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Girls having crushes on other girls is, while not common, nothing that raises eyebrows in the Japanese school system. Sometimes matters go beyond simple crushes to explicit romance; even then eyebrows remain unraised as long as participants aren't too indiscreet. Note that this is less an Anime Trope than a reflection (warped or not) of real-life behaviors and attitudes — the Japanese refer to this as a Class S Relationship, which teaches the young about real relationships and is meant to be outgrown eventually. Retaining a Class S Relationship as one grows older is a sign of immaturity (note the number of immature Clingy Jealous Girls whose lesbian crush has suddenly noticed Boys). Thus, it is not uncommon to find such girl-girl relationships in anime, especially with the frequency of adolescent characters.
If they don't just pretend the girls are together and get out of it later by revealing they're not, often writers like to hide behind subtext in a form of Getting Crap Past The Radar.
In Japanese, the trope is called yuri, a term which was coined as a counterpart to yaoi (see Yaoi Guys). The word literally means "lily" in Japanese, and can refer to any lesbian sexual or romantic content, explicit or not. It's also known as " Girls Love" ( in English), also created in response to the male version, " Boys Love".
"Yuri" derives from a term which was coined by Itou Bungaku, one-time editor of the magazine "Barazoku", a magazine for gay men in Japan, wherein he termed men the barazoku, or "rose tribe", and women the yurizoku, or "lily tribe". Occasionally, some fans use shoujo-ai and "yuri" as separate degrees of explicitness.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Haruka Ten'ou and Michiru Kaioh (Sailors Uranus and Neptune) in the original uncensored versions of Sailor Moon. And in the censored versions, though with a bit more subtlety and a lot more kink.
- El Hazard The Magnificent World's cheerfully promiscuous Alielle (and her lover, the Princess Fatora).
- Bleach: Chizuru's very open infatuation with Orihime. Unfortunately for the shonen audience, her advances are invariably thwarted by the protective Tatsuki, who Chizuru has commented she would also find quite attractive if not for her boyish persona. Regardless of her primary crush, Chizuru has also ogled other female members of her circle of friends, namely Moe Moe Mahana and Tall Dark And Bishoujo Kunieda.
- She was literally drooling over Rukia at the start of the Bount arc (this troper can't remember any visible drool, but Chizuru had her hand near her mouth as though she was wiping some away).
- The closest she's ever gotten with Orihime is grabbing her... considerable assets. This was changed in the anime to hugging Orihime around the lower chest, with her forearms pushing Orihime's breasts up.
- Akane Kasuga from Kimagure Orange Road.
- B-ko Daitokuji in Project A Ko.
- Possibly unintentional; the director admitted in an interview for the US DVD re-release of the film that he didn't think about how the scene featuring B-ko in a giant bath, thinking about C-ko, could be interpreted.
- This troper doesn't see how that scene or any number of others could be interpreted any other way.
- Lain and Arisu from Serial Experiments Lain seem to be really, really, really fond of each other... sometimes to romantic levels.
- Kirika and Mireille from Noir are not shown being physically intimate, but they share a bed and by the end of the series are emotionally dependent on each other. Also, Chloe exhibits a rather warped (and mostly frustrated) desire for Kirika.
- Steel Angel Kurumi features Saki, a female android who because of the circumstances of her activation has a romantic fixation on the titular character, another female android. The sequel series Steel Angel Kurumi 2, tops that with what is either an oversized Love Triangle or a small Love Dodecahedron: Kurumi Mk. II is fixated upon young cellist Nako, who activated her. Nako's friend Uruka also has a crush on her, and out of jealousy activates Saki Mk. II in order to battle Kurumi; Saki, however, ends up pining for both Kurumi and Uruka. Eventually, Nako comes to return Kurumi's feelings.
- Futaba in Puni Puni Poemi is an extreme parody of this character type.
