Imagine the outrage from parents if the first returned product on Amazon in a search for ‘movies’ returned a hardcore pornography DVD. Adam, a fan of the Japanese cartoon stories known as ‘anime,’ has noticed something perhaps even worse: Searches for ‘anime’ on Amazon return results for ‘hentai,’ or adult, X-rated anime films. The top result [as pictured] is for a hentai film called ‘Princess 69,’ which as a reviewer describes as such:

If you’re into non-con, excellent animation, girls going down on girls… you might like this. I don’t much care for the enema or watersports parts of this film, but the facial expressions are priceless and lovely. These girls have the most wonderful “I am shocked, my mind has cracked by what is being done to me” expresions, they cry tears, they are bound, taped, mildly electrocuted, made to “initiate” new members, and brutally given sex.

Now we have absolutely no problem with Amazon selling Japanese animation for adults; We know that some cartoons are made with adult themes for adults’ enjoyment. But what we don’t understand is why Amazon needlessly conflates anime and hentai. Many anime fans, often already scorned as creeps by those not familiar with the range of themes offered by mainstream anime, are worried that Amazon’s lack of distinction between anime and hentai will both further the perception that all anime fans are also fans of hentai, as well as put children looking for traditional anime titles in an awkward position.

Of course, we just searched for ‘movies’ in Amazon and the first return was for ‘head cleaner,’ so perhaps there’s a whole subtext to Amazon that we’ve been missing all these years.

Update: They fixed it! Well done, Amazon.

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