Does tentacle porn count as "vintage" yet?
I guess I should’ve gone with “retro”
Oh my GOD you guys, I KNOW about The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife. (And think ukiyo-e is oversold as hentai predecessor.) I’m not talking about the origins of the theme but its currency.
Like… the parallel would be heavy metal. (Which you could trace to Wagner, but shouldn’t.) How once it was big and iconic, the leading style of rock when rock was the leading style of pop, but then faded from the mainstream, kept alive as a minor niche thing. And now is teed up for revival.
I think there’s something interesting in how popular hentai thematics of “sexual threat” went from tentacle-era “insatiable cock demon taking women by force” to the NTR-era “scummy guy who seduces your precious beloved out from under your oversensitive/hesitant nose by giving her the sex object treatment she secretly craves”.