OT: newbie to VN ... please explain me what mean ECCHI/HENTAI/ANIME/EROGE/YANDERE

[robertosilvait]

Hello!

I have just started to buy some VN game (all the SUNRIDER series, some SAKURA games and HUNIEPOP) but I can't really understand what the following words mean:

ECCHI
HENTAI
ANIME
EROGE
YANDERE

I'm totally "blind" about Japanese games so for me these words are almost obscure ... please put me out of my ignorance!

Sometime I saw these words associated to others like ROMANCE, DATING SIM, but I know what
these 2 last words mean.

Of the games I spoke about above my preferred are HUNIEPOP and all the SUNRIDER ones and they are all fantastic games!
The SAKURA ones left me a bit deluded because they don't have so many choices ... they are almost a collection of screenshots.

Thanks in advance for helping me understanding all the 5 "strange" words!

Roberto

[Macks]

Anime is the Japanese version of cartoons, Hentai is anime porn, Eroge is some erotic anime game I think or comics and Yandere is someone who stalks/Obesses over someone (Usually females) Sorry I don't know what Ecchi means :p

[Raddenleggaz Leggazschmeggaz]

echhi is naughty but not yet porn. You would call a pantyshot or huge breats with cleavage "echhi".

[robertosilvait]

Thanks!

[A Big Hairy Monster]

A bit of a necro, since this post is a few months old, but I saw it was only on like page 2, so I figured I would add in some clarity in case anyone else actually wanted to know this. VN's are relatively new on steam, so it seems reasonable not everyone would know this stuff. I'll try and elaborate a bit more (with a few related terms):

VISUAL NOVEL - This refers to 'games' that play more like reading a comic book. They are heavily image-and-dialogue driven, and may or may not contain a lot of voice acting for the dialogue. Most VNs don't have a lot of voice over, but most them have some amount, and there are a few out there that are almost entirely voiced. (Like say, Grisaia). Note that being a VN does NOT preclude the game from having a really good element of gameplay - Most of the Sunrider series is a great example; I really enjoy the strategy game part of MoA, and the entire reason I'm writing this is I'm planning on buying the whole series' bundle because I really liked it.

EROGE - This term generally refers to eastern comics or games with erotic content of some kind. And by that I mean 'It has some kind of explicit sex scenes'. This doesn't necessarily mean it is the sole focus of the work, just that sexual content is not shied away from in any form. It also usually has the connotation of being done in (for lack of a better term) and anime-like style when it comes to the artwork.

ECCHI - This would probably be be best described as 'dirty' or 'cheesecake'. It means non-explicit sexual content, sexual situations, or strong innuendo. As Radden's example, things like panty-shots, tripping and falling into another person's crotch, characters who where clothing thats nothing but tiny strings, or other such things all fall under this heading. These are generally extremely common in anime type games/comics/shows.

HENTAI - While in Japanese it actually has a few meanings, to us English speakers, any time you see this word to describe some kind of media, assume it means 'porn'. There are some things I'd consider exceptions - such as there are some VNs out there that might have a heavy amount of sex in them but are ultimately focused on other subjects (Grisaia being a prime example), most of the time this is used to refer to primarily sex-driven games/comics/movies.

YANDERE - This also has a few meanings, but in this case, since we're talking about anime-related media consumed by western audiences, we're talking actually about 3 terms. YANDERE, KUUDERE, and TSUNDERE, usually. There's actually a few others less used (dandere comes to mind) They all relate to different personality types regarding how you interact with people you are crushing on (and how those relationships develop.

Yandere refers to someone (typically a female character) who typically starts off sweet and caring and ends up being agressive or obsessivly stalker-ish, possibly even psychotic with jealousy.

Kuudere refers to people who try to act all cool and aloof, but are generally good or kind people on the inside - they start off cold, stoic, or unemotional but eventually end up being one of the nice ones. This term doesn't generally have gender connotations, and is common for both men and women in anime.

Tsundere characters are the 'I keep calling you names and throwing my toys at you because I like you' personality type that's very common among children going through puberty. Essentially, they tend to be physically violent or verbally harsh to varying degrees, but turn out sweet and caring in the end as they mellow out or learn to trust their target. Generally speaking, this kind of character has massive insecuties. Tsundere characters are almost always female, because much of the world has a double standard of its ok for girls to punch guys, but not the other way around. In cases where the male is the tsundere, its almost always only verbal.

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Giant wall of text there, but who knows, maybe that'll help someone!

[robertosilvait]

Thanks for the additional clarifications ... really appreciated!

[Bob of Mage]

Only heard a few mentions of kuudere before, and didn't even know what it meant. This is rather odd seeing how much I otherwise know about these terms.

If you keep going down this rabithole you will find even more terms. 99% of them are just Japanese versions of english terms. For example the term yuri (really weird when you remember that Yuri is also a common Russian name, and I have even meet a Yuri before) is used for girl on girl.

[Delthea]

Ecchi - Japanese word for Indecent, lewd, sexy.
Hentai - Japanese word for pervert. colloquially, R rated stuff, explicit sex scenes.
Anime - Japanese word for animated cartoon.
Eroge - Stolen from English. "EROtiku GE-mu" Erotic Game.
Yandere - "Yan" = psycho. "dere" = sweet. Also, you'll see "Tsundere" (mean/sweet), and "Kuudere" (aloof/sweet)