Futanari, one of the most influential subgenres of Hentai, is a genre of Japanese manga and anime that generally features hermaphrodite characters. These characters usually have male genders exaggerated in their dimensions and ejaculations.
The origin of the term "Futanari
The term "Futanari" is a Japanese word that literally means hermaphroditism. The word is also used in a broader sense to refer to androgyny. Outside of Japan, the term is commonly used to describe a pornographic genre exploited in video games, comics and animation. In general, the term is borrowed to refer to the two primary sexual characters: male and female. But in modern parlance, it refers almost exclusively, in its artistic sense, to characters with a female appearance. In the latter case, the term "Futanari" is often abbreviated as "Futa", which also often refers to the Futanari genre of Hentai.
Since the beginning of time, many folk religions have created various fantasies related to many sexual characters that quickly took hold in Japanese society. Japanese traditional works, dating back hundreds of years, have always maintained that gender change was not excluded in Japanese society. The futanari gender representation was even used in the worship of Japanese deities such as Dosojin, who sometimes had an ambiguous gender, i.e., neither male nor female. Notable figures in Asian culture argue that the beginnings of futanari could even be traced back to the origins of Buddhism. In fact, the deities did not necessarily have a specific gender. Similarly, there is a widespread belief that some people can change sex according to the phase of the moon. From this idea, the term "Hangetsu", which can be literally translated as "half-month" or "half-moon", is used to describe these beings.
The history of the "Futanari" subgenre
Futanari manga gradually appeared in the 1980s and became very popular in the 1990s. They quickly caught on among manga fans, becoming a ubiquitous part of the Japanese comic and anime industry. As the subgenre evolved, anime and manga artists and writers attempted to crossover Futanari with other influential subgenres of the time. Japanese artist Toshiki Yui describes a good example of this crossover with his famous title "Hot Tails," which became a well-known reference in the West. In mainstream anime, cross-dressing scenarios have always been popular in both Japan and the West. The most popular examples, such as "Ranma ½", "Kampfer" and "Futaba-Kun Change!", show sexual changes from male to female. Another prominent figure in Futanari history is the title "I My Me! Strawberry Eggs" tends to depict a more cross-dressing theme.
The Futanari Principle
Although Futanari is a genre of anime, hermaphrodite manga and hentai doujin, it does not represent transgender characters. The latter are present in a specific genre in Hentai (Shota), where young boys are treated as sex slaves in the continuity of the stories. Among the worthy representatives of the Shota subgenre is "Boy soprano", in which the hero Akira, raised by his aunt as a girl, becomes the sexual plaything of a female establishment.
By definition, a female futanari is originally a woman who develops heterosexual preferences throughout her life. She has undergone a transformation that has endowed her with a male sex that therefore allows her to satisfy her heterosexual sexual desires. In addition, other Futanari doujin sagas depict women who were born with a vagina and a penis at the same time. This is where the term "Futanari" arises, which evokes the idea of hermaphroditism.
The Futanari subgenre uses different narrative techniques to evoke the transformation of heroines. The heroines usually undergo a magical or chemical effect, the course of which varies according to the imagination of the anime or manga authors. But in most cases, heroines suffer a trauma related to this transformation, which usually dissipates after several years of heterosexual practices. The hermaphrodite women described in Futanari usually use their penises with other women and rarely with men.