime, naturally ancient Japanese depictions of sexuality would also develop and evolve into what Western fans commonly refer to as “hentai.” The art of manga and anime exist to provide readers and viewers with an alternative to reality, a temporary entertaining escape. It only makes sense that a branch of this escapist entertainment would directly address the most fundamental and primal instinctive desire of mankind. (Naturally, the desire for sex is stronger than any other human instinct. If that was not the case, the human species would have become extinct eons ago.) Fantasy is defined as something that isn’t real. Anime is fantasy because it presents people, worlds and events that aren’t real.

Just like any type of fiction, not all anime is intended or suitable for all viewers. Adult anime exists to appeal only to adult viewers. Westerners too often mistakenly assume that hentai is available to or intended for youngsters simply because it’s animated. This is one of the lingering misunderstandings about anime in America that prove that anime is still not mainstream or widely understood by Americans. Adult anime is created by adults, available only to adults, and intended only for adults. Japanese artists comprehend that it’s natural for adults to be interested in sex. These artists also recognize the anthropologically verified natural human instinct to be attracted to youth and vitality as a subconscious guarantee of the propagation of the species. Finally, these Japanese artists understand that there is a difference between fantasy and reality. Japanese society recognizes that it’s natural for grown men to be attracted to young, cute females. It’s a purely instinctive animal condition. Hentai manga and anime expresse and indulge this desire in a safe, non-harmful, socially acceptable way. As long as it’s in comics and animation, it remains fantasy.

To say that hentai is “sex gone wrong” is to apply Western morality to something that isn’t Western. In one respect, hentai is love. Doujinshi featuring recognized anime characters exists because fan artists love a character so much that they spend their own time and effort to write and draw new stories with these characters. The fact that some of these stories may place anime characters in sexual situations gratifies the desires of fans. But while Americans may see the sexual fetishizing of anime characters as a form of disrespect to the original artists, Japanese fans see it as an expression of support, devotion and love of particular characters. American culture sees hentai as subversive and harmful, but Japan sees it as a harmless indulgence in pure fantasy. It’s not my intention to begin a debate over the psychological effects of pornography or women’s rights or unproven speculation, however it’s important to remember in a discussion of hentai that Japan is home to the world’s greatest amount of comic and animation pornography, yet Japan has one of the developed world’s lowest reported per capita rates of sexual crime. Grossly exaggerated armchair science would seem to suggest that at least in Japan, hentai actually reduces sexual violence in society rather than contributing to it, as many Westerners would likely guess.

In simple summation, hentai anime and manga is created for Japanese adults, not for children, and not for Americans, although many American adults do also partake of it. If you find yourself offended by adult anime, simply avoid it. Millions of Japanese citizens encounter adult manga and anime every day with no complaints. An American citizen accusing a Japanese art form of being prurient and obscene based on American cultural values and morals is simply being narrow minded and occidental, unwilling to accept the idea that other countries have moral values and cultures that are different but no less valid than our own.

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