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The History of Hentai Manga
While manga is now a well known entity in the global publishing scene, the medium's international success has its roots in the realm of eros. Japanese media critic Kimi Rito dives into the history of manga's erotic world a genre known internationally simply as - hentai. What are the origins of hentai? How has it evolved from the days of ukiyo-e to today's modern comics and animation. Who are the people making hentai? And who are the people reading these works? And what is the medium ultimately trying to express beyond sexuality? Rito looks at the content from a number of perspectives covering everything from the indie comics scene (doujinshi) to how hentai's symbolism has extended far beyond Japan and it's comics industry.
392 pages, Paperback
Published April 27, 2021
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337 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 28, 2022
Hi everyone!
I'm the one who translated this fantastic (and very much needed) book on the history of hentai. I hope you enjoy it, because it's genuinely very fun and interesting.
I'm the one who translated this fantastic (and very much needed) book on the history of hentai. I hope you enjoy it, because it's genuinely very fun and interesting.
August 7, 2022
Hoo boy....
This was discovered when browsing the monthly recommendations on an ebook site I'm on. I had a moment of, "Wait, did I read that title correctly?"
It's exactly what's on the tin, and the contents are exactly what you think they are and more. It really is just some dude trying to treat hentai like it's a legitimate scholarly treatise on art.
Look, this isn't an impossible thing to do, nor is that idea entirely meritless. It's actually something we miss entirely by dismissing the entire genre as artless pornography. How do you convey something like "jiggling" in a static, two-dimensional medium? I don't think "nipple after-image" is the correct solution, but it's the one that organically grew within this field for some reason, and it's kind of interesting to see that.
The problem is the way this author attempts this. There's zero of the tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating self-awareness that you're trying to analyze women being raped by tentacles (especially those parts specifically analyzing how to convey that yes, very importantly for some reason, this is rape but this combination of expressions isn't).
I've read some weird histories. I've read an entire book about the pencil. I have another on my kindle right now that is literally subtitled "the cultural history of the penis". Precisely zero percent of this review has to do with the subject matter, nor should it be taken as a criticism of the choice of that subject; I saw the title and chose to read it, didn't I?
But those other books are infinitely superior because the authors knew about tone and word choice and humor. This author reads like a 17-year-old kid who wants people to treat his weird obsession with the same dignity as (and he literally name-drops Da Vinci and this specific work) the Vitruvian Man.
It was impossible to take it seriously because the author took pains to deliberately avoid any humor and wanted this to read like the most pretentious art history textbook worthy of the halls of Harvard. Every single sentence was a potential "Dumb Sentence of the Week" if it were even remotely appropriate to suggest Mike and Conor read this on their podcast 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back. I just couldn't stop laughing sentence after sentence....
I present the above quote as Exhibits A-Z supporting my assessment of this work. It's so over-written and pretentious, and yet you get the impression that the author is entirely earnest in believing he is contributing critical artistic analysis to the world.
I 100% believe he believes that.
I think a more clever author who isn't immersed in the often problematic culture surrounding this niche -- and therefore isn't approaching it from the defensive stance of trying to prove it is legitimate art worthy of analysis -- perhaps one who came into the medium blind like I did reading this could have done is justice with enough humor to circumvent the uncomfortable reality that is talking about graphic tentacle rape.
Because the author is obviously inured to the material, there is no distance from which to look at that culture objectively, and that is arguably the more interesting part of this. It's mildly interesting, but I wasn't here for a frame by frame analysis of why breasts are drawn a certain way or the lovingly precise way a tentacle's texture is rendered. I wanted a history of the industry and its creators and consumers.
The social history of hentai is much more interesting than the "artistic" history of the actual hentai, but the author either doesn't wish to or, more likely, lacks the ability to take a step back and look at these much more interesting aspects of the topic. The closest he comes is a chapter on censorship and a few tangents about different types of comics that emerged over time and some interviews with specific authors that originated certain techniques (which, I'll admit, I skimmed at best because holy shit I do not care about the guy who invented blurry nipples).
