There is a lot of terminology that gets thrown around when talking about Japanese porn. Be it tags that show up on doujins on your favorite websites, keywords that you keep seeing on game and JAV titles or people getting into really angry arguments over Japanese words you don’t have any idea what they mean.
So I thought a glossary would be a fun and informative little series of posts to have. I don't know what the periodicity of these posts will be but the goal is one a month.
The glossary will be organized in alphabetical order, with each entry's title having the Japanese word in Western letters first with its Japanese writing between parenthesis, followed by the closest equivalent terms used in the West, if any.
This is the first long-form post series here at the Dorei Cafe so I'm pretty excited about it. Any kind of comment, positive or negative, would be appreciated.
In this first post, I bring 8 entries, ranging from the letters A to D. From commonplace hentai terminology like Ahegao and Doujinshi to more niche stuff more directly related to our interests such as Choukyou and Dogeza.
It’s a facial expression meant to display extreme pleasure. Traditionally, the woman will have her eyes rolling back or crossed (exposing a lot of the white of her eyes), the tongue hanging out of her mouth. Usually accompanied by body shaking in ecstasy, squirting, blushing, tears, drool, sweat, and other stuff associated with rough sexual intercourse and maddening pleasure.
There are variations, such as no tongue hanging out or even clenched teeth as if trying to hold the pleasure in (this second kind in manga and eroge often happens right before the more classic one), and these may have their specific niche names I’m not aware of, but for simplicity’s sake, I’m lumping them together with Ahegao.
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Top: Ochiru Hitozuma, Kegareboshi Kuro, Teacher Taming! Bottom: Manatama Plus, Enkou JK Aherase Supple, Cara the Blood Lord |
Akuochi (悪堕ち)/Corruption/Moral Degeneration
“The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt it.”
This aphorism has floated around the internet since at least the early 2000s, and is still the most succinct way to describe the appeal of this fetish. At its core is the idea of twisting the victim into the opposite of her original persona through her originally neglected or repressed sexual needs. Prim and proper maidens turned into scantly dressed sex maniacs, strong-willed women reduced to masochistic slaves, and heroines of justice becoming slutty pawns of the Evil they once fought.
There is usually an escalation of both pleasure and despair/guilt as the heroine tries to deny her feelings and keeps being tormented by her corruptor, leading to a breaking point where the woman is admits to her own sluttiness, embraces it as her true self and discards her prior loyalties. The end result depends on the setting and plot. It may result in a sex slave, a prostitute, a demon, and so on.
In most cases, there is some visual change to the heroine, sometimes obvious – like the full evil makeover of a corrupted magical girl, or something more subtle like slightly heavier makeup and sluttier clothes. Sometimes there may be no physical change at all, only in her personality.
The Japanese term 悪堕ち (akuochi) literally translates to “Falling to Evil”, and is strongly associated with the idea of corruption by a de facto evil force such as a tokusatsu-esque evil organization or demonic corrupting force. But 堕ち (ochi) on itself, which means just “fall”, is combined with many other words to mean the corruption by or of whatever it’s combined with. 侵蝕 (shinshoku, lit. erosion) is also used sometimes for corruption of the moral degeneration variety, but more often than not you’ll find it under other terminology.

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Left to right: Himekishi Do Gehin Haiboku Jinsei, Ma Oji (top), Noumiso Sponge Deku Ikusei Idol Gasshuku (bottom), Soukou Seiki Ysphere, Akushin Shinshoku
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JAV examples:
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JAV codes: STARS-197, STARS-323, SDDE-621, STARS-916, HYPN-025 |
Bakunyuu (爆乳)/Kyonyuu (巨乳)
This one is easy. Large breasts. Big boobs. Huge tits. Enormous Bazoonga- Ok you get the idea.
爆乳 (Bakunyuu) literally means "exploding breasts", conveying the idea of breasts so big they're jumping out of whatever clothing is barely containing them. 巨乳 (Kyonyuu) is a more general term for big breasts, and some people will argue a hierarchy where Bakunyuu are bigger than Kyonyuu, but in practice, they are interchangeable, since what is considered big enough to be categorized as one or the other will depend on the artist's taste and if it's a commercial product, a studio's marketing decisions.
