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Meaning of Hentai and Ecchi - Differences, Genres and Anime

Have you ever wondered about the meaning of the word ecchi and hentai? Do you know which Hentai anime exist? Are you familiar with the ecchi anime that are almost hentais? In this article, we will explore the differences between the two words, the types of hentai, ecchi, and also a complete list.

Table of Contents

Ecchi and Hentai in the West

If you enjoy anime, you must that ecchi is used to refer to a genre of animation, but is that its real meaning? There are different uses of the word in the West and in Japan. In this article, we will see what ecchi and also hentai really mean.

In the West, the word ecchi is used to refer to any anime, manga, or Japanese work that features sensual scenes like a character's panties showing or breasts bouncing or even appearing. These are anime that make use of fanservice to attract young people, and unfortunately, most anime have at least a bit of this fanservice.

The word hentai refers to any type of pornographic drawing. Ecchi is one level before hentai, meaning they are perverted things, while hentai involves explicit sex. However, the big controversy is that these two words swap meanings with each other in Japan.

The Meaning of Ecchi and Hentai in Japan

While ecchi in the West refers to light things and hentai refers to heavy things. In Japan, calling someone hentai means that this person is a strange pervert. On the other hand, using the word ecchi specifically refers to sex or erotic things. The two words really swap meanings with each other.

The word ecchi in Japanese literally means sex and is often represented by the letter H. In reality, the word ecchi is exactly the Japanese pronunciation of the English letter H. Is it a big coincidence that H is the initial of the word hentai? the anime B Gata H Kei or Waraneko?

The word ecchi is not used only for sexual relations, but also for indecent and sensual things. Pay close attention while watching anime and notice the use of the word hentai to call boys perverts or the word H (エッチ) to talk about indecent things.

In Japan, it doesn't make sense to use the word Hentai to refer to pornography in drawings. Using the word ecchi in Japan to refer to anime with a bit of sensuality might be a mistake. It's much more common and normal to call a friend of yours hentai (perverted) than to go around saying the word ecchi in public.

The Hentai (変態) is not even a heavy word in Japan. This word is also often used with the meaning of transformation and metamorphosis. If you search for hentai in roman letters, you will come across heavy scenes, but if you write 変態 in Japanese letters, you will see a bunch of images of crazy people with underwear on their heads.

The word hentai is literally composed of the ideograms strange (変) and attitude, condition, figure, appearance, and voice (態). I personally cannot understand why this Japanese word gained such a heavy meaning here in the West.

Meaning of hentai and ecchi - differences, genres and anime

Alternatives to words ecchi and hentai in japan

Ecchi does not literally mean sex, but rather something "indecent". When you use the expression Ecchi Shiyou (エッチしよう), you are inviting someone to do indecent things, that is, sex! In Japanese, there are many non-literal or idiomatic words. Japanese people do not like to express themselves directly with a word.

Meaning of hentai and ecchi - differences, genres and anime

The true word that literally means sex is sekkusu (セックス). There are other words to refer to a person's sex, such as sei (性) seibetsu (性別) and the word seiteki (性的) which, in addition to gender, is used with other words to refer to something sexual, such as sexual harassment or sexual arousal.

Since hentai means perverted, how do I talk about pornographic drawings in Japan? To talk about pornography in Japan, we use the expression ero (エロ) of erotic. Although the expression porn (ポルノ) exists, it is more common to see the use of the word H (ecchi) or ero (エロ).

Fan service - what is it? How did it originate? Why is it bad?

If you want to refer to Japanese erotic animations, we can use the expression eroanime (エロアニメ), if it's manga we can say eromanga (エロ漫画), and for erotic games, it's commonly referred to by the abbreviation erogemu, eroge (エロゲ). Regarding videos, in addition to the word erobideo (エロビデオ), we can use H bideo (Hビデオ).

What is まま - mama in Japanese? - Leave it as it is.

