Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Yuri Genre
aka: Yuri

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/girl_friends_5804.png
Since homosexual boys are called "gay," homosexual girls should be called... "ecstatic".
"Yuri is a blessed thing. The refined and subtle actions, the warmth, of a world where only girls reside...yet also the pain of interpersonal politics and selfish intrigue. And finally, those strong emotional bonds before which no hardship is an insurmountable obstacle. Verily, a finely-honed mental and spiritual realm for transcending the crude conceptions of the male mind!"
— Hanadera Keisuke, Yuri Danshi

Yuri (百合)Translation refers to a Japanese Media genre about sapphic romance and sexuality. Yuri works traditionally focus either on romantic or sexual feelings, but increasingly have both. Western fans will sometimes use the term "shoujo-ai" to refer to romance-specific, less-explicit works, while using "yuri" to refer to more sexually explicit work. However, in Japan, "shoujo-ai" often refers to girl-focused pedophilia, and yuri is also known as "Girls' Love" (in English), or GL, a term created in common with the more popular male version, "Boys' Love" or BL.

Yuri is a genre distinguished by many tropes, stereotypes, and specific plotlines or interactions. The term "yuri" is so strongly associated with those tropes and stereotypes that some Japanese yuri fans use a different term, like "bian" (short for lesbian)note , "Onna x Onna" ("woman and woman" (the x is usually pronounced as "to", "and" in Japanese)), or "Onna-doushi" ("women together") for works which are actually by/for lesbian women. Yuri is commonly an idealized and unrealistic portrayal of sapphic relationships, like most romance, and is not representative of actual sapphic people, culture, community, and experiences. This is, in part, due to the genre's high fluff content.

In Japan, yuri stories and portrayal depend a lot on the target audience demographic:

  • Yuri aimed at girls ("Shoujo yuri") is commonly hyperfeminine and "pure" but may feature some degree of gender-bending or cross-dressing, with the bifauxnen in a more traditionally male role. In either case, it's usually focused on stories of female solidarity, idealized femininity and gender transgression, with physical displays of affection rarely going beyond hugging and kissing.
  • Yuri aimed at adult women ("josei yuri") is usually less stereotyped and fairly realistic, like most fiction aimed at adults. Many works in the demographic are targeted at actual sapphic women, which is why this type is often called "yuri for lesbians".note 
  • Yuri aimed at men ("seinen yuri") tends to emphasize (or overemphasize) sweetness, femininity, girlishness, innocence, purity, and moe generally. This type often shows a very romanticized or idyllic view of female adolescence or childhood. Alternatively, there are very explicit erotic stories focusing on fetishized lewd portrayals of sapphic romance or sexuality. These works also often fall under the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things category.
  • Yuri aimed at boys ("Shōnen yuri") tends to only exist as a secondary or tertiary genre under the main focus/es (see "background/subtext" yuri below). Often portrayals of sapphic romance is subsumed under sapphic sexuality in these works, often working the fetishized Girl on Girl Is Hot.
  • Yuri aimed at fans of the genre ("niche yuri") is found in specialized magazines where all the stories are about sapphic romance or sexuality. The first magazine of this type was Yuri Shimai, which was followed by Comic Yuri Hime and many others. These magazines try to cater to as wide an audience as possible, and publish both "pure" and erotic stories, with young and adult characters, and in all sorts of settings.
  • "Background" or "Subtext" yuri is a cross-demographic type of yuri that has been gaining a foothold in Japan. These works portray female protagonists (often Action Girls) in lasting lesbian relationships, without actually being specifically about these relationships. Though this element has the same status that a Romance Arc in non-romantic fiction does, such works are classified as yuri in addition to whatever their primary genre is.

Due to the Japanese's love for tragic stories of doomed couples, a disproportionately large amount of yuri works, especially older ones, tend to end in sadness, tragedy, obscurity, or audience-attracting sham. This is slowly changing and more fictional couples are allowed to have happy, committed, and Canon endings as time goes on.

When a yuri work was made has a large impact of exactly what tropes it uses. Older yuri of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s tend to be more rigid in their adherence to standard tropes. Recent yuri works tend to break the traditional mold much more often as the genre expands and gains more mainstream acceptance.

The most common tropes you find in yuri, especially older yuri, are the Senpai/Kohai dynamic, Tomboy and Girly Girl, and Teacher/Student Romance. All three of these tropes can be cast in a particular light to make them appear to mirror or emulate heterosexual couples (see the Analysis page).

The Chinese equivalent of yuri is baihe, which much like "yuri" means "lily". While baihe works do exist in China, they are not as prominent or well-known as danmei.

