The History Of Ecchi Anime, And HOW It Evolved Over The Years

The history of ecchi anime is one not discussed very often if at all.

Despite the relatively small size of the genre, the history is rich and plays an important role in many modern tropes, cliches, and humour in shows with a little more skin than usual.

Let’s talk about it.

The first ecchi anime ever made

The very first ecchi anime series was created in the 1970s. That anime was Cutey Honey in 1973, which had 25 episodes in total.

The lead character is Honey Kisaragi.

Cutey Honey focused on a Sci-fi/action style series paired with ecchi, meaning fanservice, and lots of juicy bits that would have the average internet activist scream sexism and at the very least, treat it as controversial.

Not only was this influential in shaping the ecchi genre many years and decades later, but it was the first ecchi of its kind to have quite a large franchise behind it.

Spanning:

• Multiple episodes.
• Seasons.
• OVAS, TV shows, etc.

Making the modern day “To Love Ru” series comparable in many ways.

On platforms like MAL there are barely 18 thousand members for Cutey Honey, but don’t let that fool you. This is a VERY old anime after all, with most of its fans not using MAL in the first place.

Ecchi anime highlights made in the 1980s

Dash! Kappei (1981)

The anime’s premise is cringey enough to understand why the anime was bad, despite it being part of the genre’s history.

I mean the main character likes “white panties” specifically and this is a relevant detail given the perversion seen in this anime.

Miss Machiko (1981)

The purpose of this ecchi series is to focus on Miss Machiko, an attractive lady, who sees all manner of boys attracted to her. Some of them go to dark lengths to get a peek.

Miss Machiko is where all the perverted, tried tropes began that ecchi its eventual identity.

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Tatakae!! Iczer-1 (1985)

This OVA series is also part Mecha, sci-fi action, and of course, ecchi which is why it’s one of the earliest within this target genre.

Given how other sci-fi, action, and mecha were dominating during the 1980s and 1990s, it’s unsurprising why many would not know of its existence regardless of its importance to ecchi decades later.

Dream Hunter Rem (1985)

The main female character of this 1985 series is REM but with green hair. Originally designed for a Hentai audience, they switched it based on popularity and it became ecchi instead.

At its core (besides ecchi) it’s a magical girl series and clearly one of the very first, long before Sailor Moon and others.

The typical outfits, designs, and clothing can be seen in this old school series and used as a window for today.

When Ecchi anime became popular in the 2000s

It all started with the popularity of Love Hina.

Before Love Hina there was no:

• Ecchi anime had the famous harem trope we see in the 21st century.
• None of the pre-2000 anime did it in the same way.
• And the protagonists weren’t of the same kind.

The trope of the main male protagonist being stale as bread, basic, having nothing to offer but being nice, and being either dense, weak-willed, or bland are right there in Love Hina.

The extremes of Love Hina, in my view, are what made the ecchi/harem anime become so famous because it was “new” back then when it happened.

Unsurprisingly, some of the fanservice played a part in Love Hina blowing up the way it did and becoming, arguably, one of the FATHERS of the ecchi and harem genre as well.

The fan service ramps up the further down you go into the franchise, but on top of its awful characters, bland MC, and unappealing character cast, this all created a snowball effect contributing to Ecchi’s ongoing history.

One thing that continued in the franchise beyond fanservice was the constant abuse of the MC. Or put another way, the normalization of male abuse from female characters.

Being battered, punched, kicked, yelled at, and mistreated often for things the male MC never even did is also an influence seen in this genre on some level, especially when comedy is at the forefront.

The trend of ecchi anime over the years:

How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? (2019)

Beautiful girls working out in the gym, literally working up a sweat. Over the top personal trainers, have a genuine emphasis on training, calories, and improving health, but with a dose of irony, comedy, and fanservice.

This defines the anime’s main themes and common scenes.

Ecchi anime like this prove that despite its early history, the genre has potential if done right.

High School DxD (2012)

Devil girls. The world outside of anime depicts devils as ugly creatures. Anime like DxD flip this on its head and make devils look voluptuous, gorgeous, and attractive.

Red hair, blue hair, black hair, green hair, it doesn’t matter. Variety is everywhere to be seen.

The MC is typically boring and bland, with not much going for him in comparison to the female characters, making DxD a standard ecchi but with tolerable content that isn’t nearly as bad as Love Hina or comparable ecchi.

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Monster Musume (2015)

If you could make a wholesome romance anime series, but somehow make it harem, ecchi, and fill it with girls who are snakes (no pun intended) that’s what Monster Musume is.

The anime has wholesome aspects, but also your typical harem and ecchi aspects.

You could see if Love Hina was ever free of its “man abuse” tropes, and it had more wholesomeness, it would be Monster Musume but without monster girls for a cast.

High School Of The Dead (2010)

Madhouse Studios (Black Lagoon, NANA, OPM, etc) produced this anime.

It took ecchi in a new direction and made it memorable even if it’s absolutely ridiculous.

What looks like a horror anime filled with zombies, becomes an excuse to see girls kill zombies while the camera angle takes a nice peek up their skirts, a look at their ass, or wherever the camera sees fit.

It’s easily one of the most famous and important ecchi shows since the 2010s.

To Love Ru (2008)

Alien girls land on earth, one called Lala in particular, and this is how the anime kicks off. The MC who is again dense, cowardly, inexperienced, etc, is at the centre of attention despite his “lack”.

In some ways, this is a lot like Love Hina for the fact it’s not rated very highly in general, but it does have a strong fanbase, is undeniably successful, and is a large franchise.

