Heck i don't remember which manga it was that had people arguing in the comment section of a certain now-defunct manga pirate site that two characters wouldn't get together because the author had say "It wasn't yuri", when to me it was pretty obvious that the author just meant it wasn't in that genre.

Don't have to look for defunct sites, you can just look at this one in the comments of "The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All" :P The author mentioned at some point that this isn't necessarily yuri prompting a very similar discussions.

Goosebumps-ass ending.

At least from what I've heard, the most unrealistic thing about this is a high school girls' restroom being a suitable place for heartfelt talking and even a confession. All I've heard from the women around me was how filthy and disgusting they were.
Maybe that's a Japanese cultural thing and they're much cleaner and less smelly than in Europe...

The Japanese school bathroom is probably getting cleaned every day, by the students.

m night shyamalan ass ending

Yuri and lesbianism being classified as completely different things is spot on.

The universal consensus is Yuri being a genre featuring relationships between women that don't need to be romantic or sexual in nature.

Personally I'm here for the lesbians so I wish there was a label for yuri that actually feature lesbians.

Apologies it seems I stepped on a social landmine here, and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it. I didn't expect my perspective to be controversial, where to me the yuri manga I read are lesbian.

I think you mostly stepped into an evolving trend. Yuri is a genre with code, it's not just lesbian manga, that's part of why there was that whole "My manga isn't Yuri" thing with "The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All", even though it has a canonical wlw relationship in it.

But I also think that's sort of changing? People can publish professional level manga online way more, often tag or brand it as yuri and the breadth of topics and style has massively increased. On top of that whether they claim the label or not, that stuff is often grouped together with the rest of the Yuri. I think the term is going to evolve, because the main reason for its stability was traditional publishing and there are alternative now. That being said, it's never going to be 1 to 1 either, plenty of Yuri will keep it to subtext regardless of evolution.

last edited at Sep 1, 2026 8:40PM

The universal consensus is Yuri being a genre featuring relationships between women that don't need to be romantic or sexual in nature.

Your "universal" consensus has been disagreed with right in this thread, with reference made to the Japanese wikipedia.

"what a load of bullshit" is a great line

What a twist

Apologies it seems I stepped on a social landmine here, and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it. I didn't expect my perspective to be controversial, where to me the yuri manga I read are lesbian.

I think you mostly stepped into an evolving trend. Yuri is a genre with code, it's not just lesbian manga, that's part of why there was that whole "My manga isn't Yuri" thing with "The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All", even though it has a canonical wlw relationship in it.

But I also think that's sort of changing? People can publish professional level manga online way more, often tag or brand it as yuri and the breadth of topics and style has massively increased. On top of that whether they claim the label or not, that stuff is often grouped together with the rest of the Yuri. I think the term is going to evolve, because the main reason for its stability was traditional publishing and there are alternative now.

You make interesting points on terminology evolving, thanks. The whole "The Guy" situation has always been a weird one for me personally, because for me the series is "Green Yuri", it's Green and it's Yuri because Yuri is lesbian. Even after stepping away from the discussion for awhile I still can't really wrap my head around how this work is Yuri is but not lesbian, and for other people that's I guess the norm. Where for them Yuri is a very specific genre, and for me it's more of a broad term for lesbian centric stories, art, and the like. I guess I'll have to think about this for awhile still, ultimately though I'll probably just have to accept that I have a different understanding of the term than a lot of people, and that it's okay that I'm not on the same page as them. It is what is lol

I don't know why but, the alien design gives me Scooby Doo vibes. I guess it's more detailed than an average Scooby Doo Alien monster, but I could totally see that head coming off and revealing a greedy business man or disgruntled worker.

At least from what I've heard, the most unrealistic thing about this is a high school girls' restroom being a suitable place for heartfelt talking and even a confession. All I've heard from the women around me was how filthy and disgusting they were.
Maybe that's a Japanese cultural thing and they're much cleaner and less smelly than in Europe...

The Japanese school bathroom is probably getting cleaned every day, by the students.

I recall looking it up in the past after wondering how thorough students had to be with it and subsequently worrying about sanitation. If my memory serves me right, schools do employ or contract normal janitors for proper cleaning duties such as those that would require chemicals, with tasks done by children being more about making it a habit to be mindful of their surroundings (hopefully slowing down the rate in which places get dirty) and not necessarily contributing directly to the cleanliness in a meaningful way.

