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Creating, disseminating and celebrating Yuri in anime and manga since 2000

Yuri Resources

Articles, Essays, Videos Fan Perspective, Lectures and Videos About the genre Yuri and related topics.

Requests for lectures or presentations about Yuri for your organization, event or school, please use our Contact Form. If you have a Yuri-related essay you’d like us to include on this page, please do contact us! We want to be a source for a complete bibliography on English-language Yuri-related studies. If you have any questions about the content of these essays, please contact the authors directly.

Table of Contents

 


Yuri – History and Definition

A [Very ] Brief History of Yuri – 100 years in 6 slides. Originally presented by Erica Friedman at the Tokyo Comics Showcase, Vol. 1 in Tokyo, Japan on May 3, 2016 as part of the Tokyo Rainbow Fesival. (With English or Japanese subtitles. Use “settings” to choose language.)

What are Yuri and Shoujoai Anyway? – Yuricon’s official definition of Yuri and how we derived it!

On Defining Yuri – by Erica Friedman. Looking at the term Yuri as both descriptive and divisive, shaped by creators and industry and by different audiences within fandom. Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 24.

Why We Call It “Yuri” – A brief article for Anime Feminist on the historical names used for manga/doujinshi featuring women in same-sex relationships and why, specifically, “Yuri” is used to describe the genre.

Is Yuri Queer? – by Erica Friedman. A nuanced look at why this complicated question is legitimately answered with “Yes,” “No” and “Maybe” with thoughts from several Japanese Yuri manga creators.

100 Years of Yuri, 2020 Project – Four Yuri Experts wrap up the 100th Anniversary of the Yuri Genre with a look at their top picks of the century on Okazu,

100 Years of Yuri 2020 Project, Guest Post by Erin Subramanian
100 Years of Yuri 2020 Project, Guest Post by Katherine Hanson
100 Years of Yuri 2020 Project, Guest Post by Nicki Bauman
100 Years of Yuri 2020 Project, by Erica Friedman

 

Yuri Studio Videos on the Yuri Genre:

Yuri Studio Season 1 Playlist

Yuri Studio S01 E01 Why Are There So Many Schoolgirls in Yuri?
This video has subtitles in English and Japanese.

Yuri Studio S01 E02 What Makes A Story Yuri?
This video has subtitles in English.

Yuri Studio S01 E03 Are there Queer Creators Creating Yuri?
This video has subtitles in English.

 

Yuri Studio Season 2 Playlist:

Yuri Studio S02 E01 Why is there more Boy’s Love than Yuri?
This video has subtitles in English.

Yuri Studio S02 E02 – Yuri: How It Began – How It’s Going
This video has subtitles in English.

Yuri Studio S02 E03  – Gateway Yuri Anime, Part 1: The 1990s
This video has subtitles in English.

Yuri Studio S02 E04 -Gateway Yuri Anime, Part 2: The 2000’s
This video has subtitles in English.

Yuri Studio S02 E05 – Gateway Yuri Anime, Part 3: The 2010’s – Present
This video has subtitles in English.

Yuri Studio S02 E06 – Two Questions about Yuri (and Literature)
This video has subtitles in English.

 

Yuri Studio Season 3 Playlist

Yuri Studio S03 E01 -The Girl Prince
This video has subtitles in English

Interview with Ada Palmer on Terra Ignota, Tezuka Osamu and Revolutionary Girl Utena
This video has subtitles in English

Girl Gangs in Anime and and Manga
This video has subtitles in in English

Sports in Yuri Anime & Manga
This video has subtitles in in English

My Life As A Manga Character
This video has subtitles in in English

Top 10 Changes In Yuri From 20 Years of  Yuri
This video has subtitles in in English

A Brief History of Yuri, Part 2
This video has subtitles in in English

 

 


Articles – Analysis of Yuri by scholars and researchers

Yuricon 20th Anniversary Discussion Event
This event recreated the first-ever Yuri-focused panel at at Mechademia, Transporting Yuri Across Borders. With guest researchers Verena Maser, and James Welker, and Erica Friedman as moderator, we talk about Yuri as a global genre. Recorded for the 20th anniversary of the Yuricon Community in August 2021.


