Yuri (genre)

"lily"), also known by the wasei-eigo construction girls' love (ガールズラブ, gāruzu rabu), is a genre of Japanese media focusing on intimate relationships between female characters.

Themes associated with yuri originate from Japanese lesbian fiction of the early twentieth century, notably the writings of Nobuko Yoshiya and literature in the Class S genre.

Manga depicting female homoeroticism began to appear in the 1970s in the works of artists associated with the Year 24 Group, notably Ryoko Yamagishi and Riyoko Ikeda.

"lily tribe") in reference to female readers of the magazine in a column of letters titled Yurizoku no Heya (百合族の部屋, lit.

[6] When the term yuri began being used in the west in the 1990s, it was similarly used almost exclusively to describe pornographic manga aimed at male readers featuring lesbian couples.

[4] Over time, the term drifted from this pornographic connotation to describe the portrayal of intimate love, sex, or emotional connections between women,[7] and became broadly recognized as a genre name for works depicting same-sex female intimacy in the mid-2000s following the founding of the specialized yuri manga magazines Yuri Shimai and Comic Yurihime.

[13][14] Among the first Japanese authors to produce works about love between women was Nobuko Yoshiya,[15] a novelist active in the Taishō and Shōwa periods.

[18] Class S stories depict lesbian attachments as emotionally intense yet platonic relationships, destined to be curtailed by graduation from school, marriage, or death.

[21] Traditionally, Class S stories focus on strong emotional bonds between an upperclassman and an underclassman,[17] or in rare cases, between a student and her teacher.

[22] Private all-girls schools are a common setting for Class S stories, which are depicted as an idyllic homosocial world reserved for women.

Noted as the first non-Class S manga to depict an intimate relationship between women, Shīkuretto Rabu is regarded by some scholars as the first work in the yuri genre.

[26] As both Yashiro and Shīkuretto Rabu are relatively obscure and the work focuses in part on male-female romance, most critics identify Shiroi Heya no Futari by Ryōko Yamagishi, published in 1971, as the first yuri manga.

Writer and translator Frederik L. Schodt notes that the majority of shōjo manga published during this period were tragic, regardless of whether or not they were yuri.

[7][32] The immense popularity of Sailor Moon allowed the series to be adapted into anime, films, and to be exported internationally, significantly influencing the shōjo and yuri genres.

[32] Sailor Moon director Kunihiko Ikuhara went on to create Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997–1999), a shōjo anime series with female same-sex relationships as a central focus.

[44] This period also saw a revival of the Class S genre through the best-selling light novel series Maria-sama ga Miteru (1998–2004) by Oyuki Konno [ja],[45][46] which by 2010 had 5.4 million copies in print.

[48] Stories in these magazines ranged from high school romance to lesbian life and love and featured varying degrees of sexual content.

"[59] Specifically, Verena Maser notes in her analysis of issues of Yuri Shimai, Comic Yurihime, and Comic Yurihime S published from 2003 to 2012 that eight of the ten most-referenced series in the magazines predate the 2003 formalization of yuri as a publishing genre: Apurōzu - Kassai (1981–1985), Sakura no Sono (1985–1986), Sailor Moon (1992–1996), Cardcaptor Sakura (1996–2000), Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997–1999), Maria-sama ga Miteru (1998–2012), Loveless (2002–present), and Strawberry Marshmallow (2002–present).

[6] While schoolgirl romances remained popular into the 2010s and 2020s, notably Kase-san (2010–2017), Citrus (2012–2018), Bloom Into You (2015–2019), and Whisper Me a Love Song (2019–present), yuri works during this period began to incorporate new genres, themes, and subject material.

[60] The growth of digital platforms like Pixiv, Twitter, and Shōsetsuka ni Narō allowed for the creation and widespread distribution of yuri works outside of traditional manga magazine and dōjinshi publishing: My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness (2016) was originally published as a web comic, while the yuri fantasy works Sexiled (2018–2019), Roll Over and Die (2018–present), and I'm in Love with the Villainess (2018–present) began as web novels on Shōsetsuka ni Narō before being adapted into other mediums.

"[64] Characters in yuri works frequently do not define their sexual orientation in explicit terms, and the matter is instead left to reader interpretation.

[66] She notes that yuri works that enjoy international popularity tend to be explicit and focused on "cute girls making out with each other," while Japanese fans "have a propensity for reading between the lines, picking up on subtle cues, and using their own imaginations to weave rich tapestries of meaning from small threads.

"[29] The majority of yuri stories published in the 1970s and 1980s were tragedies, focused on doomed relationships that end in separation or death (see History above).

[36] Yukari Fujimoto, a manga scholar at Meiji University, notes that the tragic plot of Shiroi Heya no Futari became a common yuri story archetype that she dubs "Crimson Rose and Candy Girl".

"top", as derived from tachiyaku, the male role in kabuki), which designates the active participant, and neko (ネコ, lit.

[92] The latter collects stories by American, European, and Japanese creators, including Akiko Morishima, Althea Keaton, Kristina Kolhi, Tomomi Nakasora, and Eriko Tadeno.

Early examples of original English-language yuri comics include Steady Beat (2003) by Rivkah LaFille and 12 Days (2006) by June Kim, which were published between 2005 and 2006.

[104] While yuri originated in female-targeted (shōjo, josei) works, the genre has evolved over time to also target a male audience.

[106] As of 2017, the ratio between men and women is said to have shifted to about 6:4, thanks in part to the Comic Yuri Hime S merge and the mostly male readership YuruYuri brought with it.

Maser's study reinforced the notion of the yuri fandom being split somewhat equally between men and women, as well as highlighting the differing sexualities within it.