In the coming months anime fan Brad Jackson will be busying himself with the mammoth task of trying to mount the United States' first ever convention dedicated explicitly to the art of hentai. And why would Jackson do this, considering that he doesn't really own that much hentai, he's not particularly a fan of hentai, and doesn't own any business that would benefit from a mass congregation of libidinous fans with cash to spend? "Because it had to happen," Jackson's answer comes emblazoned in 40-point letters at the head of his modest but spunky web page, http://www.hentaicon.homestead.com/.

"I read on Anime News Network that there was a YaoiCon being held and the answerman had a rant about it," Jackson explains. "What he really objected to wasn't the idea of a YaoiCon but the fact that there wasn't a HentaiCon. Somebody responded saying that the only reason there wasn't a HentaiCon was because no one had the balls to make one. And I got to thinking that I have more balls than brains." Metaphorically apt, thus spawneth HentaiCon, a vision that Jackson has single-handedly decided to make a reality.

So can such a daring feat as HentaiCon succeed in such an ambiguous social climate? "Right now I'm trying to get interest up and see if it's feasible, but the answer is yes," Jackson answers. "I've been gathering legal information about where would be the best place to hold it with a minimum risk of hassles from the police. I'm worried about being shut down the way they were at AX."

These concerns go beyond keeping minors away from adult material, as was Disney's argument against pornography being available at Anime Expo 2000, which took place at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. The HentaiCon organizer fears retaliation from vigilant social conservatives.

"The Comic Book Legal Defense fund here in the United States has been fighting on the behalf of comic store owners all over the place," Jackson notes. He draws attention to a recent lawsuit brought against a comic store owner in Texas who had offered the "Legend of the Overfiend" manga for sale in his shop. "That's why I'm not really going to hold it in Texas. I'd like to because Texas is my home state, but the legal situation doesn't look good."

Among more progressively minded locations, Denver, Colorado and Albuquerque, New Mexico are at the top of the list.

Once HentaiCon finds a home, Jackson's next task will be to schedule programming.

"I'd like to see some panel discussions that go back to the debate of art and pornography in general," Jackson muses about what HentaiCon might offer the anime fandom. "You can't say anything about hentai in general, it all breaks down into individual titles. 'Urotsukidoji' tried to have an interesting plot up until the point it got to episode three or four where everything started to fall apart plot wise. The Romantic hentai really does go more for the plot, where the tits and tentacles genre of hentai doesn't have much to do with any type of plot. They'll establish that the aliens are mating for whatever reason and go from there."