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.

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(SIDE NOTE: I specifically backdated this entry to the Fridge’s anniversary because I don’t want it hanging around the front page. Hehe.)