Forewarning: this article gets weird. Content may not be suitable for all readers. Proceed with caution.

For those of us who are familiar with Japanese anime culture, the word “hentai” may immediately strike a few images (or still frames) in our mind. For all of you who haven’t heard or looked into hentai – hentai is, by English definition “a sub-genre of the Japanese genres of manga and anime, characterized by overtly sexualized characters and sexually explicit images and plots.” However, in Japanese, this term basically means pervert.

In short, hentai is anime porn. All different genres of porn can fall under hentai, whether it be gay/lesbian porn, child pornography, bestiality, tentacle porn; if you name it, it probably exists. According to the infamous “rule 34” of the internet: if it exists, there is a porn version of it. Just don’t Google your favorite childhood cartoon with the rule 34 phrase in it, because it may crush your innocent love for Jem and the Holograms or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (Or heighten it.)

Hentai has a plethora of sub-genres, and it ranges from yaoi (male homosexuality); yuri (female homosexuality); lolicon (prepubescent or underage girls); shotacon (prepubescent or underage boys); futanari (hermaphrodites or transsexuals); tentacle erotica, which is pretty self-explanatory — women being penetrated by tentacles, both unwillingly and willingly (consentacles); the list goes on.

Sometimes in hentai, the depiction of males and females is rather … unnatural — women with unrealistic bodies and men with frighteningly enormous penises. These animated women are shown to have tiny waists, big hips, big breasts and a big behind. It is more intense then the kind of stuff you see in commercial or even amateur porn because it is truly unlike any woman (or man) you will see in real life. How detrimental this can be to the human psychology of sexuality, especially for young, hormonal teenage boys and girls, is a question we can ask the professionals.

Am I the only one who finds hentai to be hilarious due to the strict censorship laws on “regular” pornography in Japan? Pubic hair and genitals tend to be blurred out. Even the characters’ genitals in hentai are sometimes censored. But animated child pornography? No big deal. Apparently we can keep that in the mix.

The legality of lolicon and shotacon treads muddy waters. Whether or not it should be legal falls under much controversy. However, I’m not here to give more attention to pedophiles getting off on animated kiddie porn. I’m more intrigued by the fascination and arousal caused by other types of hentai, such as bakunyu, bara, yaoi, yuri — the type of anime porn that depicts adults.

I’ve done some research but cannot actually find solid studies done, which I was actually rather surprised by. I did find one “study” which was rather entertaining. It of course mentioned schediaphilia (the sexual attraction to anime or cartoon characters), and stated the obvious reasons such as the endless possibilities to reinvent the “perfect woman” with breasts as big as your imagination can run. We can all agree that Jessica Rabbit was a total babe with a body that would biologically break in half if it were real. Who would be able to carry such large breasts on such a skinny body? I reckon Jessica Rabbit probably suffers from severe back problems today.

But seriously, I think the attraction to hentai goes much deeper than that.

What do you think? There has to be heaps of students who are interested in and maybe even aroused by hentai. I want to hear your opinions about the topic. What is it that attracts so many people (even maybe yourself) to animated porn? You have my word that the information will remain confidential. You have my promise presented to you in fine print in a newspaper (or the online issue). Out of pure curiosity, I want to hear you beliefs and opinions. My email is listed below; feel free to send me your thoughts there!

Email: [email protected]