A short history of 'hentai'

Abstract

"A Yahoo search for the Japanese loanword ‘hentai’ produces over 7 million hits ... evidence of the popularity of a genre of erotic manga and anime referred to as hentai or sometimes the abbreviation ‘H’ (pronounced etchi in Japanese) by western fans. ... [The] use of the term hentai to refer to erotic or sexual manga and anime in general is not a Japanese but an English innovation. In Japanese hentai can reference sexual material but only of an extreme, ‘abnormal’ or ‘perverse’ kind; it is not a general category... "AsiaPacifiQueer Network, Australian National Universit