The audience for this book should be anyone interested in history and culture and art. I've read histories about the pornography industry that were what this should have been, only animated.
Instead, it's written by and for someone completely immersed in the world of hentai and who obviously enjoys it for a very specific reason that has nothing to do with what's being discussed.
I don't want to attack the author personally here, to be clear. To each their own, you enjoy this and that's fine. I am entirely criticizing the way this was written through the lens of an outsider. I haven't seen a picture of the author, just a chibi drawing on an interview I found hosted by CrunchyRoll, so I'm left to my imagination, which has been involuntarily picturing Peter from The Room: a young-looking man in an ill-fitting suit trying desperately to be serious and use big words despite the utter insanity he is surrounded by.
I get it, but that's an artifact of being too close to the subject at hand. It comes across as being just aware enough to be defensive about this hobby. They lack the confidence to inject some much-needed humor, and in doing so push away people like me looking for a good-natured, fun exploration of an admittedly sensitive and at times problematic subject matter.
It can be done, and maybe a better author than this one will try.
This was discovered when browsing the monthly recommendations on an ebook site I'm on. I had a moment of, "Wait, did I read that title correctly?"
It's exactly what's on the tin, and the contents are exactly what you think they are and more. It really is just some dude trying to treat hentai like it's a legitimate scholarly treatise on art.
Look, this isn't an impossible thing to do, nor is that idea entirely meritless. It's actually something we miss entirely by dismissing the entire genre as artless pornography. How do you convey something like "jiggling" in a static, two-dimensional medium? I don't think "nipple after-image" is the correct solution, but it's the one that organically grew within this field for some reason, and it's kind of interesting to see that.
The problem is the way this author attempts this. There's zero of the tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating self-awareness that you're trying to analyze women being raped by tentacles (especially those parts specifically analyzing how to convey that yes, very importantly for some reason, this is rape but this combination of expressions isn't).
I've read some weird histories. I've read an entire book about the pencil. I have another on my kindle right now that is literally subtitled "the cultural history of the penis". Precisely zero percent of this review has to do with the subject matter, nor should it be taken as a criticism of the choice of that subject; I saw the title and chose to read it, didn't I?
But those other books are infinitely superior because the authors knew about tone and word choice and humor. This author reads like a 17-year-old kid who wants people to treat his weird obsession with the same dignity as (and he literally name-drops Da Vinci and this specific work) the Vitruvian Man.
It was impossible to take it seriously because the author took pains to deliberately avoid any humor and wanted this to read like the most pretentious art history textbook worthy of the halls of Harvard. Every single sentence was a potential "Dumb Sentence of the Week" if it were even remotely appropriate to suggest Mike and Conor read this on their podcast 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back. I just couldn't stop laughing sentence after sentence....
Though perhaps the word 'breasts' isn't the most ideal word given the kindness of the secrets wrapped deep within them, how they burst with elasticity on the outside, and pose, facing front, with apparent dignity.
I present the above quote as Exhibits A-Z supporting my assessment of this work. It's so over-written and pretentious, and yet you get the impression that the author is entirely earnest in believing he is contributing critical artistic analysis to the world.
I believe that every new afterimage of the nipple and its route, as well as its speed and acceleration, and everything else that is needed to create and reflect this vector value, is more perfect than the first nipple afterimage ever drawn.
I 100% believe he believes that.
I think a more clever author who isn't immersed in the often problematic culture surrounding this niche -- and therefore isn't approaching it from the defensive stance of trying to prove it is legitimate art worthy of analysis -- perhaps one who came into the medium blind like I did reading this could have done is justice with enough humor to circumvent the uncomfortable reality that is talking about graphic tentacle rape.
Because the author is obviously inured to the material, there is no distance from which to look at that culture objectively, and that is arguably the more interesting part of this. It's mildly interesting, but I wasn't here for a frame by frame analysis of why breasts are drawn a certain way or the lovingly precise way a tentacle's texture is rendered. I wanted a history of the industry and its creators and consumers.
