This article was part of the “Hear Me Roar” section of the old Hentai Neko and is one of those that are deemed still relevant in today’s version of the Otaku Fridge.
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One lazy Wednesday afternoon, while I was happily Googling, I happened across a couple of forum posts that claimed that I hated hentai. One of them just actually has a huge chip on his shoulder—he’d tear your head off if you didn’t agree with him or if your opinion doesn’t coincide with his. Well, actually, he had a falling out with my super hot cousin Firesenshi and, in his confused state—Firesenshi has that effect on men (^.^)—mistook me for her. The other dude misunderstood my Parade, Parade review and thought that I was dissing it, when I actually gave it an above average rating.

If you do look at the archives, however, you will notice that it’s quite rare that I give a hentai title glowing reviews. Now…I don’t want to cross swords with anyone who doesn’t share my opinion because opinions stem from feelings and feelings are neither right nor wrong. They’re mostly based on your experiences. Am I to say that your experiences and feelings are wrong just because people living in progressive countries have better lives than I do? Heck, no. If you disagree with what I have to say, you can simply visit another site that better suits your taste or write your own alternate review to counter mine. That’s what we’ve been doing in the Otaku Fridge community for the past eight years.

Going back to my ratings, I guess I need to explain myself. I love hentai. My cousin Firesenshi and I happily disagree about it. She can’t tolerate it because she is a devout Christian with certain principles; but I swim in it because I’d like to believe that I’m a very sensual creature. So, why the very low ratings for many of the titles? My first hentai flick was a couple of episodes from the Twin Dolls. After that shocker, I nearly dismissed all H material as scary things with nothing to offer but tentacles and rape.

Years later, I would be exposed to other titles such as The Elven Bride, Tokio Private Police, Cream Lemon, U-Jin Brand and Midnight Panther. Wow, I thought to myself. Hentai isn’t such a bad thing after all! I mean, look at how sweet and romantic those couples are. Plus, I loved the kick-ass uber sexy vixens of Midnight Panther. And that was how my journey as a Hentai Webmistress began. If King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table went on a quest to find the Holy Grail, I went on a quest to find my kind of hentai. The kind of hentai that would be nice to women. The kind of hentai that didn’t have such idiotic plotlines or ugly male protagonists that couldn’t think beyond their dicks. (It would be years years later that I would wonderfully discover that there’s such a thing as female smut. Unfortunately, they don’t get licensed easily.)

I didn’t really care if I have to go through piles and piles of hentai titles. At least I know who my target readers are. If I praised rape and violence towards women, that would not only make me a sell-out, that would also make people think I tolerated lack of creativity in coming up with h-materials. I don’t. I just have to find the right films that I could watch with my boyfriend so that we’d have something to sigh about. In any case, I think I’ve learned to live with the fact that there will always be mind-numbing H just as there will always be seasonal dandruff. All those years of going through hundreds of worthless junk tends to numb a person, you see. You just develop a stomach for it. You have to, if you want to find what you’re looking for. (In retrospect, I think you should thank me. I go through all the crappy hentai so you don’t have to. Kidding.)

Here is the funny thing. A lot of wholesome websites don’t want anything to do with me because of the word “hentai” in my website name. On the other hand, a lot of hardcore h-fanatics don’t want anything to do with me because I just have to sympathize with the women (newsflash: I’m a girl). In more extreme cases, they hate me because I love yaoi (well, I’m sorry but the gay community just fascinates me so much). It’s a matter of taste and opinion. Wholesome people aren’t my target audience. Hardcore h-fanatics aren’t my target audience either. I just happen to be a simple girl, living a very normal life and looking for readers that could understand where I’m coming from. Bottomline is, if you generally don’t like what you read, then, my friend, this site is just not for you.

So as not to be confused, just remember 2 important factors in mind when you begin to wonder about Hentai Neko’s existence:

1. This site exists to encourage the licensing of underground favorites and well-written female smut such as Yu Asagiri’s Midnight Panther (the manga, which is a whole lot better than the anime, isn’t being distributed in English anymore) and Yuki Yoshihara’s Aisuru Hito. Come to think of it, we all know that statistically speaking, there are more females than males. And when you check fangirl forums discussing titles, the female hentai fans may just outnumber the males. So why then aren’t we licensing titles that could capture this potentially huge market?

