The earliest English use of the term traces back to the boards with a 1990 post concerning Happosai of Ranma ½ and the first discussion of the meaning in 1991. A 1995 glossary on the boards contained reference to the Japanese usage and the evolving definition of hentai as 'pervert' or 'perverted sex'. The Anime Movie Guide, published in 1997, defines ' ecchi' ( エッチ, etchi) as the initial sound of hentai (i.e., the name of the letter H, as pronounced in Japanese) it included that ecchi was 'milder than hentai'. A year later it was defined as a genre in Good Vibrations Guide to Sex. At the beginning of 2000, 'hentai' was listed as the 41st most-popular search term of the internet, while 'anime' ranked 99th. The attribution has been applied retroactively to works such as Urotsukidōji, La Blue Girl, and Cool Devices. Urotsukidōji had previously been described with terms such as 'Japornimation', and ' erotic grotesque', prior to being identified as hentai.