 

Notes toward a unified theory of yuri – Frank Hecker takes time to try and map out the “Five Ages of Yuri” in this terrific essay about the development of the genre.

En el Jardín de Lirios. El Amor Entre Mujeres en la Cultura Pop Asiática – Alexandra Arana’s Spanish-language look at Yuri in Asian pop fulture to the Yuricon Store. This is a free download from the publisher, through a Yuricon Store link.

Tales of lilies and girls’ love. The depiction of female/ female relationships in yuri manga – by Marta Fanasca.
Tracing Pathways 雲路 Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia, Firenze University Press, 2021. New research on Yuri!

Yuri is for Everyone: An analysis of yuri demographics and readership – Nicki “YuriMother” Bauman’s analysis of the Yuri audience in answer to the often-stated, and rarely true assumption that Yuri is “for men” in over on Anime Feminist.

Eureka Magazine – Current State of Yuri Culture (ユリイカ 百合文化の現在) – This groundbreaking issue of Eureka magazine, looking at Yuri as a distinct genre, includes articles from scholars and creators steeped in Yuri.
Eureka, December 2014.

Yuri: A Genre Without Borders – by Erica Friedman, pp 143-147
Thoughts on the Representation of Yuri Fandom in Kurata Uso’s Yuri danshi  – by James Welker, pp 148-154 (Also available in Chinese)
Japan: Fertile Ground for the Cultivation of Yuri  – by Rica Takashima, pp. 117-121

 

Yuri vs Shoujo-ai: Why Terminology Matters – Nicki Bauman on the perennial fandom favorite, “correcting” the terminology when we speak of Yuri.

Yuri 1919-2019, From Then to Now – Erica gives an overview of the first 100 years of Yuri on Anime Herald.

A Genre of One’s Own – Yuri Comes of Age – Erica Friedman talks about why it’s significant to consider Yuri a separate genre. Okazu, August, 2012.

40 Years of the Same Damn Story, Pt. 1 – Erica  traces the history of the standard Yuri genre story, “There is a girl she likes another girl. The other girl likes her. They like each other. The end.” on her Hooded Utilitarian column, “Overthinking Things.” Hooded Utilitarian, April, 2011.

40 Years of the Same Damn Story, Pt. 2 – In the second of the series, Erica takes a look at the literary and  historical history of the “Girl Prince” character so common on Yuri manga. Hooded Utilitarian, May, 2011.

Why Is It Always Catholic Schoolgirls in Yuri? – Originally written for the first volume of Yuri is My Job, by Miman, available in English in January 2019 from Kodansha Comics, Erica takes a short look at a long-lived trope.

Rica Takashima’s Visual Essay on Yuri – A comic introduction to Yuri in 2011, for Women’s Review of Books.

Beautiful and Innocent: Female Same-Sex Intimacy in the Japanese Yuri Genre – PhD thesis by Verena Maser, examining the relationship between media content, its production, and its reception in Japanese popular culture in regards to Yuri. (Full text dissertation available at linked page)

Prolegomena to the Study of Yuri, Part 1 – by Erica Friedman. The first part of an on-going series about the history of Yuri as a genre. Okazu, September 2012.

Akogare ~ On the Edge of Desire, The Study of Yuri, Part 2 – Erica looks at the transition of “S” relationships from the girls’ magazines of the 1920s and 1930s to the proto-Shoujo manga of the 1950s. Okazu, September 2012.

The Journey and History of Yuri, Part 1, by Rai, which was created as part part movable blogging feast Otaku blog circle, OWLS. September 1, 2018.

Rethinking Yuri: How Lesbian Mangaka Return the Genre to Its Roots – Ana Valens takes a look at how Yuri has been redefined over the years for online women-focused pop culture site The Mary Sue. October, 2016

Yuri: An Indepth Look at Women in Love – Elizabeth Freeman’s take on Yuri for Artifice magazine. The Artifice, February, 2014.