This entry is for the genre specifically. Works should be listed only if they are released as, described as, and/or feature yuri. Couple-specific examples should only be listed below if they're the focus of the series. See also: Slash Fic and Cast Full of Gay. Compare and contrast Pseudo-Romantic Friendship. The Spear Counterparts of Yuri are Yaoi, Shounen-Ai, and Bara, which feature male-male romance and sexuality.

Links and Resources

    Subtropes associated with the Yuri genre 

Creators and Examples

This genre is specific to Eastern Asia. East Asian and Animesque media ONLY.

    open/close all folders 

    Prolific Creators 

    Anime adapted from Original Manga 
  • Akuma no Riddle tells the story of Class Black, a group of high-school girls who are actually assassins competing to take the life of a classmate, Haru Ichinose, in exchange for having their deepest desire granted. However, one of the girls, Tokaku Azuma, finds herself curiously drawn to Haru, and ends up becoming her protector instead.
  • Aria the Scarlet Ammo Double A is an action girl take on the genre.
  • Bloom Into You tells the eventual love story of high school freshman Yuu, who believes that she can't fall in love, and her senpai Touko, who loves her but doesn't want her love in return.
  • Citrus is a drama yuri manga of a lover/sister relationship between two step sisters, one's a gyaru adapting to her new conservative all-girls school looking for a het partner at first, the other an ice queen Yamato Nadeshiko with daddy issues.
  • Destiny of the Shrine Maiden intertwines a Girls' Love romance with a Humongous Mecha + Magical Girl plot. After demoting Chikane and Himeko to extras in Shattered Angels, Kaishaku once again gave them the main role in Zettai Shoujo Seiiki Amnesian, throwing an Ancient Conspiracy into the pot.
  • Fragtime is a yuri love story between Moritani Misuzu, a girl who has the ability to freeze time for three minutes a day, and Murakami Haruka, a popular girl who is mysteriously immune to her power.
  • Gushing Over Magical Girls is about a girl who admires Magical Girls more than anything, but after being duped into becoming a Dark Magical Girl she winds up awakening to her sadistic sexual desires.
  • Happy Sugar Life is a highly dark and highly twisted take on the genre, involving a Yandere kidnapping a child under the pretense of love.
  • Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, a comedy manga with a lot of Animal Theme Naming.
  • Kase-san is a fluffy lesbian manga with a slightly more realistic edge about a Tomboy and Girly Girl becoming friends and then, slowly, awkwardly, lovers.
  • Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl has a Love Triangle involving three lesbians with the added complication that the main character used to be a boy. Its place in the genre is sometimes questioned, both because of its Discount Lesbians premise and because it ran in the Shōnen magazine Dengeki Daioh.
  • Konohana Kitan: About fox girls working at a supernatural inn. It began life in the magazine Yuri Hime S, and even after being relaunched in a different magazine, the romantic attraction between female characters is still clear. The most prominent pairings are Satsuki/Yuzu and Natsume/Ren.
  • Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Office-worker Miss Kobayashi saves a dragon by removing a Holy Sword from it. As such, the dragon falls in love with the human woman and becomes her maid.
  • Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, basically a Les Yay Fanservice fest.
  • Sailor Moon: While not conceived as a yuri manga, has been claimed as such by yuri fans due to its long lasting impact and influence on the yuri genre. Particularly with Haruka and Michiru who are in love.
  • Sakura Trick: Two girls try to keep their friendship unique and special. By kissing each other. A lot.
  • Strange Love is a weird mix of this and Sex Comedy staring a sexy redheaded schoolgirl who develops a crush on another female student after breaking up with her asshole rock star boyfriend.
  • Sweet Blue Flowers is a Girls' Love series that combines Slice of Life and a Love Dodecahedron.
  • Tachibanakan Triangle is a comedy series about an ordinary girl stuck in a love triangle.
  • UzaMaid: Our Maid Is Way Too Annoying! concerns an ex-JSDF veteran named Tsubame Kamoi who becomes the maid of a half-Russian girl named Misha Takanashi. Given how Kamoi has a hard Lolita complex, she tries to become Misha's pal despite Misha's refusal.
  • Venus Versus Virus is an action manga that's heavy on the subtext about a teenage girl who begins to work with an Elegant Gothic Lolita sporting girl who fights monsters named Viruses.
  • WATATEN!: an Angel Flew Down to Me: College student Miyako Hoshino becomes smitten with her younger sister's best friend went she brought her home. Spends her time making snacks for her in the hopes of having her dress up in some cosplay outfits she had made.
  • Whisper Me a Love Song about a girl falling in love with both music and her senpai.
  • Whispered Words happily marries relationship angst with school life comedy.
  • YuruYuri: a zany Slice of Life series focusing on a group of middle school girls and their adventures. While the Ship Tease between the characters is made much more explicit than the typical Schoolgirl Series, most of the girls' crushes on each other are one-sided, which like everything else is usually Played for Laughs.