- Chanohata Tamami in Mahoraba admits to Shiratori Ryuushi that she is in love with Aoba Kozue (who is completely oblivious), explaining her mean-spirited attitude.
- Simoun cheats a little by setting the story on a world where everyone under 17 is female, making all of the main characters Schoolgirl Lesbians by default. And they use the power of Girls Love to make their fighter planes fly.
- In Azumanga Daioh, Kaorin has an immediately obvious crush on Sakaki that seems one-sided; however, considering Sakaki's addiction to cute things, it's possible that it would be reciprocated (or at least not minded) if she wasn't entirely oblivious.
- In fact, she gets weirded out at Kaorin's swooning.
- Devilman Lady (aka The Devil Lady)
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch has the Black Beauty Sisters...
- Lavinia and Jessie in Soukou No Strain. They never do get together in the end, or at least it's left open-ended, despite having a very close encounter due to a misunderstanding.
- Which is rather strange, since Jessie seemed very responsive, yet she never brings up the incident again afterward.
- Other than that, it contains some mindbreaking hints at a possible relationship between Sara and her doll Emily. Things get worse when we discover that the "doll" actually contains the living brain of an alien girl. Whose race shares a common hive mind. So by acting nice to her, Sara acts nice to a whole goddamn One Gender Race. Is this someone's weirdest yuri harem fantasy or what?
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, Setsuna serves as Konoka's protector, and admits it precludes hooking up with anyone else. Naturally, other characters assume this is a complicated way of saying that they are a romantic couple, or will be. Konoka certainly has no problem being her (kissing-activated) partner in their magical contract. It's pretty much just Setsuna who isn't aware of this.
- Mai-HiME features Shizuru and her obsessive love for one of the main characters, Natsuki. Fandom has rewarded this with a series of doujinshi, the tamest of which explore Shizuru's more publishable fantasies. The more extreme, well... let's just say that Shizuru is a very imaginative individual. One of the artbooks states that they "find happiness" at Natsuki's graduation.
- Shizuru's popularity in this series likely led to her Mai-Otome incarnation actually hooking up with that universe's Natsuki.
- Speaking of Mai-Otome, there appear to be quite a few of them there, too, since most of the story takes place in the all-girls' Garderobe Academy. Chie, in particular, appears to have out-Chizuru'd Bleach's Chizuru in the "openly flirty" department.
- All girls academy, nothing. The Schizo Tech of that gives the girls their super powers is destroyed by sperm, and neither condoms nor vasectomies exist.
- Parodied in an episode of Tenchi Muyo. After being cast into a High School AU, Magical Girl Sasami shoots the bickering Ayeka and Ryoko with a "beam of friendship". The sequence just gets more suggestive as two begin gazing into each other's eyes, proclaiming their mutual love and admiration, and almost kissing before being cut off by the end of the episode.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: Juri's secret obsession with Shiori consumes her entire life. Wakaba's loud and public crush on Utena seems frivolous and harmless in comparison.
- Wakaba's just playing around. We see her have two real love interests and behaves totally differently.
- Also Utena and Anthy. This is more obvious in the movie.
- Almost every single character in Strawberry Panic. Then again there are absolutely no males in this series.
- Pretty much the entire cast of Oniisama E.
- Maria-sama Ga Miteru has only one explicit case of a lesbian love affair. The rest of the relationships often seem to go in that direction, but generally stop at the Romantic Two Girl Friendship level, which raises suspicions of Bait And Switch Lesbians among part of the fandom.
- Anna towards Izumi in He Is My Master, to the point of Stalker With A Crush. Izumi doesn't exactly reciprocate the feelings, but the cast (including Izumi, with promises) do use Anna's obsession to their advantage on occasion.
- Hiyori in Lucky Star is a Yuri Fangirl/artist, though it's apparently nonsexual for her.
- Some people assume that Konata and Kagami, despite the personality clash, may secretly be these. Konata playfully flirting with Kagami and Tsukasa after a Marimite session doesn't exactly help her case.
