A look at hentai and "established" anime characters

[Lego]

Reading the FMP OVA thread, it got me thinking about this topic(due to some of the responses. As long as I've been a anime fan, I can remember there being hentai of a said show. From Love Hina to Gundam Seed, the artists still seem to be chugging along. While you see it here and there, I never took the time to go searching for it, or visit one of the sites. Sure I own a couple hentai DVD's, but nothing of established characters.

I often see it when I browse 2chan's anime board for screen caps, and etc. While I can see the appeal of seeing you favorite character in a compromising pose, it brings up a interesting discussion. So lets say you check out a doujin of something you're watching. Like a GSEED or Love Hina(just two popular series, random).

Does viewing hentai of established characters effect your opinion of the show/character in any way, and do you go out of your way to avoid or seek it out?

Personally while I might pick up something like Megami, I tend to stay away from the stuff I see on other message boards. Hentai of established characters always seemed like someone thought: "I love this character, lets make them have sex with random people!".

[something]

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Lego said:
Does viewing hentai of established characters effect your opinion of the show/character in any way

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Nah not really. It might make you remember something humorous at weird moments, but when I watch something good I'm generally caught up in the characters/story and don't think too much about third party material. Afterwards, yes maybe, but never enough to affect my enjoyment negatively or anything.

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Hentai of established characters always seemed like someone thought: "I love this character, lets make them have sex with random people!".

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Haha, well yeah, basically. It's a major part of the fanart community.

[Gatts]

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Lego said:
Does viewing hentai of established characters effect your opinion of the show/character in any way

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Nope. Doujin are doujin. They are just like fanfiction. They have nothing to do with the main story and they don't affect my enjoyment of an anime. Although I will say that sometimes the doujin version of a character is much more entertaining than their "real" version.

Also, while I don't actively seek them out, I may buy a few if I see them and like the coverart.

[aquapermanence]

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Lego said:
Does viewing hentai of established characters effect your opinion of the show/character in any way, and do you go out of your way to avoid or seek it out?

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For me, this sort of thing has the nature of a "What If?" situation. Assuming the character is someone that I'm emotionally invested in, or even just familiar with through watching the show, the experience of looking at porn will become deeper and more meaningful by connecting that character in the new context.

For example, watching Shinji and Asuka from Evangelion getting it on could be a lot more interesting than watching two otherwise unknown characters of similar age and background. The sex might be good on its own merit, but the addition of faces, names, and context can help to elevate the act above simple wank fodder and into the realm of cultivated fetishism.

Change too many little details and you lose your appeal, though. Case in point, DeVadasy, which was rated 18+ in Japan, directly references the Evangelion setup while attempting to inject a more harem/sexy schoolgirl aspect. But while it succeeds on its own as a giant robot show, and perhaps also as a parody, it fails miserably at actually getting the viewer to care about the characters as people--a terrible flaw shared by its distant cousin Hades Project Zeorymer. Had the characters' personalities and mannerisms (if not their appearances themselves) been copied over directly, as has been known to happen on occasion, the show itself might have wound up being more memorable. As it is, I can't even recall if any of the characters had any sex (explicit or implied). For a show that AIC was at one point touting on the same page as Now and Then, Here and There (which certainly did contain sex, and a whole lot of other things I won't be forgetting anytime soon), that's a sad fate.

[golthin]

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aquapermanence said:
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Lego said:
For example, watching Shinji and Asuka from Evangelion getting it on could be a lot more interesting than watching two otherwise unknown characters of similar age and background.

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I never have been attracted by the Doujinshi that explore this relationship. I am more of a Shin and Misato getting it on fan. /images/graemlins/devil.gif

[ape2020]

Well all those hentai parodies or what if versions are fan made. So very few are good and most are pretty bad.

Last year I drafted Shinji and linked a download of the Evangelion-Human Revitalization Project. A short 12 min orgy to repopulate the earth, as Shinji nailed Rei, Asuka, and Misato as Gendo cooly watched. I chose that one as a very good example of this stuff. It is even rumored that people that actually help make Eva had a part in this show. I've also seen some on Kiki Delivery and a decent one for MKR, but mostly those are the exception to the rule. A lot are like Anime Fiction and Spaceball crap or worst. One other note is they are all very short like one sex scene short and mostly repetitive animation.

None of this has any influence on the orginal material just a few extra kinks.

-chimp1010

[Orihara_Kaoru]

Considering I read slash fanfics, I wouln't say I avoid such material, no. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Escapism and fantasy are fun. Wee! (goes back to reading a lovely Harry/Draco story)

[vtr9kvictor]

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Chimp1010 said:
Well all those hentai parodies or what if versions are fan made. So very few are good and most are pretty bad.

Last year I drafted Shinji and linked a download of the Evangelion-Human Revitalization Project. A short 12 min orgy to repopulate the earth, as Shinji nailed Rei, Asuka, and Misato as Gendo cooly watched. I chose that one as a very good example of this stuff. It is even rumored that people that actually help make Eva had a part in this show. I've also seen some on Kiki Delivery and a decent one for MKR, but mostly those are the exception to the rule. A lot are like Anime Fiction and Spaceball crap or worst. One other note is they are all very short like one sex scene short and mostly repetitive animation.

None of this has any influence on the orginal material just a few extra kinks.

-chimp1010

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I've seen that Kikki one and the Eva one. I also saw one of Ranma 1/2 where Ranma nails Kasumi in the kitchen while Akane looks on in horror. And really, if Ranma was getting the goods from Kasumi, then Akane really would have NO chance.

[Isuzu Inugami]

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golthin said:
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aquapermanence said:

For example, watching Shinji and Asuka from Evangelion getting it on could be a lot more interesting than watching two otherwise unknown characters of similar age and background.

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I never have been attracted by the Doujinshi that explore this relationship. I am more of a Shin and Misato getting it on fan. /images/graemlins/devil.gif

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Well, that's the thing... often the relationships in the doujin are contorted beyond belief to get the two (or more /images/graemlins/devil.gif ) characters in the sack together. I don't really see Shinji/Asuka as a very credible pairing, at least during the course of time the show covers. So it's a case of enjoying the art, but not being terribly compelled by the story (or, you know, getting amused by the wrongness of it all). Whereas other doujinshi exist to fulfill the promise of a relationship that's quite real, but obviously isn't going to be shown on TV.

Personally, since I find most doujinshi falls into the former category, I tend to prefer (in counterpoint to Aquapermanence /images/graemlins/tongue.gif) original eromanga. The emotional resonance can be there if it's well written; and if not, at least without the weight of some anime series behind it, it's easier to credit that character A likes to walk around school without her panties and tie up character B on the roof....

[Shsway]

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Lego said:
Does viewing hentai of established characters effect your opinion of the show/character in any way, and do you go out of your way to avoid or seek it out?

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Well, doujinshi rarely does anything for me, but a well-written, smutty fanfic...pin pon!

It really doesn't change the way I feel about a show, since I already know what I think of it before the fanfiction angle comes in. I mean, certain characters have been painted a certain way, and no amount of re-imagination can make them be different, or make the story run a different way. So although I consider the two worlds existing in both mediums as separate, it is rarely that any story I read will make me go, "Hummm, never thought of THAT angle..."

To use the Evangelion example again, I honestly don't think of the characters as being sexual or romantic with each other, barring Misato and a certain fella in her life. Yet, there is that Asuka/Rei shoujo-ai/yuri genre that makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE, outside of some random poses done for official artbooks. Often, it's very, very bad stuff. Only one story out there managed to make me believe that the pairing could happen, though it was somewhat sloppily and haphazardly constructed. Ah, and one fairly sexy one too.