    Original Manga 
  • How Do We Relationship? is about two girls in their freshman year of college exploring what it means to be in a relationship.
  • Husky and Medley chronicles the budding romance between the eponymous pair of high school students who attend an all girls school. Based on a True Story, the real couple as of 2019 are celebrating a decade together.
  • I Can't Believe I Slept with You An unemployed woman makes a deal with her landlady to pay back the rent she owes, resulting in the two gradually falling in love.
  • I Don't Know Which One Is Love After being rejected by her crush, a young woman enters college to get a girlfriend... and promptly finds that most of her new acquaintances are possible candidates.
  • I Married My Female Friend is about two long-time female friends who agree to get married if they're still single five years after their Coming of Age Day ceremony. They make good on that promise and must work on making that relationship work.
  • Is My Hobby Weird is a Slice of Life mini-series about Maiko Fujiyama, who spends her morning commute staring up other girls' skirts to admire their buttocks. Which is how she meets Risa Tsuzuki, her ideal matchnote . The story follows their sexual escapades and their blossoming relationship, using a mixture of comedy and light drama.
  • Junsui Adolescence, a manga that deals mainly with a relationship between a student and her school nurse.
  • Kakeochi Girl is a josei manga about a woman meeting her first love again only to find out that she is currently pregnant and is planning to get married. A very gayngst story.
  • Otome no Teikoku: Also known as Virgin's Empire, a Slice of Life series about school girls and their relationships, with more than a little nudity. Created by the author of the Cult Classic Maka-Maka (2003).
  • Our Yuri Started With Me Getting Rejected In A Dream Tsukushi has a dream of her Childhood Friend, Hinoka, rejecting her Love Confession in a dream.
  • 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...)
  • Princess Candle is a historical fiction manga about a knight, protector, and eventual lover of the princess who tries to rescue her from an evil lord who wants to use her to make himself king.
  • The Princess Of Sylph is a fantasy manga about a princess who recently lost her father and brother forcing her to take the throne in their place. However, she is forced to grieve on her own until she meets with a nun who provides her with support.
  • Prism is a manga about a girl who fell in love with a 'boy' in elementary only for them to be reunited years later with the revelation 'he' is really a very pretty girl. Written by the same mangaka as Stretch.
  • Rock It, Girl!! is a comedy drama series about an all-girl rock band. Kaname is busking on her guitar when she is heckled on the street by a strange girl who very rudely tells her her singing voice is shit. She's later recruited by a music producer who bluntly tells her that while she has potential as a guitarist, her singing voice on the other hand is dreadful, and that she'll need to integrate a band if she doesn't want to squander her talent. Kaname meets the rest of the band, bassist Katsura, drummer Haruko, and the lead vocalist is a teenage prodigy called Seira, who just so happens to be the very same girl who heckled Kaname before.
  • A Room For Two is about two girls with completely opposite personalities becoming roommoates and maybe more.
  • Saki Shinohayu -dawn of age-, an ongoing 2013 prequel spinoff of Saki
  • 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.
  • Semelparous: An ecchi series about warriors who battle kaiju invading from an Alternate Universe, with the talented rookie protagonist forming a Battle Couple with her veteran mentor.
  • She Becomes a Tree is about a woman with tree parts who falls in love with her female coworker.
  • She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat
  • Shinozaki-san Ki wo Ota Shika ni! About a girl who is in the closet... about being an otaku. And sure, she may have some weird fantasies about her friend Kaede, but that's just because she's so cute it's a crime that she should be an otaku. So Akina must save Kaede from that terrible lifestyle... and maybe get a special thank you when they're alone.
  • Shiro
  • Shiroi Heya no Futari is possibly the first girls' love manga.
  • SHWD is about two women who work at SHWD, a grizzled group of office workers-meet-special forces that fight the Dynamis, the organic anti-human weapons that still lurk the streets of Japan after a recent war.
  • Social Anxiety Vs Yuri
  • Sorry, but I'm Not into Yuri is about a high school girl who tries to use a Love Potion to get her teacher to fall for her, only to accidentally end up attracting numerous girls to her instead.
  • Strawberry Fields Once Again: A time travel romance. A high school girl named Akira believes 3D romance isn’t for her only to encounter a girl named Pure who claims to have traveled from several years in the future and is her ‘Amore’.
  • Stray Little Devil
  • Stretch is a Slice of Life series about two women living together. After the first few chapters, it becomes clear that their feelings for each other run deep. It's never explicitly stated if they're lovers, but that may only be a matter of time.
  • The Summer You Were There: Two high school girls agree to enter into a temporary pretend romance for the summer.
  • Superwomen in Love!: The evil general Honey Trap falls in love with her enemy Rapid Rabbit and ultimately ends up switching sides to fight alongside Rabbit against her former comrades.
  • Swap<->Swap is about two schoolgirls with opposite personalities that can switch bodies by kissing.
  • Sweet Magic Syndrome
  • Tadokoro-san features an Opposites Attract romance between a shy, introverted manga artist and a popular School Idol.
  • A Timid Woman Longing For Her Delivery Girl is about an introverted freelancer falling in love with the young woman who falls in love with the woman who delivers her packages.
  • Tetragrammaton Labyrinth where the main couple are demon slayers in 20th century London.
  • Tokimeki ★ Mononoke Jogakkou: A highly ecchi series.
  • Tsubame Tip-Off! is a good example of a Tomboy and Girly Girl romance brewing: the protagonist, Tsubame, is an insecure Huge Schoolgirl with low self-esteem and a penchant for messing things up by accident. However, one day she stumbles upon Ibis, a short dark-skinned blonde who's the star basketball player of Tsubame's school. Love at First Sight (a onesided one... for now) occurs, and Tsubame accidentally accepts Ibis' offer to join the basketball club. From there on, Tsubame and Ibis form an inseparable couple (even if not yet an official one). Also has tropes of Gaming and Sports Anime & Manga and is a case of Shown Their Work: the author is a fan of the NBA and frequent comparisons to successful players are made. Newcomers to the sport need not be worried as explanations for just about every complex play are given out very generously.
  • Under One Roof
  • Unicorn And The Lonesome Girl is about a high school girl accidentally summoning a unicorn girl who was obsessed with virgins.
  • The Useless Senpai and The Talented Kouhai is about an inept third-year basketball player bonding with a talented first-year.
  • Vampeerz My Peer Vampires is a love story between a human girl and a vampire.
  • 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.
  • A Witch's Love at the End of the World is about two girls who attend a school for witches. Alice Keating, a prodigy and descendent of the school's founder, is assigned to be the tutor of Mari Muguruma, a strange girl who seems more human than witch. The two grow closer and learn about the secrets of the world of witches.
  • Yamanko! is about a Tsundere cat girl and an androgynous girl with self-esteem issues, don't worry it's a comedy.
  • You Are Totally in Love With Me, Aren't You?: A schoolgirl's friend is in love with her, but she denies it by claiming that it was "normal."
  • Yume Mitaina Hoshi Mitaina
  • Yuri is My Job!: The main character ends up working at a café themed after an all-girls boarding school, and ends up becoming interested in her coworker.
  • Yurika's Campus Life: Yurika finds herself stuck in a whirlwind of lesbian romance and sex at her college campus. Why "stuck" is because while almost every female is really into Girls Love, Yurika herself is straight and desperately wants a boyfriend. But unfortunately for her, Yurika's economic situation and bizarre condition of attracting only the same sex while simultaneously turning off guys make this dream impossible.
  • Yuriota ni Yuri wa Gohatto Desu?!: A wallflower named Fuyu attends a prestigious, Maria Watches Over Us-type girls' academy to observe the beautiful yuri, but when a gaudy gyaru threatens everything she holds dear, Fuyu offers herself up as a distraction to preserve the sanctity of girls' love — only to find herself being drawn into a romance with the gyaru instead.
  • Yuri Moyou is a manga about four lesbian sisters and their love lives.
  • Yuzumori-san is a laid back yet slightly fidgety tale about the daily lives of a grade schooler and her high school friend.

