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Gorlock - Group: Member - Total Posts: 100
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Terminology Disambiguation: "Ecchi" & "Hentai"
Posted on: 08/23/09 11:26PM

That thread title sounds like a great name for a manga, doesn't it?

Okay, so here's a question I have for all of you. I've noticed that some people object to the term "hentai" (which is kind of an older term, I'll admit, but bear with me), but they have no problem with the term "ecchi".

So let's see here...

"Hentai" = Japanese word for "perverted"
"Ecchi" = Also a word for saucy, "perverted" content in Japanese entertainment
"Ecchi" = the Japanese pronunciation of the letter "H"
"H" = An abbreviation for the term "Hentai"
Therefore...
"Ecchi" = "H" = "Hentai"

Why is one term offensive to some people, but the other isn't?

With all the sub-genres nowadays, you hardly ever hear the term "hentai" anymore, but I was just curious about other people's opinions on this.



hentaiprovisions - Group: Moderator - Total Posts: 142
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Posted on: 08/23/09 11:35PM

It likely has to do with the American usage of the terms. Generally I've seen "ecchi" when used a genre to mean something that has sexual overtones but not necessarily pornographic while "hentai" is typically used synonymously with pornographic or specifically "japanese anime porn". I've typically seen "ecchi" used as a distinction from "hentai" as being non-pornographic.




sixtynine_plus - Group: Member - Total Posts: 1
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Posted on: 08/26/09 04:52PM

Yeah in Japan ecchi means perverted, but but hentai has a much stronger connotation of the perverse and the extreme. Unlike in the West in Japan the term hentai is not used to refer to erotic manga/anime in general; it's reserved for the likes of gangrape and loli/shota. Ero is one of the common terms for porn that the Japanese use.

Sources:

intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/mclelland.html

www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=9

www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=17



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