As a completely uninhibited person I decided to use this particular post to compare ways in which Western creators and their Eastern (more specifically Japanese) counterparts approach the subject of explicit sexual situations. But please remember that these opinions are my own and that they come from my own experiences. You are free to doubt and question me.
Let’s start in Japan, where the both manga (that is the word used to describe Japanese comics) and anime (Japanese animation) are used as the main outputs for any kind of desires and/or perversions people might have. When people talk about hentai (which is the word used in the West to describe the non-live Japanese porn, but which in Japanese itself basically means “pervert”), the first thing that most think of are “tentacles”. The origins of the “tentacle porn” come from so really old Japanese stories about squids and women being kidnapped by them and this has long been considered by the Western audiences to be the main topic in hentai. I cannot really provide you with actual statistical data, but from my personal experience with hentai in either animated or print form seems to suggest something completely different. First of all there is a slight difference between manga and anime: anime is still more conservative and does not cover as many topics as manga. From what I have seen the main topic in hentai anime is BDSM that sometimes borders on rape (from time to time it crosses that line) with deviations into cosplay with most scenarios taking place in high schools or in an office (thus creating the background of an institution which is supposed to have strict rules). There are additional topics that are popular in hentai animes: artificial lifeforms (basically sexbots), fantasy settings (which allow for tentacled and non-tentacled monsters) as well as hentai version of harem animes. Over 50 percent of hentai manga is about incest (the usual pairings are brother-sister or mother-son) and in general much more time and page space is devoted to hard fetishes such as futanari or lactation or gangbanging (with rape being much more used than in anime). In both anime and manga the women depicted can almost never be seen as being of Asian descent as their physiology (most of the female characters have breasts starting at size D at least) is extremely uncommon in a Japanese woman.There is one aspect of hentai that bugs (remember this blog is mainly about ranting and venting) me and my Westernised view of the world to the extreme – women enjoy being raped! What the fuck? I have a friend in South East Asia that told me that in Japan the pacifism has killed the “male” in a Japanese man, so this is how he re-establishes himself as the dominant sex… by raping a woman… but since simple rape is too much the woman starts to enjoy it at some point and then becomes a sex slave to the man (typical hentai plot). Mind you, if a woman does something similar she tends to end up a sex slave herself or simply dead (another common hentai rule). The whole rape thing is just bugging me too much! No wonder otakus cannot get laid! They probably think that this is the way regular people behave! But there is one thing that is generally common to the Japanese porn (even live ones where they pixelised genitalia) there tends to be some sort of a story.
Which is less and less the case with the Western media. I cannot truly compare the Western comics to the Japanese manga, since the printed porn comes mainly from France and tends to be more erotic than pornographic, while American pornography is almost non-existent in the comic form (compared to Japan). So instead I will look at the DVDs of live porn (no animated porn of notice is produced in the West) as well as the semi-amateur porn writing. The current porn DVD production can be divided into high-scale (Andrew Blake or most of the stuff produced by Private) or semi amateur. While Private tends to make movies with some resemblance of a plot others have abandoned that idea. In fact, most DVDs feature separate sex scenes with a common denominator (it could be anal or transsexual or bust size or some other specific aspect of sexual behaviour). I find that to be boring. If there is no plot it doesn’t matter how many you watch, in the end the only thing that changes is colour/size of the ‘actors’. I know they cannot act as such, but would it really be that bad to have some semblance of a storyline? My problem with the written stuff is slightly different. First of all, why are 99% of the characters absolute sluts? I am not sure about gay porn, having never read any (and that is not me being homophobic, it just doesn’t do anything for me), but in most straight/bisexual/lesbian stories everyone is willing to do anything with anyone at any given time… I know this is fiction and it is probably written by men, but still… I have met a lot of women in my life and only one or two could be in that category (barely). It is just unbelievable. And don’t get me started on the seduction process (the thing that is gone from live porn)! It lasts about one paragraph in which one character touches the other one a couple of times and that is it! I am no woman, but I pretty sure that they tend to want more than an ass-grab and compliment on their tits to get them to spread their legs!
I am getting tired now, so before the end I will bring up something that bugs me in any type of porn. Call me a fuckin’ romantic, but what the fuck happened to emotional attachments?!!! In Japanese media consensual sex between loving partners is incredibly rare (unless it’s incest or a harem) while in the West love is all but a forgotten idea. I am of the opinion that you need to at least like a person to stick your dick into them (unless the other person is incredibly hot… but seriously how often does that happen?). I could understand why it is hard to portray on the screen (acting is tough, remember!) but how come people cannot write about it?!
Anyway… if you wish to ask me for any specific materials, you can do that.
P.S. By the way, how come in Western porn shemales mostly tend to have sex with men, but in the East they are attracted to women? Just something I thought of…
Well that’s interesting. I lived a couple of years in Japan so I know a little about all this stuff. The thing is that, as you said most stories are writen by gus, and they only write and draw about they own fantasies because it is so much easier to get laid with a slap on her butt (sort of turning her on like pushing on the “Become-a Slut” button) than admitting they have to go through the dating process and take the risk of being rejected.
So they portray the girls as “willing” to have sex in any way the guys want and of course when the otakus see this they will more likely rent porn than go through the live process. Sure you have the “delivery-girls” who can come to your place and do most of what you want for about 400 dollars but that is over budget for most otakus.
Salarymen tend to opt for some other Kabakura-style places and other sex-bars (go to Shinjuku’s Kabukicho).
What we, as westerns, don’t understand is that sex is a real commodity in Japan and it fits to every need. The women know these places exist and they also know their husbands go there (even though they will never admit their “Anata” goes to such places). One of the occasions is for business. You heard me right! When you receive business partners you work, then go for dinner in an expensive retaurant, then to a bar and finish in Kabakura or sex-parlor. Sometimes the expenses are paid by the company (indirectly of course).
In France this would be scandalous… I don’t know about the US… maybe you can tell me more…
Sex trade is ex trade and I accept it for what it is. I have no personal connection to it but I do not consider it to be evil or immoral or anything that others should judge. People have needs and others are willing to satisfy them for remuneration. My main rant is about the idea that a woman might enjoy being raped. Indeed in BDSM there are such simulations, but the real thing is so improbable that the men (and it is definitely men) who write this disgust me to the bottom of my being (and I am no prude).