    Original Anime 
  • Kuttsukiboshi: A drama ecchi two-episode-OVA about a schoolgirl with telekinetic powers, who has a crush on her new Secret-Keeper friend.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, breaks series tradition by not only being the first mainline Gundam series with a female lead pilot but by also giving her a female love interest and co-protagonist. Notably written by Ichiro Okouchi who wrote the light novel adaptation of Utena.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena is possibly the most famous Girls' Love series, even though the series itself never goes beyond hints between the main two characters.
  • Simoun is set In a World… where everyone younger than 17 is female.
  • Steel Angel Kurumi 2, a Harem Anime with a female harem lead and a small entirely female harem.
  • Symphogear is an Action Girl series with subtext so loud, it might as well be text, with no less than 3 official lesbian couples among the heroes. Hibiki / Miku, Kirika / Shirabe, and Tsubasa / Kanade. Tsubasa / Maria is less obvious, and Chris is shipped by fans with everyone, but probably isn't interested at all due to her backstory.
  • Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid is a "beautiful girl sexy battle action" anime from the mind of Kenichiro Takaki and directed by Hiraku Kaneko. Girls infected with the Armed Virus are quarantined on a remote island. These girls are either Extars, who transform into weapons at the peak of their sexual arousal, and Liberators, who can bring out an Extar's hidden power.
  • Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito. Originally a Visual Novel, but it was the anime that brought the yuri subplot to the forefront. The VN has since suffered Adaptation Displacement.
  • Yuri Kuma Arashi, an anime by Kunihiko Ikuhara about bears who have risen up to eat humans and two bears who infiltrate as schoolgirls and are very keen to eat girls. Has very strong yuri elements - the first minutes of the show involve the protagonist declaring her love for her girlfriend, and the OP is filled with images of happy girls hugging while naked.