Gaman and Nintai - Resilience in Japanese

Types of Ecchi

In Traditional Ecchi, we have constant photos of panties, bouncing breasts, and questionable camera angles. These titles are often sexualized and designed to arouse, representing perverse themes and heavily focusing on the female body.

Nosebleeds, suspicious hand positions, placement of face to chest, expressive and exaggerated body parts, and other aspects characterize this genre.

Ecchi anime can be categorized as regular anime, such as shounen, shoujo, and seinen. Some tend to identify them by their origin, some are based on eroge, while others are based on adult mangás.

Borderline H - On the border

These anime include frequent sexually explicit content, predominantly aimed at a male audience in the Seinen, Yuri, or Bara titles. Sex is used as a plot device and is the main focus in many of these anime.

Like Hentai, the anime Borderline H shows prolonged sexual acts; but the anime Borderline H censors the genitals and other elements with white outlines, mosaics, or opacity. Usually, the scenes shown try to avoid exposing positions.

Some anime names that arrive on the edge of the H are:

Aki Sora;
Futari Ecchi;
Interspecies Reviewers;
Kiss x Sis;
Shinmai Maou no Testament Burst
Seikon no Qwaser;
Peephole;
Queen's Blade;

Smut - Ecchi for women

Smut anime is typically written by women, for women, for genres like Shoujo, Josei, and Yaoi. There's a strong focus on seduction, characters being swept up, and other buildup to having sex that makes you feel hot.

Obscene anime often, but not always, include explicit sexual content. Usually, they are those short animes that look like hentai and have appeared each season since 2017. See the small list below:

Papa Date, Shitai
A ionate Fire from the Fingertips: Childhood Friend is a Firefighter
XL Joushi
Pray at Midarero's Yubi. Heitengo Futarikiri at the Salon de…
In the End, at the Capsule Hotel, a Feverish Night with My Boss
25-sai no Joshikousei
The Partner for Omiai is an Inexperienced, Strong-willed Problem Child;
Amai Choubatsu - Watashi wa Kanshu Sen'you Pet
The Inside of the Skirt Was a Beast.
On a Night of Lustful Connection with a Priest...

Shounen-AI, Shoujo-Ai, Yuri and Yaoi

This is the Homosexual gender. These anime may or may not be in the Hentai or Ecchi category, many mix the genres so it's difficult to identify them. The best thing to do is read the full articles about yaoi and yuri anime that I will list below:

Yuri Anime;
yaoi anime;

Meaning of hentai and ecchi - differences, genres and anime

types of hentai

In addition to the Yuri and Yaoi genres, there are several genres within Hentai anime that we cannot list them all. Some popular ones are:

Lolicon – Focused on pre-pubescent, pubescent or post-pubescent underage girls;

Shotacon – Focused on pre-pubescent, pubescent or post-pubescent underage boys;

Bakunyū [爆乳] - A genre of pornographic media focused on the representation of women with large breasts. The word can be literally translated as "exploding breasts".

Futanari [ふたなり] - Representations of women who have both phallic genitals (penis with scrotum, only a penile shaft, or enlarged clitoris) with or without vulva or vagina.

Incest [近親相姦] - Sexual activity with legal relatives;

NTR or Netorare [寝取られ] - Anime about betrayal and infidelity;

Omorashi [ お漏らし] - A form of urolagnia;

Tentacles [触手責め] - Depictions of creatures with tentacles, sometimes monsters (fictional or not) that engage in sex or rape with girls and, less frequently, men;

We also recommend reading about Adult Culture Guide in Japan!

Meaning of hentai and ecchi - differences, genres and anime

List of Hentai Anime

We will show in this article only a list of Hentai animes, if you want to see a stop watching this garbage and save your mind)...

I hope this article has clarified your doubts about the true meaning of the word hentai and ecchi in the Japanese language. If you liked the article, share it with your friends and leave your comments.

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Kevin Henrique

Creator of Suki Desu

Content creation specialist, traveler, self-taught, and writer. Loves animes, games, Japanese culture, instruments, and more. Our goal is to provide you with the best content about Japan!