The Sexual and Textual Politics of Japanese Lesbian Comics Reading Romantic and Erotic Yuri Narratives – Kazumi Nagaike, Associate Professor, Center for International Education and Research, Oita University. Electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies (ejcjs), September 2010. Nagaikie explores the ways in which an analysis of contemporary popular lesbian texts, produced by and for Japanese girls/women, can provide new theoretical perspectives on the discourse of lesbian gender/sexuality, including issues of female homosociality, the lesbian continuum, and female corporeal desire.

The Impact Of Globalization On Yuri And Fan Activism – Yaritza Hernandez discusses fandom as a driver of culture and spread of Yuri globally. 2009

The Evolution of “Recognition/Assertion of a Lesbian Identity” vs “Akogare” in Manga – Katherine Hanson explores the blurring lines between “lesbian” and “Yuri” over time. March 2012

Yuri Anime: Feminist Narrative Revealed – a look at Yuri Anime in general, with a focus on Maria-sama ga Miteru in particular, by Kimberly Thompson. [Document download] May, 2008

Queering the media mix: The female gaze in Japanese fan comics – by Kathryn Hemmann. Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 20. June 2015.

Finding the Power of the Erotic in Japanese Yuri Manga – by Sarah Wellington A look at the Yuri Hime Wildrose series of volumes and their place in establishing a canon of Yuri erotica. Abstract available at the link, full-text is available with a clickthrough.) August 2015.

 


Lectures – Videos and research presented at lectures about or related to Yuri

Alt Manga, Queer Manga – Telling Our Own Stories  presented at University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, January 19, 2017.

Persuasion and Opinion in Pop Culture Fandom – Are We the Cart or the Horse? – Presented October 16, 2014  to the “Persuasion and Language” class, taught by Prof. Beverly Curran at International Christian University, Mitaka, Japan.

Weaving Our Stories Through Manga and Comics – The Full-text of Erica’s Lecture at Kanagawa University in October 2013. (Companion slides) . For video of this presentation please visit our Youtube Channel:  Yuri Studios

 

The MIT Lecture series
Schoolgirls and Superheroes: Gender and Sexuality in Japanese Anime. Three lectures were presented on various aspects of women in anime. February, 2003

 


Interviews – Talking to your favorite Yuri creators and Yuricon founder Erica Friedman

Interviews with Yuricon and ALC Publishing Founder, Erica Friedman:

 

Interviews with Yuri Creators and Researchers:

 

Talking About “Talking About Amy” – an introduction to the groundbreaking short film about ALC’s resident mangaka, Rica Takashima!

What Yuri Means to Me – An ongoing written history project, with essay from Yuri Fans and Creators about their experiences with Yuri.

      • Morishima Akiko-sensei
      • Rica Takashima
      • Katherine Hanson
      • Amamiya Sae
      • Eric Potter

 


Books – English-language resources for Yuri studies.

By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga – by Erica Friedman. By Your Side is a series of ground-breaking interlocking essays, articles and lectures on Yuri anime and manga. Through these essays, readers will become familiar with the key creators, tropes, concepts, symbols and titles of the first 100 years of the Yuri genre.

Passionate Friendships:The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan – by Deborah Shamoon, a discussion of the evolution of girl’ culture, literature and art, from girls’ magazines of the early 20th century and Yoshiya Nobuko’s groundbreaking work to the 1970’s shoujo manga revolution and the development of Boy’s Love. (For more detail, here is Erica’s Review of this book.)

Yellow Rose
Sarah Fredrick’s long-awaited translation of what is arguably Yosshiya Nobuko’s Yuriest story from Hana Monogatari. The introduction includes information about Yoshiya’s life, her work and critical analysis of the work. by Yoshiya Nobuko <(Author), Sarah Frederick (Translator), from Expanded Editions, 2016.For more detail, here is Erica’s review of the book.)

