Why 'ello there, girl! Shh! We've just come across a wild Sapphus infatuus. Keep an eye on this sheila, inspiration has just struck and she's likely to show us something really special...
Just as Yaoi Fans exist out there, there are Yuri Fans. Yuri refers to the Japanese media terminology "Yuri" and refers to a genre focusing on female-female romance.
Unlike gay male romance, where Yaoi and Bara separate material aimed at girls and gay men respectively, in Yuri there isn't as clear of a division. Because of this, queer women are often combined with the central demographic of consumption. Even contrary to Japanese cultural mores, the primary consumer of sapphic media is women, as often reported by very popular yuri manga magazine Comic Yuri Hime.
Regardless, yuri tends to be lush, both in dress and setting, pretty, and highly emotive, which attracts all kinds of fans. Japanese cultural homophobia, heterosexism, and emphasis on procreation gives the genre a "forbidden love" quality often sought by fans.
Fangirls, as the primary market, include cisgender straight women as well as queer/trans women. In Japan, such girls are generally more derided for being Otaku rather than being interested in Queer Romance of their own sex. The main exception is if such a girl expresses desire in girls outside of fiction, which generally leads to Hide Your Lesbians. As characters, Yuri fangirls are frequently shown as a Covert Pervert and/or Shipper on Deck, and either The Quiet One or the Genki Girl.
Yuri fanboys are the other component of Yuri fandom. What generally defines Yuri fanboys is a strong insistence on the portrayed relationships, feelings, and shipping, instead of merely being male conduits of Girl on Girl Is Hot. Primarily, Yuri fanboys are attracted to women. As characters, they tend to be an overzealous Shipper on Deck (due to their gender) and/or a very Loony Fan.
Overall, as characters, Yuri fans tend to be very Genre Savvy and are often portrayed with glasses (Meganekko/Megane) lending themselves toward surrogacy.
The Japanese term for these types of characters is "Himejoshi/danshi" (姫女子/姫男子, Princess Girl/Boy), taken from the aforementioned Yuri Hime, though rarely "Yurijoshi/danshi" (百合女子/百合男子) appears as a synonym. Unlike its yaoi counterpart, however, the exact terms are rare to see in media featuring them, instead usually opting for the gender-neutral "Yuri Ota" (百合オタ, Yuri Otaku).
Yuri Fan is for shipper examples. For non-shipping examples who still love seeing girl/girl action, see Girl on Girl Is Hot (although the two tropes can overlap).
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Satoshi Furutorisui from Secret of the Tripower. Constantly taking pictures of girls when they're together.
- Tsumugi Kotobuki from K-On!, is this. She frequently has daydreams whenever two girls are holding hands, standing close to each other, and at one point is openly jealous of the skinship between the other girls, to the point that she's seen as having Yuri Goggles... But much less so on the anime, where she just likes really wholesome moments and is Mistaken for Gay because of her fascination for their teacher Ms. Yamanaka.
- Pictured above: Hiyori Tamura
from Lucky Star, who sees a lot more in the relationship between Yutaka and Minami than is actually there and often imagines romantic situations between them even though she knows she shouldn't think about her friends that way. She is also implied to be a Yaoi Fangirl but this is largely an Informed Attribute since her yuri fan tendencies are much more prominent.
- The all-girl high school in Otome Kikan Gretel seems to be populated by yuri fangirls, who Squee when they watch Mariya and Yuu kiss. But then again, they are all implied to be lesbians, as well.
- The girls from Maria Watches Over Us often seem to be rather interested in the amorous entanglements between other girls at their school, although this is rather downplayed in the anime. In the Light Novels, however...
- Yurina from Hana no Yurina Gumi in one Yuri Hime S anthology is a very obsessed Yuri Fangirl. She goes to an all girls school and as president of the school's literature club, she writes fiction pairing up some of the students. She's also been known to Squee and gush quite loudly when two female students touch their hands together.
- Ushio's brother, Norio from Whispered Words, who writes Yuri novels. Azusa, one of Ushio's classmates and also a Yuri Fan, is a huge fan of his novels. However, she is discomforted when first confronted with lesbians Tomoe and Miyako, because she's really only interested in dramatic stories full of subtext.