The only thing to keep in mind is that the breasts are not meant to be abnormally or inhumanly huge in the setting. That's another tag we'll get to another day. For now, just enjoy some pictures from games and h-manga that prominently feature big-breasted heroines.
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Top row: Kyonyuu Princess Saimin, Lady Maid ni Otsu, Dekachichi Muchishiri BBA Kishidan Bottom row: Bakunyuu Saimin Onna Kyoushi, Shimai X Choukyou, Saimin Joushi |
CG
The term CG is used to refer to drawn (or very rarely pre-rendered) artwork, usually not divided into panels, organized in a sequential manner. Most CG sets make heavy use of variations of one single image, that is, making use of layers to change parts of the image while maintaining most of the drawing. Also called simply イラスト (irasuto, illustration), it has its origins in illustrations created for games, particularly Visual Novels/Adventure games, which is still where most CGs come from, but today a lot of artists make CG sets to with text to sell on their own, as the variation technique can make CGs less expensive and time-consuming to produce than manga.
This entry doesn't have an illustrative image because most of the images in this article are CGs. Due to being more readily available and needing less cropping than a manga page to fit the format I'm using. Which I guess speaks to how convenient CG can be even for non-intended uses.
Choukyou (調教)/Sexual Training
Choukyou is a Japanese term that means training, but only when referring to animals (usually horses, and it can be accurately translated as "breaking in" the horse in that case). The implication of using it for humans is that it is dehumanizing. In the context of hentai, it means harsh sexual training and conditioning meant to break the will of the target until she becomes a willing slave of her trainer.
The contents of the training can vary wildly. It may involve physical pain if the story is going down the route of degrading the heroine into a masochist. It may be mostly centered around emotional manipulation, threats, and gaslighting in a story involving cheating. It may involve technologically advancing body remodeling to enhance sensitivity. It really depends on the setting and the kind of story being told. That said, it does usually involve at least some use of sex toys and humiliation play, often veering into BDSM territory.
What's important is that there is a trainer, who is doing sexual acts to a woman with the explicit objective of training and molding her to fit into his desires with no regard for her thoughts on the matter and breaking down any will to resist. Usually, the result of such a training process will be either an obedient and adoring slave who has been tailored to her master's ideal or a broken husk that may be either lifeless or single-mindedly seeking sex.
Many titles also fall somewhere between these two extremes, having a woman go through intense training that results in enslavement but having the girl keep the mental stability to be able to maintain a normal life and a facade of being the same despite now living to serve her master.
Thinking of what to put as the image for such an important entry gave me a stop. Since Choukyou is so contextual, tied more to the writing than the visuals, there's really no way to convey it the same way as with Corruption or Ahegao (Big tits didn't need an illustration either but what sane person would pass on the opportunity to include more big tits in their encyclopedia article??). But it would feel wrong to not put an image for Choukyou. So I decided to make one that all source material is focused on or heavily features sexual training. This means that there's no mind control, cheat skills, body remodeling tech, or anything of the sort. Just sexual skill and the use of regular tools (and sometimes aphrodisiacs) to break in unruly women.
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Top row: Kan'ochi x Netorare Kazoku, Baiin Reijou, Captive Market Bottom row: Zettai Fukujuu Princess, Mesu-domo no 4 Page Choukyou Kirokushuu 2, Ura Kyoushi |
Dogeza (土下座)
Dogeza is a form of prostrating oneself in reverence to someone of higher status, in apology or begging for something. It comes from ancient Japanese etiquette and similar rituals (often referred as kowtowing) have been observed throughout East Asia.
In the modern day, it's more common in fiction than in reality but still happens. Think of it like groveling at someone's feet or begging on your knees from a Western perspective - it's not something that happens to everyone, but it does happen. One example people often bring up when variety shows and such ask around in city centers is apologizing to a spouse after getting caught cheating or when they can't pay back a debt. Forcing someone to dogeza is a crime in Japan, to prevent situations of abuse of power inside companies and such.
In porn, dogeza almost always shows up as a form of sexual humiliation and submission, and it's often performed naked, which is referred as naked dogeza (全裸土下座), and may involve the person doing it putting their clothes and belonging sin front or around them in a sign of complete surrender.