    Original Literature 
  • Adachi and Shimamura is a Light Novel series by Hitoma Iruma (author of Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl and Regarding Saeki Sayaka) about two girls who meet each other while both skipping class and form a friendship that slowly becomes something more.
  • The Executioner and Her Way of Life is a deconstruction of the Isekai genre. When beings are summoned from the world known as 'Japan', they are seen as potential threats to the world rather than saviors. The executioner known as Menou is tasked with executing the otherworlder Akari, but she is unable to due to Akari's power. This forces Menou to go on a journey with Akari which results in feelings between the two to develop over time.
  • Girls Kingdom: Through a twist of circumstance, Misaki ends up becoming the deputy chairwoman (and fellow student)'s seraph (read: maid), and over time they grow closer to one another, developing a strong, possibly romantic relationship. There is also one other yuri couple in the story. J-Novel Club tags the series as yuri, as well.
  • I'm In Love With the Villainess is a Web Serial Novel turned Light Novel about Rae Taylor, an office worker who reincarnates as the protagonist of her favorite Otome Game. As the title implies, she eschews the intended love interests to romance its female antagonist, Claire François—throwing the original plot Off the Rails as a consequence.
  • Last and First Idol is a Seiun Award-winning "existential widescreen yuri baroque proletariat hard sci-fi idol story" by Gengen Kusano that was later grouped with two of his other Yuri works with sci-fi elements (Evolution Girls and Dark Seiyuu) and published as a collection. Last And First Idol is notable in that it is the first debut work to win the Seiun Award in 42 years and in that it started out as a Love Live! fanfiction.
  • A Lily Blooms in Another World is a "reincarnated in another world" story about Miyako, who is reincarnated as the protagonist of her favorite otome game, Drop Fantasia. But rather than pursue the original Love Interest of the game, her heart is drawn to her favorite character, Fuuka Hamilton— the original villainess of the game! When Miyako confesses her love to Fuuka and proposes that they run away together, Fuuka agrees, on one condition: Miyako must make her say “I’m happy” in 14 days.
  • Living As I Please As A Loli Demon King has the Trapped in Another World and Reincarnation crossed with Gender Bender variety. Ryusei Homura is a healthy and very horny teen boy whose entire high-school class is summoned to another world without any kind of informed consent, is murdered by a class-mate, reincarnates into a female Demon King, and then has no issue sexing up any pretty lady she can get consent from, even if she's a bit less than honest with her approach.
  • The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess is the story of two young women who will change the world forever with magiology that blends magic and technology together.
  • Making Progress On Yuri Before The Deadline story of a young girl who willingly outed herself as a lesbian to her friends only to end up as a social pariah, and she runs away. Thanks to her cousin, she ends up the live in assistant to a writer. Their relationship develops from there.
  • Maria Watches Over Us is often considered a yuri series, though it's more about Pseudo Romantic Friendships between students in an all-girls high school. While none of the relationships go past subtext (with one exception in the backstory), it is nevertheless iconic of the yuri genre and has had a lot of influence on other yuri works.
  • Otherside Picnic is the story of two young women exploring the mysterious "Otherside," a realm where strange phenomenon and anomalies based around Japanese Creepypasta and urban legends manifest. While the series is primarily classified as a Sci-Fi Horror, a major element is the developing relationship between Toriko and Sorawo, one that explicitly becomes romantic by the third volume.
  • Please Bully Me, Miss Villainess! is a combination of this genre and the "Reborn as Villainess" Story, where the "original heroine" falls in love with the "villainess" while the latter is Unknowingly in Love for a long time.
  • Roll Over and Die is a dark fantasy novel taking place in a video game-like world. The protagonist, Flum, is sold into slavery due to having all zeroes in her stats, only to eventually discover she has the innate ability to use cursed weapons safely. Along with a fellow freed slave named Milkit, Flum works to reclaim her life while also stumbling upon a dark conspiracy.
  • Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out So I Teamed Up With A Mythical Sorceress! is the story of Tanya Artemiciov being kicked out of her adventuring party because her leader thinks she needs to start thinking about marrying and having children. While "venting" (casting Explosion spells in the nearby wasteland while cussing her head off) she accidentally awakens Laplace, the legendary Sorceress, and the two decide to team up so Tanya can have her revenge... all while Laplace and Tanya grow closer.
  • Side-By-Side Dreamers is about Saya, a girl with an unusually severe case of insomnia, and Hitsuji, a girl with the ability to put anyone to sleep. In pursuing Hitsuji, Saya is brought into the fold of the Sleepwalkers, people who enter the realm of dreams to defend people from parasitic monsters know as the Suiju. Saya joins the fight, all the while getting closer to Hitsuji.
  • Strawberry Panic! is set at a cluster of three all-girls' schools; naturally, the all-female cast only ever show romantic interest in other girls.
  • Ta Shi Zhujiao stars Yu Ru Bing, a girl from the real world, being dragged into the world of a novel so that she can fix the BUG - the main antagonist Tang Han Qiu who won't follow the script. Yu Ru Bing instead joins Tang Han Qiu's company, becomes her biggest fan, and her best friend. Later on this friendship turns to (mutual) love.
  • There's No Freaking Way I'll be Your Lover! Unless… is a story about a socially awkward girl who tries to befriend the most popular girl in school to improve her social life. Much to her surprise, said popular girl ends up falling in love with her. Since she doesn’t want to be anything but friends, they start a match where each will try to convince the other that the relationship they envision – best friends or lovers – is the best for them.

