Ecchi

And yet, things still seem to have gotten a bit ecchi.

Fanservice is found in many anime, in many forms. When it appears to be a major focus of the show, then it's safe to assume you're watching Ecchi.

"Ecchi" (pronounced EH-chee) is used by English-speaking anime fans to refer to soft-core pornographic or sexually suggestive anime and manga, and that's the definition this page uses. It is a "milder" version of the word "hentai". However, this is entirely a western invention, as in Japanese, "ecchi" is a catch-all term for all things sexual, however slight or strong, and not really considered a "mild" term; on the other hand, in Japanese "hentai" need not be sexual at all ("hentai" is actually a catch-all term for all things perverted). Basically, in the English speaking world, "hentai" is hard-core porn, while "ecchi" is soft-core fanservice; in Japan on the other hand, "hentai" is like how you'd say in English "You pervert/creep!", while "ecchi" is all salacious stuff ranging from as mild as a bit of fanservice to as explicit as full-on intercourse. Similar to other terms English borrows from Japanese such as "anime" and "manga", the application in these two worlds is quite opposite.

The word "ecchi" arose from how Japanese speakers pronounce the letter "H". Transliterated back into English, we get "ecchi". The letter "H" comes from the word "Hentai", but the term as currently used is not synonymous with Hentai, as mentioned above.

The line between Ecchi and Hentai can be hard to draw at times. However, one good rule of thumb is, if it was aired on Japanese public TV at all, it probably wasn't Hentai. Ecchi usually features Barbie Doll Anatomy, or avoids nudity with lingering Panty Shots. Hentai, on the other hand, will usually show full frontal nudity in some explicit form, and full, intimate sex scenes; in other words, pornography. At its mildest, Ecchi is closer in spirit to shows like Three's Company and Are You Being Served?, full of Double Entendres, big misunderstandings, and sexual farce. At its most explicit, it is still more in the realm of HBO Presents than Vivid Entertainment. Another good way to distinguish the two is if there are any animated sex scenes in which genitalia have to be pixelated. If so, you have left this genre entirely.

To borrow an old saying, when it comes to sexual content, Ecchi is the sizzle; Hentai is the steak.

Due to its dependency on fanservice and sex-orientated-humor: the focus is generally the females, which leaves the protagonist to be a stale, faceless camera to capture all of the escapades and shenanigans going around him.

Possibly because sex is inherently funny, a large number of Ecchi series are comedies. Many start out as softer versions of actual hentai content (such as video games), while others may revert/graduate back to such if an OVA is released. Due to Values Dissonance, quite a few Ecchi series can be found in Shonen magazines, meaning that at least in their native Japan, they're marketed primarily towards horny teenage boys (albeit with a strong Periphery Demographic).

Note that display of nipples alone is not sufficient to be considered Ecchi. Shows exist that aren't focused on sexuality, but will show the occasional bare breast. Like Europe, Japan is also a bit more relaxed about displaying breasts on regulated TV than America, but typically does not show such content in most of its shows. In America, display of nipples means you are either watching something on pay TV such as HBO, or something completely off TV altogether.

