Yuri to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

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March is Fetish Month – #5 Guro – No Nekomimi Meido were harmed in the production of this Guro hentai…

Posted on | March 19, 2007 | 9 Comments |

Well, I thought that I would make the theme this time another one of those fetishes that I don’t really understand particularly well. (By “don’t understand”, I mean “don’t know how anyone can find sexy”). So accordingly, I asked love to comment on it, since she seems to have just an inkling about what it’s all about.

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Let me just say one thing.. I am really rather squeamish. I don’t really mind the sight of blood (well I won’t like faint if I see it anyway), but accidents or ‘deliberates’ where people get dismembered, lose limbs, eyes, ears, and especially fingers (I am a pianist after all) really do freak me out. Just today I watched ‘A Perfect Blue’ and really wanted to hide behind something in places – and ‘Hot Fuzz’? Laughing about people getting decapitated, blown up and impaled? Please that’s just.. no..

And yet, we have this rather odd genre of hentai fuelled with pain, blood, gore and mutilation. And you know what? It’s almost hot. Almost, she says. Well, yes dismembering is still just horrible and scary, and I really really don’t ever want to see anyone’s internal organs, but let me explain a little bit what I mean…

Now I haven’t had that much exposure to guro hentai, but where it pervades into hentai I have seen (we’ll take Bible Black as a prime example) it’s not exactly a secret that I quite liked it. There’s something about the pain, fear, and a little bit of bloodshed that really does add to this series. What can I say? Sacrifices are cool. For a non-anime example verging on guro I quite like to look to the branding scene in Story of O (I know – not Japanese, and a novel without even any pictures, but I think it serves well as a cross media example).

I think, yet again (as with rape and lolicon), it’s the extreme-ness of the subject matter that makes sadism, masochism and guro appealing. Let’s face it, normal sex is boring, and if you didn’t want to indulge in something a little bit deviant you wouldn’t be watching hentai in the first place. Taking pleasure in inflicting or receiving pain isn’t exactly an odd fetish. So why not, in that versatile medium of anime and manga, take it that little bit further?

The answer to that question of course is “EWW NOO YUCK ARGHH!”, and that is of course the right answer – (like the answer to ‘what do you think of rape?’ being “I think rape is bad”). But when we think about it as an extrapolation of S&M, guro does become a little more understandable as a fetish. After all, if you are into inflicting pain, surely more is better…

Well now lets think about this… Acting upon this kind of desire in real life (assuming the other party isn’t consenting – which isn’t always the case I guess) is quite frankly just wrong. Murder and mutilation are very very wrong, and it doesn’t take a very high standard of morals to see that. But in hentai of course, enjoying murder and mutilation has no repercussions.

Maybe there is some basal instinct in man that means he really does want to murder and mutilate people and enjoy being generally violent, be it for entertainment, comedy value or sexual pleasure. One needs only look to roman gladiators, samurais and gun-toting gangsters to see that violence is very much a part of man and his entertainment. Maybe it’s to do with a desire to defend territory or fight for women or something, I’m not sure, but blood and gore do seem to have an appeal in visual culture anyway. So if violence really is so appealing, prevelant and more important morally accepted in movies, why shouldn’t it be accepted in porn? Why do guys who don’t flinch at horror movies, psycho thrillers and gory ‘comedy’ like I do, have such a problem with guro??

Let’s get this straight – I am not a guro fan. It seems that admitting you are even in the open-minded world of anime is something that just isn’t really done. Then again, being as squeamish as I am about gore in visual media other than porn, why should I be one to like it? But if you do like the odd bit of gore in your anime, why the hell are you so squeamish about it in hentai? After all, it’s just a bit of hardcore S&M… isn’t it…???

Addendum: So now I’m looking for pictures to go with this post, and spending most of the time cringing, cowering under my desk and trying not to look at the horrible horrible pictures. I guess this proves that I really am not a guro fan and the main problem with guro is that generally it is very extreme. Practically all guro tagged pictures on sagubooru are really really yuck >_<

Ohw I think I’m going to have nightmares….

Category: Editorials, Philosophy/Thoughts

Comments

9 Responses to “March is Fetish Month – #5 Guro – No Nekomimi Meido were harmed in the production of this Guro hentai…”

  1. kuromitsu
    March 19th, 2007 @ 4:48 pm

    “So if violence really is so appealing, prevelant and more important morally accepted in movies, why shouldn’t it be accepted in porn?”

