Outside of the Japanese culture, hentai is considered to be a subtype of anime and manga pornography. In Japanese the term “hentai” means any eccentric sexual behavior. 

The abbreviation of hentai is called seiyoku, an abnormal sexual craving or deviated libido. The term hentai in Japanese symbolizes metamorphosis. As you can see, the term itself has been widely applied to both heterosexual and homosexual relationships in a variety of magazines and articles. In English literature, the word hentai means a subgroup of Japanese manga and anime distinguished by extremely intimate characters and sexually provocative pictures and plots.

Seiyoku fascinates a cosmopolitan audience, including a lot of women. For instance, the creator of hentai manga Machida Hiraku allures both men and women equally. On the contrary, there is a bigger percentage of men searching for hentai porn. The anime pornography entertains a huge audience (more than five million per month are looking for hentai) that expands daily and demands a more interesting plot and design or artworks which contributes to progression. Many artists, who are solely motivated by the profit, are looking for extreme more explicit ways to depict their anime characters. The more traditional and standard the paintings are, the less income anime artists should expect. According to sex experts and phycologists, there are a lot of people, who look for hentai artwork as this is an impeccable way to fulfill their sexual desires and fantasies. Since the hentai themes are considered very taboo in reality, seiyoku art is an escape for people who want to fulfill their suppressed desires.

The history of Hentai.

Originally, seiyoku came to Japan via the translation of German sexology books and literature in 1920s. A Japanese physician and novelist (Mori Ougai and Meiji Period) started translating literature such as “Psychopatia Sexualis”, later called in Japanese Hentai Seiyoku Shinrigaku. Similar to the term vibrator, firstly, it was used only by doctors. Then it became more common and widely used and accepted, accompanied by introduction in a variety of publications. With the advancement and popularity of Freud’s theories, hentai started appearing in well-known magazines, with the goal to improve public morale. In the mid 1920s, hentai gained larger fame and distribution, and was a primary topic in many famous publications. During those times, this subtype of anime was filled with drama, multiple plot twists, suicides over lovers, same sex affairs and relationships. Can you imagine, there was even the origin of a new emerging class of people, presumably “sexual experts”?! The public curiosity made this topic widely discussed and somewhat cool and edgy. Just think about it, the normal sexual experiences were never a thing to talk about, so hentai was a sort of a cool trend of that generation and an important part of the Japanese pop culture. With the escalation of world tensions in the 1930s, the government took a closer look and implied complete censorship, eliminating the freedom of distribution of hentai publications. It wanted people to focus on preparation for the war, instead of being distracted by this non-essential leisure reading.

Who creates it?

There is no particular monopoly or a group of people who dominates this industry. Individual approach is the primary one. Independent artists contribute to hentai art. Even looking back at the history, there are plenty of anonymous drawings, without any credentials given. As of today, not much has changed. With the appearance of the Internet, seiyoku genre is very common on privately held multiple sites. With the appearance of social media and it’s censorship, hentai is featured in various groups, but without being too explicit.

Does it have worldwide success?

Despite being very popular at home, hentai art hasn’t gained a similar traction worldwide. Since this art has a very narrow approach in depicting the characters, most of the time they are too similar to the Japanese culture and people, so not that many outsiders can relate to it. This Japanese art is specifically catered to the home audience. Only the classic releases, such as Sword For Truth, La Blue Girl, Kit, Tales Trilogy, Guy-Double Target, Mad Bull 34, Venus 5 have achieved some success. There are many porn hentai movies that are prevailed by women dominance and symbolize women empowerment and equality. Those scenes are more popular among women all over the world.

In a nutshell, hentai has quite a long history, it develops as we grow as a society. Some people consider this a form of art, while others are still debating whether they are low-class casual paintings or something more.