The social history of hentai is much more interesting than the "artistic" history of the actual hentai, but the author either doesn't wish to or, more likely, lacks the ability to take a step back and look at these much more interesting aspects of the topic. The closest he comes is a chapter on censorship and a few tangents about different types of comics that emerged over time and some interviews with specific authors that originated certain techniques (which, I'll admit, I skimmed at best because holy shit I do not care about the guy who invented blurry nipples).
The audience for this book should be anyone interested in history and culture and art. I've read histories about the pornography industry that were what this should have been, only animated.
Instead, it's written by and for someone completely immersed in the world of hentai and who obviously enjoys it for a very specific reason that has nothing to do with what's being discussed.
I don't want to attack the author personally here, to be clear. To each their own, you enjoy this and that's fine. I am entirely criticizing the way this was written through the lens of an outsider. I haven't seen a picture of the author, just a chibi drawing on an interview I found hosted by CrunchyRoll, so I'm left to my imagination, which has been involuntarily picturing Peter from The Room: a young-looking man in an ill-fitting suit trying desperately to be serious and use big words despite the utter insanity he is surrounded by.
I get it, but that's an artifact of being too close to the subject at hand. It comes across as being just aware enough to be defensive about this hobby. They lack the confidence to inject some much-needed humor, and in doing so push away people like me looking for a good-natured, fun exploration of an admittedly sensitive and at times problematic subject matter.
It can be done, and maybe a better author than this one will try.
March 14, 2022
Although this falters a bit whenever the author tries to discuss women or female-oriented eromanga (and I do appreciate the effort), the book is fascinating overall as it seeks to analyze trends in hentai manga over a period of roughly fifty years. It errs on the side of the academic for the most part, so I wouldn't call it a casual read, but it's definitely worth picking up if you have any interest in the subject.
December 26, 2022
This is a very important book, filling a gap in the literature and covering a topic that is as interesting as it is diverse and controversial. That being said, there were numerous gripes with the translation and the editing that I think could have been fixed with a read-through and some significant revisions for readability.
A minor gripe is that this book isn't about the history of hentai as a genre, but about specific visual trends in adult manga. In order, the main tropes covered are: The increasing trend of large busts, the nipple afterimage, tentacle hentai, the cross-section view, ahegao, the "kupaa" and "ramee" sound effects, censorship of hentai manga, and the spread of hentai manga overseas. This book isn't a thorough history of the entire genre (as I originally hoped), but it still covers the individual tropes extremely well, and had that been the only complaint I had, this would've been fine.
But much more egregious is the extremely rough translation of the book. Translating a work from Japanese to English involves two drastically different grammars structures, vocabularies, and cultural nuances around things like humor and irony. Production felt a bit rushed, or at least unfinished enough to make me read something twice or thrice over to see if I misread it. To demonstrate, I'll reproduce half of a paragraph from page 366, highlighting instances of grammatical quirks that were common throughout the book:
"
This new commercialized bishojo genre offered erotic content at a bargain, which as a result, started to sell increasingly more. (dangling modifier) This was obviously the market principle in action. (dangling modifier, as well as a metaphor lost in translation) And the artist who was at the vanguard of this increasingly erotic, popular, and commercialized the bishojo genre was Tou Moriyama. Most of his work became hits, and it was as if he was firing off continuously with his work. ("it was as if" is unneeded here, and makes the overall sentence weaker) He created a large tide of hugely popular selling erotic bishojo content. ("hugely popular selling erotic" is a string of words that are more entangled than some of the orgies I've seen in hentai.) A lot of the manga that decorated pages of these magazines were erotic but sold well regardless. However, that was definitely not necessarily the worst thing to happen to the genre and the industry that had formed around it. (What was the worst thing? Formed around what, exactly?) Instead, it excited people, and in terms of comic magazines, as long as artists held the belief that, "I can draw whatever the hell I want as long as I put bishojo characters in it!" Then they were given opportunities. (opportunities to???)
