Drawing out sexy

MELISSA HIEBERT STAFF

I never thought that an octopus monster could be considered hot. I mean, of course, they have the ability to grab every body part and probe every orifice at once, but come on — it’s a freaking octopus!

However, the tentacled monster is just one of the many staples of hentai, otherwise known as anime porn. Yes, that’s right, the wonderful (albeit incredibly nerdy) Japanese art form has a huge offshoot dedicated to cartoon porn — and an equally large following to go with it.

There are many types of anime porn. Some are simpler outlines or black and white illustrations, and some are immaculately drawn with an incredible attention to detail. There are anime movies, and also comic book-style illustrations. However, with the overabundance of regular porn, why do people make the crossover?

“The appeal of anime porn is that many things can be accomplished through the medium of cartoon that cannot happen in real life,” says “Joe,” a hentai fan. “In anime, a woman can be having sex with tentacles or some crazy monster. Sex can happen in exotic locales such as space or another dimension.”

Naturally, fantasy porn is already commonplace. However, thinking about a real-life acted-out scene involving some warped-looking space creature doesn’t have quite the same charm. (Does anyone remember the “tree scene” from Evil Dead? Somehow, less than appealing.) Perhaps this is due to the fact that while anime is pure fantasy, with cartoon characters and fake situations that couldn’t happen in real life, nor could be convincingly reproduced. I mean, if someone dropped an anvil on someone else’s head in a live-action movie, would it be as funny? Anime porn seems to follow this principle.

Also, of course, the proportions of the “anime porn stars” are less than realistic. “Many people choose anime over real porn because in animation the woman’s features are generally flawless,” says Joe. Animators an essentially craft their own versions of their fantasy girl, to whatever proportions they want — no matter how physically impossible. “Also,” continues Joe, “the acting and plot are generally a hell of a lot better in anime than real life.” True enough; you can only watch so many horribly acted “So I hear your pool needs a cleaning . . . ” scenarios until you hope they finally just answer “no” already.

I also asked why the anime style of porn seemed more appealing than regular American-style animation. “There is a lot more effort and time put into the development of such a piece of work, it seems,” says Joe. “People will choose Japanimation over American-style because they may think it looks better or just generally approve of Japanese anime more.” It also seems that American animation closer resembles real people, and perhaps a lot of the appeal of anime porn is that it is very far off from real life, rooted solely in sexual fantasy, with very little reality present in it.

So, anime porn — while a little on the nerdy side — does have its charm. So turn off those late night, soft-core shows on Teletoon and go for the real thing.