E-Hentai is an
image-hosting and
file-sharing website focused on
hentai
Hentai is anime and manga pornography. A loanword from Japanese, the original term ( ) does not describe a genre of media, but rather an abnormal sexual desire or act, as an abbreviation of . In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exis ...
(Japanese
cartoon pornography). The site hosts user-generated image galleries primarily of pornographic content originating or derived from
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
,
manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
, and
video games
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
, such as
fanart
Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers to ...
,
scanlation
Scanlation (also scanslation) is the fan-made scanning, translation, and editing of comics from a language into another language. Scanlation is done as an amateur work performed by groups and is nearly always done without express permission from t ...
s of manga and ''
dōjinshi
, also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created ...
'', and
cosplay
Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...
photographs. Its sister site Exhentai (colloquially known as Sad Panda) was spun off from E-Hentai in 2010 to host artwork that depicts
material that is illegal in certain jurisdictions, such as
lolicon
In Japanese popular culture, is a genre of fictional media in which young (or young-looking) girl characters appear in romantic or sexual contexts. The term, a portmanteau of the English phrase "Lolita complex", also refers to desire and a ...
,
shotacon, and
bestiality.
History
E-Hentai launched as a
Yahoo! Group
Yahoo! Groups was a free-to-use system of electronic mailing lists offered by Yahoo!.
Prior to February 2020, Yahoo! Groups was one of the world's largest collections of online discussion boards. It allowed members to subscribe to various grou ...
on July 1, 1999. The group moved to a
.net domain in 2001 before moving to its current
.org
The domain name .org is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) of the Domain Name System (DNS) used on the Internet. The name is truncated from ''organization''. It was one of the original domains established in 1985, and has been operated by th ...
domain in 2005 after ownership of its .net domain lapsed and was purchased by another party.
On March 27, 2010, E-Hentai announced that in response to pressure from advertisers, it would no longer host artwork depicting underage characters (
lolicon
In Japanese popular culture, is a genre of fictional media in which young (or young-looking) girl characters appear in romantic or sexual contexts. The term, a portmanteau of the English phrase "Lolita complex", also refers to desire and a ...
and
shotacon) and
bestiality. Existing galleries containing this content were deleted from the site, amounting to the removal of approximately 30,000 of the website's 150,000 galleries; this content was later spun off onto Exhentai, a sister site to E-Hentai.
Access to Exhentai requires an existing E-Hentai account; for individuals without an account, Exhentai appears as a blank page with an illustration of a crying
panda, and has consequently has earned the nickname "Sad Panda" among users of the site.
In June 2019, both sites were removed from
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
, per the company's policy of de-listing websites that violate the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
On July 26, 2019, E-Hentai and Exhentai announced that both sites would shut down in response to "recent legislative changes in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
", where the servers of the sites were hosted at the time.
''
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
'' speculated that the shutdown was in reaction to the
Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market adopted by the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
in June 2019, which makes digital platforms legally liable for material posted by users that violates copyright, as well as a July 2019 proposal by Dutch Minister of Justice
Ferdinand Grapperhaus
Ferdinand Bernhard Joseph "Ferd" Grapperhaus (born 8 November 1959) is a Dutch politician who served as Minister of Justice and Security in the Third Rutte cabinet from 26 October 2017 until 10 January 2022. He is a member of the Christian Democ ...
to impose harsher punishments on websites that do not rapidly remove child pornography.
24 hours' notice was given for the shutdown of Exhentai, leading users on the image board
4chan
4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
to attempt to archive the entire site before it closed on July 27.
On August 2, 2019, Exhentai relaunched after its servers relocated to
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...
.
Operations
Works posted to E-Hentai and Exhentai are typically
pirated and are uploaded without the consent or knowledge of the original creators.
The site is owned and operated by an anonymous moderator who uses the handle Tenboro
and is funded through a combination of advertising revenue and donations; in 2009, E-Hentai estimated its annual hosting costs at
USD$46,000, with donations covering "less than half" of operating costs.
In 2019, Tenboro stated that a persistent tendon injury limited their ability to perform timely maintenance on the website and that they were considering options for its future, such as naming a successor moderator or preserving the website as a permanent archive.
Impact
Collectively, E-Hentai and Exhentai are one of the largest databases of hentai manga and contain over 100,000 image galleries.
The site hosts both original Japanese hentai manga and
scanlation
Scanlation (also scanslation) is the fan-made scanning, translation, and editing of comics from a language into another language. Scanlation is done as an amateur work performed by groups and is nearly always done without express permission from t ...
s in multiple languages, including Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Thai.
At its peak popularity, the commercial web traffic company
Alexa ranked E-Hentai as the 264th-most popular website on the internet.
Outlets have noted that E-Hentai functions as a ''de facto'' archive for artwork that is rare or non-existent on other physical and digital platforms; the site hosts content such as
Comiket
, more commonly known as or , is a semiannual ''doujinshi'' convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-ru ...
-exclusive works (''
dōjin
In Japan, is a group of people who share an interest, activity, or hobby. The word is sometimes translated into English as "clique", "fandom", "coterie", "society", or "circle" (as in "sewing circle"). Self-published creative works produced b ...
'') and out-of-print
art books
Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects.
Overview
Artists' books have employed a ...
that are both pornographic and non-pornographic in nature, with ''
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
'' calling the website the "
Alexandria Library of hentai".
''
The Daily Dot
''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Founded by Nicholas White in 2011, ''The Daily Dot'' is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown ...
'' described E-Hentai as "a relic of 'the old internet, citing it as an example of niche portals for digital content that predate contemporary
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
.
See also
*
Fakku
*
Legal aspects of file sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audios, photos and/or videos), program files, documents or electronic books/magazines. It involves various legal aspects ...
References
External links
* {{official website
Exhentai File sharing communities
Hentai
Image-sharing websites
Internet properties established in 1999