- Word Of God is that there is at least a one-sided romantic relationship between Konata and Kagami.
- Also, don't forget Kagami's Freudian Slip in the OVA.
- Yutaka and Minami are even more blatant, even after you remove all the parts of the show that were viewed through Hiyori's yuri-goggles.
- Konata remarked on this a couple times, though it's not entirely clear if she's joking or serious.
- Blue Drop, it also contains older lesbians as well. Most of the plot of the anime revolves around the relationship between Mari and Hagino, the latter being the female commander of an alien battleship who hides at Mari's all-girl high-school.
- Kitagawa from Doki Doki School Hours has a thing for petite women, which just happens to apply to her teacher - and she is not at all shy about showing her affections.
- Kuro from Kodomo No Jikan has a crush on her classmate Rin, which is mostly used to let her unleash her jealous rage against her teacher Aoki, since he in turn is Rin's (unwilling) object of affection. And believe it: Kuro can be downright scary.
- Hazumu and Tomari (pictured above) from Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, along with the third girl in the triangle, Yasuna. The other characters dismiss Hazumu's sexuality since she used to be a guy; still, Hazumu remains a girl permanently. Yasuna, on the other hand, is so afraid of men she literally cannot see their faces.
- Yamada and Satou from Koi Koi 7 like to cheerfully show their affection for each other.
- Rosalie from Rose Of Versailles isn't technically a schoolgirl, but she's in the right age bracket and certainly has a huge crush on Lady Oscar.
- Sakura from Penguin Musume Heart often shows extreme interest in intimate interactions with some of her female classmates. Sure, she is absolutely bonkers, but it happens a bit too often to be condincidental.
- Not to mention that she tries to force Kujira into marrying her in an alternate time line.
- Nina Einstein from Code Geass Code Geass fits this trope pretty well. After Princess Euphemia stands up for her in a hostage situation, Nina has a huge obsession with her, and even goes as far as to masturbate against a table with a picture of Euphemia. Later, when Euphemia dies, Nina goes insane and threatens to set off a bomb killing herself, Zero, and many innocent bystanders. This is promptly used by Schneizel, Euphemia's half-brother, who takes the still insane Nina in so she builds an even bigger bomb for him...
- In Ikki Tousen there's the Ryoufu Hosen (Lu Bu) and her best friend Chinkyuu Koudai (Chon Gong). Ryoufu is seductive and even brutal, bordering on Depraved Bisexual, but shows a more human side when around the devoted Chinkyuu. In the manga, they die together when Chinkyuu is raped and both she and Ryoufu rebel against their evil leader, Toutaku (Dong Zhuo). In the anime, Chinkyuu is not only raped but beaten to death; Ryoufu dies trying to kill Toutaku and herself. Later, Kan'u Unchou (Guan Yu) is shown to be one of this for her leader and friend, Ryuubi Gentoku (Liu Bei).
- Nene, the class representative from Hyakko, claims to be bisexual—but she is mostly shown drooling over girls.
- Sakuya from Candy Boy has a major crush on Kanade and has no qualms about letting everybody know about it. Alas, she has lost by definition to Kanade's twin sister, Yukino.
- To Aru Majutsu no Index: Kuroko, who gets concerned at how much fun Mikoto seems to be having in her rivalry with Touma. Clingy Jealous Girl, too.
- Makina in Shikabane Hime once found herself being stalked by a large-breasted lesbian schoolgirl who was attracted to death.
- Kanako in Maria Holic. She has a strong dislike of men and attended a girls' school purely to find a female love interest. She has a tendency to have nosebleeds at the thought of that.
- During the Chuunin Exam arc of Naruto one of the many, many, MANY flashbacks involves Sakura and Ino's childhood friendship. Though there is no explicit statement that there was a romantic element to their relationship, Ino's treatment of Sakura in the flashback is rather suggestive of infatuation. The flashback ends by showing that their relationship was broken up when Sakura began to take a serious interest in boys (specifically Sasuke) and decided Ino was now a romantic rival despite Ino giving no indication that she was interested in Sasuke (other than having long hair, which he was rumored to like).
