(Image provided by The Major and his super dank maymay skills. Watermarks included for originality)
Hey everyone,
I wanted to take the time to post a semi-serious (but mostly serious) post about how much all of the Skype/PM birthday messages meant to me today. After signing into Fuwanovel and having an exploding inbox of messages (and a thread that only the gods could have created) and personal offline Skype messages, I just want to say thank you. Being in Japan is sometimes a little lonely, but I always know I have some pretty awesome people to come back to at the end of the day. I understand a lot of updates are slow on my end and that I always try my best to post new things because I just like to spew all of my ideas out on the table at once, but that doesn't mean I never want to stop following through with what I love doing for the site.
Thanks again guys for being so understanding this last half year since I moved out to Japan. Thanks so much for all the support and kind words, and above all, thanks so much for being my friend.
Yuri Is Love, Yuri Is Life
A Comprehensive Guide On Yuri
It wouldn't be a stretch to say Yuri is possibly the genre I find myself indulging the most in. One could even say I wish for a world where everyone is a female and they can make science babies. But as reality isn't that forgiving, I have to make do with fiction.
But this post isn't about me (though it may or may not have been triggered by the fact I hit 10,000 posts today), it's about cute girls doing cute things other cute girls.
I often find people either not liking or not finding any particular interest in yuri, but whenever I ask why exactly that is most just say it's either because it's just pointless fanservice or because they don't see the appeal of it, namely because they're of the opposite gender most of the time and can't really connect.
But the world of Yuri is a big one, a really reallyyy big one and I'm someone who believes there's always a way to enjoy something, you just need to look for the appropriate material.
I started out not being interested in yuri at all, absolutely 0 interest (in fact I remember even saying I didn't like it at one point), but through the proper channels I eventually came more and more in contact with it and now it's a dominating force in the media I consume and boy it sure feels great.
My goal with this post is to try and explain most things related to the genre, debunking some myths and try and give some suggestions and provide example material to look out for if you have any interest.
1) Terminology
Yuri vs Shoujo Ai I wanted to get this one out of the way as quickly as possible, some sites like to have these two terms next side each other as if they're meant to define different things.
But I'm not one of those people that believe in this redundant separation so let's get this out of the way: Shoujo Ai is not a real thing.
In the websites that use these two terms, the main and absolutely arbitrary definition is that Yuri is meant to tag works that involve more physical, often sexual (on MAL and VNDB the Yuri tag is only used when there's hentai involved) works and Shoujo Ai is meant to describe more romance, less sexual focused series.
But this causes a lot of confusion and it deteriorates the original meaning of the word Yuri, giving it a sexual nature when that was not its original intent.
In Japan, fictional works involving homosexuality between females is either called Yuri (百合, "Lily") or Girls Love (ガールズラブ, gaaruzu rabu).
Shoujo Ai as a term in Japan is not used with any of these meanings and instead tends to denote pedophilia (actual or perceived), with a similar meaning to the term lolicon.
The term Shoujo Ai was coined in the West after the spread of Yuri in 2000 and it picked up some of the connotations for one reason or another and now it's actually used to separate two genres that were always the same thing to begin with.
Yuri was never intended to imply sexuality, this notion comes from Western ideals and the annoying existence of the term Shoujo Ai which still needlessly confuses some people.
Yuri is simply love between two girls. Nothing more, nothing less, there's no implications that are meant to come with it, it's simply meant to describe that the work in question has lesbians and it's redundant with Shoujo Ai because of that.
I'd really like for this ridiculous separation to disappear in these websites, it creates needless stigmas associated with the genre and more often than not I've found myself mentioning the Yuri genre and people thought I was automatically talking about 2D lesbian porn. For works containing sexual scenes, why not just use the hentai tag that most websites (including VNDB and MAL) already have, why do you need the creation of an entirely new term that completely changes the meaning of the original?