"
putting my money where my mouth is, here's what I would rewrite it as.
"
When bishojo manga was new, it offered erotic content at a bargain, and the invisible hand of the market reached into its wallet to reward it greatly. Tou Moriyama was an artist who was at the vanguard of this movement, firing off continuously with hit after hit. Despite being filled with erotic content, the magazines that carried bishojo content sold well, with an entire genre and industry forming around it. People were excited, and the artists in comic magazines held the belief that, "I can draw whatever the hell I want as long as I put bishojo characters in it!"
"
This is just one example, but translational quirks like these tended to appear a handful of times per page. While each individual quirk is small, taking the reader less than a second to get through, when the entire work is peppered with them, the readability of the work as a whole suffers tremendously. That, coupled with the fact that the tone used in Japanese sarcasm and humor is dramatically different from that used in standard English, also makes the work appear overwritten, overcomplicated, and needlessly wordy, as other reviewers have stated before me.
That being said, just translating a work as dense as this is in and of itself a commendable task, and I genuinely hope Fakku does more of this, as long as they polish things up in the editing process beforehand. Nonfiction work on Japanese adult media is extremely hard to come by, and despite all the flaws, I'm extremely thankful for having read this, and I'll definitely be coming back to it in the future.
A minor gripe is that this book isn't about the history of hentai as a genre, but about specific visual trends in adult manga. In order, the main tropes covered are: The increasing trend of large busts, the nipple afterimage, tentacle hentai, the cross-section view, ahegao, the "kupaa" and "ramee" sound effects, censorship of hentai manga, and the spread of hentai manga overseas. This book isn't a thorough history of the entire genre (as I originally hoped), but it still covers the individual tropes extremely well, and had that been the only complaint I had, this would've been fine.
But much more egregious is the extremely rough translation of the book. Translating a work from Japanese to English involves two drastically different grammars structures, vocabularies, and cultural nuances around things like humor and irony. Production felt a bit rushed, or at least unfinished enough to make me read something twice or thrice over to see if I misread it. To demonstrate, I'll reproduce half of a paragraph from page 366, highlighting instances of grammatical quirks that were common throughout the book:
"
This new commercialized bishojo genre offered erotic content at a bargain, which as a result, started to sell increasingly more. (dangling modifier) This was obviously the market principle in action. (dangling modifier, as well as a metaphor lost in translation) And the artist who was at the vanguard of this increasingly erotic, popular, and commercialized the bishojo genre was Tou Moriyama. Most of his work became hits, and it was as if he was firing off continuously with his work. ("it was as if" is unneeded here, and makes the overall sentence weaker) He created a large tide of hugely popular selling erotic bishojo content. ("hugely popular selling erotic" is a string of words that are more entangled than some of the orgies I've seen in hentai.) A lot of the manga that decorated pages of these magazines were erotic but sold well regardless. However, that was definitely not necessarily the worst thing to happen to the genre and the industry that had formed around it. (What was the worst thing? Formed around what, exactly?) Instead, it excited people, and in terms of comic magazines, as long as artists held the belief that, "I can draw whatever the hell I want as long as I put bishojo characters in it!" Then they were given opportunities. (opportunities to???)
"
putting my money where my mouth is, here's what I would rewrite it as.
"
When bishojo manga was new, it offered erotic content at a bargain, and the invisible hand of the market reached into its wallet to reward it greatly. Tou Moriyama was an artist who was at the vanguard of this movement, firing off continuously with hit after hit. Despite being filled with erotic content, the magazines that carried bishojo content sold well, with an entire genre and industry forming around it. People were excited, and the artists in comic magazines held the belief that, "I can draw whatever the hell I want as long as I put bishojo characters in it!"
