Hentai anime and manga allow elements

of sexual fantasy to be represented

in ways that would be impossible to film

This may include portrayals of sexual acts

which are physically impossible,

unacceptable in society,

or run counter to social norms

Hentai Journal

The problem is that many Western readers,

when confronted with the pornographic manga,

are seized with the erroneous impression that

these comics were originally intended for kids

This is simply not true -- the various sexual

and explicitly violent manga out there reflect

all kinds of erotic scenarios and viciousness,

but they are ultimately intended for adults

who are expected to know the difference between

fantasy and reality, and be able to handle

emotionally whatever the creators decide to depict

Hentai anime and manga allow elements of sexual fantasy to be represented in ways that would be impossible to film.

This may include portrayals of sexual acts which are physically impossible, unacceptable in society, or run counter to social norms.

Examples include extreme bondage, creatures with tentacles, and other fetishes.

Shunga artists like Yoshitoshi and Kuniyoshi showed gang rape, erotic crucifixion, and even forced late third-trimester abortions by a "cannibal witch."

More Manga, Please [Original]

What distinguishes manga from comics and graphic novels generally, in your opinion, other than their generally Asian origin?

To my mind manga cannot be separated from their country and culture of origin. Everything about them, from the way creators tell stories to the symbols and gestures involved are created with a Japanese audience in mind.

Those outside Japan can learn all of the sound effects and references, but most readers will not instinctively understand every joke or implied meaning simply because the story comes from an environment we didn't grow up in.

That being said, there are elements that make manga markedly different from the comics and graphic novel titles here (now on to the sweeping generalizations!).

Manga tells stories with more images and more panels per page. The reader is expected to put together a lot more panels in a less traditional order than the transitions and layouts found in many mainstream Western comics.

That doesn't make it better than Western comics, just different, and something that readers new to manga have to learn.

While stories are meant to be read quickly, during your commute or as a quick break from the stresses of life, they are usually written with long story arcs and span hundreds to thousands of pages.

Unlike stories driven by characters, like the Batman and Spider-Man tales that continue for decades, manga series have one overseeing creator and end when the creator wants to end the series.

Because of the solo creative control, there is a consistent aesthetic for manga series and the sense that while there may be spin-offs or sequels, the story you are reading now will reach a resolution sooner rather than never.

Manga rely more on the visual side of a tale than the words -- which is why they can often be read faster than a Western comic of the same page count.

The symbols, character shifts, and visual cues provide more information per page than the text and therefore a reader must be fluent in all of these elements to understand the story.

This kind of visual literacy is as complex as parsing prose, though a fundamentally different experience. If you read the text and skip the visuals, you're missing a good three quarters of the story.

As Osamu Tezuka, the creator from which all manga originally grew, was inspired greatly by film, manga's cinematic elements have been dominant from the beginning of the medium.

Many manga rely on silence and pacing to accentuate everything from the pathos to the humor of a situation, and expect a reader to stick with them through contemplative stretches.

Manga is gendered from its creation to its marketing. Titles are created for children (kodomo manga), for tween and teen girls (shojo manga), for tween and teen boys (shonen manga), for women (josei manga), and for men (seinen manga).

These categories are marketed very specifically, and while many gendered comics have crossover readers (in that Bleach and Naruto have as many female readers as male), the target audience is evident in the art and the type of story for each subsection.

Should manga get more of a free pass for gratuitous violence and sexism. If so, why?

The simplest answer is: should manga get more of a free pass than other mediums? No, I don't think so.

The complicated answer is still no, but there are so many influences that inform both violence and sexism in manga.

First, readers should take a step back and acknowledge that our own comics (or television, or films) are just as fraught with violence and sexism issues (seen the recent spate of horror films dubbed torture porn, anyone?).

Manga's version of sexism, and limits (or lack thereof) for violence, arises from Japanese history and society, and so it is both similar to and different from the same problems we have here.

The one thing I've realized over time that may be why readers notice the violence and sexism more in manga is that there is a distinct lack of shame surrounding fantasy -- whether that fantasy is sexual, violent, or silly.

Anything that is within the creator (and thus the reader's) imagination is a potential subject for manga.

In the Western world there is not such a clear line in people’s minds between fantasy and reality.

We worry that people will act out their fantasies, whether inspired by childhood trauma or violent books, movies, or video games.

In Japan, that worry is present, but it has not yet prevented creators from bringing their wildest and unnerving visions to the page.

Depictions of violence and all kinds of sexuality have been a part of popular Japanese art for thousands of years, and manga continues those traditions.

Consider the vivid ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints of the 17th and 18th centuries and you’ll see many of the same images pushing boundaries then as they do today.

Perhaps because Japan was and still is not a country broadly influenced by Christian traditions, some kinds of sexuality and violence unwittingly cross into territories repressed or rarely seen in countries with strong Christian roots.

There is also still the lingering sense that comics are aimed generally at children and teens (no matter how many "Comics! Not just for kids!" headlines we see, U.S. readers still leap to the conclusion that comics readers are children.

Manga diversified in terms of age ranges very quickly in its progression as a medium, and today comics are made for every audience, from adventures for young kids to pornography for adults.

The problem is that many Western readers, when confronted with the latter, are seized with the erroneous impression that these comics were originally intended for kids.

This is simply not true -- the various sexual and explicitly violent manga out there reflect all kinds of erotic scenarios and viciousness, but they are ultimately intended for adults who are expected to one, know the difference between fantasy and reality, and two, be able to handle emotionally whatever the creators decide to depict.

Sexism is a slightly different kettle of fish. Sexism in Japan is different from what we perceive as sexism here, though there are many points in common, from women ruffling feathers as they excel in the workplace to being victims of violence and rape.

There are representations of what is stereotyped as the Eastern ideal woman: submissive, gentle, and silent.

At the same time, girls (shojo) comics have some of the best girl action heroes in any comic, period.

Women’s (josei) comics explore modern relationship dilemmas and office dynamics as well as the darkest sexual fantasies either via straight drama or the by-women-for-women male/male relationship melodramas found in yaoi titles.

The diversity of the way women are represented and are authoring stories is heartening, and shows a society still struggling with women breaking out of their traditional roles.

Sexism in manga may be more obvious to U.S. eyes because of the gendering of titles.

Boys' comics (shonen manga) and men's comics (seinen manga) contain a lot of elements that appeal to their target audience, including fan service (frequent glimpses of tantalizing women, from panties to cleavage to improbable poses in revealing outfits all the way up to explicit sexual fantasies for adult men).

But comics aimed at teen girls and women feature beautiful young men in sensual poses and go all the way toward inventive sexual fantasies in works aimed at adult women, acknowledging the female audience’s fantasies and desires.

This kind of targeting still objectifies people for either gender, but at least there is an equal opportunity aspect to it.

As a woman, this is somewhat refreshing, since in Western comics almost all fan service is aimed at a male readership only.

Manga publishers employ around 400 women creators, and girls and women’s manga magazines together represent around twenty percent of the overall market.

This does mean that sexism in manga is perpetuated by female creators, but it also may be a large part of why there are the balancing characters of strong girl heroines and complicated, formidable women.

Until the U.S. comics industry devotes a substantial portion of its market to comics for women and girls, and recruits a whole parade of female comics artists to tell their stories, we as an industry or a fan culture may want to take a hard look at our own comics rather than critiquing manga’s representation of women.

I don’t mean to belittle the work of the many women in the industry today, from creators to fans, but as a market, female readers and creators are often considered too little, too late.

There should be too many female creators to count, and too many comics aimed at girls to call publishing for girls a gamble.