Otaku R-18: A Hentai’s Untold Story

By: Carlo Aqui

In the world of anime industry, there are certain aspects that are considered
“underground”. One of these aspects, despite its growing market and reactions of people,
remained to be misunderstood – the genre of HENTAI, or in mere understanding, anime porn.
I’ve seen many of these “fans” or just some anime junkies buying or downloading hentai
merchandises just for the sake of viewing pleasure (and I think more and what not). Watching
sexual anime indulgence, sadism, voyeurism and the like is, for me, just a shell of what is
behind its form.

Hentai, which in the anime genre, meaning “perverted” is known due to its explicit and
mature content in a form of anime or Japanese cartoon (although to me, ‘cartoon’ is an
understatement), and is more accepted and accessed in eastern countries like Japan, Korea,
and curiously, Philippines. Many enthusiasts and critics question its existence as the anime
industry gave rose to an “otaku” (anime fanatics) generation. It's that simple, right? But the
definition of its genre is way beyond of human understanding. It is like on how you define
nude art, some people find it vague, obscene, and down-right sexist. But some define it as
beauty, expression, and an image of heavenly meaning. Same to what is hentai, one cannot
generalize what is seen and what is being expressed.

So why is hentai given a bad reputation? The issue is, generally, its porn, a visual
medium of explicit content. And many moral critics envision it as a demeaning expression
towards sexuality. The abuse towards women, overly proportioned human bodies, hellish
desire for lust and malice, and to name a few describes what most people think of hentai. But
despite its negativity, odds are on how people look at hentai, it actually said otherwise by the
ones who actually make it. One fact is that most creators of hentai are actually women, the
gender in which hentai demeans. Though their reasons are explained differently, it points to a
single purpose, to emphasize the inner conscience of a female. Another factor of hentai’s
negative image is its “quality”. Most hentai storylines are a bit cliché, so it is really easy to
identify the difference between those created for show and those created for expression.
Another concern is the ethics of making hentai. There are actually rules governing standards
of what it should be, such as limitations of explicit material, human anatomy, and such. And
because some artists tend to breach those standards, it gave concern to more legal matters in
which will affect all production of hentai. Such and more reasons degrade hentai to a mere
negative perspective.

But hentai does not always project the bad side of human desire for lust. Actually, its
similar terminology referred to as “perverse-expressionism” (though named differently) has a
positive outlook in different places in the world. In Japanese culture, hentai symbolizes the
empowerment of women to society. The men, despite its high standards among the
population, look up to women for its support, strength, and nurturing ability. In Roman culture
nudity and sexual endulgence are expressed in forms of art, worshipping such figures because
they ought to represent god-like resemblance and is considered sacred. Hindu Religion defines
acts of perverseness as rituals of ascension or rites of passage to the gods. Its proof is based
on the Hindu scriptures of Kama-sutra. In the olden times in western countries, though the
exercise of hentai is limited, they consider it to be an industry in where they shape females to
strong figures of society. These goes to show you that hentai is not just a face of sexual
negativity.

It cannot be denied that the human desire for something of “flesh” or its substitute will
be present. Though its sole purpose of hentai is to serve as pornographic media, behind it
shows an abstract culture and expressionism that only a few could understand. Hentai is not
just a “fazz” or “trend”, rather to some; it is a way of enlightenment and understanding of
what is to be considered one of the most controversial aspects of the anime world.