I created this post to argue that labeling site entries such as the Animerama trilogy (listed below) or Oruchuban Ebichu as "Adult" is arbitrary and should be changed. Anilist has essentially lumped these anime into the same category as hentai, as these entries cannot even be viewed on the site if a user has "18+ Content" toggled off. Unlike hentai, these titles do not merit this label, as they do not exist exclusively to titillate the audience, as is the case with pornography. They are also tame by comparison to what would typically be considered hentai. Furthermore, Discotek Media (the licensor of the Animerama trilogy) does not indicate on their website that these movies are porn/hentai, and neither do their corresponding Wikipedia articles. MyAnimeList also excludes the "Hentai" genre tag in their entries for the anime in question.
Wikipedia does consider them adult animation. However, it does not use the term in the same sense that anilist is using it, but instead uses it in the manner that one might refer to South Park or The Simpsons as adult animation. The anime I have mentioned are only "Adult" in the sense that they are targeted at an adult audience and should not be considered any more "Adult" than anime such as Wicked City, the Berserk anime adaptations, Megazone 23, or Cyberpunk Edgerunners, which all have very explicit sexual content, nudity, and graphic violence but do not get the "Adult" label on anilist. For example, the sex and rape scenes in Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent would likely be enough to make a prostitute blush, yet it somehow escapes the "Adult" label on the site.
In closing, I have written the above to try to convince site moderators that only actual pornography should be labeled as "Adult." One cannot even get Belladonna of Sadness to appear in a site search if they have "18+ Content" toggled off, which seems absurd. It's a cult classic art film and not a porno.
The anime in question:
Kanashimi no Belladonna
Senya Ichiya Monogatari
Cleopatra
Oruchuban Ebichu
All the shows you linked are rated R18 in japan. So they get the adult tag. Simple as that.
Your arbitrary definition of "adult" as "pornography only" is not what adult means, it's just your personal view. Content rating systems exist for a reason, and all these shows are 18+.
Maybe my post wasn't as clear as I would have liked it to be, but that was not my argument. I do not believe adult animation equals pornography. I consider adult anime to be anime created for an adult audience. My argument was that the site seems to use the adult tag for almost exclusively hentai but has also applied the same label to a handful of other entries in a seemingly arbitrary manner. How is the third Berserk movie not more adult contentwise than Ebichu? Why can I view the Berserk movie entries on the site but not a raunchy comedy about a Hamster?
Haven't seen Berserk so can't comment on the content, but there is way more to the movie than the sex scenes... Ebichu has explicit/sexual content in every episode.
I mean yes it's arbitrary... but not really.
Almost all of them are either focused entirely or mostly on the sexual content, even if they are not classified as hentai/pornographic: https://anilist.co/search/anime?excludeGenres=Hentai&adult=true
Shoujo Tsubaki and Kago Shintarou Anime also for the guro
• Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi
• Ishuzoku Reviewers
• Yosuga no Sora
• Shuumatsu no Harem
• Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo
• No Zo Ki A Na
• Futari Ecchi
all not technically hentai but pretty much border it with the content.
(the Animerama trilogy is specifically marketed as erotic/"X-rated")
Even though it's "art", Belladonna is almost constant sexual imagery and prominently features rape
I do agree that there needs to be better visibility on showing we at least list these shows... but there needs to be a content delineation from 'normal' works not entirely focused on sexual content.
I definitely see your point. Maybe they could create a hentai label and an erotica label to distinguish between things? I considered initially posting something like that, but I don't know that Ebichu is necessarily erotica.
I honestly just love the using this site and want to see it always improving as an anime database.
We do though... that's the difference between "Hentai" the genre and "Adult" the label (we also have 'content warning' tags for nudity, rape, etc.)
I guess I meant maybe using erotica as a genre like you do with hentai. MAL seems to have done that. They've
got Interspecies Reviewers labeled erotica under it's genre.
Yeah, I really appreciate the tags on this site. Allowing the community to contribute metadata allows for a great user experience and some really precise searching. It's really great to be able search for something like primarily adult cast and slice of life together to get exactly what you want.
