When faced with the task of finding celebrities in my chosen area of study I had to chuckle. Does the hentai world mirror that of the real porn industry, where people rise to super porn stardom and have the chance to win an AVN Award? I had recently watched Boogie Nights. Where was the Dirk Diggler of anime? No, I don’t believe he exists. Instead, what I found was that celebrity takes on a different form – that of appropriation.
What do Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar and The Fifth Element have in common? Or Shakira, Angelina Jolie and Spiderman? It would appear that these movie characters and celebrities have all been transformed, in varying degrees of realism, into the stars of anime porn. This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, I just wonder if these celebs have seen their animated counterparts and wonder what they think of it. Is there a case to sue the artist on the basis of.. well, defamation? Again I’m left trying to trace the boundaries of this sub-culture. If someone is depicted using an overtly cartoonish style, does that have less potential to offend than an image with a higher degree of realism (think Spongebob of Spongebob Square Pants vs Andy from Toy Story 3)?
Western celebrities aside, I trawled some forums in an attempt to discover whether there were some renowned hentai producers and films and stood out against the rest, or if, as it seemed to me, the market was flooded with content from many different sources, hosted on websites that might be the hentai equivalent of redtube. I came across an IMDB list with the “most popular hentai adult titles”, but the features shared nothing in common, nothing that would indicate that the hentai consumers had formed a fandom around a particular character or director.
Perhaps because of the nature of the films directors/producers are reluctant to develop their career to the point of recognition making hentai. Or maybe the fans are fickle, only seeking instant gratification from the thousands of videos readily available, and nothing else. Or, and this is highly likely, I just don’t understand the workings of this oft ignored community
very realistic vs not so… sorry if it’s creepy.
Digital Asia 
Wow, fascinating topic! I’m sure that with the extensive online PR research all celebrities must undertake these days, many will have seen the unauthorised porn they are depicted in, but I too would be interested to examine the range of reactions; whether they be attempts to remove it through legal action, sharing it with their fans for a laugh, or anything in between. I know that in the case of Pirates of the Caribbean, they were able to recoup some costs through renting the set for the production of porn, and it would be just as interesting to investigate the positive affects of the pornographic industry on celebrities and popular media as it would the negative.
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Holy mack! I did not know that Pirates of the Caribbean renting out the set for porn to recoup cost! that’s nuts
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Yes, as was said above, excellent topic choice. Now that I think about it the concept of cartoon celebrities ‘doing-it’, this makes total sense, but it never occurred to me. It’s so weird , but now I think about it it’s a lot like what the guys in primary school ‘used to’ do, ha.
It’s interesting you say that the creators of the characters might be too embarrassed to claim them. Speaks a lot about what they’re doing. If one of the celebrities did meet one of the creators it would be so awkward. They would be face-to-face with someone they made into a cartoon sex object, how could they even talk to them. It would be like saying ‘yes, hi nice to meet you, oh I don’t think you really care that I turned you into a cartoon sex toy do you, you don’t really care about self-respect or anything like that do you?’. It’s so delusional.
Thank you for bringing it to light though, just another gem to add to the treasure chest of crazy that is the internet.
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An interesting topic that most would consider too awkward or uncomfortable to discuss – There is definitely a legal battle to be had regarding simulated nude depictions of people, particularly celebrities – while some can argue that animated simulations are simply “a victimless crime” it creates a whole new issue if that person is a celebrity, or any person for that matter. This article reminds me of the ‘Beyond: Two Souls’ censorship scandal, surrounding Ellen Page’s digital alter ego in the game (which after some research, she is not intending to sue) .
I’m actually surprised that there is no thematic similarities in the top 100, then again the whole point is ‘fantasy’, then, isn’t it? What a strange world we live in.
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I may be able to help here. (Not like that jeez…)
It’s no question that hentai is big, maybe not here (although we seem to like hentai more than other countries according to the stats, I’ll put those in later when I’m not at work). So much so that it can pull in some big money.
I don’t know if they still do and it would take some searching to find the old source, but a few years ago at least, the producers of Naruto were also producing Naruto hentai as part of their working lives to bring in extra revenue. They realised that their anime was popular and started making good quality hentai themselves.
It may be an interesting line of enquiry for you.
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Loved the honesty of your introduction. It is a very different area of study and it would be really interesting.
I like that you were looking for produces of hentai it is a lot different to what we usually associate with fame, usually it is the actors and actresses that take the main stage. Yet they do in fact use celebrities which I find incredible, funny, and slightly disturbing.
This is such a great topic and I am enjoying what you are doing with it.
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I thought it would be useful for you to know the term ‘rule 34’ for future reference. Rule #34 states that: “if it exists there is porn of it”. You can search for yourself on this search engine dedicated to collating animated porn of our favourite animations, celebrities and movies: http://rule34.paheal.net/ Or search in any search engine with the term ‘rule 34’. The existence of the ‘rule’ is perpetuated by fans creating endless images and animations of everything and anything. It is a remarkable sub culture that fuels itself on making sure that if it exists…
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Ahhh I love your blog posts girl! They are great. Yeah I wonder if they can actually sue people for defamation. It would probably be a fail but, kind of like how Lindsay Lohan is trying to sue GTA for defamation with a character they created that supposedly is based off her and defames her – haha I think she is clutching at strings there – must need some cash! But I wonder how celebrities who have played roles as anime characters actually do feel with hentai roles. Crazzyyyy.
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Wow! Such an interesting topic!
It’s quite obvious that paralleled to the market for porn, exists an equally as profitable market for alternate forms of sexualised content. Recent discussions talk about the nature of human sexual desired being altered by pornographic content online (I won’t link you but the internet is littered with articles), particularly men. Is it fair to assume simulated depiction’s of celebrities in hentai further mirror this trend within alternative groups of consumers?
I guess at the end of the day it all comes back to the currency of adult material: desire and fantasy.
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