what's wrong with hentai?

[sev]

im serious though i could really rock the meta hentai man gimmick

[Kooh]

by rock he means wiggle his dick until he comes

[lasse]

A few weeks ago rtil made a thread with a foreboding title. It was called "The hentai thread".
Well ladies and gentlemen, that's might as well what this site should be called (at least right now), with the top row on the general forum dedicated to a hentai thread
I can't go to TBA with seeing something not about rtil or his coveted anime. It makes me wonder sometimes if pursuing anything but hentai is even worth it. Truly, they are what bring the masses of 13-year olds to this site, and thus increases traffic and competition in the internet world. But you have to ask yourself, with this sort of two-bit audience increasing in numbers, are they really interested in watching anything else?
I understand that it's a dog eat dog world in the online entertainment business, and to compete you have to pretty much put up content that a majority of internet browsers would click on. This includes either women or anime. Things they already know they want. And that's all they want. They sign up, watch more, and come back and do it again later. They're trained to know that what they want is easily accessible and is promoted all over the site.
Non hentai content is often shuffled off to the bottom of the page, or never gets any attention to begin with. Now comes into play the whole 'they won't click on it unless there's a boob for the icon', etc etc. That's because they've been fashioned to think that way.
I'm not saying i have all the mysterious answers to the way people's minds work. But this much is true - if all people click on are breasts and video game icons, and you give them breasts and video game icons, you're not pushing the envelope.
TBA general is the epitome of user-generated discussions. We already have a massive advantage over 4chan in the fact that making thread involves so much more creativity than snappily posting le funny memes. So instead of 200 threads coming out every minute, we have 200 hentai posts coming out every day. That gives someone a better chance of breaking out and being discovered for his hard work, and a reward for a job well done.
But in the same way that users are trained that they don't have to go out of their way to avoid original content they would otherwise enjoy, authors are becoming more and more disenchanted with their personal creations and are turning to nerd culture icons and cheap tactics to get viewers.
I can't tell you how many animators I have spoken to that have shunned their own creations in favor of hentai threads and anime. a thread catering to everyone who's forgotten what threads are all about. And here we are shoving away everything about cartoons that was originally appealing and magical, because we're pretty much forced to.
I'm pointing the finger at one person here, rtil. I think it's part of the bigger picture - bigger than Newgrounds, too. But if people really care about the future of cartoons and animation, we wouldn't be seeing this kind of blatant favoritism.
People will find what they want if they want it. They don't need to be spoon fed it all.
For thirty years anime who strive to create something genuinely unique have gotten nothing but a slap in the face. It's sickening and it has to stop someday, before they all disappear.
Lastly, this post is not about me. I'm not writing this out of self-pity, bitterness or spite. I'm being honest. I care a lot about the future of the backalleys, and what I see around me is very troubling. The internet is bad enough, but where the future lies is in the small corners of the backalleys. this thread is one of them. I spend a lot of time trying to encourage and jack off to hentai, and creating your own thread. That is what is important to me. If I really cared about being popular, my post count would look a lot different.
Below is a lovely review describing the bright future of newgrounds.

[sev]

wait, are you serious?

[BluPhoenix]

it's like mad libs but with more meta

[naturally]

okay idk where to begin but i'm glad i didn't leave before seeing this thread (a bit late, though)

i like hentai pretty much because it can be anything. it should be pretty obvious that anything drawn is basically inherently limitless when it comes to what it can convey. for that reason i've always preferred hentai over conventional porn (what a creep, right?) because it's basically whatever fantasy you can have, just illustrated. of course a lot of it is out there, but that goes without saying and just brings me back to the point that it can literally be anything. i think it's part of what people mean when they say they read it "for the plot". in some cases maybe it's actually 'cause it's good (visual novels, katawa shoujou, etc) or in others it's just because maybe that specific scenario really gets you off. it kind of ties in with how i feel about anime and manga in general too. in north america animation and comics are generally marketed towards children or middle-aged men in terms of superhero comics, but in japan they make comics for everyone. which is why it's sort of a phenomenon to hear about the fact that every age group reads comics in japan.

