Ask John: Why Does Hentai Treat Older Women Differently?

Question:
Why is purple/purple-pink lingerie so popular with mature women in hentai?

Why do you think the jukujo & tentacle genres haven’t collided in a manga before?

Answer:
Because of their common subject, I’m going to address both of these questions from separate individuals together. I’ve previously proposed the symbolism of white panties as representative of innocence and purity, especially the innocent cleanliness of youth. If that assertion is accepted as valid, the opposite may also hold true. Bright, light colors evoke capriciousness and youthful energy. Purple is a deep, rich color appropriate to experienced adults. A rather surprising number of mature women, especially in erotic anime, appear in purple underwear, including Takashiro-sensei in Bible Black, Yuiko & Shino Hizuki in Ringetsu, Misako and Emiko in Enbo (“Taboo ~ Charming Mother”), and Kasumi Matsubara in Hitozuma Kasumi-san (“The Hills Have Size”). But examples also appear outside of erotic anime. The oldest member of Getsumen Toheiki Mina’s rabbit force, Ohtsuki Mina, wears a purple and black outfit. In Scrapped Princess, the young Pacifica Casull wears a bright yellow and red outfit while her older siblings wear dark blue and grey. Nurse Witch Komugi dresses in bright pink while her devious, and more buxom, antagonist Magical Maid Koyori wears purple. Hikari from “KonoMimi” (This Ugly Yet Beautiful World”) wears a swimsuit that’s white with purple highlights, subtly reflecting her predominantly kind personality and her subverted destructive persona. Onegai Teacher’s Mizuho Kazami wears light colored underwear while her more sexually assertive mother has purple colored hair and wears black lingerie.

I’m not certain that the association of purple and other dark colors with older, more experienced women in anime is a consciously recognized and exerted practice. I suspect that it’s more of an unconscious influence and natural artistic instinct. Dark, deep, rich colors imply depth, which coincides with the natural experience, responsibilities, knowledge, and secrets naturally held by mature women. This sort of unconscious, natural artistic expression may also explain why erotic tentacles – both coerced and consensual – are usually depicted in association with young anime and manga girls. Tentacles are compensatory symbol of masculine power, so they naturally relate to the exertion of sexual aggression toward young and inexperienced girls, but don’t affiliate as well with adult women. The appeal of young girls in erotic anime is often the ability to violate and corrupt innocence, and the ability to exert masculine sexual aggression confidently. The appeal of “jukujo” (attractive adult lady) and hitozuma (“wife”) characters is their taboo. These are women socially and morally committed to a husband, or women that are socially expected to have relations with men of their own age, not significantly younger men. These women are already sexually experienced, so their sexual appeal resides in them being “forbidden fruit” or substitutive (or sometimes literal) mothers.

Notice the interesting contrast that most tentacle hentai involve males sexually overpowering and overwhelming young, inexperienced girls while in Cambrian, one of the few erotic anime to feature tentacles and adult women, the adult woman becomes a source of monstrous sexual violence. Similarly, in the Megami Kyouju (“Legend of the Wolf Woman”) erotic anime and Yoju Toshi (“Wicked City”) movie, the sexually aggressive adult women are literally monsters that devour men. Men have a subconscious urge to dominate young girls, but mature women beguile men into sexuality, and consume men with their mature, fully blossomed sexuality. Plus, it’s simply easier to envision writhing tentacles attacking a lively teen girl than a more reserved adult woman. With young anime girls, the male prerogative is to force themselves onto and take from, which is why groping tentacles are a natural fit. With jukujo and hitozuma characters, the male instinct is to join with or experience them, which requires a more intimate, personal touch than the distant, detached nature of grasping tentacles. (I’m aware that this sounds extremely fetishistic and chauvinistic. It’s impossible to be otherwise because this is an inherently sexist concept.)