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Yuri (genre)

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For other meanings of Yuri, see Yuri (disambiguation).

Yuri (sometimes known as shōjo-ai) a jargon term amongst otaku for lesbian content, possibly sexually explicit, in anime and manga, or in fan fiction based on such. In Western media the term femmeslash would be used.

Definition and semantic drift

Much like the term otaku, yuri, although originally a Japanese loanword, has undergone significant semantic drift. The precise difference between 'yuri' and 'shōjo-ai' — or even whether or not there is a precise difference, or any difference at all — can vary greatly depending on the speaker. One reason for the use of the term shōjo-ai is simply that "yuri" produces too much unrelated material in search engines.

In Japanese, the term is typically used to mean any lesbian content in entertainment media, whether sexual or romantic, explicit or implied (notably, Futaba Channel's yuri board is not seperated into hentai and non-hentai content). The term shōjo-ai is not usually found in this context outside of Western fandom. Neither term is generally used by Japanese lesbians describing themselves.

American use of yuri has broadened in recent years, picking up connotations from the Japanese use, but the historical usage differed: in America, Yuri has typically been used to denote only the most explicit end of the spectrum, being effectively a variety of hentai, while shōjo-ai — an independently-coined term, following the logical connection to shōnen-ai) — described anything without explicit sex. The term likely stayed popular because many fans wanted to remove the direct connotation of pure pornography, which is still often associated with anime as a whole in some circles.

Etymology

Unlike yaoi's explicit origin as a term, yuri's history is imprecise; the word yuri literally means "lily", and is (like many flower names) a relatively common Japanese name. One frequently heard derivation is that the term originates from the large number of yuri hentai dōjinshi containing characters named "Yuri" or "Yuriko". (Variants of this theory may name specific characters, often Yuri of the Dirty Pair.)

Another suggested derivation is that the lily was associated poetically with female-female relationships, and that the poetic use of the term gradually drifted into common use. (The lily is indeed used in such a fashion, although it is not certain whether such use predates the term.)

A third is ascribed to Barazoku, a gay men's magazine whose name means "rose group," which in 1971 termed lesbians yurizoku, or "lily group." The -zoku portion of the term was subsequently dropped, according to this theory.

Yuri as story

Many fans enjoy yuri for its skewing of the classic gender roles in anime, which are often quite stereotyped in nature and sometimes have a female character take a slightly more 'submissive' role if a significant other is introduced or appears. Conversely, yuri content is often criticized as never going anywhere, with the majority of the more dramatic stories ending tragically (even by comparison with the melodrama of romance in manga in general).

Young same-sex affection experimentation is considered natural in real-life Japan, but generally regarded as something girls grow out of. Because of this the Japanese concept of lesbianism and thus of yuri is slightly different than in the West. It often has less to do with a character's sexual identity and more to do with the current interactions with other characters (shoujo in particular is known for its frequently 'bisexual' characters who would never feel the need to use that term).

Other yuri stories may involve characters with no previous romantic experience or who are otherwise depicted as straight, but are attracted to a single particular female, such as Yoshida Chizuru of HEN or Tenjou Utena of Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Many archetypical stories exist, such as the schoolyard not-quite-romances between sempai and kouhai (senior and junior), where the former is an older looking, more sophisticated woman and the latter is her younger, more awkward admirer. This is famously depicted in Marimite, which has a large yuri fandom. In other stories, some characters have more stereotypically 'masculine' characteristics, such as being very tall, athletic, occasionally crossdressing, and (relatively speaking) handsome rather than beautiful. Lady Oscar of The Rose of Versailles and Tenjou Utena of Revolutionary Girl Utena are famous examples.

Yuri in shōnen is stereotyped as more blunt or explicitly sexual in depiction than it is in shōjo, although some argue this is more according to males' tastes in relationships in general than to simple fanservice. Many critics of the sometimes evasive nature of shōjo in regards to sex suggest that yuri is more easily found in shōnen because it is depicted in a healthy, sexual manner. Generally, relationships are still depicted as between a junior and a senior, but these roles are often related to the age or maturity of a character rather than the appearance of the character. However, many of the design archetypes as in shōjo are used; most often, one character appeals to the bijin aspect, and the other to the moé aspect. This sometimes causes couplings from different series to strongly resemble each other.

Non-hentai anime which contain yuri or shōjo-ai

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