Over time, the usage of dakimakura as a sex toy became a running joke both within and outside of the Otaku subculture, even inspiring a series of parody designs featuring alien, elderly or overweight characters. In its early days, the majority of custom graphic designs for dakimakura characters were uploaded to and shared via anime-themed websites and communities, though numerous online shops specializing in love pillows and material love dolls (MLDs) began to pop up during the 2000s.

Other less common novelty love dolls include overweight, transgender, elderly and alien dolls, which are usable for pleasure but also tend to be given as gag gifts. Despite their categorization as sex toys, these pillows are also frequently purchased as a popular 'joke gift' or party novelty item. Shortly after the establishment of online communities for Dakimakura collectors and designers, Dakimakura gradually began seeping into the mainstream, though often pitted as a negative stereotype of the Otaku subculture. Receptionĭue to the large-scale presence of Otakus in Japanese online communities, the phenomenon quickly spread across various message boards frequented by hardcore anime fans, including 2chan and Pixiv among many others.

Many of the early Otaku body pillows were distributed through Cospa, a Japanese character merchandise retail chain. Hug pillows have existed in Japanese culture for decades, mostly in the form of oversized stuffed animals and character merchandise for children and adolescents, however, during the 1990s, a distinctly adult-themed subset of pillows known as 'body pillows' or 'dutch wives' became available as dakimakura began to intertwine with the Otaku culture, leading to the production of pillow covers featuring graphic prints of bishōjo and bishonen characters from popular anime and video games, and even life-size photographs of adult film stars.

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