And for those that advocate that Shoujo Ai is meant to imply a more toned down less explicit relationship, well that's why the Subtext tag exists! (see below)
So next time you talk about Yuri or someone mentions Yuri, know that they're likely not automatically talking about porn, and the next time someone mentions Shoujo Ai, tell them they're a horrible human being
Subtext Subtext or Undertone are words often used to describe works in which the Yuri in itself is not explicit but rather implied. (once again making the Shoujo Ai tag pointless).
There's variying degrees of this and it's one of the more subjective tags out there.
While there are works that really push the Subtext tag such as Yuru Yuri (hell the yuri is even in the title here), others are incredibly mild things that more often than not require the viewer/reader to make the connection in their heads.
A lot of slice of life shows like A-Channel or Kiniro Mosaic thread the yuri line very thinly by often having one of the female characters be overly clingy or react in embarassed ways in front of their supposed love interest.
Subtext provides a good deal for people who are not looking for intense and exaggerated interactions but rather more mild things. And it also allows for the yuri fans to have all of their wild fantasies and ships (see below) while at the same time not overwhelming the viewer with yuri content.
A lot of people pass off subtext as just friendship which again brings up how subjective this term can be, but it's safe to say that it's a rather nice compromise over using words like Shoujo Ai.
Source: K-on!
Shipping Shipping is universal, fan pairings have existed in fiction for quite a long time now. But I'm bringing it up here because, in my opinion, shipping is one of the better things about being a Yuri fan, and for a couple of reasons.
For those who don't know what shipping is, it's essentially the endorsement of a romantic relationship between 2 (or more) characters (canon or non canon, typically the latter).
So why is shipping awesome?
First off, I'll talk about the general issue I see with heterosexual fictional couples: the male counterpart typically sucks.
Male characters are often poorly and vaguely written in order for otakus to self insert themselves in them, they follow very generic traits and tropes most of the time and have girls flock around them like pidgeons searching for breadcrumbs. This is boring most of the time and doesn't make you want to cheer for the main couple.
This is a problem in series targeting both male and female audiences.
Male characters in series targetted at females also tend to follow all these prince charming tropes and they are generally speaking more uninteresting than the female lead.
So how do you solve these problems? Well of course you throw the male protagonist in the trash and you put the female heroines together!
This also opens endless possibilities for shows where there's an all-girls cast, you can just pair them together because f*ck rules and males.
Secondly, female characters in general tend to be more well fleshed out either because the writer is a man and men typically like girls and so they pay more attention into making the girl a more interesting character, or because they're female and female writers generally have a better balance when it comes to writing characters.
And last but not least, because it's cute!
Note this is absolutely not to say heterosexual couples can't be cute, of course they can and there's hundreds of examples of it, but allowing yourself to ship same-sex couples really opens the doors for many, many fantasies.
Source: Akagi and Kaga from Kantai Collection
2) Yuri In Different Mediums
In Anime Anime is, quite frankly, the worst medium to look for if you want a good source of Yuri material. There's only a few dozen series that are legitimately about relationships between girls and some of them are really fanservice-y.
This is basically the most untouched medium when it comes to Yuri and this is where shipping and subtext really is prominent, lots of all-girls cast shows tend to have the girls be close to specific characters, implying a closer relationship between the two, and this of course drives the fans nuts, but the actual cannon material usually never goes that far.
Most shows really don't go too far with Yuri for fear of poor sales since it's not the most popular genre so they find this to be a compromise.
Source: Sakura TrickIn Manga Manga is by far the best medium if you want to get a kick out of the Yuri genre. Due to less restrictions there's plenty of authors, both male and female, that create a plethora of works for all kinds of people that enjoy Yuri.
There's cute 4-koma manga like Majyo to Houki to Kurobuchi Megane and there's serious more touchy stuff like Girl Friends. It's a medium that has a lot to offer and it's of course where all the yuri doujin artists typically make their fantasies come to life so you can enjoy your ships in a more vivid way.
