The ‘XXX’ designation on pornographic materials is typically used on those items that are either produced or imported into Western countries. In Japan pornographic materials are labeled ‘18-kin’ (18 and above) or seijin manga (adult manga), and while most hentai materials fall into that category, hentai does not mean pornographic (it actually translates as ‘sexually perverse’). Hentai materials always contain a sexual element as the main theme of the publication, where the subject is humorous or serious, explicit sexual acts are usually a part of the storyline. While most Japanese hentai is in the form of mangas (comics), there are a growing number of hentai anime (cartoons) being produced each year.
XXX hentai clips are almost exclusively found online, usually as ‘teasers’ for websites that offer a paying membership. These websites attempt to entice visitors to their webpage to sign up and join their site as a member by offering short video clips for download. Most of these clips are but a few second in length and tend to concentrate on one explicit sexual scene. After viewing these clips the user is told that if they want to download the entire hentai movie, the simply have to become a paying member of the website.
There are several ‘free’ websites and general forums that offer either a direct download of an xxx hentai clip or provide links to various download services that will allow the visitor a limited number of free video downloads. Most of the so called ‘free’ websites that offer either the viewing or downloading of the hentai clips are actually only links to pay sites where the short clips are hosted. The user will find that each link leads to series of almost endless pay sites rather than to a specific XXX hentai clip.