Anilist has essentially lumped these anime into the same category as hentai
This seems to be the crux of your argument and it is incorrect. 'Adult' and hentai are two separate labels. While all hentai may be labeled as adult, not all 'adult' anime are hentai. In this case you agree with how we list that data (as in, we don't list it as hentai which seems to be what you don't want it to be labeled as given you cite MAL and others not labeling it as hentai) but seem to think we treat the two labels identically when we don't. The team currently believes that this delineation should continue to exist. For any specific entries you should make submissions to have them changed if you both agree that the delineation should continue to exist and that you believe those specific works just shouldn't receive that tag.
Thanks for explaining the moderators' reasoning but aren't the vast majority of the Adult tagged anime on the site hentai? From my experience using site extensively for years, that seems to be the case. The four anime I've listed are the only ones I can remember coming across that are not hentai. I still think that it is arbitrary to lump thse select few anime (and probably some others) in with all the hentai, while not doing so for equally as explicit anime. Why can I get a search result for Wicked City and the Berserk trilogy with 18+ content turned off? I don't think it's absurd to claim most reasonable adults would consider those films to have some very extreme adult content, yet they are not tagged Adult. I know I'm repeating myself at this point so I'll stop, lol.
The adult indicator and hentai genre are used in manga, too, and there are many examples of adult non-hentai.
Eden Its an Endless World
Is in the top 500 manga for rating & popularity and is one of my all time favorite manga
If you look through its threads you'll find several similar discussions
I agree, the way that AniList handles this has annoyed me for years. I don't necessarily mind that stuff like Belladonna of Sadness get tagged as mature, because it is pretty graphic, and I can see why people wouldn't want that in their search results… but lumping it together with actual pornography isn't just about about semantics, it makes the "18+ Content" toggle is too broad to be helpful. I'm fine with Belladonna of Sadness and others in my search results but would really rather not see the hentai, and I doubt I am alone in this. There really ought to be two toggles, one for graphic content and one for hentai.
I agree with the two toggles, sadly I just don't think it's enough of an issue for the devs to spend time on that. I'd have to see some #s on how many are marked as "adult" but not hentai.
oh wow I just checked, it is huge with manga
Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi Sokushi Mahou to Skill Copy no Chouetsu Heal
But that might be because a lot of them aren't labeled??? Or maybe redo no healer's ln just cucks you the entire time
wait this is a trip the anime isn't a hentai either??? because there's a censored version? omg
Yeah, there aren't many on the anime side, but there are tons and tons of manga in this zone. Here's a filter that even excludes "ecchi". It still goes for pages and pages.
But also, as the OP noted, there's a bunch of stuff that has explicit sex or gore but aren't tagged "adult", like Berserk; if there were a new label/toggle for "explicit but not pornographic", they would be prime candidates for being put under it.
I think the mod's have a good basis on what is and isn't "adult". Is it marketed as adult? Is it super explicitly sexual? I remember I tried to get one manga marked as adult because there was legit nipple-sucking w/ nudity and all but it ended up not being marked as adult because it wasn't explicit enough/marketed as that I think? It's a little arbitrary
i think the definition for what's defined as adult definitely isnt clear enough
some ladicomi/teen love manga arent 100% classed as adult despite needing to be 18+ to buy certain magazines in japan
I've had manga with lesbian sex denied because they wore underwear when they scissored, manga easily classed as adult but an adaptation is still consisidered non adult, etc
this would all be fixed if they defined it into two categories (pornographic and mature)
"i think berserk is adult, but i dont wanna see porn!"
boom, mature categorization, seperate disabling setting
it solves the issue of the submission manual first stating gore should be adult, then going back on that, it solves people complaining about 30 pages of sexual content in a long series like eden or berserk, we'd all be saved hurrah
i understand filtering all the pornhwa from both a user protection and/or an ad revenue issue, so yeah im happy with the adult tag, i just think seperating manga like "big busty babes 4" and berserk is a given
Like the mods mentioned, such things aren't tagged as hentai but, they are labeled adult, like this manga; has a lot of sex and masturbation scenes and largely focuses on it, but it's not meant to be sexual, rather disturbing. (but it's interesting, because the manga was released in a shounen magazine, which should be meant for teens, not an adult audience)
Welcome Back Alice
However, I guess it would be nice if there was more clear distinction between them and hentai, in a way that you could enable seeing such works, but not actuall porn.