What's new

'H' does not mean 'hentai'

thomas

Unswerving cyclist
Admin
14 Mar 2002
15,970
9,208
749
Just in case you didn't know... :)

'H' does not mean 'hentai' in Japanese. And 'hentai' does not mean 'cartoon porn,' either (in Japanese).

This page is here to clarify the actual everyday-use Japanese meanings of the sexually oriented words H/ecchi/etchi and hentai, as used by actual Japanese speakers in Japan, which differs significantly from how they are used as slang in English.

Source: http://home.attbi.com/~kagamix2/H_does_not_mean_hentai/
 
That's why KFC always kicks me out when I say,

"KFC no Chikan Potpie to Kora (rolls his tongue) o kudasai!"

Josh

"He is simply a dick on wheels, rolling infinitesimally close, but never reaching, the object of lust." CS, 3/1/03
 
Speaking of Hentai... I found this really funny British cartoon relating to Japanese Cartoons. It's from Weebl and Bob. Bizzare style of cartoon and you have to read the speech bubbles or you won't understand a word of it (their language is mumble sounds), but it's still funny.

Click below
-Weebl and Bob - Hentai-
to watch
 
Last edited:
How on earth can one revive a 4 YEAR OLD thread, saying "speaking of Hentai"?

You didn't stumble across this....you had to be searching for it.
 
I did search, "Hentai." I thought the, "speaking of Hentai," would be quite an amuzing opener considering it was 4 years old. I also wanted somewhere to post the cartoon, because I think people here would appreciate it.
 
Oh by the way... hentai.... but I'm glad that this post was actually made originally... the confusion between what constitutes "bishounen", "yaoi", etc etc, and English readers/consumers translation of it is is a big consternation for me.

That confusion is a point I've been trying to drive home unsuccessfully as of late.
 
...the confusion between what constitutes "bishounen", "yaoi", etc etc, and English readers/consumers translation of it is is a big consternation for me.

That confusion is a point I've been trying to drive home unsuccessfully as of late.
LOL I guess this begs the question of "just what circles do you run in?" 😊
 
What does Hentai actually mean, then? I know people claim it is Anime porn, but what is the literal translation.

The link on the first post won't work.
 
WWWJDIC said:
変態 【へんたい】 (n,vs) (1) transformation; metamorphosis; (2) abnormality; pervert;

the bolded part is the current common use that is most often associated with this word.
 
LOL I guess this begs the question of "just what circles do you run in?" 😊
Hey, don't get me wrong....! I think I'm guilty of a little moe... but when 16 year old girls think that all the members of An Cafe are gay and have sexual congress, there's some confusion going on....

Oh yeah, should we make this thread a definition of what ecchi, moe, yuri, yaoi, bishounen, shota, rorikon, & futanari mean too!???
 
Last edited:
"H" means Hentai

As far as anyone can tell during the 50's Hentai was shortened down to "H" to describe anything erotic, sexual or pornographic. The pronounciation of "H" is エッチ, giving エッチ and H the same meanings.

Its use lately is a little different. Hentai remains the original meaning of pervert, perversion or abnormal. In Japanese, Hentai as a word is used in relation to a person ("That guys a pervert!"), not in relation to anime, videos or magazines.

H/エッチ, despite having once derived from Hentai, have a seperate meaning in current use. Erotic anime, videos, manga and magazines can be described as Ecchi or "H". Erotic actions and sex itself is also referred to as エッチ.

So while H and エッチ do mean "Hentai", the use and definitions are different ;)
 
perhaps because hentai watch such things, and the English speaking world picked up on the word and not necessarily its real meaning?
 
I think that really, this goes for a lot of things... let's take yaoi, which is basically manga written concerning male characters who may be in love, and quite often (as compared to shounen-ai) are involved in some form of sexual congress... usually as one dominant male & one lesser so.

Quite more than a few people consider this to be ample evidence for Japan's overwhelming acceptance of homosexuality, but this isn't the case whatsoever.

There is quite a bit more information concerning what yaoi actually means, and its psychological implications in the Japanese wiki article, than the English one... most importantly that a) the readership mainly consists of females (though, not undoubtedly, due to human nature, there are bound to be male readers), and the idea that the original purpose of the genre was to appeal to younger women with gender identity disorders, I say disorder, but that's a bit harsh... considering that if you follow Laccan & Freud, (even if only very slightly) then at some point in time in one's youth, our gender is considered inconsistent to our own psyche.

Blah blah blah, whatever yeah... so a lot of this information is much more lucid in the articles written in Japanese, it's that it gets re-contextualized by American (or non Japanese I should say) readers, and generally receives the moniker of "gay literature" when really that's not quite the whole picture.

This pretty much occurs 24/7/365 days a year (times 9000) with the non-Japanese Jrock community... this kind of re-contextualization.

Japanese yaoi article: here.

English yaoi article: here.

ps. I hate to keep quoting wiki articles as sources... some say its a source of disinformation, but I like to do it when it concerns Japanese topics, because generally speaking the Japanese written wikis are much more informed in contrast to the (non-Japanese) written ones... well, that is, when they wish to be.... ;)
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the information. I think I get it now. It's all basically mis-translation / misinterpretation.
 
This is the nature of loanwords, I think. Loanwords often change meaning in the language that borrows them. Look at words like マンション, for instance. It doesn't mean "mansion" though that is the word it came from, it means "apartment" - the word for a mansion in the English sense of the word is 屋敷(やしき).

Likewise, though 「アニメ」 is used to refer to all animation regardless of country in Japan, in English the word "anime" is used only to refer to Japanese animation.

I think it's the same sort of thing with "hentai" in English as opposed to Japanese.
 
This is the nature of loanwords, I think. Loanwords often change meaning in the language that borrows them. Look at words like ニ筑ニ停?愴歎ニ停?。ニ停?? for instance. It doesn't mean "mansion" though that is the word it came from, it means "apartment" - the word for a mansion in the English sense of the word is 窶ーツョ窶「~ツ(窶堙「窶堋オ窶堋ォツ).
There were mansion apartments in England a century ago and I'd imagine thats where the name comes from, not any sort of misinterpretation, more that the meaning has changed and left the Japanese idea behind on its own.
 
Yeah. That's probably it. I don't actually understand how words get misused like this. Such as the word Hentai... and the word Gay in english. It used to mean happy but now it means homosexual. I don't understand how these things happen.
 
Yeah. That's probably it. I don't actually understand how words get misused like this. Such as the word Hentai... and the word Gay in english. It used to mean happy but now it means homosexual. I don't understand how these things happen.

Go to Uni and study the English language, theres allot to learn about something you use on a daily basis ;)
 
why are we doing so funny to each other? Cheer up people this is a froum to meet new friends and people dont make fight! Peace! (LOL yeah right! :p)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*LoVe WoMen, LoVe GiRlZ*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Back
Top Bottom