Hentai+Pornography

** Defining Hentai **
 * Hentai Pornography **

Hentai is a sub-genre of the Japanese version of cartoons, known as ‘Anime’ cartoons. Hentai cartoons are an adult only version of the Anime styles and are restricted in many countries to audiences age 18 and up or may be even outlawed completely. Although this style of anime originated in Japan, the Japanese do not call this genre of cartoon hentai. This name is only used in English speaking countries, because the literal translation of the word hentai is used differently in Japan (McLelland 2006). In Japanese, hentai means “queer or perverse, particularly in a sexual sense.”

** History of Hentai (Pre-World War II) **

The first publications of hentai were created in the 1920’s. During this time, hentai was short for hentai sekyoku, which refers to perverse sexual desire. Hentai was looked at as a psychological state and famous psychologists such Freud took an interest in the topic (McLelland, 2006). These first publications had stories and images of behaviors that were grotesque and made no sense to many outsiders. Psychologists made efforts to raise awareness of this state of mind and tried to uphold and remind readers of better morals that should be upheld. Many people became sex experts and wrote advice and tips in the articles, and wrote on love topics that were particularly popular in Japan. These publications became highly scrutinized and stopped in 1933 because of Japan’s rationing on paper as the nation geared up for war (McLelland, 2006).

** History of Hentai (Post World War II) **

After the war, hentai made a comeback, and no longer had the scientific backing of the medical community that was there in the 1920’s and early 1930’s. The new wave of hentai had a focus on sexuality and pleasure. “As Igarashi points out, for many survivors, their bodies were the only possession they had managed to preserve from the destruction of the war; Japan's burned-out cities became sites for celebration of the 'raw, erotic energy of Japanese bodies'…The new postwar environment saw a greater emphasis placed on fulfilling the emotional and sexual needs of the couple, which resulted in a demand for information about sexual practice and pleasure—a market to which the //kasutori// magazines catered” (McLelland, 2006). These new publications were much more explicit than those before the war, and garnered the attention of readers from both Japan and the Americas. Over the years, hentai made its way into animated films. The first ever hentai film was //Dallos//, released in Japan in 1983 (Patten, 1998). From here, hentai grew slowly at first, but then grew quickly. By 1997, 62 hentai titles were in existence, and some of these titles were animated series (Patten, 1998). Today, hentai has reached a massive explosion of popularity. “A Yahoo search for '//hentai//', for instance, produces over 7 million hits—more than twice that of better-known loanwords such as samurai, geisha or sushi…” (McLelland, 2006). With the increasing availability of information transfer through technology, this number has increased since then. Hentai has grown to be a very large industry. At the 2010 International Anime Fair, held in Tokyo, 130,000 hard core fans of anime were in attendance, with a great deal of those people dressed as their favorite character. “ Anime is a $2-billion-a-year industry that's helped define Japan as a cultural trendsetter” (Brown, 2010). “ None of the anime distributors are willing to discuss sales figures, but John Sirabella makes a broad estimate that adult anime is about 30% to 40% of the overall anime market” (Patten, 1998).

** Hentai in America **

Hentai in America has existed as long as it had in Japan. In Japan, the first hentai publications focused on delivering people medical information along with the erotic stories and images that were in the publications. Many famous psychologists from all over the world, including Freud, took interest in the topic of hentai and gave input to the early publications. After World War II, as hentai publications became highly popular in Japan, many of the Japanese hentai works made their way to America. “Given the new popularity of English in postwar Japan, //hentai// was occasionally written in //rōmaji// [Roman script]…” (McLelland, 2006).

Over time, hentai films also made their way over to America. Just one year after Japan released its first hentai film, the first hentai film for American Audiences was reported to the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) in 1984, and was called //Lolita Anime.// This film was created into series of 6 cartoons depicting underage school girls having sex, participating in bondage, and other lewd acts (Anime News Network, 2011). Today, hentai has grown in America, and purists of hentai call themselves ‘//otaku,’// or fans who are highly proud of their in-depth knowledge of anime and hentai (McLelland, 2006).