It’s one of the modern OG’s in Ecchi’s 50+ year history since 1973.

Keijo (2016)

Girls fight each other with their butts. That’s the anime in a nutshell.

Watching women fight with their butts is entertaining for “scientific” reasons, no matter the gender.

Keijo’s popularity is by design, though it’s not the most popular.

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (2010)

Angels abandoned by heaven, or you could say, kicked out. Now they live less than privileged lives, and of course, they are sisters as well.

It’s a kind of “fuck you” sort of series. The kind of moments where you’ve had enough of the world and you do things on your own terms instead.

The anime is gruesome, lewd, and the lead characters, one of them anyway, swears like a sailor making the language “crude” depending on who’s listening.

Its animation and art style make it one of the more unique ecchi shows that have contributed to the genre.

Kill La Kill (2013)

One of the top 3 ecchi anime shows of all time in terms of popularity and even quality it can be argued. Kill La Kill is what Shounenn looks like (with action) when you blend it with ecchi and fanservice.

Trust shounen style battles, fights, action, powers, abilities, face punching, ass kicking, and nose breaking can be seen in Kill La Kill.

On top of betrayals, emotional episodes, but most of all, comedy and ridiculous moments of shame and embarrassment from being “too exposed”.

Food Wars (2015)

Food Wars is a stand out ecchi series for one reason: Shounen and its creativity.

It blends shounen with food. Chefs have cookouts to see who’s the best in a number of competitions, competing against each other for the top spot.

Sometimes the food tastes so good a character’s imagination starts running wild, leading to the ECCHI elements of Food Wars. Including fanservice for both genders.

It’s tasteful, creative, fun, and colourful.

Shimoneta (2015)

Made by J.C Staff, the same studio behind 2024’s Fairy Tail series. In the ecchi space, Shimoneta is a rare breed and a very important anime for the genre.

First of all, it serves a bigger purpose.

The anime is about a world where sex jokes are banned, and using them can land you in jail. Each person has a GPS device wrapped around their neck, which detects anyone using the wrong language”.

There is even a social justice warrior department (morality police), and of course, a radical MC who risks her freedom fighting against the system she sees as unfair and too politically correct (and corrupt).

It tells a bigger story, reflecting society in 2024 and beyond in certain parts of the world to varying degrees.

Kiss X Sis (2010)

Kiss X Sis, you could say, came about as a result of ecchi like Love Hina, older ecchi series, and the minimal amount released before 2010 (To Love Ru).

This time it was about focusing on sisters, or the idea of it. And the so called “lucky” brother making out with these girls.

It gained a fair amount of popularity and pushed the ecchi genre forward once again.

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How ecchi anime designs have evolved over the years (click a picture with dates)

As you can see when you browse through the gallery, ecchi throughout history has gotten brighter and more colourful.

The art style and designs “pop” compared to decades ago. This is in line with how it’s been with other genres of anime as well.

Though ecchi, of course, has an emphasis on fanservice or certain camera angles.

Sales numbers for Ecchi anime

Unlike Shonen and other forms of anime, ecchi anime lacks sales statistics.

It’s hard to find it publicly because it’s not prioritized compared to Shounen, Seinen, Isekai, and others.

It takes the kind of digging that’s necessarily backbreaking.

There is a nice google sheets document that shares sales figures from the 2000s period up until 2012. It shows the average ecchi anime breaks 1000+ sales and rarely reaches beyond 10K in sales.

Senran Kagura for example reached less than 2000 (probably well beyond that figure in 2024, but it wasn’t in the 2000s).

To Love Ru season 3 cracked 11,000 sales, which is unsurprising given the franchise.

Numbers next to anime titles are the UNIT sales, with “year” at the end.

Why ecchi anime is so popular (despite low production or sales):

1. Viral content

Ecchi goes viral on social media for obvious reasons. TikTok, Facebook, twitter, you name it. It’s everywhere.

Censorship may exist, but ecchi can’t be stopped.

This is not unlike Hentai, only that ecchi is more acceptable but still as viral, shared, desired, and wanted in general.

2. High demand with little supply

Even after 50+ years Ecchi only has over 800 anime shows to its name. That’s a modest amount of anime compared to Slice Of Life, Shounen, Fantasy, etc, which has over 1000-2000+ shows.

Comedy is even higher, which occasionally can be paired with ecchi.

The supply is relatively low, but the demand is high. This is in spite of that demand not turning into sales big enough for the industry to report on it so openly.

So the demand might be more superficial, but it depends on the franchise, the anime, and where that demand is pushed.

3. Sex sells, and so do idealistic fantasies

Ecchi is a strip tease. It’s what you get before entering into Hentai. It’s where you stay to avoid the extremes of Hentai, but where you go to find the more daring side of “anime”.

Some ecchi even go beyond the norm like Ishuzoku Reviewers and focus on sex, just not in a visible kind of way.

Then there is the idealism of the ecchi genre, which is baked into its history.

Like harem, which it’s often paired with, the dense, dumb, bland, and appealing MC manages to have a harem of girls falling over themselves to please him.

He often has no idea why, even when it’s staring him in the face.

This idealism for whatever reason continues to be a selling point for ecchi and the genre keeps accelerating.

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In the end, the history of ecchi and how it evolved, plus how it will continue to evolve may push it to the spotlight if an ecchi anime sells big enough.

The anime Shuumatsu No Harem sold millions of copies, making it a very successful ecchi series.

There’s no reason that can’t continue, especially if an ecchi series is more creative, thoughtful, and entertaining with its content.

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Recommended:

The History Of Hentai, And How It All Came About In Japan

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