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Examples

• 12 Beast from the same author as Monster Musume and Deadline Summoner has this in spades, with the twist that they are (mostly) cute monster girls
• Abunai Sisters, starring two vapid celebrities who often use their ludicrously huge breasts to solve problems.
• Ah... and Mm... Are All She Says is a Slice of Life about an editor and mangaka at a hentai magazine who live together.
• Ah My Buddha, aka Amaenaide yo!!
• Air Gear: Very few authors would go for ecchi in a series about roller-blading, but Oh! Great is the proud exception.
• Amai Seikatsu: The setting is a women's underwear company, and the protagonist can cause women to orgasm by a single touch. Also a lot of exposed breasts and butts.
• And You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online?
• An Angel's Marshmallow
• Ashigei Shoujo Komura-san is a romance comedy about a high schooler meeting a flexible, acrobatic girl who uses her feet for practically every day tasks.
• The Asterisk War: Barely. The anime has a few shots of the girls in their underwear but all things considered it's generally pretty tame.
• Ayakashi Triangle has a lot of nudity and characters getting into suggestive situations.
• Azumi
• B Gata H Kei
• Battle Programmer Shirase
• Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts
• Bikini Warriors
• Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa
• Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight!
• Breasts Are My Favorite Things in the World!: A series about a member of an archery club having an intense attraction towards large breasts and needs to fondle them in order to perform well.
• Cahe Detective Club
• Cat Planet Cuties
• A Certain Magical Index
• Change 123
• Chobits has quite a bit of fanservice early on in the story, particularly from Chi, but the fanservice is less frequent as the plot and tone gradually become more serious.
• Chrono Crusade is an arguable example as the fanservice is relatively infrequent, but is still listed under "Fanservice" on Funimation now.
• Colorful
• Cosplay Complex
• Cross Ange has lots of nudity, with very Stripperiffic outfits, forced groping, rape scenes and lots of strong Yuri.
• Cube×Cursed×Curious makes it very obvious as you get a Panty Shot of the main character before seeing her face.
• Cutey Honey: Considered by some to be the Ur-Example to this genre.
• Deadline Summoner from the same author as 12 Beast continues the trend.
• DearS (Magical Girlfriend? Not necessarily ecchi. Magical sex slave? Ecchi.)
• Destiny Lovers
• Domina no Do!
• Don't Meddle with My Daughter! is a spoof series about the adventures of a mother/daughter duo of superheroines, who are often sexually assaulted by a pervy organization called, "Blowjob".
• Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro
• Do You Like Big Girls?
• Dragon Half
• Dragons Rioting
• Empowered, the Animesque comic. Sex scenes galore, but Godiva Hair and Scenery Censor are flat-out abused.
• The Electric Tale of Pikachu is a Hotter and Sexier take on Pokémon that becomes ecchi in later issues, at least in the Japanese original. There's times you'll see Misty nude although with Barbie Doll Anatomy and all the girls have really big breasts. Misty typically wears really revealing outfits as well.
• Elfen Lied: A subversion, the story as a whole is a drama/horror. Much of the nudity is Fan Disservice and misleads the audience quite a lot.
• Fairy Tail: The OVAs bundled with the special editions of the manga pretty much exist solely for fanservice.
• The Familiar of Zero
• Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA: A Magical Girl Parody of the original Fate/stay night, it doesn't take itself at all seriously (for the first half anyway, before we're reminded that it is indeed a Fate story, then the ride gets bumpy). The protagonists are not spared from any Ecchi antics despite being children, which despite Naked People Are Funny and Barbie Doll Anatomy being in full effect may still be a source of Squick to some, and has resulted in the series being banned in some countries. You Have Been Warned.
• Fire Force: Frequently shows the women showering complete with Censor Steam, multiple instances of clothes being reduced to scraps, and a character whose Running Gag is to end up in compromising situations.
• Food Wars! takes Food Porn to near-literal levels by having the characters prepare Orgasmically Delicious meals that often cause the diner to undergo an Imagine Spot in which their clothes fly off (referred to as "foodgasms" by fans).