2. To categorize the good, the bad, the ugly, and the bizarre for people who have different tastes. Even if I gave a title you like a negative review, you’d then be able to gauge my taste. “Ah! Hentai Neko hates this, so I prolly will like it!” ^_-

If you do notice, I’m not the only reviewer in the site. Many of these reviewers even write opinions that are in complete contrast with mine. It’s normal. It happens. That’s what I love about this site. It started out as something that a semi-feminist built, but now it caters to diverse tastes. I don’t want to be an uberbitch and dictate what you should like or what you shouldn’t like. If you didn’t like nurse-related hentai stories because your mom is a nurse (a member of our forums actually shared this), I wouldn’t be dissing you by saying, “Hey, not all of us have nurses for moms.” Nor would I diss you for saying that you’re Hindu and don’t eat cows just because I happen to love eating beef. I’d like to think my mom taught me better than to be so disrespectful. I just want to say my piece about animation, meaning stating my own personal tastes without personally attacking another for differences in opinions. You’re welcome to say yours and I can even post it, so long as it’s not offensive, disrespectful or illegal.

Now, if you happen to like rape…well, I respect your opinion and tastes but…stay very very far away from me or I will punch a hole in your gut. Heh.

This article was part of the “Hear Me Roar” section of the old Hentai Neko and is one of those that are deemed still relevant in today’s version of the Otaku Fridge. This was never dated, however, which means that this was written sometime in 2001. By default, the Otaku Fridge’s system is dating this January 1, 2001.
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Hello all, my name is Michael Thomas. I’m writing this essay to discuss with you bishoujo computer games; what they are, and why they are important.

First, lets go over some definitions. What does “bishoujo” mean? Bishoujois Japanese for “cute girl” or “pretty girl.” Now this attractiveness can come from many sources; having a shy personality, being flirty, having long hair, being very shapely. All this is because different people find different things attractive. Bishoujo is often used in Japanese Anime, to describe anime movies and series’ where the focus is on attractive, or pretty young girls. For example, Sailor Moon’s full name is Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, translated “Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon”. For an equivalent American example, the WB show Angel has bishoujo elements in the forms of many of the female vampires, and in the two girls Angel works with to gain his humanity. Bishoujo is also used to describe manga, Japanese comics/graphic novels, that also have these elements.

But, what is a bishoujo game? Well, if people enjoy watching shows with pretty girls, why not make a game with pretty girls; i.e., a bishoujo game. In other terms, it’s a computer game, drawn in the Japanese Animation style, where one of the main elements is pretty girls. These games could be anything from a visual novel, to a raising sim, to a role-playing game.

So why not just call these games, RPGs or Adventures? Because part of the purpose of the game is to make memories with these girls you meet. This can be something as romantic as trying to find your true love, during your last year of school; or something more risque like having to train a maid to perform exotic pleasures. These games are very popular, and have long been available in Japan from game companies like Crowd, Elf, Will, Csware, and others with titles such as the Viper series, Charu-Hana, Re-Leaf, Gloria, Tokimeki Check-in, Brave Soul, Doukyusei, Kakyusei, Tokimeki Memorial, and others. Currently, for the American market, this genre is still in its infancy. Only three companies exist (Peach Princess, Himeya Soft, and JAST-USA) that translate and port these games into English. Dave Endresak, of Peach Princess, gave these very in-depth comments on the bishoujo market, and the vast amounts of work that have to be done to just translate a game into English, during an interview with Gamers Press.

Now, according to ESRB standards, these games would be labeled “AO” (adults only). This doesn’t mean that these games are graphically pornographic. The material in these games is akin to what you’d see in an R, or NC-17 rated movie (adult themes, nudity, sexual situations, mature themes). Now, yes, there are bishoujo games that are very pornographic; but there are also Hollywood movies that are as well.

Some very famous Japanese Anime artists have also done work on bishoujo games. Artists like U-Jin, Hiroyuki Utatane, Satoshi Urushihara, Shikage Nagi, and others. So many of these games have very well done art, both in terms of the girls, and of the locations and events.

It may sound like these games are only made for boys, as they have plenty of cheesecake shots. This isn’t true. Girls would also enjoy these games, as the stories can be very deep, the character interactions are sincere, and the romantic scenes are very well done. It would be akin to how girls enjoy romantic movies. And, to say that girls wouldn’t enjoy a game where people have intimate situations is offensive as well. Watch the movie American Pie or American Beauty; just as many girls in those movies are interested in sexual situations as the guys are. These games have a wide variety of material to offer many different people. That’s what makes them appealing to both demographics; there is something for everyone in the bishoujo game genre.

