Ero Guro

Ero guro (also written eroguro or ero-guro) is a Japanese artistic and cultural genre that combines erotic themes with grotesque, bizarre, disturbing, or taboo imagery.

Although guro is sometimes treated as synonymous with gore in English-speaking anime and hentai communities, ero guro does not necessarily involve blood or graphic violence. It can encompass body horror, physical distortion, death, decadence, unsettling sexuality, fetishistic imagery, and other combinations of the erotic and grotesque.

In kink and adult-art communities, guro and ero guro are also used as tags or shorthand for an interest in this kind of erotic imagery. These tags are most often found in hentai, manga, and illustration. Some people also consider guro to be a kink in and of itself.

Origins of the Term

Ero guro is short for the Japanese expression ero-guro-nansensu, meaning roughly “erotic grotesque nonsense.” The term developed in Japan in the late 1920s and early 1930s to describe art and popular culture that mixed sexuality with bizarre, grotesque, or disturbing themes.

Related Terms

• Hentai