In 2019, according to the Pornhub review Hentai porn was ranked the fourth most popular category just below Japanese, Lesbian and Amateuer. Comparatively in the 2021 review Hentai moved up to the number one spot for worldwide searches, even ranking about lesbian porn. Who knew something could be more popular than lesbian porn ... not me.

But what exactly is Hentai? Why has it become so popular? And what are the concerns with this category of pornography?

What is Hentai?

The dictionary definition of Hentai is:

‘A genre of Japanese manga and anime characterized by overtly sexualised characters and sexually explicit images and plots.

The term Hentai comes from ‘hentai seiyoku’ which means ‘perverse’ sexual desire.

What are the arguments in favor of Hentai?

Many people argue that Hentai is ‘safe’ and ‘ethical’, because it is not exploiting actual human beings because it is animation. However, anime porn is still carrying the same messages and values of other forms of pornography, so the fact that it is animated does not mean it’s ‘better’ for you, in fact, looking at the majority of Hentai porn suggests it’s pretty harmful.

What is the issue with Hentai?

Hentai porn often features characters that look child-like but with developed body parts, therefore, blurring the line between child and adult. There is a sub-genre of Hentai porn called ‘lolicon’ which involves the depiction of young girls or toddlers. They are often shown taking pleasure from sexual abuse. Similarly, in Hentai there is a theme of ‘innocence’ which is regarded as ‘sexy’. So, you can see where the issue comes in here.

Moreover, Hentai often normalizes violence against women and girls. Themes of rape are prominent in the category, especially towards children. Regardless of if this is animated this is still harmful content to consume. There are also growing concerns with animation becoming more and more realistic. Therefore, this raises extra concerns about this genre as if it becomes realistic, this will even further blur the lines between ‘fantasy’ and abuse.

How to make guidelines around Hentai porn?

For my own company, the topic of cartoon/Hentai porn came up early on when speaking about guidelines. We were quite concerned by the child-like depictions in cartoon porn. But when thinking about how to approach this genre it became a bit more clear that cartoon porn needs to be held to the same standards of ‘real-life’ porn. If cartoon porn looks like a child then we do not allow it.

Similarly, if it broke any of the other guidelines, we would not be giving it an exemption just because it was a cartoon. And, I think that this is something that other sites should adopt. Just because it is a cartoon does not mean that it is not harmful content. It should be held to the same standards as other types of pornography.

Overall, Hentai is increasingly becoming a more and more popular type of pornography every year. I think as a society we need to be questioning why this type of pornography is growing more popular, and why we are making exceptions for this type of content just because it’s animated. Do you think it should be held to the same standards of other types of pornography?