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Lesbians don't equal profit?
by Aoi, 02/26/2008
Lesbians don't equal profit? photo

Good ol' Mainichi notes the progress of a shaky medium, namely non-pornographic yuri, in a magazine exclusively for yuri stories. I kinda find girl-on-girl nonsuccess hard to believe, and not just because yuri means "lily" and they took the chance to "gild the lily" in one of the biggest misquotes ever--IT IS TOO. My imaginary boner for Shakespeare aside, a quick search reveals there have indeed been more girl-on-girl anthologies before Comic Yuri Hime was born, though it's the first yuri quarterly aimed at men. Says editor-in-chief Seitaro Nakamura,

"Women are said to be so into Boy's Love comics because they're stories of romance between men in relationships of equality. In this day and age where women are probably the stronger sex, I think there are a lot of guys who have doubts about society's requirement for them to be manly. I think maybe these guys get some sort of therapeutic healing from the world of yuri, where they can look into the fantasy world of equal standing love between two women.

I hate to be a sophomoric cynic, but most of the yaoi fans of my acquaintance freely admit to being into it for more than male interpersonal dynamics; Nakamura does have a point in that men can probably find emotional escape here...but honestly, I'm not sure that's why the term yuri, like its sausage-y counterpart, has acquired an almost exclusively sexual connotation amongst most Western fans, or why it's not quite so damn loud at cons. (The next person to wave a SEME/UKE yaoi paddle at me dies in a fire.) Does anyone ever even use shounen/shoujo-ai to differentiate platonic or low-key same-sex romance anymore? Or have they been drowned in a bawdy flood of girly men and nymphomaniacal dickgirls?





(11) COMMENTS



Nettle

As an avid shonen-ai reader myself, I know plenty of people who know the difference between shonen-ai and yaoi. I do admit that there isn't much new to the genres though. All of the guys look like girls and it's always the seme-uke story. *sigh* But, I still love it. ^_^
 
Kageryu

Lots of people differentiate between shonen/shoujo-ai and yaoi/yuri. Personally, I'd be lying if I said I didn't own my fair share of the good ol' lily, but you don't see nearly as much of it as you do the cocksnuffling counterpart.

Which is a shame, because it really shows you how the state of two-dimensional Japanese porn is nowadays, completely unbalanced and biased.

Oh well, as long as we have /u/, there is meaning in the world.
 
Tertiee

I recall the phrase "Marimite VS Strawberry Panic" as the defining line between shoujo-as and yuri.

That said, the article does specifically mention Marimite as the kind of hit(among guys)that the magazine's success depends on but that kind of a series seems more a fluke than something that can support an entire sub-genre.
 
Rewarp

I enjoyed Maria-sama ga Miteru. Other than that, I am blissfully innocent of your materials.
 
DocWatson

> Does anyone ever even use shounen/shoujo-ai to differentiate platonic or low-key same-sex romance anymore?

I do. As for the history of the various terms for homosexual cartoons from Japan, the term "shoujo ai" (meaning "lesbian anime and/or manga") has been in use since at least (both "yaoi" and "shounen ai" (meaning "anime and/or manga about gay males") were in use in ).

It is only in the last few years that an attempt has been made to use "yuri" to mean "all lesbian anime and manga". The Yuricon site was making the distinction between the two and again in . It was only in late February or early March of 2005 that (the Internet Archive URL includes the date—you can compare for yourself at http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.yuricon.org/ ). (Heck, they *still* use the term "shoujoai" (as opposed to "yuri") in .)

(I hope that I have not borked my coding...)

Oh, and what game is the header image from? h_h
 
DocWatson

My coding *was* borked...references:

"9 August 1995":

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.anime/browse_frm/thread/9545811b65c7ca8e

"December 1993":

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.manga/msg/0eba67b96d0470ca

"in 2002":

http://web.archive.org/web/20020205065215/www.yuricon.org/update.htm

"this essay by Erica Friedman":

http://web.archive.org/web/20021208090800/www.yuricon.org/whatisyuri.htm

"the essay was changed":

http://web.archive.org/web/20050302054641/www.yuricon.org/essays/whatisyuri.html

"the title of the Web site":

http://www.yuricon.org/
 
Aoi

Yeahhh, the coding here bloweth. >_>

*I've successfully squished down those kana to the point where I can't read the header beyond "sono flower-kanji?" No idea what the game is. Sorry again!)

See, I know it's only recently that sh/ai vs. yuri/yaoi has become a means of smut-differentiation; s'why I was a little put out, because I never see it anywhere anymore. Kinda like Inuyasha. ZING!
 
DocWatson

I was commenting as much on my coding (I know BBCode, but not HTML) as Japanator's. ^_^;

As for the game—thanks! "Sono hana" was enough, as the "so" and the kanji were half of my problems. The game is (the first) _Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o_ (その花びらにくちづけを; lit. "Sono Hanabira ni Kuchiduke wo"). The Getchu.com link (NSFW):

http://www.getchu.com/php/search.phtml?search_reference_id=499565

Translations of the title:

"To the petal it is possible to rot" (Excite.co.jp)
"In that petal oral attaching" (WorldLingo)
"A kiss to the petal" (Google Language Tools)—the most likely
 
The-Excel

I know that one. I also happen to at least know of the two sequels. But I can say with a little confidence that the first is the one is most worth viewing.
 


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Agata

Differentiate between shonen/shoujo-ai and yaoi/yuri is an interesting topic to discuss, guys, as for "The game is (the first) _Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o_ ("Sono Hanabira ni Kuchiduke wo")", yep, it is it. I personally recommend to check it. It's on my fav. list =)
 

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