Monster girls "limits" in contemporary manga and anime

Abstract

The so-called “monster girls” of Japanese anime and manga production, born in some of the sub-genres of the ero guro (a movement that combines grotesque, eroticism and nonsense), has been experiencing a global diffusion over the last few years, sometimes reaching the best-selling in manga product charts. A reflection on the change that these figures have undergone can introduce different concepts of “limit”: the crossed limit (typical of Japanese tradition) between human and non-human; the continuously negotiated limit between what is considered to be allowed or illicit; the tension to the limit (unreachable) of an explicit sexual intercourse, which these products alluded to but never realize, which also results in the limit between ecchi and hentai images, corresponding respectively to “erotic” and “pornographic”. Along with a general overview of the phenomenon, it is proposed, as a specific case study, to analyze some of the characters from Monster Musume: Everyday Life with Monster Girls (Monsutā Musume no Iru Nichijō, 2012 – present), to reconstruct the figurative evolution from folklore creatures to disturbing freaks and finally sexy icons of a comedy product suitable for a larger global audience. The specific case may be useful to outline some points of interest around the general limits between erotic and pornographic images, and between eastern and western approaches to the subject.