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Where are the Western Female Characters in Hentai?
By RinSigua • 6 years ago

            Have you noticed? There is a shortage of doujins with female Western comic and cartoon characters. Don't get me wrong, there are hentai videos and a lot of other hentai illustrations of female Western comic and cartoon characters, but when was the last time you've seen a doujin that stars Wonder Woman? Black Widow? Here in Doujins, we only have three doujins in the "Marvel and DC" titles. Do you have any idea why this is the case?

            Before we begin, we must know what doujins are. (You're here, so I assume you know what it is, but let's explain it for formality's sake.) Doujinshi, or doujins for short, means a self-published publication that caters to a specific group of people. Doujins are divided into two type: Original Works and Parody Works. We'll focus on the parody works.

            For me, one of the reasons why there are so few doujins that star female Western comic and cartoon character is because of the complexity and nature of Western comic and cartoon. In my opinion, Western comics tend to border on a more realistic approach, as opposed to Japanese simplistic style found in anime and manga. This aesthetic approach is beautiful, however it also consumes more time and effort that self-published authors and artist tend to find rather cumbersome, or maybe straight-up a pain in the ass.

 

Shown is the difference of Japanese manga and Western comics. Japanese manga (Onepunch Man by ONE and Yuusuke Murata), on the left, has a more simple black and white illustration with dynamic paneling as opposed to Western comics' (Deadpool by R. Liefeld and F. Nicieza) simple paneling and fully colored illustrations.

            There's also the fact that most of Western comics are published colored. Imagine a doujin artist that has to use his/her own money to print the manuscript in order to sell his/her comic through a certain event, like Comiket; would you think he/she'll spend more money on quality paper and colored ink, when the more widely used and common media uses a cheaper paper and black and white printing that costs significantly less? Not only does this factor is seen on doujins, it can also be seen in the difference in comics and manga. Just look at the price of a DC or Marvel comic and compare it to either a manga book or magazine.

 

For $4.99, you can buy a Japanese manga magazine with 5 titles and multiple chapters of each stories. For $2.99, you can buy an issue of a fully colored Western comic. In some cases, there would be 2 chapters in a single issue. There are usually an average of 40 pages per issue for a Western comic book.

            Another reason I could think of why there seem to be less Western comic doujins is maybe due to the fact that the popularity of Western comic in Japan, the land where doujins came from, is small to borderline insignificant. Sure, there was a rise of Marvel anime, with an Iron Man and a Wolverine anime that was released in 2010 and 2011 respectively and there's also Stan Lee's Heroman and the Reflection, but it did not inspired doujin artists to make hentai works out of it. Maybe the Japanese people just weren't interested in Western comics enough to make doujins out of it.

 The X-Men anime by Studio Madhouse. Even with animes of Western origins, it was not enough for doujin authors and artist to create more doujinshis out of it.

            Lastly, I believe that the small number of Western hentai doujins stems to the fact of the West (especially in the U.S.) follows intellectual property rights strictly. As a non-American, this makes me wonder... How come Japanese authors and publishers allow doujin artists to create works they own and to some extent, supporting them (CLAMP, a yaoi doujin circle, became a professional manga group while Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA started as a doujin until it piqued Type-Moon's interest and was added to the Nasuverse lore), while American authors and publishers would enforce the Intellectual Property laws and a lawyer would order a cease-and-desist the moment they got a hold of you selling a WonderWoman bondage doujin. (I remember a story once when Wonder Woman comics was giving these bondage vibes, but that's for another article, I think.)

Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP and Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA by Hiroyama Hiroshi. These authors started by making doujinshis.

            The Japanese way of thinking regarding the subject of doujins, hentai or not, are considered parody. They think of doujins as "free advertisement" to promote their works. There's also the fact that some authors started off as these amateur artists who make doujins, it doesn't make sense to them to sue these future manga authors.

            With that, it's a bit sad to see that there aren't much Western doujins out there, nor are there artists willing to risk getting that dreaded cease-and-desist piece of paper that tells you that "Wonder Woman™ belongs to DC Comics, Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment," and that "you are not allowed to tarnish her good reputation, that was William Moulton Marston's job."

When there's some legal stuffs and weeab-y stuffs being talked, this guy pops in my mind.

            To summarize, the reason why there are a few doujins that stars a character that came from a Western comic or cartoon are: [1] Western comic art style and the medium they use are both expensive and a pain in the ass; [2] doujin authors and artists came in Japan, so they will create something that is popular in Japan; and [3] Western lawyers can be scary with their cease-and-desist order. What are your thoughts about it? Do you have any suggestions and recommendation? Please tell us about it in the comments below. Thank you for reading!