Dogeza can be done willingly or forced. If willing, the character is usually a sex slave of some sort and likely to beg for sex or training, apologize for previous "foolish" behavior towards him or express gratitude for being turned into his slave. If forced, she may do all that as well and just be very angry about it, an attitude that will usually be met with mockery and punishment. Stepping, ejaculating or peeing on a character performing dogeza is also fairly common in hentai.

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Top row: Kyonyuu Onna Senshi Dogeza Saimin, Teihen Yomuin Fukushuu Sennou, Chijoku no Seifuku Bottom row: Ochihime, Hypno App Fantasia, Tomodachi no Galge Mitai na Gikazoku o Musabori Nettote Haramaseta
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Dorei (奴隷)/Slave
A Slave, or more specifically, Sex Slave (性奴隷, seidorei) is exactly what says on the tin. Someone who has given up their personhood to be owned by a master and dedicates her life to servitude in both sexual and non-sexual ways. I chose to go with the more generic term in the glossary despite meaning specifically sexual slavery because it's how it will often be found in Japanese titles, by itself or combined with other Japanese words, creating variations like 雌奴隷 (mesudorei, lit. "female slave"), 肉奴隷 (nikudorei, lit. "meat slave"), マゾ奴隷 (mazodorei, lit. "masochist slave") and many, many others, so often searching just for "dorei" and seeing by context if it fits your interest is more productive than strictly sticking to "seidorei".
While sexual slavery can be entirely consensual as part of BDSM play, in the context of the kinds of works I cover here it almost invariably starts as either non-consensual or consensual in name only (for example, a woman forced into slavery by debt or political gain of her family, but still being rebellious, forcing herself to perform her duties while feeling openly disgusted, or even in an openly antagonistic relationship with her master); and through sexual training, mind control or other means gets turned into a "true" slave over time.
General identifiers
There are a number of accessories and imagery that usually indicate that a woman is a sex slave. These are of course not ironclad rules, but at least one of them tends to find its way into most works depicting sexual slavery.
- Slave collar: usually a regular leather leash, sometimes a metal collar or even some magical gadget. The gist of it is that a woman in a collar belongs to someone else.
- Genital piercings: Piercings in the nipples, clitoris and/or anus, sometimes linked by decorative chains, also emphasize the lack of ownership of her own body but also denote its status as a plaything, something that exists for her master to toy with.
- Slave Tatto: A tattoo placed usually either in the crotch area or on the hearth, with designs varying from hearts to barcodes, it's used to indicate the woman's status as a slave. It's usually seen as a permanent connection and proof of her ownership by her master.
- Perverted clothing: A less common one, but often slaves will not be merely scantly dressed, but instead be dressed in completely obscene ways. Embarrassing outfits featuring phallic decorations, mockeries of her old uniforms or wedding dresses that leave her breasts and pussy out for everyone to see, and so on. It crosses over a bit with what we've seen in Akuochi above, only it doesn't necessarily correlate with the evil part, understood as a state of moral corruption beyond just sexual perversion.
- General confinement and BDSM imagery such as pillory, chains, handcuffs, harnesses, latex and leather gear, and so on may also feature heavily in sex scenes involving slaves.
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Top row: Ane Ane X Saimin, Kangoku Academia, Hakoniwa ni Saku Mesu no Hana Bottom row: Yakata ~Kannou Kitan~ Koukaku no Ai, Victim Girls 9: UnderCover Working |
Doujinshi (同人誌)
Doujinshi are self-published works. Western anime fans usually equate the term with hentai manga, but the term actually refers to any self-published fiction, not only manga, and not only erotic. Conversely, not all hentai manga are doujinshi. In fact, the majority of originals (not based in any existing character or series) are published in magazines and thus by definition not doujinshi. Doujin games are essentially what we in the West would call indie games. Famous examples of Doujin games would be Touhou and Higurashi (the original release of it), both sold at the fan event Comiket, which has entire venues dedicated to selling doujin work.
I think it's important to make that distinction. H-manga or Eromanga or even just porn manga are the appropriate term for the media. Doujinshi refers to a form of distribution and probably doesn't include many of the titles you have in mind. There are doujin eroge too, lots of stuff on DLsite are self-published, and there are some freeware titles floating around elsewhere.
And so we conclude our very first Hentai Glossary. All and any feedback would be appreciated, from criticisms of things that could improve or even suggestions of entries you guys would like to see covered. See you next time.