Becoming Modern Women: Love and Female Identity in Prewar Japanese Literature and Culture
As a literary and cultural history of love and female identity, Becoming Modern Women focuses on same-sex love, love marriage, and maternal love. By Michik Suzuki, Stanford University Press, 2009.

Sparkling Rain: And Other Fiction from Japan of Women Who Love Women
An anthology of Japanese and English-language essays and fiction by lesbians, about lesbian experience and identity in Japan. Edited by Barbara Summerhawk and Kimberly Hughes, from New Victoria Publishers, 2008.

 

Industry Perspectives

Perspectives on the Italian BL and Yuri Manga Market: Toward the Development of Local Voices – Marta Fanasca interviews five professionals in the Italian manga industry, for Mechademia, Volume 13, Number 1, Fall 2020.

Translated Yuri Manga in Germany – Verena Maser talks about the evolution of and challenges within German translations of Yuri, also for Mechademia, Volume 13, Number 1, Fall 2020.

 


Yuri and Shoujo Manga, Feminism, Gender and Lesbian Themes – Research  with Intersections with Yuri

A Husband is Unnecessary: Yoshiya Nobuko & Japanese Girls’ Culture – Yuricon Founder Erica Friedman and History Is Gay podcast host, Leigh Pfeffer spend not-long-enough talking about the amazing life of the grandmother of Yuri, Yoshiya Nobuko.

Queer time and the quarter-life crisis in contemporary yuri –  by Alex Henderson on the subject of “queer time,” maturing and identity, for Anime Feminist.

Perfection and Performativity in Print: Visual Analyses of Gender and Sexuality Portrayals in Popular Japanese Graphic Arts since the 17th Century – Dissertation by Jennifer Louise Lynch for Liverpool John Moores University on the representations of gender and sexuality since
the Tokugawa period in Japanese graphic arts.

Hair Dressing: Fetish, School Uniforms and Shōjo in Cocoon, Entwined – Masafumi Monden looks at the symbolism of hair dressing in Cocoon, Entwined, in this chapter of Fashion and Feeling.

The Origins of Shōjo Manga – A pictorial history of the origins of girls’ manga on Google Arts and Culture by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Your Story, Our Story, My Story: When and Why Queer Representation Misses the Mark – Erica Friedman looks at why the more queer characters and stories we see in media, the less satisfied we are with inadequate representation.

Toward a history of ‘lesbian history’ in Japan by James Welker, Culture, Theory and Critique
Volume 58, 2017 – Issue 2: QUEER ASIA AS CRITIQUE, pages 147-165. (Abstract only. Full article access through Francis & Taylor, academic institution or Interlibrary Loan.)

Women-loving Women in Modern Japan by Erin Subramanian
This essay is a brief overview of lesbian history in modern Japan, from the “S” movement of the early twentieth century to the late 1990’s. It includes a short discussion of Yoshiya Nobuko and the Takarazuka all-female musical revue.

Where Is My Place in the World?: Early Shōjo Manga Portrayals of Lesbianism by Fujimoto Yukari, Lucy Fraser in From: Mechademia, pp. 25-42, Volume 9, 2014.

Shōjo Manga Research: The Legacy of Women Critics and Their Gender-Based Approach by Masafumi Monden. Comicsforum.org, February 2015.

How Does Japan Treat Gay People? – We get this question a lot here at Yuricon, during lectures and presentations, or on Okazu. Slate has published a piece by Erica, giving her the opportunity to provide the answer some nuance and detail. Huffington Post, May 2015.

Celebrating Lesbian Sexuality: An Interview with Inoue Meimy, Editor of Japanese Lesbian Erotic Lifestyle Magazine Carmilla – by Katsuhiko Suganuma and James WelkerIntersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, Issue 12 January 2006.

