Hajime Sorayama: What to Know About the Artist

In an age of virtual reality porn, anatomically correct droids, and actual artificial intelligence sex robots, Hajime Sorayama’s work stands as an origin point for everything related to sex and technology. He was the first illustrator to imagine robots as not just humanoids, but sexual objects of desire. Sorayama took the cold, calculating science-fiction idea of a robot and gave it sexual qualities, portraying his hyper-realistic “sexy robots” in suggestive or pinned-up positions. As a result, the “gynoid” or “fembot” became his signature work, taking the inhuman and blending it with his view of women as “goddesses” to create curvy, lustful, traditionally feminine figures cast in the metallic sheen and emotionally detached programming of a robot. His sexual illustrations depict desire and impossible beauty standards, but leaves those feelings and looks in a fantasy world—unattainable in reality and unmistakably robotic. Over nearly a half century of illustrating, publishing, and ideating, Sorayama’s collaborated with everyone from George Lucas to Playboy, leaving an enduring legacy in art, science fiction, and pop culture.