Wait, What? 12 Anime Moments That Gave Us Unexpected Feelings

One reason we love anime is that it’s free to tell the kinds of stories we want to see. Stories with drama and action, in which characters’ lives, and sometimes whole planets, are in peril. Anime is also free to tell stories involving violence and sex. Sometimes we encounter an ecchi anime that gives us unexpected feelings. We might be turned off at first, disgusted, but then find that we can’t look away. In this post, let’s explore 12 unexpected anime moments that gave us the weirdest metaphorical boners!

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We've all experienced those unexpected anime moments in which we saw something ecchi for the first time. How did we react to them? Were we digusted or perhaps a little intrigued?

Unexpected Anime Moments: 12 Times Anime Confused and Aroused Us

We might be used to seeing pantyshots and jiggling boobs in anime today, but there was a first time we saw these things. Sometimes when we encounter a new genre of ecchi anime, it might confuse us. We might be turned off at first, then after thinking for a few days, realize we’re more than a little aroused by what we saw.

I remember the first time I encountered yuri themes in anime. It was the Project A-Ko anime, in a scene where B-Ko was naked in the bath expressing her intense sexual love for C-Ko. Pure sweet summer child that I was, I couldn’t believe the subtitles I was reading could be correct. I’m sure a similar thing happened when Bridget from Guilty Gear became popular. This incredibly cute girl was really a boy!? It must have caused so much confusion for fans who weren’t used to such tropes coming out of Japan back then.

So let’s look at 12 unexpected anime moments that confused us a lot!

Making Any Anime Genre Sexy

A lot of fans were shocked to see the super sexy Gushing Over Magical Girls when it dropped in early 2024. This show took a classic anime genre and turned it into a sexy exploration of every fetish you’ve ever had, from tickling to BDSM. But I wasn’t surprised at all. After Gen Urobuchi established the post-modern magical girl genre with Madoka Magica, what was left but to create “sexy magical girls”? It was a natural evolution, in my view.

Taking an existing anime category and adding sex to it is a time-tested way to create something fresh and new. You can literally take any genre and slap some booba and pantyshots on it, and the fans will come. Some examples:

Fantasy anime is popular, so let’s make it sexy and shocking with Goblin Slayer!
If you love shounen battles, you’ll love them even better with pantyshots! Ikki Tousen and Valkyrie Drive Mermaid fit the bill perfectly.
How about mecha anime? Then enjoy the “sexy mecha anime” genre like Darling in the Franxx and Cross Ange.
You can even make horror anime sexy, with shows like Mieroko-chan and HOTD.

How did we react as fans when we first saw these new innovations? I’m sure we were confused at first. And then many of us realized we loved the sexy new offerings!

Futanari Made Us Understand That the Dick Makes It Better

Although the term hermaphrodite dates back to ancient Greece (Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite), Japan’s fascination with girls who sport a male member is a home-grown concept. As the owner of J-List, it’s been interesting to watch the popularity of futanari products from Japan rise over the years (pun intended).

Gender Bending Stories Make Us Curious About How the Other Half Lives

Japanese pop culture has always had a fascination with gender-bending themes. Some examples include male-to-female body transformation (called nyotaika in Japanese) and otokonoko, boys so cute they’re basically cuter than girls. When we encountered these kinds of stories, in anime or hentai games like the X-Change series (recently remastered in 4K!), we were probably full of questions about the strange emotions we were experiencing.

Leveling Up with Ecchi Moments

One trope that hentai anime or visual novels use often is female sentai heroines who fight evil monsters, then must have sex afterwards to maintain their power levels. Speaking as a guy, this would be okay in my book! If you like this ecchi concept, the hentai visual novel Trample on Schatten!! is lots of fun, and on sale now.

More Weird Anime Moments: The Desire to Be the Last Man Alive in the World?

What would you do if you were the last man on Earth, with all others killed by a mysterious disease that affected only men? To save the human race, you need to create a harem of cute girls to keep humanity going. That’s the premise of World’s End Harem, a sexy anime that had some frustrating main characters and even worse censorship. Have you ever thought about what you would do in a situation like this? How would you respond?

Some Stories Unlock Forbidden Fantasies for Women

Don’t think weird and interesting stories in anime are only for men. There’s a whole world of surprising storytelling for female fans, ranging from otome games and anime to spicy stories from the steamy “lady-comic” manga genre. Some examples of the latter:

Amai Chobatsu is the story of a woman who gets framed for embezzlement and becomes the only female inmate in a dark prison. A guard who has total control over her fate becomes obsessed with her, subjecting her to an array of psychological tortures and cavity searches. It’s really quite hot to watch it all unfold.
The 25-Year-Old High School Student is about a woman who goes back to high school, taking the place of her lazy cousin to keep her from getting expelled. When she’s discovered by one of the teachers, she gets put into a position where she can’t say no to sex anywhere and any time.
XL Joushi is about a career woman who decides to make some extra cash reviewing products. The first product that arrives is a box of XL-sized condoms, and when her strong and manly boss sees them, he decides to help her review the condoms in the roughest way possible.

For more info on anime like this, read this post!

Japan’s Fascination with Maids and Butlers

Everyone would like a maid or butler to help around the house and keep it clean. But what if that person would do anything you ordered, even sexual things? This would result in some unexpected anime moments, indeed!

Why We Love Monster Girls

Anime fans will basically fetishize anything, so why not monster girls? Anime that gets fun and sexy with “demi-human” characters are popular. I think we love the irony of imagining how having a centaur as a girlfriend would actually work, physically.

The Rise of Slave Anime

What’s up with the recent rise in anime in which a character is enslaved, sometimes involving sexy stuff? The latest trope shows up in titles like Mato Seihei no Slave, Isekai Meikyuu de Harem o, and How Not To Summon a Demon Lord. Does contemplating a situation like this make you feel funny?

The Allure of Sister Love

Since we’re drawn to stories of forbidden relationships, it makes sense that fans often explore the subject of sister love. Often this takes the form of not-related-by-blood stepsiblings, but for some fans, it’s only hot if they come from the same womb!

Can You Take the ‘Power Fantasy’ Genre Too Far?

A lot of anime involves “power fantasy” with overpowered heroes who can basically win any fight. But what if you could use those limitless powers to do anything you wanted, including getting revenge against a woman who had wronged you into becoming your willing sexual slave? It’s an interesting question to ponder.

More Weird Anime Moments: Onee x Shota

The Onee x Shota genre fascinates me. It involves an older, sexually mature girl or woman, and a younger boy. There are a lot of enjoyable anime that explore this topic, from Sunohara-sou no Kanrinin-san to Goddess Dormitory to Reincarnated as the 7th Prince. These themes would be NG in the West, but in the context of anime, I enjoy the comedy and sexy set-ups. How do you feel about this genre?

Thanks for reading this blog post about 12 unexpected anime moments that gave us unexpected feelings. Did we miss your genre sub-genre of anime? Tell us in the comments below!