• Free! is arguably an example of ecchi meant for a female audience, as though it's primarily a sports anime, the near perpetually shirtless male cast is constantly subject to female gaze-y camera angles and fanservice, and Funimation even places it under the "Fanservice" category on their streaming site as well featuring it in their "Funimation Peep Show" panel.
• Freezing: The anime tears clothing off every female in every episode, often leaving them with only a shaded/whiteout bar for modesty. The original manga is somewhat more restrained.
• Futari Ecchi: Unlike most examples it features actual sex scenes and the plot is about sexual relationships, but doesn't qualify as hentai because it's never graphically explicit.
• Gacha Gacha features plenty of boobs, panties and other lighthearted fetish material, there's even some nudity, although only limited to nipples.
• Gal*Gun
• Gantz loves naked women almost as much as it loves gore.
• Ghost in the Shell — Man-Machine Interface specifically.
• Giant Ojou Sama: An action/sci-fi comedy series about a young woman who has the ability to transform into a giant with an enhanced energy drink.
• Girls Bravo
• Godannar
• Golden Boy
• Gravion
• Green Green: While the 12-episode anime is ecchi, the original visual novel and an OVA which is considered by some to be episode 13 is straight-up hentai.
• Grenadier
• Gunbured × Sisters: An Urban Fantasy action-comedy about nuns with guns slaying vampires, with plenty of yuri fanservice.
• Gushing over Magical Girls
• Gyaru-Sen: A Supporting Harem focused around a young man and his First Love turned Gal teacher.
• Haganai
• Hanaukyō Maid Team
• Hand Maid May
• Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World: The main character acquires a harem of Sex Slaves that he regularly sleeps with, depicted in R-rated manner in the anime adaptation.
• Harenchi Gakuen: aka Shameless School, this work by Go Nagai can be considered the Trope Maker for ecchi.
• Heaven's Lost Property
• He Is My Master
• Highschool of the Dead features bouncy chests on girls being torn apart by zombies, a girl cracking open human skulls with a wooden sword while wearing nothing but an apron and a thong, and one particular gratuitous sequence of bouncing in Bullet Time.
• High School D×D: If you've gone more than one episode without seeing a nipple or one of the girls in an advanced state of undress (Or nothing at all) then something is amiss.
• Higurashi: When They Cry: these OVAs are much more fanservice centered than the original series.
• Himegoto
• Hitomi-chan Is Shy with Strangers
• Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere: Its use of the World of Buxom trope is enough to land it in this genre. Even without having the biggest breasts many of the woman are still well endowed.
• How to Build a Dungeon: Book of the Demon King: A Dark Fantasy series involving an aspiring Sorcerous Overlord having sex with a bevy of beautiful women and Cute Monster Girls.
• Hyakuen!
• Hybrid × Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia: The girls literally get a power-up from sexual intercourse.
• Idol Pretender
• I Don’t Like You at All, Big Brother!!
• I Dream of Mimi could be considered a borderline case for either Ecchi or Hentai, though it is marketed primarily as the latter. It stands more or less in the same position as Ebichu — there's a lot of risqué material such as bare breasts and implied sex, but it's too funny to be a straightforward Hentai.
• Iketeru Futari
• Ikki Tousen aka Romance of the Three Kingdoms WITH PANTY SHOTS!
• Imaizumin-chi wa Douyara Gal no Tamariba ni Natteru Rashii: ~DEEP~
• Immoral Guild
• Interspecies Reviewers: Considering it's about a group of adventurers that review monster girl brothels, it is definitely expected. The anime adaptation is considerably Hotter and Sexier, as it features full-frontal nudity for the women, and some scenes veer extremely close to full-blown hentai.
• Inumimi
• Ippatsu Kiki Musume is the gross-out version, with a young woman placed into tricky situations, usually half-naked or even completely.
• I"s: Manga about a guy who would really like to date a certain girl.
• Is This A Zombie?
• Itsudatte My Santa!: Not everyone got the memo on this one, as it carries a G rating in at least one Canadian province (Manitoba).
• Jungle de Ikou!
• Junk Boy
• KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World has a very raunchy sense of humor, having a lot of Fanservice centered on the female characters and making references to tropes common in hentai, but it never becomes too explicit.
• Kanokon
• Keijo!!!!!!!!: Girls' competitive sports, except they're using their boobs and butts to compete. It's more of an Affectionate Parody of fanservice and the show clearly doesn't take itself seriously.
• Kekko Kamen
