Patreon May Be Coming For NSFW Anime Art

Patreon may be cracking down on "NSFW Anime art," which you might know as Hentai, according to artists on the platform.

The rumor spread after Taiwanese artist Waero reported that he had been notified by the site who told him he had to adjust his content. The guidelines said that NSFW work was fine but it had to "unquestionably" feature adults. In a supposed follow-up email, the person reviewing his work said that the face of his characters had to look adult and that features such as big breasts and hips did not do enough to make the distinction clear.

After testing, the recent Patreon standard is probably this feeling, the following three are illegal content:https://t.co/bEhzmorKRphttps://t.co/kL5M4JDRnkhttps://t.co/SqX38jsRbQ

But there is still one that looks old enough to be accepted:https://t.co/86wXepppdV pic.twitter.com/R9XwampP8o

— WAERO (@Waero_Re) March 13, 2020

pic.twitter.com/gtNCXnGZY7

— WAERO (@Waero_Re) March 13, 2020

According to Waero, the ruling is not based on the age of the actual character, but of how they look, meaning hypothetically, sexual art featuring a character of legal age could fall under Patreon's guidelines. For example, Waero said that a depiction of Astolfo from Fate/Grand Order, who is 19, was deemed in violation by Patreon.

What's confusing is that the ruling in this scenario is clearly not objective, and the adjudicators of what constitutes "too young-looking" may be overly punitive towards anime artists. Speaking to The Daily Dot, Japanese media critic Haru Nicol said, “The wording seems to just focus on a reductive view of what a woman looks like… (It) focuses on euro-centric views on femininity. Japanese women do look young to a western person, so that ruling is xenophobic/racist.”

The situation has proven frustrating for NSFW artists, who have reported seeing human/bipedal animal furry art ruled in violation as well as aged-up young character art in recent months.