News

Hentai in the Times

It has been a while since a major media outlet has taken a look at Hentai, but the LA Times is back with this article (requires LA Times registration) on the subject. The article, which is titles "X-Rated Fantasies in a Cartoon Genre," includes the following interesting quote, "Hentai, which literally means "perversion," is a product of the multibillion-dollar Japanese animation industry, better known on these shores for such animated,
G-rated favorites as "Sailor Moon," "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service."

Despite the connection made between Hentai and it's "G-rated" cousins, the article does not make the common mistake of equating regular Anime with Hentai and the author interviews a number of respectable industry sources (Joe Giarmo of NuTech, Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy).

The article explains a number of the "reaison d'etre" of Hentai, going into detail about why the characters look as they do (to get around Japanese obscenity laws). Although the article in part explains that the female stars of Hentai are not necessarilly under age it does spend a lot of time discussing the recent Supreme Court Decision to strike down the "Virtual Child Porn Law."