    Video Games 
  • After I met that catgirl, my questlist got too long!: The focal protagonist is a Charm Witch that explicitly finds beauty in other women, and all of the game's routes focus on her romancing different female party members.
  • Black Closet, another Catholic school full of girls sighing over each other.
  • Corruption of Laetitia: The main party members, who are all women, have Relationship Values with Celeste that can be increased through story and optional events. If one of these values is high enough at the end of the game, the epilogue will show Celeste getting married to that character.
  • Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle , a rare Eastern RPG example.
  • Hand In Hand is a horror RPG Maker game where two schoolgirls, one a delinquent and the other the orderly student council president, become trapped in their school at night with mysterious entities who might be the spirits of the three kokeshi dolls kept in the school.
  • Luxaren Allure, Freeware RPG Maker Eastern RPG. It revolves around the relationship between The Chosen One and her love interest, a student who became corrupted by cursed armor and turned to evil. The heroine's squire also forms a Beta Couple with a Naga.
  • Nights of Azure, an Action RPG from Gust Corporation revolving around the relationship between a Half-Demon Knight and the Saint she loves and protects.
  • Omega Labyrinth Life: All of the main characters are girls interested in other girls.
  • Rabi-Ribi is a Metroidvania featuring many of the telltale tropes of a yuri story. The game has a nearly all-female cast, many of whom show romantic attraction towards Erina, the main character.
  • Sakura Dungeon is an H-Game example revolving around a Kitsune dungeon master and a heroic female knight who team up to reclaim the dungeon from the new dungeon lord and stop her plans.
  • Samurai Maiden is a game about a modern Japanese high schooler, Tsumugi, getting transported into a fantasy version of Japan during its Warring States Era, specifically during the Honno-ji incident and the assasination of Nobunaga Oda, but instead of waging war against the living, Tsumugi has to fight supernatural beings and prevent the resurrection of the Demon Lord. Yuri makes up a gigantic part of the core gameplay and most of the character interactions, with Tsumugi having increasingly intimate and affectionate exchanges with her friends Iyo, Hagane, and Komimi, up to explicit kisses and declarations of love.
  • Valkyrie Drive -Bhikkhuni- is a Hack & Slash game part of the Valkyrie Drive Project from Producers Kenichiro Takaki and Hiraku Kaneko. Aside from the Improbably Female Cast, yuri abounds with the female characters kissing to unlock their powers, among other incredibly close, intimate, and unabashed lesbian interactions.