it's generally accepted there to depict erotic things in their art, even if they're not a 'hentai artist' or whatever. nearly every pixiv artist i'm subscribed to has at least one r-18 picture in their gallery. in a way hentai is just an evolved form of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunga hell, the things even had their own stories for some of them. (it's also where the whole octopus thing originated)

i definitely understand why hentai and anime in general can be off-putting, but i really don't think it's that weird. one of my favourite artists (if not my favourite) is a hentai artist, because i love his proportions so god damn much and have learned a lot about what i want to see in my own art from his alone. i was actually gonna post that in the "who's art would you want to replicate" thread but sort of chickened out on being honest about it. i don't mean to say again that the reason the hentai thread exists is because of the aesthetic aspect of it, but i do believe it has it's own effect on me in that way.

it seems like the biggest thing about this entire thread is "you're sharing porn with eachother". i don't know if it has something to do with hentai, but before the thread i had a few friends who i would share similar pictures to the ones i posted in the hentai thread. i haven't really posted anything in there that i would call hardcore as far as i can remember anyway. in my experience it's not really a situation where you're showing someone this stuff so they can go jack off to it, (i've never jerked off to the hentai thread haha) but more "i'm posting this because it is sexy/appealling to me for whatever reason". basically, i'll like the picture for whatever reason. i think manga's different though because it's actually a story written and illustrated to get someone turned on, rather than a drawing depicting nudity or some kind of sexy pose.


tl;dr: stusader cares about hentai for some stupid fucking reason

[rtil]

some of my favorite artists almost exclusively draw erotic art as well, and they are damn good at what they do and i envy their skills. it's not what i do and i dont' think i would ever get into it but i respect them.

it's true, some of the stuff in the hentai thread and the plots and dialogue of a lot of hentai manga is indeed funny, and sometimes the pictures in there are more a less a joke. but the thread was never intended to be ironic, nor do i think that it is weird to share stuff like that. it might be taboo in a general sense, but i don't see any shame in sharing these kinds of things that everyone indulges in more or less. sure, there are people i wouldn't share it with, but i feel comfortable with the content on my own site and among most of my friends.

to me it is not just pornography but also has artistic merit, i and i collect them for both reasons. if the art is bad, i won't keep it. it has to appeal to me artistically first. but i'm not going to lie and say that i collect it only because i like the art. it's half my interest of reference and admiration, and the other half for its intended purpose. and i'm not ashamed or embarrassed about that.

[funzop]

i and i collect them for both reasons. if the art is bad, i won't keep it.

when you say this do you mean like physical copies of hentai stories

[Sheepy]

Fuck, if I could get a physical copy of Custom Zombie Chan, I would. :V

[sev]

nonzop's raging erection grows larger as he waits in eager anticipation for a chance to "troll" rtil

[rtil]

i and i collect them for both reasons. if the art is bad, i won't keep it.

when you say this do you mean like physical copies of hentai stories

no, the only physical art i really have are artbooks, prints and cels. i dont' have much manga. most of it is digital. it's easier and free

[sev]

nonzop's dick immediately becomes flaccid, making a comedic deflation noise as it sinks to the ground forever

[funzop]

nonzop's raging erection grows larger as he waits in eager anticipation for a chance to "troll" rtil

geez how would that question ever troll him
im not mocking him or anything i was just curious this isnt like HUH HUH LETS SEE IF THIS FAGGOT COLLECTS HENTAI STORIES it was me trying to clarify
honestly while i guess i should have made the connection, i never really thought about the existence of physical copies of hentai stories or w/e so i dunno

[rtil]

i don't think they're very easy to get a hold of in the states. then again i've never looked

[funzop]

wow fucking trolled am i right

[rtil]

it's time to bring out "The Big Guns"

[Sheepy]

who the hell pays money for porn anymore anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Sef]

I like hentai.

all kinds.

[Vorespammer]

[rtil]

an appropriate return