The reason I say this is because 'hentai', unlike pornography, does not degrade women, and especially not in the same manner as pornography. Interesting fact actually - 'hentai' originally came about in Japan as porn was frowned upon due to its degradation of women.
It was because of this that the Japanese realized that they could still get their 'thrills' without having to degrade women, if they just made an anime with a sex theme.
And thus 'hentai' was born. It's strange to think that it was created just to stop women being seen as objects for mans' pleasure and abuse. And in a way, it was a truly groundbreaking creation. Since then, pornography has become common place in Japan, however, it is still not appreciated as much as 'hentai' - after all, in anime you can create any scenario, commit any acts, without the character REALLY being involved, used and abused etc.
With the introduction of 'hentai' have come many sub-genres, such as 'Yaoi' (men with men) and 'Lolicon' (Children with adults). The latter is a touchy subject here in the UK. Although 'theoretically' 'lolicon' has nothing to do with pedophilia since it's just a cartoon, however, in European countries it is still frowned upon...though I'm almost positive if you looked at the statistics with regards to pedophiles in Japan in correspondence with those in the UK, you would probably find that the UK has the highest crime rate.
But I will talk about the subject of 'Lolicon' in another post at a later date as there is much to be said on this subject. So I leave you to take in all that has been said today with regards to hentai, please feel free to comment about anything you have read here.
