Anime and Hentai - Who here is a fan?

[Claire]

Ok, who is willing to out themselves as a fellow weeb? I have been into anime since my youth with my first big love being Rumiko Takahashi's InuYasha. I like to watch quite a variety of different shows, from big epic shows like Code Geass and Attack on Titan to something soft and quiet like After the Rain. As my avatar might give away, I like the Fate franchise quite a bit, at least the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel and the anime adaptations of Fate/Zero and Unlimited Blade Works.

My former avatar outed me as a Violet Evergarden fan. But my favorite works actually come from director Makoto Shinkai. If you've only ever seen Your Name and the movies he produced after that, do yourself a favor and give his older movies a try. I could die for The Garden of Words. And 5 Centimeters per Second is my favorite movie of all time. I can't watch that without crying.

If you want to know whether Shinkai's movies are for you, I always tell people to watch this 6 minute short movie he produced:

Dareka no Manazashi (Someone's Gaze):




But given the main topic of our forum, I could see some of you also being into hentai? In hentai, rape is a very common element. To me, when I watched hentai in the past, the rape scenes were often too over the top and leaned too much into tropes I also dislike in our written stories, like forced orgasms. Often the tone is also less serious than I would prefer. If I had to compare hentai to our stories here, I would say that @skuttrusk's writing is probably closest to what watching a rape hentai feels like to me. But what do you think? Maybe that's exactly what you're looking for?

@SoftGameHunter I think I remember you saying you watched/read Ranma 1/2. Did you also give the recent remake a chance?

@VictimEyes Are you by any chances into anime/manga? Your avatar would suggest so.

[Vela Nanashi]

There are both good and some truly dark and fucked up hentai out there, and anime as well I have seen some but I am no expert on either.

[Vela Nanashi]

is the english movie version of what was a series in japan, space warrior baldios, that was significant for me in my youth. The intro/outro song is quite powerful still for me.

[AdmiralPiet]

@Claire I would not consider myself a weeb, or even a particular fan of anime in general. But looking back there is quite a lot.

As a kid I watched the afternoon program on "RTL 2"
Pokemon never catched me, but I liked Digimon. Inu Yasha as well. And most of all: One Piece. Still have the announcement in my ear: "Das alles erfahrt ihr in der nächsten Folge von One Piece!" (German for "All this will be revealed in the next episode of One Piece!" right after the preview). Maybe I would still watch today, had it not gotten so over the top. So I be content with snippets on youtube.

Later I watched some on Viva. I remember that "Noir" was shit, but "Hellsing" was awesome, even if the animation quality was lacking, and of course: "Aika"
"Ghost in the Shell" left an impression, as well as "Jin Roh"
With "Tenjou Tenge" I came initially for Natsume Mayas breast, but in the end I stayed for her breasts. Joking of course, but the Natsume sisters have their allure...

Never watched some of the classics: "Akira", "Space Battleship Yamato", "Full Metal Alchemist" or "Neon Genesis Evangelion". Of the famed Ghibli films I think I watched only "Princess Mononoke"

More might come to mind.
In hindsight I watched a lot, but nowhere near weeb level.

First contact with Hentai was probably a german site named "Schnittberichte" (Cutting reports). They compared different cuts of movies to one another, listing exactly what was cut and where. Today they don't use pictures anymore (probably copyright issues) but back then they had it all illustrated. Was deeply fascinated by the reports on "Urotsukidōji". To this day I never watched it though... I should probably

Most Hentai I see is like you say: Over the top, cheesy dialogue, I don't like the blur/pixelation.
"Taimanin Asagi's" and "Makai Kishi Ingrid's" setting drive my imagination, but the actual animes I don't really like.
I rather imagine the characters in scenarios of my own making.

I have a picture of Ingrid as WIP, with a twist however. Maybe there is a story in there once it is finished...

[SoftGameHunter]

Well I'm going to give an unexpected answer and say yes to being a huge anime fan, but no to liking hentai.



I got into anime a little over two years ago, so yeah, I'm a guy over fifty that only discovered late that I love anime with a passion. I'd seen a handful of them in recent years. My wife and her brother love the stuff. But, despairing over western entertainment values, I started watching a few of the animes in earnest and was just bowled over by how different is the storytelling. In some ways, it's more narrowly focused, but it is also vastly more honest about emotional responses and character motivations. I certainly like the visual styles. And sure, a good harem fantasy never hurts. So yeah. One day I wanted to try watching some anime, and my wife said to scan through the recommendations on Crunchyroll, and by dumb luck we ended up watching Frieren when it was only a half dozen episodes in. I also discovered Attack on Titan, which is the most glorious mind-fuck ever. As for Ranma 1/2, I've actually only ever seen the new remakes. And I think they're hilarious. And if I were in Ranma's position, while I wouldn't be jumping for joy, I'd think of way more interesting ways to take advantage of my 'affliction.'