"
This is just one example, but translational quirks like these tended to appear a handful of times per page. While each individual quirk is small, taking the reader less than a second to get through, when the entire work is peppered with them, the readability of the work as a whole suffers tremendously. That, coupled with the fact that the tone used in Japanese sarcasm and humor is dramatically different from that used in standard English, also makes the work appear overwritten, overcomplicated, and needlessly wordy, as other reviewers have stated before me.
That being said, just translating a work as dense as this is in and of itself a commendable task, and I genuinely hope Fakku does more of this, as long as they polish things up in the editing process beforehand. Nonfiction work on Japanese adult media is extremely hard to come by, and despite all the flaws, I'm extremely thankful for having read this, and I'll definitely be coming back to it in the future.
March 11, 2022
ok so after maybe a month and a half, ive finally finished reading! took me a while to do so since i didn't want to read it in front of anyone wwww
i really love eromanga and the art, and reading a detailed explanation and time line of the evolution of the genre was quite enjoyable. the translation was very fluid and i am amazed that certain terms that wouldn't necessarily make sense in English was illustrated (literally and figuratively) with context that made it much easier to understand.
brilliant job by the translation team, and kimi rito-sensei. hope more of these types of books become available in English!
i really love eromanga and the art, and reading a detailed explanation and time line of the evolution of the genre was quite enjoyable. the translation was very fluid and i am amazed that certain terms that wouldn't necessarily make sense in English was illustrated (literally and figuratively) with context that made it much easier to understand.
brilliant job by the translation team, and kimi rito-sensei. hope more of these types of books become available in English!
June 16, 2022
The English title is misleading, as the book isn't really about the history of hentai manga itself. The original title is something like "the history of expressions in hentai manga" if I'm not mistaken. The book is also really overwritten. I don't get the hype.
October 3, 2022
I was not prepared.
December 28, 2022
I do genuinely believe this is a subject worth researching and studying, and this book manages to find some fascinating insights on the origins of certain expressions and movements within hentai manga. The main drawback is that it has a certain writing style that, whether its the results of questionable translation or just the author's style, makes following the narratives it tries to create often difficult to follow. Maybe that is just the nature of research-oriented work, it's dense in a way that I think people interested in this book may not be prepared for. That, alongside some questionable takes on certain aspects of hentai, make this not an easy recommendation, but I have to admit, it did make me pay more attention to the way manga is drawn and written, and recognize the history of the genre when certain expressions are used within it, so no matter what it accomplished its goal.
August 22, 2022
A really interesting book cataloguing some of the most popular (or infamous) motifs and expressions within eromanga.
It's written from a sort of academic, art history perspective, which I think is very good: I personally find that erotic art is often taken less seriously and so underdocumented, despite the fact that it has an undeniable influence on culture. Still, it remains casual enough not to be intimidating, and has some killer sentences in it. I must say, as much as I believe erotic art deserves to be described in a serious manner, it IS a bit funny to read such in-depth, emphatic sentences about the importance of breast size in eromanga. The focus tends to be on eromanga aimed at men, although it is worth mentioning that most eromanga seems to be aimed at men in the first place!
One thing I'd like to have seen more of is the influence of cultural context, which was generally only touched upon when it had a very explicit effect on the development of expressions (such as those made to navigate censorship laws), but I also do think that'd be a whole other book's worth of research.
The translation is mostly good and easy to understand for English readers, although there are some errors that I would guess come from differences in sentence structure that I noticed - none that ruined the meaning of the sentence, but which meant I had to read them a few times to get it.
I found this book really interesting, and I hope to see more published about the topic in the future - I didn't realise the topic was so under-researched!
It's written from a sort of academic, art history perspective, which I think is very good: I personally find that erotic art is often taken less seriously and so underdocumented, despite the fact that it has an undeniable influence on culture. Still, it remains casual enough not to be intimidating, and has some killer sentences in it. I must say, as much as I believe erotic art deserves to be described in a serious manner, it IS a bit funny to read such in-depth, emphatic sentences about the importance of breast size in eromanga. The focus tends to be on eromanga aimed at men, although it is worth mentioning that most eromanga seems to be aimed at men in the first place!