Source: Yuri Mekuru Hibi In Visual Novels Visual Novels aren't as representative of the genre mainly due to the demographics they target which is primarely male, as well as the people who produce it, who are again primarly male, and thus most of the visual novels tend to be eroge focusing on cutesy characters with little to no story and a primary goal of showing h-scenes.
This is not to say there haven't been some meaningful works before like Lonely Yuri and to some people even the SonoHana series is a fairly good Yuri series, but you know this latter one is still primarly a nukige no matter how cute it is.
There's untapped potential here for Yuri to flourish, but sadly most of that potential is consumed by nukige. And hey I'm not saying I don't like my yuri nukige (I'm translating one after all), but this also limits the appeal of it to only those who enjoy such works.
Source: SonoHana 3
3) Yuri Can Come In Many Forms
One of the main misconceptions is that when someone mentions Yuri they automatically must mean that a series is primarly focused on a relationship between girls, and while this is obviously the general rule when it comes to romance heavy series, Yuri is really broad and can encompass all kinds of genres or even just be a secondary genre.
The beauty of Yuri is that you can enjoy it while watching/reading completely unrelated series. Shows like Yuru Yuri or Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya introduce Yuri as a secondary plot device, thus not smothering the viewer with constant yuri but rather have the main plot progressing like any normal story would and have cutesy yuri interactions on the side.
In manga, the world is basically limitless with lots of yuri manga not really focusing on the yuri but rather in everyday interactions while introducing some yuri on the side, and this is one of my favorite things to read, it allows me to enjoy relaxing manga while still getting my share of cute girls being cute with each other.
Manga such as Saki even hardly focus on Yuri and just leave that as Subtext while focusing on the mahjong tournaments. And other series like Akuma no Riddle who are more open about the yuri in them can have other more important matters going on in them, it doesn't have to turn into a lesbian fanservice fest.
This is what I hope people who aren't fans of yuri (yet) understand, Yuri is available in lots of ways for all kinds of people and there's plenty of series that can ease in the Yuri while having an overarching plot for you to enjoy, so one should always be open minded about this.
Source: Shimaism
4) Yuri Romance Is Awesome
Of course while there's a lot of series where Yuri is only in subtext form or only exists as a secondary plot device, a lot of Yuri manga is still centered around romance between two (or more) girls.
As I mentioned before, one of the great things about Yuri are the typically more well fleshed out and varied casts of characters since female characters generally speaking tend to be more appealing to the public. But that's not the only thing.
Yuri romance can easily be more intricate and fascinating to read about due to social implications and stigmas the settings of the stories often have, where sometimes the characters struggle with their sexuality and have to come to terms with it.
It also allows for new layers when it comes to love triangles by having females and males involved at the same time, this makes so many stories more refreshing than your average heterosexual love triangle plots that most people are already used to and saturated from.
A lot of people refuse to read/watch yuri romance because they can't relate since they're either male or straight females, but I believe this is a really poor way of looking at it. Of course I myself can't really understand what being a lesbian feels like, but that doesn't mean the goal of the story should be me self inserting into the characters or try to empathize with them, the story is the one that has to bring out the characters in a way that the reader can comprehend and form a connection with.
Relationship problems aren't different whether you're straight or not, human beings regardless of sexuality can relate to human problems, so while I can't exactly comprehend what it feels like to have a different sexuality or be of a different gender, if the story manages to portray to me what the problem is and how it makes the characters feel, I'm going to empathize with them either way.
Because a character crying over a broken a heart is the same whether their love interest is a guy or a girl. Because a character wanting to be together with someone else and to all those romantic things is the same whether they're a girl or a guy, because having society look down on you, regardless for what reason it is, is always a painful thing to go through for anybody.
That's why when I read good Yuri manga, I don't have to worry about whether or not I can understand a girl's mind or how it feels to be a lesbian, because the story itself, if it's a good one, can deliver that to me in a tangible way so that I don't have to self insert myself in it.
And this is why I've recommended plenty of Yuri manga to both guys and girls, straight and not straight, because it's a universal genre everyone can enjoy, it just takes an open mind to go about it. Good stories will always be good stories, they will never require you to be different for you to enjoy them
Source: Citrus
5) Where To Start?