    Visual Novels 
  • Akai Ito is a Girls' Love Visual Novel with a heavy fetish for vampirism and also goes very deep into Japanese mythology.
    • Aoi Shiro: The semi-sequel to Akai Ito which takes place in the same universe.
  • A Little Lily Princess is a retelling of A Little Princess with a yuri twist.
  • Amaranto is also all about vampires (and schoolgirl lesbians).
  • Atlach=Nacha
  • The Curse of Kudan is a mystery visual novel about a high school girl attempting to discover the truth behind several urban legends while developing feelings for her cooking instructor or the president of her school's occult research club.
  • Ever Maiden is a Sci-Fi visual novel depicting the lives of young girls in a remote institute created to save the remnants of humanity, using The Power of Creation.
  • The Expression Amrilato tells the story of a girl trapped in another world where the language spoken is based on Esperanto, the Universal Language, and her growing relationship with a girl living in this new world.
  • Flowers (2014) is a modern visual novel series with a classic, Maria Watches Over Us-style aesthetic, albeit with more overtly lesbian characters, and some light Mystery Fiction elements.
  • Kindred Spirits on the Roof is a light-hearted, Slice of Life yuri visual novel based around a ghost lesbian couple recruiting a girl who can see them into helping bring together a number of other potential lesbian couples at their school. Unlike most yuri visual novels, this one feels much more aimed towards women. The art and character design style is more realistic and resembles fashion art more than Moe, and the game doesn't shy away from labeling the relationships as homosexual and dealing with issues like subtle homophobia.
  • Lady In Mystery is a Korean visual novel where a cross-dressing detective finds herself catching the eyes of four ladies during her quest to clear her family's name.
  • Limit Panic
  • Love Bakudan tells the story of Haruka, a woman who ends up inheriting a bookstore specializing in erotica. She has six love interests that she can potentially hook up with.
  • Love Is Strange is a fangame of Life Is Strange set in a Lighter and Softer Alternate Universe wherein the protagonist of the original game must choose, between four of the original game's female characters, her partner for a photography contest.
  • Maiden Panic
  • Mizuchi tells the story of a village girl who can either fall in love with an alluring shapeshifting snake or a friendly female monk. It's inspired by the legend of the White Snake.
  • Ne no Kami: The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto is a mix of Yuri with Urban Fantasy, Slice of Life and Conspiracy Thriller that mostly focuses on the story of two lesbian couples.
  • Night Cascades is about two adult women who dated in college before a painful breakup now forced to work together to solve a mystery (and rekindle their romance).
  • Nurse Love Addiction is about a 19-year-old girl entering nursing school who, depending on the player's choices, can develop a relationships with one of her fellow students or her teacher.
  • Nurse Love Syndrome is about a 21-year-old nurse at Yurigahama Hospital. Her romance options include two fellow nurses, three patients at the hospital, and the head nurse of internal medicines.
  • OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos is about a female office worker obsessed with a "Husbando" from a mobile phone game, and a lucky fashionista that wants to become her real-life "Waifu".
  • Perfect Gold
  • Red Lilies
  • Save the World is about an English-Indian woman who gets involved in an invasion led by a femme-presenting alien, with her main options being to either fight for humanity or to bond with the alien.
  • Sea Bed is a yuri themed mystery drama, with heavy psychological aspects. Unlike many other Yuri Visual Novels, it has a clear LGBTQ audience in mind, with its realism, mental health themes, and subdued character designs standing out.
  • Sisterly Bliss ~Don't Let Mom Find Out~
  • Solfege: Sweet Harmony
  • Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo (A Kiss for the Petals) is presently considered the definitive Girls' Love Eroge series. It has had a hentai OVA based on it released.
  • Starlight Vega
  • Strawberry Vinegar is about a slowly evolving crush between two 9 year girls, one of which is a demon.
    • A lot of Ebi Hime's works have elements of yuri. Asphyxia and Once On A Windswept Night are female-only cast VN's that have yuri elements, and Asphyxia even shares visual designers with Strawberry Vinegar.
  • Studio Élan basically focuses on love between women:
  • A Summer's End — Hong Kong, 1986 is a Romance Game between two young women of different backgrounds in Hong Kong during The '80s. Animesque The game developers cite several anime of the 80s as artistic and aesthetic influences.
  • Synergia is a Cyberpunk novel about a police officer falling in love with her new gynoid.
  • Yumeutsutsu Re:Master is about a 21 years-old girl who is contacted by a video-game company in order to be engaged. She accepts in order find her sister, who works there, and to reconcile with her.