Telling HerStory: Narrating a Japanese Lesbian Community – by James Welker. Published in Japanstudien, 16, 2004. p 119-144. Deutsches Institut fur Japanstudien. (PDF)

“Love through a Different Lens: Japanese Homoerotic Manga through the Eyes of American Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Other Sexualities Readers.” – By Robin Brenner & Snow Wildsmith.   In Mangatopia: Essays on Manga and Anime in the Modern World, ed. Perper & Cornog. 2011

The Shoujo Yuri Manga Guide, 1971-2002 – an almost comprehensive list of shoujo manga with Yuri stories from Kishiji Bando. 2002

A 10-minute history of Shoujo manga, or “Shoujo in a nutshell.” – Erica wrote this for the Shoujo Arts Society, the organization that backs Shoujocon. 2000.

Random thoughts on Yuri from a shoujo perspective Kishiji Bando offers an historical point of view on the origin of Yuri and shoujoai. 2001

 

Fan Studies and Perspectives – Fan research into Yuri and related genre work

Witch From Mercury‘s Finale Made One of Gundam’s Most Fascinating Ideas Queer as Hell: Gundam is a franchise about giant robots to many, but one of its oldest non-mecha hallmarks had its queer subtexts made text in Witch From Mercury‘s finale – by James Whitbrook for Gizomodo.

Script variation as audience design: Imagining readership and community in Japanese yuri comics – HE Dahlberg-Dodd – Language in Society 2020, 49, 357–378.A discussion of paratextual language in Yuri comics. Full-text available online.

Queer subtext and fanmade text in Maria-sama ga miteru – by Natalie Fugate.

Hailing the Subject: Visual Progression and Queer Reading in Nananan’s Blue – by Monica Chiu. Request full-text copy from the author via Research Gate

Depictions of the Anime Lesbian: Land of the Rising Queer  – by Dale Hendricks. A brief overview of Yuri in the context of homosexuality and fandom for online magazine The Artifice.

Cross-Cultural Reception in the Western Yuri Fandom; Assimilationist and Transcultural Readings – by Dale Altmann, University of Wollongong. This thesis analyses the response to the yuri genre within Anglophone online fan communities.

That Type of Girl is an in-depth exploration of the characters, plot, and themes of Takako Shimura’s manga Sweet Blue Flowers, by friend of Yuricon, Frank Hecker.

Revolutionary Girl Utena – by Helen McCarthy. Historical perspective of Revolutionary Girl Utena, looking at roots in post-World War 2 thought, Takarazuka and feminist themes of this gateway Yuri series.

Proto-Yuri Novel: Otome no Minato (乙女の港)– Part 1, Introduction and Synopsis – The Okazu “History of Yuri” series continues with an introduction to popular 1938 ‘S’ relationship novel Otome no Minato. Okazu, March, 2013.

Proto-Yuri Novel: Otome no Minato (乙女の港) – Part 2, Group Discussion – In part 2, Erica Friedman, Katherine Hanson and Erin Subramanian discuss the tropes and conventions used in Otome no Minato and how they relate to later Yuri works.  Okazu, March, 2013.

Online Live Yuri Panel Videos – On April 29th, 2012, Yuricon Founder Erica Friedman, held a live online Yuri panel. Here are the videos of her answering your questions!

Yuri Fandom on the Internet – by Sabdha Charlton
Australian Yuri scholar Sabdha and Yuricon mascot Yuriko take an academic look at Yuri fandom and “Yuri goggles.”

Miyuki-chan in Wonderland: A psycho analysis Sean Gaffney presents his own, potentially unique, view of CLAMP’s distinctive anime. 2001.

A Phoenix From The Ashes Erica Friedman offers her tongue-in-cheek views on the roles of lesbians in media and life. 2000.

A Beginner’s Guide to Yuri Anime and Manga series. Taken from a poll on the Yuricon Mailing List, in 2006 or so, the top dozen anime and manga series with Yuri stories and characters. Short descriptions and things to watch out for have been added to protect the innocent. Now out of date, it’s worth seeing this time capsule of series and noting how many keep coming back like a bad penny.

 

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