- In Haruhi-chan, Yuki Nagato is a yuri fangirl. Yes, really. In the original, she seems strangely interested in shipping Haruhi and Mikuru together.
- Onsokumaru and the ninjas of Ninja Nonsense are pretty perverted but they've also been seen to cry over the relationships found in a parody of Maria Watches Over Us.
- The Destiny of the Shrine Maiden audio drama reveals that Himeko's favorite manga is a yuri doujinshi.
- Itta from Girl X Girl X Boy doesn't start out this way, but he becomes a yuri fan later in the manga. He then can't help but smile and go "Aww" when he sees two females acting friendly towards each other.
- YuruYuri has the yuri fangirl twins Chitose and Chizuru, the former whom frequently imagines Kyouko and Ayano together and the latter whom images her sister Chitose together with Ayano. When fantasizing, both sisters remove their glasses and begin either having a nosebleed (Chitose) or drooling (Chizuru).
- The students at the all-girl high schools in Sweet Blue Flowers show several levels of fascination for girl-girl relationships. The news club of Akira's school, Fujigaya, even publishes rumors about them on the front page of their school magazine. Akira is not amused, even if they don't mention her or Fumi by name.
- Sunohara in CLANNAD was overloading with hormones when he and Tomoya tricked Ryou into thinking that Nagisa is going to confess her love to her, and the entire thing started playing out like something straight out of a Yuri anime.
- Fukuyama of Girls Bravo set up an all girl wrestling tournament and was especially excited about seeing Kosame and Kirie mud wrestle each other.
- Kaede of Don't Become an Otaku, Shinozaki-san! is both this and Yaoi Fangirl. Akina is warming up to the idea, partly due to her own growing infatuation and feelings for Kaede. At one point she comes across a yuri doujinshi by chance and drops what she's doing to flip through it.
- In the behind the scenes episode of Black Butler Elizabeth is shown fangirling over Maylene getting groped by Ran Mao and taking pictures.
- Hanadera Keisuke of Yuri Danshi is a rare male example. He later forms a group with four other yuri fanboys in his school just to discuss the subject. Just see the page quote for Yuri on how much a fanboy he is.
Keisuke: I think, therefore yuri is.
- Corona from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid is depicted this way in the ViVid Life spin-off, shipping her friends with each other. At one point, she even asks them to model for a yuri doujinshi she's making.
- Maken-ki!: Kimmi is heavy into both boys love and yuri manga and always carries such reading material wherever she goes. In the anime adaptation, she was even hopeful that Azuki's newly sparked rivalry with Yan-Min had underlying implications. Azuki and Yan-Min immediately refute the idea.
- The entirety of the schoolgirl replacement crew for the Benten Maru Squee when they see Lynn Lambratta and Jenny Doolittle kiss in one arc of Bodacious Space Pirates.
- In Blend-S, Akizuki's problem with working in Cafe Stile is that the customers are mostly male, so there's no way he can activate his Yuri Goggles.
- Ririka the housemother in Comic Girls starts being this from high school, was a Yuri Genre Sequential Artist at one point, and left that job to become a housemother at the publisher's female dorm because she prefers just observing and shipping more than actually writing the story.
- Not only is Asteroid in Love's Moe "Suzu" Suzuya a Lipstick Lesbian herself, she also prefers same-sex relationships among her friends. For example, she is mean to any boy who tries to get close to Mira. When Mira reunites with her Childhood Friend Ao, though, she declares the two are "Old Flame," states she's totally okay with Mira entering into a relationship with another girl, and without her intervention the main duo may become more awkward.
- Ah... and Mm... Are All She Says:
- Tanaka says it's one of her favorite genres and squees over Toda's yuri manuscript, but quickly clarifies that it doesn't mean she's lesbian or bisexual (she may be, she never shows any interest in men).
- Toda appears to prefer yuri (doing it for the contest even though it's a less popular genre), though she'll also draw straight material.
Toda: I'll win with the power of yuri.
- Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: The protagonist, Leon, is one, getting excited by the closeness and prospect of something happening between his main Love Interests Angelica and Olivia, who are Bait-and-Switch Lesbians (to his disappointment). His Robot Buddy once created a simulation of the two women beginning an encounter, which gave Leon a Nose Bleed. As well, during a Dream Episode, the two make moves on a Distaff Counterpart of himself.
- I Love Yuri and I got Bodyswapped with a Fujoshi!: Yoshida's a pretty extreme case. He has Yuri artwork and girly body pillows all over his bedroom, and prefers to sleep on the floor while two of said body pillows lay right next to each other in his bed, rather than get between them.
- Love Live! Sunshine!!: Riko Sakurauchi is subtly implied to be one, as during Aqours' trip to Tokyo she sneaks off to buy yuri literature. She treats it like her own Porn Stash, and freaks out when Chika stumbles upon it.
- Ayakashi Triangle: After Suzu clears out her internet Porn Stash, Kanade points out she also has yuri books under her bed. Considering Suzu at this was point in the middle of a Two Person Bisexual Love Triangle, her priorities are rather eyebrow-raising.
Video Games
- In Fire Emblem Fates, when Soleil is not daydreaming about a cute girl she could be talking to, she likes to lovingly sigh and let her fantasies run wild with two women hanging out with each other.
Visual Novels
- The cast of Kindred Spirits on the Roof is almost entirely yuri, but among them it's the titular two ghosts Megumi and Sachi who spend their time watching and speculating on the girl/girl pairings of the school. Ano is a more modern interpretation, using game and anime terminology and sometimes codifying her friends as genre archetypes.
- The yuri erotic game series Sono Hanabira Ni Kuchizuke Wo is predictably full of these. Whenever a group of girls witnesses a yuri act, just like clockwork, many squees will be heard.
- In Strawberry Vinegar, a girl named Mayuri watches Rie and Licia on the bus during their school trip, becoming more and more excited as Licia gushes over her.
Mayuri: Ah~ I need to make notes quickly! I'm going to turn this into a epic, original story detailing the true love between two shy, sensitive school girls, and make loads of money at Comiket!
Web Comics
- Tedd, the Mad Scientist from El Goonish Shive has an interest in gender-bending pretty much everybody in every way, but with a notable love for girl-and-girl.
- Marie-Neige from Frivolesque enbodies this trope. She has various posters of yuri heroines on her wall, reads yuri fanfiction, ships anime characters as a hobby and has a dakimakura of her best friend Chloé in her underwear on her bed. She doesn't seem to be ashamed of it in any way, and openly hits on every pretty girl she meets.
- Gary from Ménage à 3 is a yuri fan, while Zii is a Yaoi Fangirl.
- Homestuck: Caliborn heavily fetishizes normal human romantic actions such as hugging or holding hands as porn, and is especially interested in seeing "the bitches" — i.e. Jane and Roxy - together. Note that Caliborn is from an alien race that reproduces through two beings - one good, one evil - fighting each other for dominance. In other words, Caliborn considers normal human romance to be deviant alien porn.
- Meredith from Blitzcrafter mentions writing lesbian incest fanfiction shortly after her introduction.
- Mage & Demon Queen has Melathia, the lamia general of Queen Vel's army. Not only is she an active Shipper on Deck for the two title characters, she also writes Yuri love stories that include thinly veiled fan fiction of the main characters as a "side-occupation".
Web Original
- With some Character Development, The Nostalgia Critic went from salivating over catfights to still being into girl/girl, but also ripping movies like The Haunting (1999) to shreds for just treating gayness as fanservice.
- Twilight Sparkle in Friendship is Witchcraft has an abnormal obsession with shipping her friends Rarity and Applejack, to the point where she wrote a several dozen chapter long fanfic featuring unsubtle self-inserts of them together and forced them to reenact it.
Real Life
- Sappho is famous for being one of the earliest writers of homoerotic encounters between women.
- Ume Aoki, the artist of Hidamari Sketch and Puella Magi Madoka Magica admits to shipping Madoka x Homura and Sayaka x Kyoko. And possibly Mami x Charlotte too.
