About

Yaoi Hands, also known as Yaoi Hand Syndrome, is a slang term for aggrandized hands that can be found in Yaoi^[1], a homoerotic fictional media intended for female consumption. The trope bears similarities to several other anime devices, including exaggerated breasts^[2] and gag boobs^[3] as seen in Mega Milk / Titty Monster.

Origin

The earliest known mention of Yaoi hands appeared on the Otaku message board MangaFox^[4] on March 23rd, 2010, in reference to art featured in the manga Junjou Romantica: Pure Romance.^[5][6] While the image is no longer accessible, the description pointed out the oversized hands depicted on the characters Usami and Misaki.

Spread

On April 14th, 2011, another image of exaggerated Yaoi hands was posted to the Cheezburger site Memebase.^[7] On May 19th, a single topic Tumblr blog titled "Hands of Junjou Romantica"^[8] was launched. On October 9th, the blog WTF Yaoi Anatomy^[9] was created, focusing not only on hands but other non-traditional body proportions featured in this type of manga. On March 29th, 2012, a third blog, Yaoi Hands^[10] was created, this time focusing on aggrandized hands created by a variety of manga artists. This was followed by another hands-specific blog Hot Yaoi Hands^[11] on July 7th.

Oversized hand art, as well as criticism of the style, continue to be posted to Tumblr under the tags "#yaoi hands"^[12] and "#yaoi hands syndrome."^[13]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References