Since homosexual males are called "gay," homosexual females should be called "ecstatic."
A genre in Japanese media that focuses on female/female romance and can focus either on the sex or on the emotional aspects of the relationship. In Japanese, "yuri" literally means "lily" but has also come to refer to works found within the genre.
In the past, a disproportionate amount of yuri stories have
ended tragically or
inconclusively. Some would move on to boy-girl relationships with the
romantic two-girl friendship as only a steppingstone. Others were driven
insane when the other girl enters a "real" relationship with a boy, and still others
stepped back to let
their love be happy with another. Luckily, this is changing as more and more couples are allowed to have happy, committed and
canon endings.
There are generally three couple types that can often be found within the genre. The three most popular couples are as follows:
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The pairing of a very or relatively masculine girl (frequently Bifauxnen) with a decisively feminine girl. This pairing can emulate a lot of the dynamics of heterosexual couples, a la Seme and Uke, and often shows Takarazuka influences.
- Sempai Kouhai: A very common in Japanese GL works pairing of two students, one older and one younger. The older girl will generally be more elegant and the younger, more innocent. The former is often a Yamato Nadeshiko and referred to as "Onee-sama" by the latter, who, in turn, may be a tomboy (which is considered a childish trait in Japan) to emphasize her relative lack of maturity.
- Teacher/Student Romance: While not as popular as the other two couple type, teacher/student pairings can often be found within the genre.
In Japan, this genre is popular enough to have found its own mainstream publishing niche. The term "Yuri" was coined by Itou Bungaku, founder and editor of the magazine "
Barazoku", a Japanese magazine for gay men, wherein he termed men the
barazoku, or "rose tribe", and women the
yurizoku, or "lily tribe". Occasionally, some fans use
shoujo-ai ("girl's love") and "yuri" to indicate different degrees of explicitness. However, in Japan shoujo-ai refers to
liking little girls. In Japan, yuri is also known as "Girls Love" (
in English), or GL, a term created for paralellism to the male version, "
Boys' Love" or BL.
This is the genre; couple-specific examples should only be listed below if they're the focus of the series. For yuri-style couples (and unrequited crushes) in other genres, see
Token Yuri Girls. Also see:
Slash Fic,
Everyone Is Gay,
Schoolgirl Lesbians, and
Romantic Two-Girl Friendship.
The
Spear Counterpart of this genre is the
Boys' Love Genre (targeted towards women) and the
Bara Genre (targeted towards gay men).
See also our guide on how to
Write A Yuri Manga.
Has nothing to do with Yuri Lowenthal.
Poor guy.
(Sub-)Tropes frequently associated with the genre
This is a East Asian-only genre. Please limit examples to East Asian and Animesque media only.
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Prolific Creators
- Shuninta Amano:
- Miyabi Fujieda:
- Shizuru Hayashiya:
- Shoko Iwami:
- Milk Morinaga:
- Akiko Morishima:
- Go Nagai. While not known mainly for it, has proven himself partial to yuri.
- Natsuneko. Has only written one-shots so far (see full list on her page).
- Kaoru Sudoo. Sadly, seems to have quietly slipped off the radar after OKG was cancelled.
- Akihito Yoshitomi. Is well-known for his contributions to the genre, though he tends to take weird approaches:
- Blue Drop, although the anime is much less explicit with its Girls' Love than the first and third manga of the series. The second manga Tenshi no Bokura moves away from Girls' Love, as the focus is on a heterosexual pair.
- Sisterism is a GL manga about two childhood friends falling in love with each other's little sisters. Who are both 12.
- Two and Two is a slightly different take on a similar setup, with two schoolgirl roommates discovering their attraction to each other only after they independently start dating older women. Both of whom are childhood friends, so it's complicated. Also, at least one pairing is into D/s.
Original Manga
- Aoi Hana is a Girls' Love series that combines Slice of Life and a Love Dodecahedron.
- Bloomer Blue Maniacs, a oneshot comedy yuri work.
- Chirality is a seinen Girls' Love manga with a postapocalyptic soft-Science Fiction setting.
- Creo The Crimson Crises, a supernatural shoujoesque Girls' Love manga with a slight cynical edge.
- Ebisu-san and Hotei-san, a Will They or Won't They? story about two office ladies, one of whom is a workaholic perfectionist and the other being a jealous tsundere.
