Netorare, usually shortened to NTR, is a Japanese label for stories in which someone’s partner is taken from them by another person. Dictionary.com defines it as “a genre of anime, manga, or video game focused on infidelity”, and adds that the emphasis falls on the distress of the one who is cheated on, not on the one who cheats.
It is one of the most searched tags in adult games, and players look it up to find out what a game contains.
This page explains what the term means, where it comes from, the related terms, the community’s types, how VNDB tags it, and how often it appears. It is a reference to a genre label. It does not describe any particular work.
Key points
- Netorare means “being taken from you”. The focus is on the person who loses a partner.
- NTR is the abbreviation. In this context it has no other meaning.
- Related terms point to different perspectives. Netori, netorase and reverse netorare each change who the story centres on.
- The community sorts it into types. VNDB uses types A, B and C.
- It is tagged so players can avoid it. “Completely avoidable” is a tag of its own.
- About 2% of visual novels on VNDB carry it. The share is higher among popular titles.
What netorare means
The Japanese word is 寝取られ, which Wikipedia glosses as literally “being snatched away”, so it describes what happens to the person who loses a partner. Dictionary.com glosses it as “to be taken off”, and says it is also loosely translated as “cuckold”, the husband or boyfriend of an unfaithful partner. It notes that this shows the genre’s focus on the wronged partner’s feelings rather than the cheater’s.
The framing matters. In a netorare story, the viewpoint character is usually the one who is betrayed, and the story is about their jealousy, helplessness or humiliation. VNDB’s tag description puts it as “more than a simple act of infidelity, but the fetishization of jealousy and other negative feelings commonly associated with it”, and says such games are usually told from the point of view of the person losing their partner.
Dictionary.com’s entry, dated 1 March 2018, describes the genre as typically a subgenre of adult hentai anime, and spreading from manga and anime into video games. It cites Triangle Blue, released in two episodes in 2010, as a classic anime example. It does not say when the term emerged, and we found no reliable source that does.
Related terms
Wikipedia’s article on hentai lists a family of terms built on the same root, each changing who the story is about.
| Term | Centres | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Netorare | The person who loses a partner | The partner wants to deceive or leave them for someone else, and the protagonist is humiliated |
| Netori | The person who takes a partner | The protagonist takes someone away from their partner, sometimes by manipulation |
| Netorase | The protagonist, as an instigator | The protagonist enjoys or encourages the partner’s involvement with someone else, often with consent |
| Netoridere | A blend | Mixes netorare with the “-dere” character archetype, a mix of affection and betrayal |
VNDB, the Visual Novel Database, adds two tags that make the distinctions sharper.
- Reverse netorare. The VNDB tag is for stories where the protagonist is taken from their own partner, so the story’s focus is on seduction and the destruction of the existing relationship.
- Netorase. VNDB’s description says the protagonist is initially fine with, and possibly enjoys, their partner being involved with others, and distinguishes it from swinging and polyamory, which are separate tags.
The types: A, B and C
Within netorare itself, the community uses three types, defined on VNDB as separate tags.
| Type | VNDB’s definition, in brief | Consent |
|---|---|---|
| A | The partner is willingly cheating and enjoys it, with no coercion | Consensual throughout |
| B | The partner is coerced or tricked at first, then comes to participate willingly | Begins non-consensual |
| C | The partner is forced in front of the protagonist, who can only watch | Non-consensual throughout |
The three types differ in more than intensity. Type A is a story about infidelity. Types B and C are about coercion, and that difference matters when platforms apply rules about non-consensual content, as covered below.
VNDB also has a tag for Completely Avoidable Netorare. Its definition is games where “you can see every proper ending of the game without experiencing any netorare events”, because those events are reserved for premature bad endings that the player is not forced to read. It adds that scenes which can be skipped but still happen off-screen do not count as avoidable. The tag exists because many players want to be able to play a game while steering clear of the theme.