One thing I'd like to have seen more of is the influence of cultural context, which was generally only touched upon when it had a very explicit effect on the development of expressions (such as those made to navigate censorship laws), but I also do think that'd be a whole other book's worth of research.
The translation is mostly good and easy to understand for English readers, although there are some errors that I would guess come from differences in sentence structure that I noticed - none that ruined the meaning of the sentence, but which meant I had to read them a few times to get it.
I found this book really interesting, and I hope to see more published about the topic in the future - I didn't realise the topic was so under-researched!
October 31, 2022
This title caught my attention, even though I’m not a consumer of Hentai or Ero manga, as a manga fan I am certainly aware of it and parts of do seep into what would generally be considered ‘mainstream’ mangas too with fanservice and light nudity, as well as the fanmade dojinshis I buy from time to time, etc... honestly I was aware of the entire subculture around this form of art, but never really gave it much thought beyond “not for me”. When I was younger I considered it vulgar, unnecessary, and weird (tentacles wtf? lol), too many people would equate it to all of manga/anime and just dismiss all of it as hentai, but as I get older and the acceptance of manga/anime as a medium (not a genre) is better known, well I did sort of just accept it as a part of the industry and adopt the live and let live attitude towards it.
This book really does a rather robust historical examination of the industry and many of its changes over time. At first I was just tickled over the fact that there were nearly 100 pages about breast and nipple expression! but as I continued to read it really was a fascinating window into the topic. Text is graphic and detailed... I mean this is hentai do I even have to mention all the sensitive stuff talked about from rape, porn, bestiality, genitals, sex, examinations, dominance, lolis, etc... it is part of the topic of conversation, so it is all mentioned and discussed. Mature audiences only.
It was actually a lengthily read (400 pages, not too image heavy, mostly just to illustrate the point or concept) but a lot of ‘in the know’ knowledge, interviews, and approached more like a research topic and academic paper. A decent intro for those who were ever curious as to why this genre even exists.
This book really does a rather robust historical examination of the industry and many of its changes over time. At first I was just tickled over the fact that there were nearly 100 pages about breast and nipple expression! but as I continued to read it really was a fascinating window into the topic. Text is graphic and detailed... I mean this is hentai do I even have to mention all the sensitive stuff talked about from rape, porn, bestiality, genitals, sex, examinations, dominance, lolis, etc... it is part of the topic of conversation, so it is all mentioned and discussed. Mature audiences only.
It was actually a lengthily read (400 pages, not too image heavy, mostly just to illustrate the point or concept) but a lot of ‘in the know’ knowledge, interviews, and approached more like a research topic and academic paper. A decent intro for those who were ever curious as to why this genre even exists.
May 2, 2025
I read up to the ahegao chapter then started skimming.
Content:
It was a bit scatter-brained at times and often read like a collection of facts - some of which were interesting, especially if personally relevant, but many of which were not in isolation. The interviews and the roundtable felt more engaging. More humor, more dialogue, more visual structure, more narrative, or a more central theme may have helped.
Localization:
There were sentences that didn't make sense, and the pictures were sometimes up to 3 page turns away from the text where they were mentioned. I'm unclear how many of my content complaints are down to stylistic translation decisions, but I suspect at least some - the early chapters' style was more readable, which suggests to me the translator got fatigued later on.
Content:
It was a bit scatter-brained at times and often read like a collection of facts - some of which were interesting, especially if personally relevant, but many of which were not in isolation. The interviews and the roundtable felt more engaging. More humor, more dialogue, more visual structure, more narrative, or a more central theme may have helped.
Localization:
There were sentences that didn't make sense, and the pictures were sometimes up to 3 page turns away from the text where they were mentioned. I'm unclear how many of my content complaints are down to stylistic translation decisions, but I suspect at least some - the early chapters' style was more readable, which suggests to me the translator got fatigued later on.
