When we think of hentai, our brain tends to think of “anime porn”. Considering the evolution of the genre, this is normal.
However, this controversial yet prolific erotic genre has a lot of history behind it. In a way, it has as much history as pornography itself. If you are one of those who thought that this market did not exist before cinema X, you are very wrong.
To enlighten us on the long history of hentai, let’s turn to the masterful review that Marklenon1227 compiled on Reddit a few years ago.
We have to go back to the 8th century A.D. to trace the origins of illustrated erotica in Japan. Known as shunga, these illustrations depicted people performing sexual acts.
It is worth noting that, prior to the Edo period, sexuality in Japan was not viewed with particular modesty. People did not tend to be shocked by certain behaviors, especially those depicted in art.
Things changed with the arrival of the Tokugawa shogunate, when a series of reforms were introduced that censored political publications or those that “disturbed the Japanese way of life”.
Keep in mind that the years of relentless rule by the Tokugawa clan saw the persecution of Christians in Japan by the shogunate, among other things. Come on, they didn’t mess around with half-measures.
Despite the changes that Japan underwent over the centuries, through the Meiji Restoration and so on, things did not change much for the shunga, which continued to live on underground. Of course, a hefty fine or imprisonment for displaying this type of art was in store for anyone who broke the law.
A WAR THAT CHANGED JAPAN FOREVER
Everything changed on September 2, 1945. Emperor Hirohito signed the surrender agreement to the Allied forces and the Japanese colonial empire began a process of change, including the constitution signed in 1947.
The new constitution included fewer powers for the Emperor of Japan, as well as a strong international influence that included the abolition of censorship and freedom of press and speech.
This gave wings to the return of shunga, but it was influenced by the new styles that were beginning to emerge in the archipelago. These were the years in which the “God of Manga”, Osamu Tezuka (Tezuka Osamu) began to emerge.
Tezuka was an undeniable influence for shunga to evolve, abandoning the realistic features of the characters and adopting an aesthetic similar to manga characters such as Astroboy or Kimba, the white lion.
Despite the new laws, censorship was still latent in Japan, although much softened. However, this censorship would, in part, cause the incipient hentai videos to mutate a few decades later.
ADAPT… OR PAY
Japanese laws, though lax, still pose a threat to hentai. The rise of hentai throughout the 1970s caused the government to fine-tune its legislation.
One of the regulations prohibits or controls the publication of obscene materials such as female sexual intercourse and pubic hair. This is part of the reason why censorship of genitalia in uncennsored hentai works, whether by pixelation or other techniques, is so rampant.
In 1986. Toshio Maeda (Maeda Toshio) changed the compass and managed to bend the rules by introducing monsters in his works. He is credited with the first hentai with tentacular monsters, robots and monsters whose physiognomy does not match that of humans.
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There are also regulations prohibiting certain titles, but these are easily bypassed by creative authors with titles with similar phonologies.
With the rise of new technologies, hentai has proliferated beyond strictly print. From series or animated films to video games, this Japanese genre continues to cause fascination and rejection around the world.
Many of the works of artists on the net, known as dōjinshi (self-published works) belong to this genre, a symptom that, like it more or less, it has a wide consumer market.
Of course, the hentai world tends to get into trouble for grabbing characters from manganime franchises such as One Piece or Dragon Ball and putting them in their plots, with the consequent circus in the courts.
He has also been involved in controversies such as the Lolicon issue. Hentai depicting minors became the target of various child advocacy organizations.
It is curious that Japan, a country with so many contrasts, full of tradition and modernity in equal parts, has made so popular a genre that, a priori, one would expect to be much more marginalized.