How common it is
We queried VNDB’s public API on 20 October 2026.
| Group | Titles | With the netorare tag | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| All visual novels on VNDB | 67,328 | 1,495 | 2.2% |
| Titles with 200+ votes | 1,601 | 73 | 4.6% |
The share is higher among popular titles, though the difference is small in absolute terms: 73 well-known titles. VNDB’s tag pages for the subtypes show how the theme splits.
| Tag | Titles on VNDB’s tag page |
|---|---|
| Netorare Type A | 278 |
| Netorare Type B | 311 |
| Netorare Type C | 104 |
| Completely Avoidable Netorare | 179 |
| Netorase | 276 |
| Reverse Netorare | 126 |
| Lesbian NTR | 26 |
Tag pages count titles by VNDB’s own method, so the subtype figures should not be added together or compared directly with the filtered total above.
VNDB’s tags are applied by its users, and the figures describe the database, which lists mostly Japanese visual novels and is not a sample of all adult games.
Why it is labelled
NTR shows why adult games carry content labels. Some players seek the theme out, and others want to know about it in advance so that they can avoid it. The existence of VNDB’s “completely avoidable” tag, which records whether a game forces the player through it, suggests that avoidance is a real use of the label.
NTR and store rules
The theme itself is infidelity. Infidelity between adults is not one of the themes the platforms we have covered list as banned. What those rules exclude is non-consensual sexual content.
As we set out in where adult games can be sold in 2026, the same themes are now excluded wherever cards are accepted, including non-consensual sexual content, and itch.io lists them explicitly. For how processors decide, see payment processors and adult games and what Visa and Mastercard’s policies say.
In practice that means Type A, which is consensual, sits differently from Types B and C, which depict coercion. How a given platform treats a particular game depends on its own rules and on how it reads the content, and we have not tested any. Developers should read the current rules of the platform they plan to use.
A note on usage
NTR is also commonly used as an adjective in fan discussion, as in “NTR game” or “NTR route”, and as a warning, as in “NTR warning”. In English it appears on tag lists, review threads and store descriptions. It is a genre word, and the same letters appear elsewhere, for instance as a nickname used in Indian entertainment and politics, which Dictionary.com mentions in its entry.
For the wider vocabulary, see the adult game terms glossary, nukige, nakige, utsuge and moege and H-game meaning.
What is still unknown
- When the term appeared. The sources we found do not date it.
- Who devised types A, B and C. VNDB defines them, but we found no source for their origin.
- How common the theme is outside VNDB. The figures cover one database.
- How platforms judge coercive variants in practice. We have not tested this.
How this page was put together
The definition comes from Dictionary.com’s entry, the related terms from Wikipedia’s article on hentai, and the types, definitions and counts from VNDB’s tag pages and public API, queried on 20 October 2026. The comment on store rules draws on earlier pages on this site, each linked, which cite the platforms’ own documents.
The page defines a term and does not endorse or describe any work. To report an error, see the corrections standard.
Questions
What does netorare mean?
Netorare (寝取られ) is a Japanese term for a story in which someone's partner is taken from them by a third person. Dictionary.com defines it as a genre of anime, manga or video game focused on infidelity, and notes that the emphasis is on the distress of the person who is cheated on, not the one who cheats.
What does NTR stand for?
NTR is the abbreviation of netorare. In anime, manga and games it means netorare. The same letters are also used elsewhere, for example as a nickname for Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao in Indian entertainment and politics, so the context decides.
What is the difference between netorare, netori and netorase?
Netorare centres the person who loses their partner. Netori centres the person who takes someone's partner. Netorase is when the protagonist arranges or encourages their partner's involvement with someone else. Wikipedia's article lists all three, and VNDB's tag descriptions separate them in detail.
What are NTR types A, B and C?
A community classification used on VNDB. Type A is the partner cheating willingly. Type B is a partner who is coerced or tricked at first but comes to participate willingly. Type C is non-consensual from start to finish, with the protagonist helpless to stop it. VNDB defines each in its tag descriptions.
What is avoidable NTR?
VNDB's term for a game where every proper ending can be reached without experiencing netorare, because it appears only in premature bad endings that the player is not forced to read.
How common is NTR in visual novels?
About one in forty-five visual novels on VNDB carries the netorare tag: a query on 20 October 2026 returned 1,495 of 67,328 titles, or 2.2%. Among titles with at least 200 votes the share was 4.6%, or 73 of 1,601.
Is NTR allowed on Steam, itch.io and Patreon?
The infidelity theme is not itself named in the rules of the platforms we have covered. The rules instead exclude non-consensual sexual content, and that bears on the coercive variants. Check each platform's current rules before publishing.