They posted this piece on yuri over at The Mary Sue.

http://www.themarysue.com/rethinking-yuri/

It's good stuff, but I feel they incorrectly define yuri and then proceed to analyze a way off-base, super fetishized, and out-of-date version of yuri.

What do you guys think of this stuff? Should yuri be more clearly representative of lesbian identities? Does yuri appropriate gay identities and misrepresent them? Is THAT appropriation of a romance genre denying the essence of fiction?

Edit: Is this topic appropriate? I'm not really sure if discussions like this are outside the scope of the forum. But! I see Dynasty as THE PLACE where yuri happens in the west, so I can think of no other place to hold conversations like these.

last edited at Oct 7, 2016 3:21AM

I think there's something to be said about how Japanese people feel about "lesbian" manga/anime/media vs. "yuri" manga/anime/media. I've noticed that distinction being made quite a bit, with the implication that yuri is preferred since it's more pleasant and accessible, and lesbian media is weird or gross, and it's easy to make a yuri manga into a lesbian manga by including too much emotional complexity or whatever. I think whether yuri manga need to address lesbian identity is a side argument; a manga could do it successfully, or it could successfully opt to not do it, but I think the real issue for yuri connoisseurs is how editors and mangaka think up these overly harsh restrictions that compromise quality.

I think the popular yuri things the article is talking about is like Senran Kagura or whatever else is in its genre. Valkyrie Drive, etc. I guess those shows are current and popular, but so are a bunch of other shows in similar numbers, just with different audiences (like how TV show is today). The author does seem pretty out of touch, and uninformed on specifics outside of the very narrow subjects she wants to talk about. The article's a bit too short and flimsy to spend much time criticizing, so whatever. It's good to talk about this stuff and increase the profile of that kind of yuri. It does grate on me though when people like this have massive blindspots for what they're trying to talk about with authority, so hopefully someone will link them Dynasty on twitter so they will correct their gaps in knowledge.

The people in the comments like 100x worse than the writer though. These poor fools.

edit: Except my boy Altair who gave like a 3 page screed on the complexities of yuri and its publishing environment. I think this a very important takeaway for any western writers eager to comment on this yuri thing they just heard of:
"It might help to point out that Kabi hasn't seen much exposure in the west because there is no exposure in the west for yuri. Kabi represents a fragment of a fragment."

last edited at Oct 7, 2016 5:15AM

I think whether yuri manga need to address lesbian identity is a side argument; a manga could do it successfully, or it could successfully opt to not do it, but I think the real issue for yuri connoisseurs is how editors and mangaka think up these overly harsh restrictions that compromise quality.

That's how I see it too. Yuri can tackle identity or not, it isn't necessarily required to be part of the manga. But, there's been a huge drive lately, in America at least, to not have fictional depictions that do not accurately reflect the subject matter the fiction covers. The article seems to be a proponent of that. Personally, "adult life" and "romance" are my two favorite tags and I love when that stuff is woven into the story. But I don't want to see yuri reduced to one story-type. And reduction of fiction to one type of story seems to be the direction of the writer's argument.

Still, Japan seems really damn insulated from that particular discussion, and what matters more to us is what you say about how the harsh restrictions can compromise quality. Yuri manga can totally ride that line and remain clearly fictional whereas something like the Report on Lesbian Experience will clearly have that stigma. Takemiya Jin moves in that direction while still staying clearly in the yuri zone, but I wonder where the line is?

Edit: Kindred Spirits also rides the line. It's kind of crazy, because it doesn't deal with identity, but the relationships seem so much more real (most of the time) than others. In it's own way. While clearly sticking to the yuri category.

last edited at Oct 7, 2016 5:50AM