W

The universal consensus is Yuri being a genre featuring relationships between women that don't need to be romantic or sexual in nature.

Your "universal" consensus has been disagreed with right in this thread, with reference made to the Japanese wikipedia.

i'm glad at least one person read my comment, lol. the japanese wikipedia page states outright that it's a genre about samesex romance between women, and contains links to other pages like lesbian slang and such. there's no ambiguity.

(meanwhile the english page says "yuri is typically not sexual" while showing a page from a morinaga milk manga, the artist who notably did a ton of explicit porn early on. and only cites extremely outdated articles and some eng speaking college student's paper about it. it is honestly atrocious as a resource)

M. Night Shamalan indeed. First work I've seen from this author so I'm expecting good things haha.

huh

I would add What the fuck am I reading? tag to this oneshot...

exactly what i was thinking

I would read another chapter

I recall looking it up in the past after wondering how thorough students had to be with it and subsequently worrying about sanitation. If my memory serves me right, schools do employ or contract normal janitors for proper cleaning duties such as those that would require chemicals, with tasks done by children being more about making it a habit to be mindful of their surroundings (hopefully slowing down the rate in which places get dirty) and not necessarily contributing directly to the cleanliness in a meaningful way.

The article I saw said that effectiveness depended somewhat on culture and coordination. Some just shove dirt around, some do a proper job. And yeah, many schools have an adult custodian for deep cleaning, high windows, plumbing, etc. Still, seems plausible that students could wipe/mop stuff down, scrub toilets, etc. And the manga is about a high school, not elementary school. Minimum age 15, no real reason they can't be competent.

There's also the hope that students will mess up a place less when they're involved in cleaning it. (ah, that's your line about being mindful.)

(I also read that elementary schools will pair first graders with sixth graders, for some elder supervision and training.)

last edited at Sep 2, 2026 12:05AM

The universal consensus is Yuri being a genre featuring relationships between women that don't need to be romantic or sexual in nature.

Your "universal" consensus has been disagreed with right in this thread, with reference made to the Japanese wikipedia.

i'm glad at least one person read my comment, lol. the japanese wikipedia page states outright that it's a genre about samesex romance between women, and contains links to other pages like lesbian slang and such. there's no ambiguity.

The og comments says “featuring relationships between women” which is same sex. But in the discussion here some are using lesbian as descriptive and others as identity and some both at the same time. That is why I think some are saying the same thing but at the same they disagree.

I went to check and the jp and eng wikis don’t differ that much either.
Eng:
Yuri is a genre of Japanese media focusing on intimate relationships between female characters. While lesbian relationships are a commonly associated theme, the genre is also inclusive of works depicting emotional and spiritual relationships between women that are not necessarily romantic or sexual in nature
It also says its for anime, manga, games, light novels and other forms of literature*

JP (google TL):
Yuri refers to romantic or intimate relationships between women, or the genre of works that deal with such themes.
The term often refers to the genres of Japanese manga , light novels , anime , and doujinshi from the 1990s onward , but it can also include pre-war girls' novels, general lesbian literature, and live-action films

I do not differ or agree with anyone, I have my own way of seeing this topic. I just wanted to add why I I think that despite saying such similar things, both parties still differ. And that the general description of both wikis is not thaaaat different.

woah what just happened hahahahah

one hell of a rollercoaster

The whole "yuri vs lesbian" thing has been debated to death both within the Japanese fandom and elsewhere. I have learned to just enjoy what I like without thinking too much about definitions and whatnot. It's not like there is an authoritative account on this subject. Whatever source you cite from is probably written by another fan like you.

I think that trying to divorce yuri from lesbianism (or any sapphic sexuality) is either trying to stay away from a political statement (because the hets think being gay is political) or a renmant of the old "girl x girl relationships aren't as serious" mindset. That is to say, I am very much not a fan of that.

The whole "yuri vs lesbian" thing has been debated to death both within the Japanese fandom and elsewhere. I have learned to just enjoy what I like without thinking too much about definitions and whatnot. It's not like there is an authoritative account on this subject. Whatever source you cite from is probably written by another fan like you.

Same

because the hets think being gay is political

Honestly most people I see saying this are lesbian and trans. It debatable obviously but there is also the inside perspective of minorities that do see their existence as political due to how society is constructed (basically against your will but political regardless)

last edited at Sep 2, 2026 1:43AM

She does belong to a dirty co-ed school.