written: 05/07/96
Anime Watch is a column about Anime (Japanese Animation) written by Jay Scott Raymond. The opinions here are mine and bear no resemblance to the unintelligible ramblings of those poor, benighted fools who have yet to discover Anime.
When one of us gets the inevitable question, "Why do you watch those stupid things? They're just Saturday morning cartoons in Japanese!", the offended Otaku will usually try to explain to the poor, ignorant fool that Anime has better animation, more mature stories, etc.. Somewhere in the explanation it will be said that these cartoons aren't kiddie fare, they are suitable for adults. Half the time this leads to the misunderstanding that you mean "adult" as "porno" and the recipient of your explanation either grins knowingly or snorts in disgust saying, "Oh, that's what this is.". You quickly move to correct this misinterpretation, going on about story, plot etc., but lets step back a moment.
There is Anime available in all ratings flavors, including X; the X ones will be the focus of this edition of Anime Watch. For the savvy Otaku this sub-genre is called "Hentai" or "Ecchi". These Japanese words vaguely translate as "perverted". Like their live-action, American cousins, many of these shows are short on plot and basically exist to showcase various interesting/disgusting sexual practices. Also like their live-action, American cousins, if you have more than one brain cell they get very old, very fast. This isn't true of all these shows however. There are a number that have actual, interesting plots and stories along with the sexcapades. A fortunate side effect of the licensing and translation process that makes Anime available in the USA is that most of the poor quality shows are filtered out. With a few exceptions, what we see is the cream of the Anime crop. This holds true for the Hentai material as well as it does for the more "socially acceptable" shows.
Hentai itself has at least one sub-genre known as "naughty tentacles"; this usually means some sort or demonic and/or alien creature(s) with tentacles that do naughty things in regards to the female anatomy. Apparently all alien/demonic tentacled slime creatures have the hots for human women and girls. The best known show in this sub-sub-genre, and probably the best known Hentai Anime over all is called Urosukidoji, which vaguely translates as "The Wandering Kid". This show does have a good story going on (between the tentacle action) that is epic and apocalyptic in scope. If you aren't the prudish type I recommend picking it up.
Many Hentai Animes are comedies, using the embarrassment of many sexual situations for humor. One good example is Homeroom Affairs which focuses on a high school girl who uses her feminine whiles to mess with the mind of the new teaching intern (he's a virgin and easily distracted and embarrassed of course). A more off-beat example is Dragon Knight, which is a Dungeons & Dragons-ish adventure - sex comedy. The "hero" splits his time between rescuing damsels in distress, then distressing them further by taking compromising photographs of them with his trusty instamatic camera. A paragon of chivalry, this guy is not!
There are even a few serious dramas. End of Summer comes to mind as a serious, dramatic story that happens to have some sex scenes in it that earn it the X rating. If you replaced the explicit sex scenes with allusions and veiled references, then I'm sure even the most puritanical individual would accept the story as a serious drama with artistic merit. Essentially its told as most dramas involving the trials and tribulations of young men and women would be if we here in the USA hadn't raised sexual repression to an art form.
The overall point is, don't turn up your nose to a particular Anime just because its Hentai. As an Anime fan, chances are you aren't the prudish type anyway and there is good stuff to be found; just don't show it to your mother. Likewise, Hentai Anime usually isn't a good tool for introducing your girlfriend or wife (if you are male) to Anime; stick with the milder stuff until she is properly indoctrinated.
Until Next Time,
Anime Hashin!