The world of anime, if you’re just venturing out, is a big, scary looking mess of animation. There’s all these colourful looking cover arts and genres named in an – often – unfamiliar language.
This week, we’re looking into one of the genres that many people that are new to anime might not understand. Yup. This week, we’re looking at ecchi anime.
Ecchi is a Japanese word that is used to describe, in slang, “playfully sexual actions”. Similarly, as an adjective, it is used with the meaning of ‘sexy’, ‘dirty’ and many other synonyms that depict the same concept.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out just how many anime with the ecchi tag there are. It’s definitely a popular genre, although positively or negatively is a different debate all together – it’s also one that I’m not willing to have just yet. Still, going through all of the ecchi anime to find one you like is a task that even ecchi fans don’t really want to do. There’s definitely some, uh, questionable content. So, allow me to make this job easier for you, by giving you three ecchi anime to start off with!
This week, the shows I’m recommending are Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt, Food Wars and 11eyes. These shows are available to view on:
- Crunchyroll
- Viewster
- AnimeLab
- HiDive
- Hulu
- Yahoo!
- Funimation
With these shows, I’ve picked a variety of different storylines in hopes of trying to appeal to different audiences. Admittedly, I have gone for some of the ‘lesser’ ecchi shows out there because, despite not being a fan of ecchi anime myself, I have enjoyed these shows and I hope you will too! So, what are we waiting for? Let’s begin!
If you’re wanting a comedy, consider Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt. Its art style reminds me of the cartoon The Powerpuff Girls, but the humour is far from that in my old childhood favourite! It follows the story of the “Anarchy Sisters”, Panty and Stocking, who have been kicked out of Heaven for somewhat misbehaving. Led by a priest named Garterbelt, the girls must attempt to get back to Heaven by exterminating ghosts around their city using somewhat unusual weapons created by their lingerie transforming into a gun and a sword respectively. If you like vulgar humour and indecent jokes, this is definitely one for you to watch! Approximate time to complete: 5.1 hours
If you like your food, consider watching Food Wars! This brilliantly animated show follows Souma Yukihira as he attends Tootsuki Culinary Academy where only 10% of the students graduate and where its students compete in shoukugeki – or food wars, to me and you. It guides us through the journey of Souma and his classmates as they go through challenge after challenge in this extreme student lifestyle. Now, you may be wondering “Where does the ecchi come in?”. Well, my friend, imagine your reaction to the finest tasting food you’ve ever tasted and perhaps multiply by at least 20. Yup, expect plenty of foodgasms in this show because it’s full of them. (As HaXXspetten on MAL points out, the illustrator for the original manga series was also a hentai mangaka, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that there’s some ecchi moments in this show!) With three seasons, it’s quite a long one, but definitely a staple one! Approximate time to complete: 20.8 hours
And, finally, if you’re wanting a more action-packed show with superpowers, try 11eyes. It’s arguably the most stereotypical ecchi show on this list, but it does actually have a really interesting premise. When the Sky turns Red, the Moon turns Black, and monsters begin roaming the streets, Satsuki Kakeru is at a loss for what to do. With his best friend Yuka, they try to decipher why they have been sent to this strange world, which is seemingly empty aside from themselves. However,the Red Night ends and the two believe it was all a dream, until it happens again and they’re put in a very dangerous predicament. Approximate time to complete: 5 hours
Personally, I find that the ecchi genre is quite unpredictable. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I can’t stand it and sometimes I just have an mixture of opinions. I’ll be touching on this topic a little further in the future, but for now, I hope this little list has given you some recommendations!
Let me know in the comment section your recommendations for a good ecchi show! I do sort of want to find a decent ecchi show to watch as I’ve not had one in a long time, so any help would be appreciated! Also, have you seen any of these shows? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comment section below too!
Until next time!
– Amelia xo
Cover picture illustration by asdfgh44
Great post! As a connoisseur of ecchi I can’t but help add my two yen to this.
Personally I don’t know if I’d call Panty & Stocking an ecchi, only because it reminds me of (short lived Comedy Central animated show) Drawn Together and while yes it was heavily sexual, I’d never call it ‘sexy’ which goes the same for Panty & Stocking. To me it’s more a gross out comedy like American Pie or The Hangover.
Food Wars, is probably the ideal starting place for getting into ecchi style anime so definitely agree with you there.
And haven’t heard of 11eyes, but rest assured I’ll be watching that soon now!
I agree ecchi is a difficult genre to pin down, sometimes it can be mostly harmless fun or just titilating, whereas other times it can just be plain sexist and gross. You’ve given me a lot to think about here and I think I want to do a similar post of my own going through the pros and cons of the genre and too the best and worst of the genre.
Thanks for contributing your two yen!
I completely understand your stance on Panty & Stocking. I don’t think you’ll be the only one to disagree slightly with it being ecchi. In actual fact, I did debate putting it in my Comedy recommendations, but felt there were better comedies to place in that post, particularly for newbies.
11eyes was actually one of my first anime, so I had to put it up here! Definitely check it out – I’d love to see what you think of it afterwards!
I’m glad I’ve been able to give you something to think about and I can’t wait to see what you come up with! ^-^
😂😂😂😂 connoisseur of echi , lol
I have hardly watched animes in this genre if I am being honest, but I might check out 11eyes, as it really sounds pretty cool. Maybe I will watch some more further down the road. I said it before, but I will say it again, I love this series of posts ! Keep them coming 😊😊
sounds good
I just can’t get interested in ecchi for its own sake. Pratfall ecchi and panty shots usually bore me to tears. For that matter, just having a character nude doesn’t even qualify. (Obvious reasons.)
I feel sad for all the anime women who have fabulous breasts but no nipples or who have their long hair super-glued over them. And there are the women whose nipples are in unlikely places. Or that move around to match wherever the scrap of fabric they wear is at the moment.
I haven’t seen any of the anime you mentioned but I’ll check them out.