What is the stereotype of Japanese animation? Inevitably, and even now too frequently, it is still “Japanese pornographic animation” – the phrasing Susan Napier used for the title of her chapter as far back as 2000, in the essay collection Word and Image in Japanese Cinema.
Thinking about this “locally situated transcultural media form” (using the term Jaqueline Berndt suggests in the introduction to the new Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime) and the structures that are built around it can involve many approaches and methods. And a particularly interesting approach is the one that Aurélie Petit takes in the new paper The hentai streaming platform wars – just recently published in the journal Porn Studies.
First of all, it’s useful to keep in mind what this paper is not. It is not, does not set out to be, and is not intended to be – any kind of comprehensive history of “hentai” or pornographic anime in general, a market analysis, an exploration of either animation content or animation techniques, or anything like a critique of the morality or appropriateness of pornographic animation. Instead, Petit draws on her previous work on platforms, especially the research report Anime Streaming Platform Wars (2021).
this metaphor of hentai anime platforms ‘fighting’ each other over content distribution acts as a stepping stone to frame the contemporary landscape of platforming porn animation on the anglophone internet.
So, what does Petit actually mean by the “hentai platform wars”? Building off a summary of how pornographic Japanese animation was first introduced into the English-language market in the 1980’s, she develops her main argument – and major contribution to the anime studies literature. “Anime porn” does not find its way to audiences through one single channel, and a proper understanding of the “hentai streaming market” calls for being aware of the different official/legal and unofficial/illegal/unauthorized participants in it. And often, these participants explicitly present or define themselves in relation to and even in contract to each other.
pirate hentai streaming platforms in all of their diversity must be included in our understanding of the hentai streaming market if we are to fully grasp its internal dynamics and ecology
But, this is only one part of what Petit actually sets out to accomplish. Her ultimate goal with the article is broader than just looking at “hentai streaming platforms”. And if I correctly understand the argument she is making, it is quite elegant. At least one of the reasons for the “hentai streaming wars” and the continuing success of various illegal hentai streaming sites is the failure of the market to meet consumers’ desire for a convenient viewing option for animated Japanese pornography – this is similar to the argument that I identified for anime fansubs in general in Fighting the fan sub war: Conflicts between media rights holders and unauthorized creator/distributor networks (2010). If establishing and maintaining a legal platform for hentai streaming was easier than it is in reality, then there would simply be no need for other alternatives that are maybe more awkward to use in some regards – but good enough. And one way to do that would essentially be by de-emphasizing the “animated” nature of “pornographic animation”; at its most basic, perhaps simply by asking why pornographic animation should be thought of as something different, distinct, unique, and subject to particular rules.
By exploring this ‘hentai streaming platform wars’ metaphor, we can then identify two key concepts faced by all porn animation: exclusion from the mainstream porn industry conversation; and lack of recognition of its creative labour force.
The topic of The hentai streaming platform wars is all too easy to either joke about or just dismiss as irrelevant. It is very much to the author’s credit that she does neither. This paper develops organically from the earlier work in The Anime Streaming Platform Wars to analyze an area in the anime market that too often goes ignored. It’s possible to disagree with the author’s conclusion and a call for “recognizing animation within the pornographic industry” (as opposed to continuing efforts to develop a pornography silo specifically within the anime industry, though as the “anime industry” itself depends more and more on outside investment, that may not be very feasible either). There is also a point at which some aspects of her argument have a strong ideological component – but that does not detract from them, and from the overall strength of this timely, thoughtful, and well-argued paper!