As for hentai, I don't think it breaks many barriers. It's often pixelated. The stories seem to be pointless. And the animation standards aren't even that high. While anime tells better stories than a lot of what's coming out of Hollywood or the western equivalents, hentai strikes me as inferior porn. I do like Japanese live action, though, even if they do pixelate a lot of it.

[skuttrusk]

Got into Hayao Miyazaki in the early 90s, before most of his work had been translated. And discovered hentai around the same time... It was exciting to find porn that celebrated rape with no moral stance at all. ("Manga" originally meant something like "irresponsible pictures.")

[Claire]

@AdmiralPiet Ever thought about checking out Hellsing Ultimate? It's a more faithful adaptation of the manga with higher production value. Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion are both worth watching. And when it comes to One Piece, maybe the manga would appeal more to you. It suffers less from the atrocious pacing of the anime. Btw, there even is a live action adaptation of One Piece on Netflix now that is surprisigly good compared to how bad live action adaptations of anime and manga usually are.

@SoftGameHunter Frieren is such a great show! I'm currently resisting the urge of watching the second season week for week so that I can binge it. But it's hard. Also, as s often the case with anime, the Japanese seem to be fascinated with the German language. I think in Frieren all or almost all character names are German and they are for the most part not subtle. When the first season introduced Lord Lügner (Lord Liar) it was not hard to figure out what he was all about.

[AdmiralPiet]

@AdmiralPiet Ever thought about checking out Hellsing Ultimate? It's a more faithful adaptation of the manga with higher production value.

I watched it.
The production value is higher, but to my knowledge more than one studio worked on it, and you can see the changes in style.
I did not relly like the ending. Normaly I am saddened when a cool character dies in the end of a show. At times even the antagonist.
Not here. Alucard coming back in the end and having in addition to his own power the overpowered ability of being everywhere and nowhere just didn't sit right with me.

Would have prefered for him to actually vanish and Seras become his successor.
And would have been cool if her opponent wasn't Heinkel Wolfe, but Yumiko.

And when it comes to One Piece, maybe the manga would appeal more to you. It suffers less from the atrocious pacing of the anime.

Nah. I dislike the art style and what drove me off were things like the insane power creep and ever more outlandish characters.
I watch snippets of it on youtube, but thats about it.

Btw, there even is a live action adaptation of One Piece on Netflix now that is surprisigly good compared to how bad live action adaptations of anime and manga usually are.

I know. I watched Season one. It is awesome in most regards. Needed more budget/better special effects for more dynamic fight scenes. Luffy for example takes too long to power up attacks.
But it is faithful to the source material, has a nice soundtrack and brings everything a bit down to earth. Sanji isn't such a creep as in the anime, and garp throwing a 50meter Iron Ball that would weigh thousands of tons in the anime was too much, but throwing canon balls with his bare hands? Yeah, why not?

And it is too fast honestly.
Sanji's farewell to Jeff was acted great, but if you only saw the adaption I guess it didn't mean anything, because we were barely introduced to the characters.

[SoftGameHunter]

Yeah, all the German word names have been listed in various places. I know anime has a major fetish for central Europe, especially Germany, but this one really goes all out. I remember some German words, so Stark and Lügner were not too hard. Frieren herself I didn't get right away, but it's been a lot of years since I routinely used any German day to day.

I'm just miffed right now that the English dub is delayed by a week. I still haven't seen the current season!

[Claire]

I watched it.
The production value is higher, but to my knowledge more than one studio worked on it, and you can see the changes in style.
I did not relly like the ending. Normaly I am saddened when a cool character dies in the end of a show. At times even the antagonist.
Not here. Alucard coming back in the end and having in addition to his own power the overpowered ability of being everywhere and nowhere just didn't sit right with me.

Would have prefered for him to actually vanish and Seras become his successor.
And would have been cool if her opponent wasn't Heinkel Wolfe, but Yumiko.

Honestly, I didn't watch the anime so seriously. Once a show gives me nazi vampire villains invading Britain with zeppelins and the major giving a five plus minute speech on why war is great, I'm just along for the ride into absurdity. I watched the show with a friend back then, and for the most part, we were just giggling at the absurdity of it all. We tried to imagine what an outcry the story would have caused in Germany if a German writer had come up with this.

And it is too fast honestly.

Yeah, I agree. But I guess they kind of have to be. If they want to have any chance to adapt the entire series without the actors all being far too old for the roles they are supposed to play, I don't they can go at the same pace as the source material.