- First Love Sisters, a shojo GL manga fairly typical to the genre but still a quality work in its own right.
- Girl X Girl X Boy, a manga dealing with a type 2 love triangle between two girls and a boy.
- Gokujou Drops is for people who don't think Girls' Love uses Seme/Uke enough. Mixed with Unwanted Harem.
- Gunjo is a dark and twisted take on the genre.
- Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu was the only yuri venture by a circle that specializes in Boys' Love Genre. As a result, a lot of yaoi tropes are mixed in with the yuri conventions here.
- Hen: Sort of. It has a lot more heterosexual sex scenes than your average yuri manga.
- Honey Crush is a comedic take on the genre mixed with the supernatural.
- Hoshikawa Ginza District 4, is a Teacher/Student Romance yuri work.
- Husky and Medley chronicles the budding romance between the eponymous pair of high school students who attend an all girls school, and is supposedly Based on a True Story.
- Junsui Adolescence, a manga that deals mainly with a relationship between a student and her school nurse.
- Kannazuki no Miko intertwines a Girls' Love romance with a Humongous Mecha + Magical Girl plot. After demoting Chikane and Himeko to extras in Kyoshiro To Towa No Sora, Kaishaku once again have given them the main role in Zettai Shoujo Seiiki Amnesian, throwing an Ancient Conspiracy into the pot.
- Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl has a Love Triangle involving three Schoolgirl Lesbians with the added complication that the main character used to be a boy.
- Kimochi No Katachi, a manga that mixes self-discovery, young love, and gayngst with much attention paid to realism.
- Kurogane Pukapuka Tai is a love comedy set on a World War II-era Imperial Japanese warship.
- The Last Uniform
- Love My Life is a gentle Slice of Life story that delves into the gay culture of Japan as it follows the life of a young lesbian who had just come out of the closet.
- Maka Maka is a yuri hentai manga about two college aged girls.
- Manga No Tsukurikata.
- Maya's Funeral Procession is another one from the same era.
- Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, basically a Les Yay Fanservice fest.
- Octave, a fairly realistic and mature Girls' Love manga.
- Oniisama E is one of the oldest and most influential yuri mangas.
- Oniyuri-san and Himeyuri-san is about a Student Council President and her treasurer (who both happen to be school idols) in a secret romantic relationship. The title says it all.
- Pieta: A josei manga that contains a dark psychologic yuri story.
- Poor Poor Lips: A Gag Series Yon Koma with surprising depth about the lives of a rich, lesbian employer and her poor employee.
- Plica is a slice-of-life four-panel comic about adult lesbians (so it's not really girls' love, but...)
- Prism
- Saki is a yuri subtext Mahjong anime that holds the record as the series with the most yuri themed blushing. One interesting note is that the anime plays its Girls' Love up more than the manga.
- Sasameki Koto happily marries relationship angst with school life comedy.
- Satou Kashi No Dangan Wa Uchinukenai, a shojo manga that follows the relationship between a schoolgirl who wishes to rely on no one but herself, and a self-proclaimed mermaid who must find true friendship in one month's time or she will fade away forever.
- Shiro
- Shiroi Heya No Futari is possibly the first girls' love manga.
- Shoujo Sect is a famous Plot with Porn example.
- Stray Little Devil
- Tetragrammaton Labyrinth
- Tokimeki Mononoke Jogakkou: A highly ecchi series.
- Wife and Wife is the slice of life story of a young lesbian couple who have recently moved in together, serialized in Yuri Hime S.
- Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: A main plot element falls into this.
- Yuri Monogatari is not a single manga but an annual anthology of indie yuri works. Also notable for containing yuri manga-style comics produced all over the world (so it's not "manga" in the strictest sense of the word).
Original Anime
Original Light Novels
Video Games
Visual Novels
Other
- The manga Claudine, written by Oniisama e...'s author Riyoko Ikeda, is often classified as Yuri Genre. However, this is a mistake. The main character, Claudine de Montesse, is actually Trans sexual: he searches for female love interests, yet identifies himself as male despite his female body. (And is referred as such by other characters: i.e, his Unlucky Childhood Friend Rosemarie says that Claudine is "a true man, given a woman's body"). Therefore, it'd be technically incorrect to classify this particular manga as yuri; homosexuality and transsexuality are both LGBQT issues, but are very different.
