We all love games. We all love sex. We all love animé (seriously, if you don’t think Eva is the shit, go self-flagellate in a corner–unless you enjoy that kind of thing, in which case specifically don’t). So why wouldn’t we love hentai games?
Hentai, for those among us who didn’t spend their teenage years ogling suggestive video covers at their local otaku oasis, is the sexy sister in the Japanese animation family tree. We’ve talked a little bit about “h-games” here in the past (dating sims, etc.)–though Leigh Alexander is the real resident expert, and I myself am little more than a h-game newb.
Luckily, all of that is changing. Peter Payne, from the infamous and excellent Japanese importer J-List, has sent me a sampling of games to wet my h-games palate. Just opening my padding envelope and staring at my new trading cards adorned with large-chested women has made me giddy as, well, a school girl… of which I’m sure I’ll encounter many in my upcoming hentai adventures. Expect an h-game Click Me some time in the imminent future.
The thing that really cracks me up? Included with my games and cards was a small packet of J-List tissues. Tissues! That says it all. “We know what you’re up to, so enjoy. But when you orgasm, dear consumer, remember you’ve got a friend at J-List.com.”
Bonnie Ruberg is a sex, technology, and video games journalist who contributes regularly to publications like The Economist, Forbes, and The Village Voice. By day she's also a comparative literature PhD student at UC Berkeley, where she studies French, English, gender, sexuality, surrealism and perversion. You can reach her at [her first name and last name, all one big word] AT gmail DOT com.
September 19th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I know! I got the tissues too (but no trading cards, wah) :( How great is that!!
September 19th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I especially love being female and receiving a small wad of tissues :). I intend to use them to blow my nose, and then giggle.
September 19th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
How thoughtful! And a clever idea to get rid of those tissues since they pass them out for free EVERYWHERE in Japan as vehicles for advertisements…
September 19th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Weird, okay, so it’s not just a J-list thing? Do people in Japan have a particular need for tissues?
September 19th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
I ordered a bento box set from J-List once and recieved tissues. :) Now I know what they’re really for…
But yes, packs of tissues are handed out with ads on them all the time in Japan. And they’re quite handy to have for drying your hands on because many public bathrooms in Japan don’t have paper towels (and I don’t remember hand dryers) to dry your hands.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Oh well, my masturbation theory seems to have been shattered.
I do think I’d like to visit Japan someday, but I also think my head would be spinning with a million little cultures differences like that. No paper towels or dryers in the rest rooms? Without promotional tissues, what are you supposed to do with your dripping hands?
September 20th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Handkerchief!
September 20th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Ah, the environmental friendly solution. That makes sense. They always freak me out though when they’re used for nose blowing. Who wants to carry around their own snot? Wham bam no thank you ma’am :).
September 23rd, 2007 at 7:32 am
“We all love games. We all love sex. We all love animé (seriously, if you don’t think Eva is the shit, go self-flagellate in a corner–unless you enjoy that kind of thing, in which case specifically don’t). So why wouldn’t we love hentai games?”
Because they are porn games where you rape little girls?
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:39 am
Howdy, geez. I would redirect your attention here. Thanks!