I've been reading manga for quite some time now, and I thought I knew exactly what ecchi was a long time ago.
Then I started to read Gantz and i had to review my thinking.

As far as I know, ecchi is something inbetween hentai and non-hentai, usually fan service.
Like Love hina or Negima were skirts gets blow up all the time or a view from below under the skirts ect...
Classic ecchi right? But that's not the case in Gantz. Sure, there are some sex scenes in Gantz, but it's not really fan service. Just like movies for a more mature audience have some sex scenes in it, so does Gantz. Yet it's still classified as ecchi?
Which definition is the right one? Or is both considered ecchi? In my opinion, there is a too big of a difference between Negima and Gantz to be under the same genre. When i think of ecchi i think of the Negima kind, not Gantz kind...
And yes, i'm aware of that i can change the genre myself, but since i'm not sure i'm reluctant to do so.
So... Can someone more experienced than me answer this? Since this in "general" we can have a discussion/debate too if someone wants.

Ps. Anyway to change my name from rillel -> RilleL ?
My "real" nick is with those capitalizations, but I forgot it when i registered.

Last edited by rillel at 11:33 am, Jul 2 2007

Ecchi? It can be a range of things in my opinion. Gantz while dealing with more mature themes like gore and death is still considered ecchi because the sex scenes do not show much of anything. Mainly ecchi either has to do with not showing the full body of a women, mainly her vagina and breasts and having it covered, or just showing breast with nipples without the vagina present.

I guess you can say that there is a more hardcore version of ecchi in some mangas. Also I'm guessing how provocative it is has something to do with it.

I always thought that ecchi was just the Japanese phonetic for the letter "H", the abbreviation for Hentai. And that Hentai was anything that looked too sexy to show your granny.


But what do I know?

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Life is tough......but it's tougher if you're stupid.

Ecchi can be anything based on yer standard of what is hentai and what is not or closeness of the power level of 9000!!!

google is your friend
i googled ecchi and this is form wikipedia

Ecchi (or Etchi, from the Japanese エッチ etchi) is derived from a Japanese word meaning "lewd" or "naughty" when used as an adjective, and can refer to a pervert when used as a noun or sexual intercourse when used as a verb.

Well "Hentai" does mean pervert (loosely translated). So you have to think, what Manga might classify you as a pervert? If the really cute girl next door saw you reading Countdown Akira Complex, you might feel a little embarrassed. If your grandpappy came into your room and read one chapter of Ikkitousen or Air Gear, he would prolly take it away from you. One is definitely Hentai and the other is definitely Ecchi, but both would be considered a little "pervy." That's the only point I was trying to make. And yes, quite a bit could fall into either catagory.

But again, what do I know? I'm just some guy that likes manga.

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Life is tough......but it's tougher if you're stupid.

Do you remember those girls that appeared in the covers who didn't have anything to do with the manga? Ah, and scenes like Kei being licked by the dog? If that's not fanservice I don't know what it is. The "intimate" scenes are not fanservice as you said, but plot elements in the story (well, most of them...)


Oh really? You have seen nothing. A shoujo series can be as "innocent" as Candy Candy, but they can also be very violent and explicit like Tomie (This manga contains scenes of murder, mutilation and dismembering only in its first chapter). You must learn that genres are very broad. There's nothing to be surprised about.


You're correct. But you must know that that meaning is wrong, because even though almost all the Western world use them as such the Japanese don't use that words like that. I highly recommend you to read 'H' does not mean 'hentai' for a detailed explanation of what Hentai and ecchi really means.
But for those who just don't feel like reading all that:

'Etchi' means something sexual, but not perverted. And it used to indicate sexually oriented entertainment.
And 'hentai' means perverted; but is not used to indicate sexually oriented entertainment. A great mistake that westerns usually make is that they look up the word "Hentai" in the dictionary and when they learn that it means "pervert" they think that because we label adult manga "Hentai" the Japanese do the same, so "Hentai manga"= "pervert manga". That's a GREAT mistake. The Japanese NEVER label manga as "Hentai", that's something that only a non-Japanese would do. In fact, in the same article I put before, there is a whole section of 'Japanese pages pointing out & making fun of English speakers' use of the word 'hentai' to refer to adult anime & games (with quotes and accompanying translation)

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So is sexual intercourse counted as hentai?
Is it perverted? <.<

Well, i figured that the covers didn't count as they were not in the actual story.
And as for Kei being licked... well, i guess that's the only fan service in the plot. Although i personally don't think of it as fan service, just a little perverted...

What i ment was: the ecchi element is too big of a difference.
The only sexual things in negima is fan service with no actual relevance to the plot. That's not the case in Gantz were the sex scenes is part of the plot.

So that would mean that a manga with focus on sex doesn't actually classify as hentai, as long as no "perverted" things is included?
Well, i guess that answer the question why Virgin na Kankei is not labled as hentai.

Heh, in that case i want to separate fan service ecchi and non fan service ecchi...
The different is just too big imo... I'm personally not into the overuse of fan service like in negima, but the ecchi in gantz is totally ok.
The fact that i have so different opinions about the same genre in two series should be enough to tell that maybe they need to be classified differently. I just don't get it why the japanese's hasn't thought about something yet, they do have alot more manga than us after all.

Last edited by rillel at 6:59 am, Jul 3 2007

love hina and negima are ecchi, but i don't think anybody would read gantz for the ecchi part, well..i usually ignore ecchi or hate it if it caused problems to the story flow, but in gantz i actually love the echi part! it lightens the mode and the fights gantz is really good

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