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The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, an 1820 Hokusai woodcut depicting a woman engaging in sex with a pair of octopuses.

Tentacle rape is a concept found in some horror hentai titles, where various tentacled creatures (usually fictional monsters) rape or otherwise penetrate women (or, less commonly, men).

Tentacled creatures appeared in Japanese erotica long before animated pornography; among the most famous of the early instances (and perhaps the first) is a Hokusai woodcut called The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, depicting a woman sexually entwined with a pair of octopuses. This woodcut arose in the Edo period in Japan when Shinto was making a resurgence; the resulting animism and a more playful attitude to sexuality combined powerfully in Hokusai’s piece. It is a celebrated example of shunga and has been reworked by a number of artists. Australian artist David Laity reworked the woodcut into a painting of the same name, and Masami Teraoka brought the image up to date with his 2001 work "Sarah and Octopus/Seventh Heaven," part of his Waves and Plagues collection.^[1]

A paper by Danielle Talerico showed that although western audiences have often interpreted Hokusai’s famous print as rape, Japanese Edo period audiences would have associated the print with the legend of the abalone diver Tamatori. In the story, Tamatori steals a jewel from the Sea-Dragon King, but during her egress, the Sea-Dragon King, accompanied by his sea life minions (including octopuses), pursues her. Furthermore, within the writing on the print itself, the diver and two octopuses express mutual enjoyment.

Another example of pre-animation tentacle porn is the 1933 science fiction short story “Shambleau” by author C.L. Moore. While the creature in the story is more vampiric than licentious, the elements of the narrative would be recognizable to anyone familiar with the genre.

Toshio Maeda’s manga Urotsukidoji created what might be called the “modern paradigm” of tentacle porn, in which the elements of sexual assault are emphasized. Maeda explained that he invented the practice to get around strict Japanese censorship regulations, which prohibit the depiction of the penis but apparently do not prohibit showing sexual penetration by a tentacle or similar (often robotic) appendage.

• The Urotsukidoji Saga—Started in 1987, the Overfiend series is the most well-known title in the genre. American audiences know this work, or at least a portion of it, by the title “Legend of the Overfiend.”
• La Blue Girl—A series of films that moved from animation to live action. Famous for being refused translation outright by the British censor.
• Injukyoshi (“Obscene Beast Teacher”) or Angel of Darkness —A four-part anime series, later adapted to a live action film.
• Alien from the Darkness and Advancer Tina—Hentai films about female explorers battling tentacled aliens.
• The first episode of the bakunyuu series Sexy Sailor Soldiers features females being raped by a tentacled monster.

At times, the genre also seems to exploit the more controversial realms of bodice ripper genre, particularly rape fantasies, with the “safety” that the scenes being depicted are so absurd or fanciful they do not have parallels in the real world. Some fans see it as the extreme of bodice-ripping stories, although the rape fantasy genre is seen more critically in the West than in native Japan.

The topic is also ripe for parody, as shown by the following:

• alt.sex.cthulhu and a range of other Cthulhu-related web pages.
• Many different web comics and cultural groups on the internet reference “tentacle pr0n” in a humorous way. An example is Ghastly’s Ghastly Comic, in which it is a frequently recurring topic.
• “The Lighter Side of Tentacle Hentai,” from Sexy Losers.
• SomethingAwful.com’s Anime subforum was named the "Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse", it has since been changed to "ADTRW: Katanas and Animes"..
• Weebl and Bob encounter tentacle rape in the episode 'Hentai': [1]
• "[2]" In this Seattle video blog, a reporter interviews two tentacle rape actors before The Stranger (newspaper)'s 3rd annual HUMP! film festival.

• Japan SAQ—“Seldom Asked Questions” about Japan.
• Manga Artist Interview Series Part I, Sake-Drenched Postcards—interview with Toshio Maeda.
• Talerico, Danielle. “Interpreting Sexual Imagery in Japanese Prints: A Fresh Approach to Hokusai’s Driver and Two Octopi,” in Impressions, The Journal of the Ukiyo-e Society of America, Vol. 23 (2001).