    Other 
  • Stellar Ranger Dark Star has the main romance and love triangle in the story fall between three Magical Girls.
  • Childhood Friend Yuri A oneshot Pixiv online manga about a pair of childhood friends reuniting by chance at college and how their friendship blossomed into love.
  • Their Story, an original online yuri manhua by Tan Jiu about a tomboy who falls head-over-heels for a girl at a neighboring high school
  • Cross Heart, an original Spanish/English-language online manga by Ana-Christina Sanchez, about teenage girl named Haru who falls for the popular but aloof Kotomi. She soon learns Kotomi has quite a troubled past.
  • Fluttering Feelings, an original Korean manhwa by Ssamba, is a Slice of Life story about two Business University students, the average slightly immature Kim No-Rae and the beautifully captivating Baek Seol-A.
  • Lily Love, from Thailand by Ratana Satis, follows the life of Donut, a college girl who doesn't believe in soulmates. A chance meeting with her new neighbor, Mew, led to friendship and grows into something much more.
  • Pulse (2016) is a Thai comic that's also from Ratana Satis, which is about a heart surgeon experiencing true love for the first time with a heart disease patient.
  • World Canvas, by Godley Malabanan, is about Sera, who was born with the power to see the little pieces of soul people leave in their art. She takes an interest on an artist, Rhiannon, upon finding out her power doesn't work on her art. Notable for being the first commercially published GL comic in Tagalog.
  • Magan&Danai, an original Chinese webcomic by ermuzibu, is a comedic Slice of Life series about a tsundere woman and her girlfriend.
  • Moonlight Garden, It is a historical Korean webcomic about the love triangle between three girls written by Kang Unnie.
  • Santiago Nights, an original English language light novel, about Lily Oda, a young werewolf mob enforcer and her human mate, Chelsea Heartfield.
  • These Days, by goodboy64, is an original English web serial, focusing on Akiyama Lilly, who obtains super powers after her best friend, Haruko Rea, confesses to her. Things violently escalate from there.
  • Hands Held in the Snow is an English-language Queer Romance Web Serial Novel about two young women who meet, bond over books, and fall in love in a wintery fantasy city.
  • Love Is Strange a Fan Remake of Life Is Strange which jettisons all of the angst and makes it a full-on Dating Sim between Max and the girl of her choice.
  • The Webcomic The Secrets of the Afterlife defines itself as "yuri". Taking place in an all-girls environment, this story follows Anya and June, two teenage girls living together.
  • Beloved L is a Chinese webcomic about a thirty-four year old eye doctor who has a one-night stand that eventually turns into something more. Much to her horror, her partner turns out to actually be sixteen.
  • What Does the Fox Say is a Korean webcomic about a love triangle involving three female co-workers.
  • Mage & Demon Queen, an English fantasy webcomic by Godley Malabanan set in an RPG Mechanics 'Verse. It follows the love-struck female mage, Malori who, unlike other adventurers that seek to take the head of Demon Queen Vel, wishes to take her hand instead.
  • I Love Amy is a webtoon written and illustrated by Unni
  • Doki Doki Literature Girls is a fan comic based on the psychological horror visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club!. In the story, the girls are the Official Couples.
  • Female General and Eldest Princess is a Historical Fiction Chinese Novel, originally published as a Web Serial Novel; it stars a cross-dressing Chinese solider, Lin Wanyue rising through the ranks of the Chinese military during the Tang Dynasty, whose aim is to get Revenge on the Hun's who slaughter her family. It focuses on the blossoming relationship between her and ruthless Imperial Princess, Xian, as they navigate Chinese court politics together. It had been adapted into a radio-drama, as well as a Chinese Manhua.
  • The fanfiction series Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee lives and breathes this trope, at least in the Slice of Life styled Main Stories due to the fact that pretty much all of the girls in both the Nijigasaki and Hinagiku sagas with two exceptions (Coco Miyashita and Margo) are all lesbian.
  • Karin-dou 4koma is about lesbian sorceresses and youkai.
  • Yuri Or Another is about a college student reuniting with her childhood friend and finding she's developed an obsessive crush on her.
  • Shoujo Manga Protagonist X Rival San is about a girl attempting to get together with a guy while her supposed romantic rival for his attention actualy pursues her.
  • Winter Before Spring: A high school student is betrayed by the friend she had fallen for, and subject to a campaign of bullying; until a strong, cool transfer student blows into her life... and perhaps her heart.
  • Wish You Were Gone: A Korean Manhwa about two women who meet in a less then ideal situation when Guk-hwa confronts her boyfriend and his mistress Jang-Mi, but instead of hating each other Guk-hwa and Jang-Mi are instantly attracted to one another.

Alternative Title(s): Girl Love, Yuri, Shoujo Ai, Girls Love

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top