Another large item these games have to offer is they are different. They aren’t another MMORPG, or Turn-based-Strategy, or FPS. They are often a completely new type of game. Many are similar to the Dreamcast game Shenmu. In Shenmu you have the overall story-arc of trying to avenge your father, but you also need to do normal stuff, such as shop for groceries, and attend school. Not only do you have specific people events, but you also have everyday events that deal with the game as well. For a bishoujo game example, in Kakyusei, you play the part of a High School Freshman, and you’re trying to win one of the 16 girls hearts. Now, each girl has a different personality, and a different background. So, sure, you might take Izumi to all the places she likes to go to, but if you don’t spend some time working hard at school, she’ll still think of you as a slacker. So, as Shenmu has these “everyday events” many bishoujo games do as well, further immersing you in the game.

Add in the replayability of these games, where you can choose to try to win the heart of the shy girl the first time, and then, the class princess the 2nd time, you get games that have not hours worth of gameplay, but entire weeks. In contrast, most of the games currently on the American market account “replayability” as “put the difficulty up, and give you a couple new weapons to use.” In a bishoujo game, you get a whole new game each time, as each of your choices affects the path the game takes. For example, it’s estimated that Final Fantasy VII has game-play time of 40 - 70 hours; not bad, but if you consider that at least 30 hours of that will be spent on encounters with random monsters, it really cuts down on the overall gameplay. Gloria (ported to English by Himeya Soft) has a game-play time of 200 hours, of which all of it is story.

There are currently three companies in the US who are porting these games over into the English market, and one European company also translating these games. Peach Princess, JAST-USA, Himeya Soft, and Hobbybox Europe.

If these types of things sound interesting to you, feel free to visit the companies’ sites to check the games, and the art of the games, out. And if something seems intriguing to you, pick up a game. You might be surprised at how much fun, and how enjoyable these sorts of games are. If you can’t find these games at your local anime stores, or computer stores (like EB, Best Buy, Circuit City, or Babbages), ask that they start to carry them.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and learn a bit more about the bishoujo computer game genre. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at ltcraggs@three-musketeers.net.

This article was part of the “Hear Me Roar” section of the old Hentai Neko and is one of those that are deemed still relevant in today’s version of the Otaku Fridge. This was never dated, however, which means that this was written sometime in 2001. By default, the Otaku Fridge’s system is dating this January 1, 2001.
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Anime or hentai, like most forms of entertainment, means different things to different people. However, I suspect with entertainment that dwells beneath the sub-surface of society, greater effort is required to appreciate its art and nuances. So it is that it may be much easier to watch and enjoy a movie made by a large Hollywood studio than one created by a small independent house, or even a medium-sized foreign company. But that is not to say effort spent in understanding and appreciating the less popular forms of entertainment is not well rewarded. For anyone who has seen a decent independent film (yes there are plenty of crap ones out there), or who has enough of an attention span to read the subtitles in a foreign film, will find their efforts well rewarded. So too it is with hentai. It is much easier to dismiss this artform than to appreicate it, particularly if you’re a woman, and particularly if you’re a little prudish about sex (as most of us are, but would not like to admit). To say that hentai is animated porn is to entirely miss the point, if by porn we mean the distribution and dissemination of explicit images and sounds of sex outside context, if by porn we mean the production of material without artistic merit. Yes, there is the explicit depiction of sex, and yes a lot of the story does revolve around the sex scenes, and yes some of them do become focal points of the story, but there can also be art in the character designs, art in the plot and the themes explored by some hentais are interesting and can provoke much thought. In this sense, hentai is an artform and ought to be appreciated as such, and not just as something to whack-off to. Of course its not easy to appreciate the art. A lot of the material is predominantly made for a young male adult clientele, overflowing with hormones, and surging with aggression. So there are plenty of excesses of violence, of sex, of fantasy, of the things that preocuppy such a young mind. Yet, beyond the petty and the fanciful, there lies the dark thoughts and themes that haunt our adulthood, and the humour we often use to fight them. And if we look hard enough we can see them in the best of the hentai, we can see them in the hilarious absurdity of La Blue Girl, and the dangerous angst of Urotsukidoji.