- Hidamari Sketch. Natsume is painfully tsundere for Sae but can't catch a break, being the losing corner of a Love Triangle. Played up to the hilt in episode 12 of x365 when Sae joins Natsume for lunch, with the latter first getting combative before quieting down. We even get a few Male Gaze shots in that episode; when Natsume watches Sae enter the cafeteria (focusing on her hips), watching her eat (focusing on her lips), and again as Sae walks away... The flowers the spring out of her hair and the luminescent blush seem to put it straight into Schoolgirl Lesbians territory. The very last episode has her praying at a shrine to become more honest with her feelings. And guess who wrote that passionate fan letter that Sae got?
- Possibly hinted at in the ending credits of Shuffle episode 24, where Lisianthus and Kaede share an "accidental" kiss.
- Yami To Boushi To Hon No Tabibito is about one of these searching time and space for her best friend/adoptive older sister Hatsumi who turns out to be Eve...yes, that Eve. Who returns her feelings, but can only exist in a given world for 16 years at a time. Hatsumi herself is at least bisexual, as a series of very direct love letters shows.
- In Kannazuki No Miko the two main characters are a pair of eternally reincarnating Schoolgirl Lesbians.
- Yurika Kochikaze in Akikan! is blatantly lesbian for Najimi.
- Eto Hachibe and Arata Tagoto in Iono The Fanatics. Everyone else is just a lesbian.
- Shinobu of Ninin Ga Shinobuden assuming it isn't just being played for parody.
- Rainbows are straighter than Subaru Nakajima.
- The jury is still out whether Kaoru from Zettai Karen Children can be labeled as one. Sure, she probably has feelings for Minamoto, but as she grows older she more and more shifts her focus from large-breasted idols in magazines to girls her age, like her classmates and the other two Children.
- The Reveal in one of the chapters in Franken Fran was that the focus characters were lesbians who didn't know how to properly express their love for each other. Surprisingly, it managed to be one of the few chapters with... a fairly happy ending. Squicky, but happy. Compared to the usual alternatives, anyway.
Comic Books
- Runaways' Karolina Dean is in love with her best friend Nico, who unfortunately doesn't return her affections. Fortunately for Karolina, she finds new love in a shape-shifting alien named Xavin, who changes "his" form into that of a woman to please her.
Film
- Be With Me, a Singaporean movie by Eric Khoo
- Blue Gate Crossing, a Taiwanese movie by Yee Chih-yen: Kerou has a crush on her best friend Yuezhen but doesn't know how to tell her.
- Memento Mori, a South Korean movie by Kim Tae-yong: the whole story revolves around the lesbian relationship between two high school girls.
- In Samaria by Kim Ki-duk, Yeo-jin's feelings for her friend Jae-yeong border on the homosexual, and at one point they share a kiss while scrubbing each other before a bath.
- Although the protagonists of Murmur Of Youth by Lin Cheng-sheng are no longer schoolgirls, having graduated from high school the year before, their relationship arguably fits this trope.
- The protagonist of the early German film Maedchen in Uniform.
Literature
- Lofty and Tonker from Monstrous Regiment certainly qualify.
- S.M. Stirling provides a Western version of this trope in The Draka series. In Draka boarding schools, schoolgirl crushes and romances are very common. Just as commonly, the girls grow out of it when they reach adulthood (Yolanda Ingolfssen in The Stone Dogs is a rather notable exception).
- Lillian "Lia" Wanderley and Letitia Coramae "Tommy" Tomlin in Carolyn Wheat's short story "Cousin Cora."
- In Carmilla reimagining The Moth Diaries, the pupils of an exclusive girls' boarding school have relationships similar to this as practice for the real world and boys. The unnamed diarist is romantically obsessed with her best friend Lucy ... as is the 'vampire', Ernessa.
