Eroge-ism エロゲ-ism

The term “eroge” is an abbreviation for “erotic game”. One would naturally expect eroge to be “games with erotic content”. Essentially by definition, an eroge MUST have erotic/adult/hentai/sexual/non-work-safe content. And thus it is most mind boggling when eroge can be easily divided into two major categories:
1. those that have gameplay, and
2. those that do NOT have gameplay.

To make matters worse, type 2 floods approximately 95% of the eroge market. That’s right, about every 19 out of 20 eroge have no real gameplay. They are the novel games and ADV games, sometimes also referred to as the “read and click” games.

Don’t get me wrong. There are a good number of nice ADV and novel eroge titles out there. The problem is that ADV/novel titles are so easy to make, just about every dog and their grandmother can produce a mediocre title. Just put together one eager no-name artist for the CG, one wanna-be writer for scenario, no game developer necessary, and you are more than half-way set to join several hundred other eroge companies that wallow in obscurity. Hire someone to make a decent opening movie with nice music that does not reflect whatsoever on the quality of your ADV game, and you can boost first week sales by quite a bit.

The masses of just-another-read’n'click titles makes it hard to notice or find the good ADV/novel titles. Heck, there are probably more than 365 ADV/novel titles released each year for the past 5 years or so.

Sigh, the eroge industry seriously needs more “game” developers.

Every once in a while, conversations I have with some people related to the Japanese adult entertainment gets extremely confusing, where I’d perceive that the other speaker is contradicting him/herself.

The root of the confusion is that I consider “Ecchi” and “Hentai” to be the same thing, whereas the other speaker does not.

Now, of course the Japanese terms H / エッチ (ecchi) and 変態 (hentai) do NOT mean the same thing. In their adjective usage, H/エッチ can mean being sexually provocative, having a “dirty mind”, being a pervert, or just in general having to do with sex; whereas 変態 merely means being abnormal. In their noun usage, H/エッチ means sexual intercourse, whereas 変態 means a pervert.

However, when it comes to the English popular usage, the term “hentai” takes on the adjective form of H/エッチ, and in fact “H” (in its adjective form) is pretty much treated as an abbreviation of “Hentai” (whether it actually is or is not would be an academic debate/research for another time). The term “hentai” in its English usage can be used for anything sexually related, even if it is not technically “perverted” (A stroy-driven pure love series eroge would NOT be considered to have any “perverted” material, but it would count as a “hentai game” in English). It’s usage has expanded from the original Japanese term 変態.

On the other hand, the usage of the term “ecchi” in the English-speaking circles seems to have shrunk from the original Japanese term H / エッチ. Why that has been, and how much it has shrunk, is something I still haven’t figured out, and which is the reason why in various conversations I would not remember its popular English usage differs from its Japanese usage, and get extremely confused.

For me, my intuitive understanding will probably always remain that “Ecchi manga” = “H manga” = “Hentai manga”, and “Ecchi game” = “H game” = “Hentai game” (which is also equal to eroge).