April 24, 2023
Pretty interesting look at hentai and its expressions used throughout its history. I think the first few chapters were a little over long and repetitive but once you get past that it moves faster. I do hope that with this now in English I hope we begin to see a lot more research on these topics in the future.
September 24, 2023
An investigative exploration of eromanga expressions, by fans, for fans. The level of detail is impressive.
March 3, 2025
This is a book that’s easy to not take seriously, as pornography in general has the perception of being both taboo and with paper-thin plots… A lot of which involve pizza-delivery men. Especially Japanese pornography in the form of ero-manga/hentai with a reputation for being extremely weird. And yeah, when I saw Hoopla individually suggest this to me after reading a book on the history of British Computers, I laughed hard that Hoopla would suggest something like this.
However, I went in with a serious mindset and was very pleasantly surprised. This is less a straightforward history of ero-manga and more of a history of several expressions used in ero-manga, such as the aheago, breasts, censorship methods for genitalia, the infamous tentacles, and more.
For example, part of the reason some use tentacles, even in Japanese Adult Films, is because media in Japan can’t depict intercourse between a penis and a vagina unless it’s educational. However, tentacles are neither, so they don’t have to be censored.
The book does a great job going into each expression, its history, interviewing prevalent talents in the field of ero-manga, and using visuals from ero-manga & relevant materials to showcase what the author is describing. It covers the subject matter of ero-manga very well and I learned a lot I never knew about before.
The book itself is written academically, so it’s very dry, but I prefer it that way. I feel if the author poked fun at the subject or tried their hand at humour, it’d weaken their arguments and hinder their ultimate goal: for ero-manga to be seen in an academic light.
Not to say this book isn’t without flaws. This book desperately needed a content warning. I know that might be obvious, but I wasn’t prepared for the casual mention of non-consent, nor the visual displays of tentacles and lolicon stuff (young looking girls). I skipped most of the tentacle section because I genuinely got uncomfortable from all the imagery under the context of non-consent.
I also would’ve liked to see more of the Boy’s Love sort of thing, as I don’t explore that scene myself and wanted to know about that side’s expressions. Instead, the book largely focuses on expressions that appeal to male readers, which I thought was a shame.
Still, it was a great read and I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject matter. Just don’t be afraid to skip any sections if you’re uncomfortable.
However, I went in with a serious mindset and was very pleasantly surprised. This is less a straightforward history of ero-manga and more of a history of several expressions used in ero-manga, such as the aheago, breasts, censorship methods for genitalia, the infamous tentacles, and more.
For example, part of the reason some use tentacles, even in Japanese Adult Films, is because media in Japan can’t depict intercourse between a penis and a vagina unless it’s educational. However, tentacles are neither, so they don’t have to be censored.
The book does a great job going into each expression, its history, interviewing prevalent talents in the field of ero-manga, and using visuals from ero-manga & relevant materials to showcase what the author is describing. It covers the subject matter of ero-manga very well and I learned a lot I never knew about before.
The book itself is written academically, so it’s very dry, but I prefer it that way. I feel if the author poked fun at the subject or tried their hand at humour, it’d weaken their arguments and hinder their ultimate goal: for ero-manga to be seen in an academic light.
Not to say this book isn’t without flaws. This book desperately needed a content warning. I know that might be obvious, but I wasn’t prepared for the casual mention of non-consent, nor the visual displays of tentacles and lolicon stuff (young looking girls). I skipped most of the tentacle section because I genuinely got uncomfortable from all the imagery under the context of non-consent.
I also would’ve liked to see more of the Boy’s Love sort of thing, as I don’t explore that scene myself and wanted to know about that side’s expressions. Instead, the book largely focuses on expressions that appeal to male readers, which I thought was a shame.
Still, it was a great read and I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject matter. Just don’t be afraid to skip any sections if you’re uncomfortable.
February 5, 2022
great book
Love the art work and the learning experience..
This good for people who want to draw manga of that nature and man that is history for me.
Love the art work and the learning experience..
This good for people who want to draw manga of that nature and man that is history for me.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews