Japan has always pushed the limits of what kind of subject matter can be portrayed in animated features.
In the West, cartoons are primarily considered to be for children,
but there have been more adult-themed animated shows produced as of late. In
Japan, animation has permeated every facet of their society, and there have
been numerous explicit pornographic films and series released. Here are five of
the most infamous hentai
(pornographic anime/manga) works known to Western audiences:
Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend: The most infamous of these films has to be
the erotic-grotesque series known as Urotsukidōji. It is the grandfather of the
genre known as “tentacle porn,” which has become the calling card of modern
hentai. Tentacle porn usually involves unwilling females (and occasionally
males) being invaded sexually by monsters with phallic-tipped octopus
tentacles. It’s an acquired taste and can be very off-putting to the
uninitiated viewer.
Urotsukidōji is
based on the manga works of Toshio Maeda, who is known for mixing sex and the
supernatural. The director of the anime version, Hideki Takayama, decided to
make it much more violent and dark; there are lots of scenes with demons raping
women and tearing them apart limb from limb. The look and animation of the film
is spectacular though, and it has a horror feel that is both unique and
intriguing. There was only one uncut DVD released in the US, which is The
Perfect Collection from Anime 18, and it is sadly out of print now. You can
find edited versions that have had all the sex scenes omitted, but I don’t see
the point in watching censored versions of films.
La Blue Girl: Here we have another anime based on a manga from Toshio Maeda, but
this one is much lighter in tone and easier to watch. La Blue Girl follows the
sexual escapades of a young girl named Miko Mido, a ninja from a clan who
specializes in “sexcraft” ninjitsu techniques. She has to fight demons from
another dimension called Shikima, who want to take over the entire world. There
is a lot of humor interspersed with all of the sex and fight scenes and
characters have hilarious fighting styles and attacks. Miko can shoot her pubic
hair at enemies, and there is another character who fights with a sword in her
vagina. It’s absolutely ridiculous in the best sort of way and has to be seen
to be believed.
As an aside, even a
funny hentai like La Blue Girl has a lot of what can be considered “rape”
scenes. This is very prevalent in most Japanese pornography and can be
attributed to cultural differences. It’s not so much that the women are being
raped by someone using brute force as much as they're being coerced into having
sex; at first they are unwilling but then they eventually enjoy it. It’s an
interesting distinction and can be taken any number of ways. It really comes
down to being a fetish that perhaps suffers from being lost in translation. I
can understand an individual wanting no part of it and unfortunately a lot of
hentai falls into this category.
Cool Devices: Cool Devices is an anthology of eleven shorts directed by different
prominent anime directors. It has the dubious honor of being the most shocking
and hardcore hentai I have ever seen. Things you will see include: BDSM,
bondage, master-slave relationships, brother and sister incest, gang rape, anal
sex used as a means to cure constipation and a woman who gets turned into a
superhuman hermaphrodite. There is no taboo or fetish left unexplored and it is
definitely NOT for the easily offended or faint of heart. This series has been
banned in Canada and cannot be purchased there to this day. The quality of
animation varies with each individual short film. It is pretty hard to find the
DVD, as it was released in limited quantities by Critical Mass which is the
adult film side of publisher The Right Stuff Inc.
One of the shorts,
Yellow Star, had character designs done by Yasuomi Umetsu who is famous for his
work on Robot Carnival and Kite. Yellow Star can be seen as a precursor to Kite
and shares some of the same themes. Most people in the U.S. are familiar with
the heavily edited version of Kite; the original version has several
pornographic sex scenes interspersed throughout. The main character in Kite is
underage and that is what prompted the censorship in the West.
Cream Lemon: Imagine if someone decided to animate the letters section of Penthouse magazine but added a dash of surrealism to the mix. You would have Cream Lemon, the genre-spanning porno anthology from the 1980s. The episodes are very strange, and save for two recurring characters, a brother and sister, they don’t have much to do with each other. Some of them delved into darker perversions while others had more humorous overtones. There are fantasy and sci-fi themed episodes, and even a couple of plain vanilla episodes for your more traditional pornography connoisseurs. It does boast the rounder and plumper women common in 1980s style anime, and most of the animation was excellent.
Cream Lemon ending
up being so popular that they released a mainstream non-pornographic version of
it called Cream Lemon New Generation. The original Cream Lemon had pretty
intricate plotlines, much more than your standard porn, and it transferred well
into the new series. Most fans of the new version had no idea it even had
hentai roots!
Ogenki Clinic Adventures: Hentai doesn’t have to be all rape and
tentacles; Ogenki Clinic Adventures is a hilarious romp that takes place in a
hospital that administers sexy cures for the patients’ ailments. The main
physician is Dr. Sawaru Ogenki, who is assisted by his very well-endowed nurse
Ruko Tatase. They both have voracious sexual appetites and indulge in them as
often as possible. It's a very light-hearted and funny show with a penchant for
visual puns and slapstick humor.
Everything is
over-exaggerated to the max, with ridiculous situations and scenes at every
turn. There is a manga of the same name, and it too shares the parody style of
the OVA series. Ogenki Clinic was
directed by Takashi Watanabe, who is known for Boogiepop Phantom, Casshern:
Robot Hunter, and Slayers. Many popular anime directors have roots in or have
directed hentai features, as they don't carry the same type of stigma as they
would here in the west.
-Michelle Kisner