    Because actually enjoying torturing others has never ever been morally acceptable in movies either. Comedy aside, for obvious reasons, there’s a HUGE difference between violence for a reason (acceptable), violence for violence’s sake (acceptable for some), and violene for the sake of non-consensual pleasure (unacceptable for most). Getting sexually excited from watching someone getting beaten to a pulp is not exactly the sign of a healthy psyche.

    I wouldn’t describe either guro or IRL sadism as “a bit of hardcore S&M.” Consensuality and responsibility are the key to S&M. It’s about turning power over yourself over to someone else, trusting them not to abuse it. Guro is not like S&M. Guro is having someone abuse his power over you while you suffer like hell. It’s basically the same as rape, only it involves lots of blood and even more physical and psychological suffering on the victim’s part. It’s squicky not only because it involves violence but because it involves it in context of non-consensual sex which is, for most people, sick and morally unacceptable.

    What I mentioned in a previous comment about getting off on cute little anime girls getting raped while being disemboweled/dismembered? Yeah, I wasn’t making it up, which I think is pretty sad.

  2. heavens lolipop
    March 19th, 2007 @ 6:28 pm

    Uh..yeah what kuromitsu said. Truthfully…the only time I could really understand guro is if it was consensual amongst all the participating parties and well, I guess if they were enjoying it then there you go…IRL though, it seems much like a waste of perfectly good bodies to extreme acts of…pleasure? Yeah.

    As for guro in situations where it is completely one sided consensuality, I couldn’t really stand for it. I have a pretty high tolerance for grotesque shit usually, but let’s not take this too far now people….someone could get hurt. As a personal opinion, I find it not sexy at all, and that fact comforts me amongst the various things I find sexy. *breathes a quiet sigh of relief at life*

  3. ShadowrazoR
    March 19th, 2007 @ 7:24 pm

    This isn’t really related to the content of the post, but is that girl in the pic a female version of Gilgamesh from Fate/stay night? ^^;

    And oh yeah, I’m not a fan of guro, but if others like to see it… Hey, what the hell, I’ll just look away.

  4. philip72
    March 19th, 2007 @ 9:03 pm

    I once read a prediction (I think it was by somethingawful.com) that by 2012 the internets sole use will be:
    1)to induce vomiting or,
    2)provide fap material for serial killers.

    Guro is just ahead of the curve, brave artists paving the way to a bright future.

    I’m kidding; If seeing a girl tortured or dimembered gives you wood, you’re not really a human anymore.
    S&M, scat, loli, beastiality and sundry in illustration I can tolerate, but guro is the one artistic expression that can be given no licence.

    Guro’s far too destructive to the mental health of both the artist or the imbiber. People who find that disemboweling arouses them shouldn’t continue to indulge such mentally destructive fantasies, they should instead seek psychiatric help immediately.

  5. bj0rN
    March 20th, 2007 @ 9:23 am

    i find guro interesting actually. but of course for the lower degree kinds where u can see the victim still alive and kicking, trying to resist and fight back. or to give in and hoping that the sexual feeling will overcome pain in no time.

  6. heavens lolipop
    March 20th, 2007 @ 3:44 pm

    white power philip

  7. Mephistopheles
    March 20th, 2007 @ 5:35 pm

    to philip72: Agree, guro is going too far, even for me.

  8. Tera
    February 13th, 2008 @ 12:31 am

    Guro isn’t acceptable in movies? really, then what are slasher flicks, especially ones like “The Hills Have Eyes” or “Hostle” or “Saw”
    Violence in movies is one of only two ways to get an NC-17 rating in the US and Japan X rates more movies for violence than sexuality every year.

    People love the taboo, it gets them going. Nothing is more taboo than snuff/guro, but in art it has no consequences… and from a psychological standpoint, saying that only psychokillers look at guro is like saying that only psychokillers watch horror films or read murder mysteries… or play half-life, halo, call of duty, or any of a hundred other games where people kill other people.

  9. Kangajack
    August 4th, 2010 @ 6:21 pm

    First off. Awesome website. I bumped into this site by trying to search some opinions on a few stuff this site covers.

    Second, I never knew such a screwed up images had a name in the anime world. Really messed up. I am happy this is a very very small minority group in anime. Go for lolicon instead seriously.

    Third, (offtopic) I am a die hard fan for sailor moon and could never picture her or her scouts getting hurt or in such details like any guru has gone to.

    I do not think your healthy if you like this in any way.
    Anyways I’m open to hear comments. Talk later

    Long live Knights of Legend.
    GM – Kangajack

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