• Kill la Kill is an extremely over-the-top parody of Fanservice itself. Stripperific outfits are the norm and there is an entire organization dedicated to resisting all clothing (because clothing is representative of fascism). But of course, there is plenty of Barbie Doll Anatomy and Scenery Censoring.
• Kiss × Sis is a manga telling the story of two girls' attempts to date, and especially sleep with, their step-brother, while dealing with a horny teacher, a classmate with continence problems, and an Older Than She Looks kouhai who are all aiming for the exact same thing.
• Koe de Oshigoto!
• Koihime†Musou jumps between shameless pantyshotting and contriving to get the girls into as many compromising positions as possible, often lampshading it and complementing it with surprisingly classy dialogue and references.
• Kyo Kara Maoh!
• Ladies versus Butlers!
• The Legendary Hero Is Dead!: Main protagonist Touka has a fetish for women's thighs, which is a frequent source of jokes, and main heroine Yuna is a Reluctant Fanservice Girl who often ends up in embarrassing situations.
• Love Hina: The manga features lots of naked female flesh, albeit with absence of nipples and barbie-doll crotches. The anime has them wrapped in towels or shown from behind), though it still has a lot of raunchy jokes thanks to the main character being an Accidental Pervert.
• Maboroshi Panty
• Magical Sempai: A comedy series about a girl who can perform stage magic well whenever she's alone, but suffers from a severe case of stage fright. As such, she gets into several compromising positions because of her mishaps.
• Mahoromatic
• Maken-ki! is a harem series (with a conspiracy plot!) set at a school where the student body is predominantly female; most of whom have D-Cup breasts and above. Art by former hentai/doujinshi artist, Takeda Hiromitsu.
• Manyu Hikencho takes place in a world where social status is determined by breast size. Naturally, plenty of Fanservice ensues.
• Maria†Holic
• Mashiro-iro Symphony
• Master of Martial Hearts
• Midori Days: It's bound to happen when your girlfriend literally becomes your right hand, though it doesn't get as risqué as it could (the North American DVD set carries a 13+ age recommendation).
• Mieruko-chan
• Minna Agechau
• Minami-ke
• Miru Tights might as well be called "Foot Fetish and Leg Focus: The Anime".
• Miss Machiko is one of the Ur Examples — being a kids show that revolves around new and creative ways for the title Machiko to lose her clothing and/or be sexually molested by her elementary school students.
• MM!
• Mone-san no Majime Sugiru Tsukiaikata
• Monster Musume has this in spades with cute monster girls. In the manga, and the uncensored anime, female nipples are shown.
• Mother of the Goddess' Dormitory has a lot of softcore nudity, but it runs in a shonen magazine.
• My Balls consistently skirts the line between this and straight-up hentai.
• My Dress-Up Darling is mostly a heartwarming story about a friendless boy and an outgoing Gyaru Girl bonding over cosplay (and it can also be quite informative about how cosplay works), but there's also a lot of fanservice and Male Gaze, with much of it focused on Shameless Fanservice Girl Kitagawa.
• My First Girlfriend Is a Gal
• My Lovely Ghost Kana
• My-Otome Zwei. The rest of the My-HiME franchise is fairly heavy on the Fanservice but doesn't focus nearly as much on it.
• My Sister, My Writer
• My Wife is the Student Council President: Another 'how far can we push this before being labeled hentai' type of series.
• Nagasarete Airantou
• Nana Shimazaki Looking For Work
• Nana & Kaoru: A BDSM comic with plenty of female nudity and sexual situations but very little actual intercourse (and none between the main pairing).
• Need a Girl!
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi, by the same author as Love Hina.
• Ninja Nonsense simultaneously parodies this and plays it straight.
• Nozoki Ana straddles the line between ecchi and hentai.
• Nozomu Nozomi
• O Maidens in Your Savage Season: Pantyshots and other elements of sex. Goes along with the coming of age theme.
• Okusan
• Omamori Himari
• ONIMAI: I'm Now Your Sister!
• Oreimo, with Brother–Sister Incest themes.
• Oruchuban Ebichu: While the show featured material that could be considered explicit, the simplistic art style and goofy premise kept it from being taken seriously as hentai.
• Our Home's Fox Deity
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, due to Panty having sex with roughly any male she meets, and the transformation sequence involves a striptease, though the majority of the fanservice is played for parody and crude humor.
• Parallel Paradise
• The Perks of Working in the Black Magic Industry
• Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time
• Please Go Home, Akutsu-san! is about a delinquent freeloading at her classmate's apartment.