- In Colette classic Claudine at School, various girls are interested in one another. Claudine first falls in love with the pretty teaching assistant Aimee, then switches her affections to Aimee's sister when she goes off with the Headmistress. I Am Not Making This Up. Considering this is set in France in the 1890s, no one seems to bat an eyelid at these goings on between girls. The affair between Aimee and the Headmistress is another story.
- Jane and Helen from Jane Eyre. While this editor is not sure if it was intentional, it still couldn't be more obvious.
- Hey, this is Charlotte "Suspected Real Life Yuricest" Bronte we're talking about, so...
Video Games
- Natsuki... no, not that one...the one from Persona 3, whose friendship toward Fuuka occasionally took on dangerous levels of obsession, resulting in the SEES group having to keep her isolated for her own good.
- Of course, the 'dangerous levels of obsession' was from a Shadow giving her impulses so that she'd be a prime victim, which is why she was isolated. After that incident, the two became extremely close to the point that Natsuki moving out of town was the catalyst for Fuuka's Persona to power up.
- Played completely straight though with an NPC just outside the classroom who has a very obvious (and at times disturbing) crush on Mitsuru Kirijo.
- We mentioned Grim Grimoire, didn't we? Amoretta and Lillet? Yup. It's canon. The hints were there from the beginning, though.
- From Valkyria Chronicles, there's Dallas Wyatt, who grew up in a relatively man-free environment until the conscription. She has "Man Hater" and "Fancies Women" as traits and she is very obviously crushing on main character Alicia Melchiott.
- Also, Jann Walker, who wears make-up, has "Fancies Men" as a trait and very obviously likes Largo.
- In the Harvest Moon spinoff series Rune Factory, this happens. In Rune Factory 2, two twin girls can be courted and fake proposed to and "married". However, the priest says something about how girls can't get married.
- This, oddly enough, was left in the English version of the game. However, it had some... unusual
 changes.
- Chie and Yukiko in Persona 4 present some very heavy subtext in their friendship, which can be viewed as being of a romantic bent when one considers the wider themes of sexuality permeating Persona 4.
Webcomics
- Western (though anime-influenced) example: Nanase and Ellen in El Goonish Shive.
- Cheesecake St.-Cherrywell from the webcomic Gorgeous Princess Creamy Beamy is a particularly over-the-top parody, particularly of Chizuru from Bleach.
- Jessica from Loserz, forming a pair with bisexual Jodie, beginning in this strip.
- Fuuko's from Red String unrequited crush on an upperclassman sports star Maaya causes a big scandal at their school. Fortunately for her she later moves to Tokyo where she meets someone Hanae Niijima who does return her feelings.
- Missi Fuller from Misfile dived headlong into dating Ash after being aproached by Rumi. The problem is, Ash isn't exactly a girl and is stuck in a perpetual identity crisis, so Missi got dumped almost immediately. Missi has refused to give up though, and is currently somewhere in Stalker With A Crush territory.
- Heliothaumic has Cassandra and Lydia, who first paired up in High School as Lydia rebelled against her ancient Egyptian-themed religion, broke up later on, and have recently gotten back together.
- Yu Me Dream is, at first, a Schoolgirl Lesbians themed story, with the slight twist that they're at a Catholic school (and it's also hinted that one of the girls' parents is homophobic). But, after the Drama Bomb of issue 9, turns out to be more than that...
Web Original
Real Life
- Historically, the phenomenon was somewhat common in Western female-only colleges where the students were completely sequestered from opposite-sex contact.
- The band t.A.T.u. was a rather crass attempt by producer Ivan Shapovalov to cash in on this trope. It takes a turn for the sordid when you consider that both girls were 13 years old when the band was formed. Outright nightmare fuel is achieved when you learn that before forming the band Shapovalov was a child psychologist.
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