Recently, hentai has been predicted to become more popular, as there have been declining trends in anime production. “ The fans might be cheerful, but behind the scenes anime is in big trouble…It began with a fall in TV advertising revenue, which soon meant less money for making anime…The reason for the industry's falling revenue is simple - the internet…Hashimoto's business has so far avoided anime porn. He's worried the trend is turning off the general audience” (Brown, 2010). This means that there may be an increase in adult manga, or hentai, so that the art can stay afloat and profitable. Other experts, such as Sabine Fruhstruck, from the University of California at Santa Barbara have written into the University’s Journal of Japanese Studies that “ the industry may well not survive the next wave of competitors, which include computer games, the internet, and the spread of home computer use.”

Hentai remains a controversial topic in America, and although hentai does have high revenue possibilities, it remains largely untapped in the American TV/video market. Adult pay-per-view channels remain largely uninterested in airing these shows, and most hentai business is done by direct mail orders from providers to clients (Patten, 1998). Of course, with the advent of technology, more hentai is streamed online through a subscription service, and hentai will begin to be seen more in the American mainstream media. Today, the largest providers of hentai pornography to America are ADV films, SoftCel Pictures, Critical Mass, NuTech Hentai, Central Park Media, Anime18, and highly popular websites such as hentaikitty.com (Ortega-Brenna 2009).

Hentai has received much attention recently, and has even had laws placed on it when the government noted that there was an increase in the popularity of graphic material. “In 1969, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans have the right to possess obscene material in the privacy of their own homes. But trafficking in such goods through interstate commerce — which today includes the internet — is illegal under that ruling” (Kravets, 2009). In 2003 President George W. Bush signed the “PROTECT act of 2003,” which further protects children from being exploited, and also for the first time made it illegal to create, possess, or distribute animated images of underage children performing sexual acts (PROTECT act, 2003). These sorts of images are still legal in Japan. To further the effectiveness, “ The U.S. House of Representatives… overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000” (McCullagh, 2007). This act, known as the SAFE act of 2007, is intended to ensure better reporting of all activities that are unlawful. Some still question the effectiveness and durability of the PROTECT act’s clause that criminalizes drawings of underage children. Judge Roger Gregory argues that an appeals court decision to sentence a man for 20 years for possession and distribution of hentai depicting underage children raises First Amendment issues. He states, “ The Supreme Court's obscenity jurisprudence has never come close to stripping adults of First Amendment protections for their purely private fantasies, and the implications of our sanctioning this kind of governmental intrusion into individual freedom of thought are incredibly worrisome” (Paul, 2010).

Sources: Brown, Adrian. (2010, April 25). SBS Dateline| Suspended Animation. //SBS Dateline Australia.// Retrieved April 9, 2011. http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/600507/n/Suspended-Animation. Fruhstuck, Sabine. (2002). Journal of Japanese Studies//. The Society for Japanese Studies.// Vol. 28, No. 2. Pp. 498-502. Retrieved April 9, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4126836. Kravets, David. (2009, June 17). Appeals Court Backs Prison for E-mail Obscenity. //Wired.com.// Retrieved April 9, 2011. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/email-obscenity/. Lolita Anime (OAV). //Anime News Network.// Retrieved April 10, 2011. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=7695. McCullagh, Declan. (2007, December 5). House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites. //CNET News| Politics and Law.// Retrieved April 9, 2011. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9829759-38.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody;1n. McLelland, Mark. (2006, January). A Short History of ‘Hentai.’ //Intersections: Gender, History,// //and Culture in the Asian Context.// Issue 12. Retrieved April 9, 2011. http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/mclelland.html. One Hundred Eighth Congress of the United States of America. (2003, January 7). Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today or PROTECT Act. //The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled.// http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-108s151enr/pdf/BILLS-108s151enr.pdf. Ortega-Brennan, Marianna. (2008, December 5). Peek-a-boo: Watching Japanese Hard-core Animation. //Sex & Culture.// Vol. 13. Pp 17-31. DOI: 10.1007/s12119-008-9039-5. Patten, Fred. (1998, July). The Anime ‘Porn’ Market. //Animation World Magazine Expert Blogs.// Issue 3.4. Retrieved April 9, 2011. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.4/3.4pages/3.4patten.html. Paul, Ryan. (2010). Jail sentence for hentai owner raises First Amendment issues. //Ars Technica |// //Law and Disorders.// Retrieved April 9, 2011. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/jail-sentence-for-hentai-owner-raises-first-amendment-issues.ars.