Hentai, especially in the western world and on the internet, stands for Japanese animated pornographic animation. Nowadays, it’s only limited to Japan. Many indie artists on social media draw such pictures as well. Closely related to Hentai is Ecchi (erotica), although not as explicit.
Hentai existed well before the 90s. Lolita Anime was the first of its kind. Though it is argued that, Cream Lemon was the first that laid out the foundations. Lolita may coincide with a novel of Vladimir Nabokov by the same name, which portrays a middle-aged hebephile named Humbert Humbert. This novel was later adapted into a film by Stanley Kubrick. Loli is a slang in Otaku lexicon for adult female characters bearing child-like qualities, who are typically seen as sex figures. The male counterpart of Loli is Shota. It is debated whether Loli or Shota are considered child-pornography or not.
Many of the community slangs are Japanese loanwords; e.g. nakadashi stands for creampie, ahegao for facial expressions during female orgasm, dakimakura for bodypillows with a picture of a character printed on it.
Hentai is censored in Japan as a consequence of Eirin’s guidelines on Pink films; namely pubic hair and genitals can not be shown, respecting Japan’s cultural values.
There are many opponents to this, including revered New Wave director Nagisa Oshima; infamous for directing In The Realm of Senses, opposing humanitarian beliefs of Akira Kurosawa. It was based on a real femme fatale geisha Sada Abe, who murdered his master, cut off his penis, plunged it into her vagina, and kept it there for a week — now, that’s what I call true love!
Oshima was testifed in court for obscenity charges. He defended himself before the court; in sunnict words —
Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden.
He further elaborated on it in his book Theory of Experimental Pornographic Film.
The concept of “obscenity” is tested when we dare to look at something that we desire to see but have forbidden ourselves to look at. When we feel that everything has been revealed, “obscenity” disappears and there is a certain liberation. When that which one had wanted to see isn’t sufficiently revealed, however, the taboo remains, the feeling of “obscenity” stays, and an even greater “obscenity” comes into being. Pornographic films are thus a testing ground for “obscenity,” and the benefits of pornography are clear. Pornographic cinema should be authorized, immediately and completely. Only thus can “obscenity” be rendered essentially meaningless.
Similar can be said for Hentai; as hiding pubic hair or genitals preserves the obscenity, whereas showing them would not. Uncensored Hentai used to be exported in the west as of past decade, but is no longer the case.
Japan has been notorious in producing fetishism in Pink films and Hentai. This includes—tentacle rape, netorare, futanari and ugly bastards.
Tentacle rape is a genre where a female character is raped by a tentacle-like creature (maybe Cthulu); depiction of which not new, traces back to seventeenth century when Hokusai drew his famous woodblock print The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, which depicted a woman receiving cunnilingus from an octopus while it fondled her nipples.
Netorare is where a evil man takes away a woman from her lover and rapes her. Futanari depicts females with both penises and vaginas. Ugly bastard is as you expect where an ugly man indulges in intercourse with an attractive woman.
The following are brief introductions of different Hentai titles that Santacharya researched about in mid-2000s, which were notable in his research about Hentai.
Boku No Pico by Natural High is controversial for its explicit portrayal of gay sex (a consequence of heteronormativity). The producer GOLDENBOY claims it as the world’s first ever shotacon Hentai. It all begins with a man falling for a young boy with long hair, whom he initially took for a girl. It’s especially notorious for featuring a gay threesome at the peak of Tokyo tower—not everyone’s cup of tea, I know.
This OVA Series is available on Archive.org.
Euphoria by Magin Label is infamous for its grotesque narrative. Infamous for it’s gruesome nature, featuring no less than—rape, murder, satanic rituals, ordeals, sci-fi, etc. It can be considered similar in lines of Srdjan Spasojević’s A Serbian Film.
Also known as Shin Seiki Evangerion: Jinrui ho kan keikaku, it is a Hentai parody of Neon Genesis Evangelion—one of Santacharya’s favourite franchises. This parody is obscure to find, thus considered a lost media.
Set in 20XX A.D., in this parody Shinji Ikari enters Level 20 of NERV HQ only to find out that Gendo has orchestrated an orgy to “solve the problem of infertility and decreasing birth-rate.” Rei Ayanami comes, strips, and kneels before Shinji to perform a fellatio. He is then persuaded by Asuka Langely Soryu to have sex with her. Kaji however appears with his penis erect, and thrusts it into her mouth. Misato Kasturagi and Ritsuko Agaki have threesome with Shinji. It is concluded with all women impregnated.
The origins of this OVA are highly disputed. Santacharya asked his disciple Hideaki Anno, if his studio GAINAX made it from the scrap budget of producing the original show. Anno replied he didn’t know.
A Hentai fan-parody of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is available in its most impoverished form.
In its first episode, Asuka Langely Soryu performs a fellatio on Shinji Ikari, subsequently passing through a psychedelic experience during his orgasm. In the second episode, Rei Ayanami masturbates on her bed, experiencing a similar psychedelic trip during her orgasm. The video however becomes more incoherent; so much so that there’s no way to make a meaning of it.
It is also a lost media available on Archive.org. The origins of the animation are mysterious as well; the producer of it identifies as GUYMAX (a pun on GAINAX), whose mascot is Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.
A pseudo-Freudian OVA Series, involving a mother-son incestous relationship. The main protagonist Kazushi is said to have “Oedipus complex”, which in turn makes him attracted to older women (MILF). His friend Ryouto’s single mother attends to his carnal desires; meanwhile his friend discovers the Kazushi’s mother being seuxally frustrated for her husband hadn’t enough time for her due to buisness tours. Ryouto persuades her into sex, and rapes her, while Kazushi is forcefully embroiled into an affair with his friend’s mother. In its finale, the Ryouto tricks Kazushi into committing incest with his own mother. Years later, the friend dies of cancer. His mother have found a new husband. Meanwhile, the Kazushi’s mother divorces her husband to pursue a incestous relationship with her son. The end of is turned more bizarre (like Swami Santacharya’s Bizzare Epiphanies) and surreal with mention of the daughter the mother-son duo had together.
Santacharya as a lifelong mother’s boy deemed it as his favourite amongst all Hentai OVAs.