Japanese mangas have developed into an art form with its own distinctive style and art work. Born out of the late 1940’s with the introduction of American style comics and cartoons to the Japanese culture during the occupation, it has rapidly become one of the most popular forms of art publication in the country. Whenever the subject matter or theme of a manga (comic) or anime (cartoon) deals with sex and sexual situations it is known as ‘hentai’ (a word that means ‘sexually perverse’). There are many categories of hentai some of which are almost gentle such as ecchi (Japanese slang for ‘soft-porn’), while others are quite extreme such as tentacle rape and bondage (bdsm).