• Please Teacher!, Please Twins!, although these shows have a bit more serious content than most, especially the latter.
• Princess Lover!: The twelve-episode anime; not to be confused with the OVAs, which are hentai.
• Prison School
• Queen's Blade has no objection to showing nipples, and the proportions of the female characters cover every trope applicable to breasts.
• Rail Wars!
• Ranma ½
• Rio -Rainbow Gate!-
• Rise of the Outlaw Tamer and His S-Rank Cat Girl: Harem Series of Cute Monster Girls who routinely have explicit sex with the protagonist.
• Rising × Rydeen
• Rosario + Vampire (the anime; died off in the manga)
• Sankarea
• Satanophany has lots of fanservice, but also Fan Disservice due to its status as a Mystery, Horror and gore manga too.
• School of Water Business
• Sekirei is a pretty ecchi manga and anime series... including giant breasts, nearly naked scenes and lots of nosebleeds from the main male character.
• Semelparous is a Yuri Genre manga with a lot of female nudity and sex.
• Sensual Trigger
• The Seven Deadly Sins
• Seven Mortal Sins
• Shimoneta features a girl who runs around in nothing but a bedsheet, another girl who habitually leaks vaginal fluid, 'cuz she's always horny for the male protagonist, and a guy who looks like a girl even when he's naked. Whereas the series itself is about a zany group of ero-terrorists whose goal is to re-educate Japan's citizens about sex, the joys of porn, and the right to tell dirty jokes again, which have all been prohibited by their government.
• SHUFFLE!, one of the best examples of Cerebus Syndrome in the genre (harem comedy turns dramatic halfway into the series. Let's not even get started on Kaede Fuyou snapping on Asa Shigure.
• Siscon Ani To Brocon Imouto Ga Shoujiki Ni Nattara: While mostly a Slice of Life slash comedy, several scenes feature the two main characters making out very passionately, with the occasional tease or Fanservice Pack from the female lead.
• Soul Eater Not! - While the original manga and anime had occasional fanservice, this spinoff series takes it up a notch.
• Steel Angel Kurumi
• Strange Love
• Strike Witches
• Sundome. Another borderline case.
• Super HxEros
• Tawawa on Monday is a series of images prominently focused on large boobs, but otherwise a Slice of Life.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Gurren Gakuen Hen (High School AU manga of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann)
• Tenjho Tenge
• They Are My Noble Masters
• Those Who Hunt Elves
• Tona-Gura!
• To Love Ru. While certainly not the first manga to incorporate loads of fanservice and interesting shots of semi-naked to naked young women, To Love-Ru takes the trope to a whole 'nother level to put it bluntly! The sequel "Darkness" somehow manages to crank things up to where you'd swear at times you were looking at a hentai work, not a fanservicey rom-com!
• Torako, Anmari Kowashicha Dame da yo
• Triage X
• Trinity Seven
• Tsugumomo
• Ultimate Girls
• Underdog
• Uwakoi, Aki Sora, and other works by Masahiro Itosugi, which deconstruct many ecchi-related tropes while indulging in borderline-hentai sex scenes.
• Usagi-chan de Cue!!: A bunny-girl fights for her life against a relentless cyborg sent by a mysterious government bureau. Clothing damage galore, and nobody gets Nipple and Dimed.
• Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! is a mild case, focusing more on the comedy than the fanservice, though there's plenty of both.
• Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid takes this as far as it can before becoming straight up hentai.
• Variable Geo is about a women's-only MMA tournament for combat waitresses, where the loser of each match has to strip for the audience.
• Video Girl Ai
• Why the Hell Are You Here, Teacher!?
• WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: An English-language Light Novel series with explicit sex scenes between the male lead and his harem.
• The Witchblade anime surely delights in showing Masane's... ample assets with VERY LITTLE covering them. However, it's in many ways a subversion — as the actual appearance is quite sexy, what's she doing is absolutely not.
• World's End Harem: Starting point of a Thematic Series of dystopian manga written by LINK and drawn by various hentai artists, with virtually everything but the actual genitals shown.
• World's End Harem: Fantasia
• Yokai Girls
• Yosuga no Sora: Caught a lot of fans off-guard by showing the sex scenes from the visual novel (which is rare for eroge adaptations), albeit in an R-rated rather then X-rated fashion.
• Yuria 100 Shiki
• Yuugai Shitei Doukyuusei
• Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs

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