A version of this feature appears in the September issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition.
LOS ANGELES — The creator of Hentaied reveals the inspiration for his newest site was inspired by listening to the fans.
It’s difficult to find porn scenarios that have not yet been done, but the Budapest, Hungary-based Romero appears to be onto something with Futanari.xxx, a site that is part fantasy, part comedy and unlike any other in the industry.
Romero tells AVN that being immersed in the hentai community—a large part of the fanbase for his AVN Award-nominated sci-fi meets porn site, Hentaied—led him to exploring this idea.
“Futanari is one of the major fantasies that was present in hentai, so it was with curiosity that I started to do some research on it,” Romero explains.
“To give a little background knowledge to folks who are not familiar with this word: futanari is the Japanese word for hermaphroditism, which is also used in a broader sense for androgyny. In today's language it refers almost exclusively to characters who have an overall feminine body, but have both female and male primary genitalia.”
Romero continues, “I think it is an extremely intriguing idea, and I guess it can be interesting for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation. The more I look into it, the more it inspires my creative mind.”
He checked around to see if there were any existing products based on the topic before diving into development.
“But most of the things I found are manga or 3D anime. Apart from that, transgender and certain lesbian genres share some similarities, but still they’re in a completely different niche,” Romero notes. “That was when I told myself I may have discovered an unexplored territory.
“So just like my Italian ancestor Columbus, I built myself a crew, we boarded the ship and started this adventure in full speed. I believe it is a great addition to our roster of sites.”
According to Romero, the concept of Futanari.xxx is achieved "by ‘transplanting’ the male genitalia to the actress and make it look real,” Romero says.
He began developing the site two years ago before launching in May.
“The first ‘prototype’ was released a year-and-a-half ago on Hentaied as a test to see how the audience reacted to it,” Romero adds.
“Having a great idea is one thing, execution is another. That’s where all the complications and challenges lie. I had to figure out all the technical aspects, find the right team. It took a lot of trial and error to finally arrive at a point where I could keep it running properly. I enjoy the process, as much as the result, if not more.”
Romero says Futanari is in partnership with the Prague, Czech Republic-based Mark Zicha, who is the director and shoots most of the scenes there.
“He is doing a fantastic job so far and I appreciate our collaboration,” adds Romero, who shot the first two pilots and writes most of the scenes, including the dialogue.
The process for creating a Futanari scene is complicated. It takes 12 to 14 hours to make an 8-10 minute video.
“It’s definitely very challenging technically speaking, especially all the shots where there’s ‘transplant’ going on,” Romero explains. “So we need to shoot the actress and the actor separately then take part of her body and part of his and combine them in post production to make them look like one unified person.
“Already there are a lot of issues and difficulties in putting a male and female body together, as visually they’re quite different. Then adding on top the fact that there’s always action going on, so their expression and body movement should look synchronized and harmonious. And that is really hard to achieve as they are shot separately most of the time.
“Plus, the clone scenes where we have a copy of the character interacting with each other, that just brings the complex score to the next level, as all the issues that were mentioned before are multiplied.”
However as long as the scene is shot correctly the editing takes about a day, he says.
“In general it’s much harder to shoot than to edit,” Romero points out. “One of the most difficult parts in editing is to match the skin tones of the male and female body, as usually they’re pretty different.”
Among the top performers who already have appeared on Futanari are Jia Lissa, Talia Mint, Lottie Magne, Rae Lil Black, Marie Berger, Lovita Fate, Valentina Nappi, Sasha Rose, Stacy Cruz and Cherry Kiss.
“Luckily, I have a very good reputation in the industry and a good relationship with all the performers I work with,” Romero says. “They already know me and my work from Hentaied, so there’s a lot of trust established between us.
“When invited, they all responded with excitement to be part of a new project led by me, and most of them are happy to explore new things that they’ve never tried before. I suppose It’s a different day of work for them than being on a traditional production set.
“Recently we shot Valentina Nappi, Rae Lil Black, Jia Lissa—everyone had an amazing time working as a team trying to make something really special and cool. I love to see the spark in their eyes when showing them some quick edit in between sets. It means they enjoy what they see and they like how they look in my product, and that’s very important, as when they think and speak highly about us out of the set, the mouth to ear effect helps us build credit and attract more talents to join.”
He says the fan feedback has been inspiring.
“The audience went crazy, they’ve never seen a product like this before,” Romero tells AVN. “This is a completely different energy compared to existing products on the market. Some are confused to see their favorite actress suddenly grow a male body part, but on average we got a lot of compliments on the ideas and the presentation.”
