The majority of Tagame's works depict men with personal and physical traits associated with hypermasculinity – developed muscles, hirsute bodies, large penises, an exaggerated volume of ejaculate, machismo, and participation in extreme or violent sexual acts. Tagame has stated that he is interested in how men who are perceived as masculine "respond to societal pressure" and "perform their manliness beyond what's necessary," and how those attitudes change "if a man loses his manliness [...] by participating in activity that normative society believes men would not normally participate in." Armour identifies "Pride", which depicts a dominant university student who is trained into submission by his masochistic professor, and "The Gamefowl in Darkness", which is inspired by Yasujirō Ozu's "A Hen in the Wind" and Edogawa Ranpo's "The Caterpillar", as representative examples of hypermasculine themes in Tagame's works.