Cartoon Copulation: H anime/Hentai

I’ve decided to declare October the official Hentai month for my column. When I mentioned this idea to some of my friends, half of them said “what’s that?” and the other half explained to the first half that it was “cartoon porn.”

Technically, I suppose that is an accurate description, but I think that the often beautiful art and culture of hentai deserve a more detailed explanation.

Hentai is pronounced “hen-tie.” It’s a Japanese word that literally means “strange appearance” though it is often colloquially defined as the Japanese translation for “perversion,” which doesn’t necessarily have negative connotations.

In North America, “hentai” usually refers to sexually-explicit or adult-themed anime, manga and computer games. But in Japan, this pornographic material is referred to with terms like “ecchi” or “H anime” (sexual/pornographic anime), “eroanime” (derived from erotic anime), or “seijin manga” (adult manga) — and a person might be referred to as “hentai” (perverted).

[For those not in the know, Anime is a certain style of animation that originated in Japan and features characters with big eyes and hairstyles that often defy gravity. Anime is extremely popular all over the world and there are different types of anime for different age groups.]

Erotic drawings and art have been around for centuries; in Japan they became widely popular in the Edo period. At this time, it was common for men to travel to the city and learn valuable skills before returning to their hometown to get married.

Controlled, legalised prostitution and pornographic art were introduced to fulfill the sexual needs of these men while they were away from home.

Even famous artists like Hokusai — whose work you would have seen at the poster sale — were supplementing their income by creating beautiful erotic woodcuts called shunga, which were hung in the houses of noblemen, turned into educational “pillow” books for newlyweds, or printed with a few descriptive sentences and used as a masturbatory aid.

Some people are confused by the attraction of hentai, “why would you want to look at cartoons having sex instead of real people?” There are different reasons why someone might enjoy H anime.

For some, it is the love of anime; they might have favourite characters from series that they watch, such as Asuka and Rei, from the popular series “Evangelion.”

Finding erotic drawings of the characters is just another way to enjoy and appreciate them on another level. Imagine if you could easily find erotic photos of your favourite live action crush from TV — that’s the fun for anime fans: no matter what series or video game you enjoy, it’s likely that you can find erotic drawings featuring your favourite characters.

For others it is the perfection of the human body and the sex act portrayed in the H anime. While researching this article online, I found an essay on catsonmars.com explainning that it’s “unlike real life sex that may be tainted by uncertainty or hesitation, there’s no bad sex in anime. Emotions are always at their most pure and unfettered in anime.”

You can also find any type of “coupling” — and I use the term loosely here — that you could possibly want: male-female, male-male (which is extremely popular with readers from both sexes), female-female, male-elf, female-demon, female-male-elf-catgirl-male-demon-female, etc., as well as any scenario you could possibly imagine!

H anime is about expressing a fantasy; whether it is sex acts that might run counter to social norms or acts that are humanly or physically impossible. It’s all about expressing carnal desires and giving in to your subconscious, primal motivations.

That’s why it’s not uncommon in H anime to see a woman being coerced into sex, but later taking the lead.

Many artists enjoy playing with their viewers’ socialised role expectations by creating characters who defy expected norms — like a blushing and innocent-looking librarian who actually runs a demon sex shop out of her basement; or a hunky man who is actually afraid of women.

Hentai isn’t sick or weird; it’s just another portrayal of the sex act, which is intrinsically beautiful. And whether you choose to enjoy your sex with a partner, with actors on a video or with pictures or videos of your favourite anime characters; as long as everyone involved is enjoying themselves, it’s all good.