is a slang term in the Japanese language for playfully sexual actions. As an adjective, it is used with the meaning of "sexy", "dirty" or "naughty"; as a verb, means "to have sex", and as a noun, it is used to describe someone of lascivious behavior. It is softer than the Japanese word ( from Eros or "erotic"), and does not imply perversion in the way hentai does. The word ecchi has been adopted by western fans of Japanese media to describe works with sexual overtones. In western culture, it has come to be used to refer to softcore or playful sexuality, as distinct from the word hentai, which connotes perversion or fetishism. Works described as ecchi by the western fans do not show sexual intercourse or genitalia, but sexual themes are referenced. Ecchi themes are a type of fan service, and can be found in most comedy shōnen and seinen manga and harem anime. Etymology and use in Japan The correct transcription of the word in Hepburn notation is "". However, it is typically written as "ecchi" in the Western world. In the word hentai (), the first kanji refers to strangeness or weird, and the second kanji refers to a condition or state. was introduced in the Meiji period as a term for change of form or transformation in science and psychology. In this context, it was used to refer to disorders such as hysteria or to describe paranormal phenomena like hypnosis or telepathy. Slowly, the meaning expanded until it had the meaning of non-standard. In the 1910s, it was used in sexology in the compound expression "" (, abnormal sexual desire, which is rephrased as "sexual perversion" in modern times) and became popular within the theory of sexual deviance (), published by Eiji Habuto and Jun'ichirō Sawada in 1915. In the 1920s, many publications dealt with deviant sexual desires and the movement. Goichi Matsuzawa calls it a period characterized by a "hentai boom". In the 1930s, censorship became more common, leading to fewer books being published on this theme. After the Second World War, in the 1950s, interest in hentai was renewed, and people would sometimes refer to it just by the first English letter, H (pronounced as , ). In 1952, the magazine Shukan Asahi reported that a woman who was groped by a stranger in a movie theater reacted with "" ("hey, that's perverse"). In