Why hentai originated in Japan, and not the west?

Western corporate culture tends to shut down sexual content. Also, in the west making attractive young looking characters is taboo. Japan had the freedom of expression to pursue such a business. The strongest thing japanese anime has over western media is having far less government ties which means anime is less restricted to be safe and push political agendas.

When the government does not pay your bills japanese studios had to compete with cute/cool/hot characters to sell merchandise. Far more capitalistic than the "the land of the free." Lol

How would you define this? Adult cartoons in the West with sexual themes were as far as I am aware always focused heavily on humor over pure sexiness likely because the art styles predominant at the time.

The more realistic styles of animation were used were with rotoscoping which there is no advantage there financial perspective because they still would have to hire porn actors/actresses.

As for comics I think they did do that mainly in old SciFi and horror and adventure comics more focused on sexiness than outright sex though but I am no expert.

I define it as a whole industry, be it grassroots or not, of animation and comics focused on explicit pornographic acts and likewise games containing those, even if not as it's primary focus.

@thewiru
Well I mean I recall seeing old short Western cartoons that have full nudity and sex acts but they were more comedic.

@traed The crackdown on the Tequila Bible was around the 1930s or 1950s though, no? Yeah there used to be, until the remnants of Prohibition decided to go after Commies and comics instead.

@HokutoMumyoZan
Weren't those just comics? I have seen some full animation before. Not sure the production dates Id have to track it down.

@traed I'm not surprised, artists do have their ways of relief, but the fact is that pornography back in the early 20th Century was considered still something of a taboo. Naughty postcards were a thing if I recall, but animated sex comedy? That's grounds for J. Edgar Hoover's goons to "investigate".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eveready_Harton_in_Buried_Treasure

The motion quality is unironically better than most hentai.

Tijuana Bibles came before the hentai we know today.

Tijuana Bibles came before the hentai we know today.

@HokutoMumyoZan Isn't it weird? Our live action movies are allowed to be as nasty and rauncy as possible, but they absolutely draw the line at a cartoon being like that! Among other double standards... American Beauty has a guy that's attracted to his high school daughter's friend. It's considered a classic movie. Put that movie in an anime and people lose their minds and talk about how terrible and immoral anime is. Then there's the reverse... Turn Berserk into a live action Western movie, even keeping the looks of the characters the same (so no race bending), and anime fans would lose it and cry that the movie is woke.

i genuinelycan't think of a single western cartoon with nudity, except maybe Fritz the Cat. There's barely any fanservice in anything either. No jiggle physics or anything.

But also, the artstyle of western animation doesn't really lend itself to being sexy. Like what western cartoon characters are genuinely hot? Maybe Jessica Rabbit, but that's it.

@LuxuriousHeart I was appalled when I watched Blame It On Rio..... More like Blame It On The Pedo.

I also would go bonkers for great live action adaptations of..... anything, given One Piece and Rurouni Kenshin. While the disparity of sequential art's reputation out west is still dismal, anyone is lying that they wouldn't want to see a manga or anime become live action when everything is directed and casted properly.

i genuinelycan't think of a single western cartoon with nudity, except maybe Fritz the Cat. There's barely any fanservice in anything either. No jiggle physics or anything.

But also, the artstyle of western animation doesn't really lend itself to being sexy. Like what western cartoon characters are genuinely hot? Maybe Jessica Rabbit, but that's it.

It was a thing in older American animation. The Private Snafu, cartoons, used to train American soldiers in WW2 had nudity in them. Again the big issue, is that American animation increasingly became aimed at kids, which kinda undermined the ability to show content like that in animated form.

........Really? I would say Bruce Timns designs beat a lot of anime characters for me.



It's not the 40s or 80s anymore. America and American pop culture is way way more sexual than Japan. People just love to focus on ahem "otaku issues" while they pretend we are the more puritan ones lol. Granted, we probably are responsible for some of Japan's dumb hangups.

Shunga art was a thing too, which probably influenced modern hentai, though yeah drawing pornography is probably one of humanity's oldest forms of artistic expression.

Hentai just means pervert.
It’s not a genre.

@HokutoMumyoZan In theory, yes. The issue is people's perception of the West and the culture wars. One Piece the manga/anime is very popular. If Hollywood were to make a show that was basically a rip off, and properly casted, people would insult it and call it woke.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eveready_Harton_in_Buried_Treasure

The motion quality is unironically better than most hentai.

In Japan it is eroanime, eromanga, eroge. Hentai is a Western term as far as I am aware.

@LuxuriousHeart .... I don't even think I want to even get into this topic. Though as someone who sees both extremes as entirely blind and stupid, the problem lies in being able to forge one's path in life, which sounds hard, but has always been the way since humanity's birth.

I want to see people create their own things and their own stories and series and worlds, not ride on the coattails of existing powers that have their own problems and bad karma they have to confront. I always have a place in my heart for superheroes, but Marvel and DC still have that nuclear wasteland known as the Comics Crash of the 1990s to clean up as well, as well as having been the mouthpiece of government agendas and the enforcement of the soft power of the state's wants than the people, which is the main hangup for me about them.

ngl Kingdom Come isn't enough. Though, I should be careful of what I wish for, after all....

The other thing is that there's a lot of self hatred and a lot of wounded pride souring into betrayal and shame with this vehemence against US media today, which is something I can sympathize with, but not justify being entirely self hating than able to take scrutiny and learn from mistakes.

As one has stated....

"And humans? Incoherent creatures who believeth different things from morning to evening. A pack of fools who drive themselves to ruin and seek the cause elsewhere. We must correct these errors."

But one should be careful of knowing who has said this, after all.... Their motives may not be aligned with yours at heart....

@traed

In Japanese they also say Hアニメ, H漫画, Hゲーム.

Point is that a term can mean other things while also meaning what it does for a Western vernacular. Negro in Spanish just means black, but it doesn't mean just that if you're speaking English.

@HokutoMumyoZan An issue is the defunding of the arts and harcore profits over creativity. Plus, you have the suits above that take over companies while not knowing or respecting the history. A great example is Disney. When the CEO of Disney doesn't respect animation, then yikes. 😬 When there are great and original stories, or even fun takes on previous tropes that people like, it gets rewarded and does well.