I've blabbed on and on about Yuri so I think it'd be a nice way to finish this off by helping those who are interested in widening their horizons and where they should go to find Yuri content. (note this is only stuff I've personally read and found interesting as recommendations)
For Anime (primarly focused on romance) Maria-sama ga Mitteru Yuru Yuri Strawberry Panic Aoi Hana Sasameki Koto Yuri Kuma Arashi Candy Boy Kanamemo Sakura Trick For Manga
More serious stuffGirl Friends Citrus Blue Friend Gokujou Drops Sasameki Koto Aoi Hana Omoi no Kakera Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan Chouchou Nannan Hana to Hoshi Himawari-san Watashi Sekai o Kouseisuru Chiri no You na Nani ka Anything written by either Takemiya Jin or Amano Shuninta Less serious stuffFu-Fu Stretch Futaribeya Yuru Yuri Kanamemo Lily Love Silly StuffMajyo to Houki to Kurobuchi Megane Shimaism Yuri Mekuru Hibi Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san A-Channel Kiniro Mosaic For Visual Novels (English Only)SonoHana series Lonely Yuri The Upcoming Lilium x Triangle Shameless Advertisement Hanahira Amaranto Katahane Aoishiro Important Note: All these series have a primary, or at least noticeable focus on Yuri, needless to say if I were to make a list of all the series where I personally see subtext or ship characters together, this post would never end, but I trust that as people start getting into the genre they will be able to look for stuff themselves that they enjoy the most, and if you're ever in need for something you can always ask me
Aaaaand that is all, I hope this post was helpful to some, or at least entertaining, I had fun writing it and ranting about my passion for Yuri so I don't regret anything.
My final score count, this should be enough for T2. I would have gone T1, but once again, I ran out of time. T1 was only a 2 hour grind away, but oh well, I'm already going back to being busy.
My final score count, this should be enough for T2. I would have gone T1, but once again, I ran out of time. T1 was only a 2 hour grind away, but oh well, I'm already going back to being busy.
Dating is nothing more than the procedure of finding out if someone is compatible with you. The only difference between online dating and hooking-up-with-someone-at-the-bar dating is the amount of information you start with and the degree of lying possible. When you meet someone in the bar you have to worry whether that person is hiding a penchant for murder. When you meet someone online you have to worry whether that person is actually 10… AND hiding a penchant for murder.
The only other thing that’s different is in the real world you usually meet other people while you’re both doing an activity you each enjoy. So you start out with something in common, which makes things easier. Let’s take the bar example again - you both enjoy booze, I’m sure that is something a lasting relationship can be built upon…
At the end of the day I don’t see much wrong with online dating. People say it’s fairly unsuccessful, but so is dating in general. The vast majority of people who date never get together, and those that do enjoy a 50% divorce rate, so online dating in comparison may be slightly more unsuccessful, probably because you both don’t start out drunk which is a real shame, but there’s not too much different about it.
And lastly, I don’t think your therapist really expects you to find your one true soul in this exercise, he probably thinks you’ll get other things out of it. Something that'll help with your social condition, and maybe he thinks online dating is a way to engage in this because you don't have to be out getting yourself plastered to start.
Really? You are different than 70% of the people I know. They don't really appreciate the mindlessness of SAO, and they always look for the deep meaning and shit from shows. Still, I'm surprised you didn't like Mother's Rosario. While it wasn't the most intense arc, I still thought it was pretty good.
Then every play after was shit. The combo sucked, but the very few breaks was surprising since I've literally bareely played at all in the past few weeks. I did almost all my plays on the first day of the last event and just once a night for the rest of the event, then finally a rush in the final hours to make up the ground I lost just to get the SR.
Saying that, I have something going on ately, so I don't know how much i'll be playing. I originally planned like a triple T1, I don't know even know if I'll get the SR at this rate, I haven't even started the JP event and only 200 tokens on EN... so yeah.
I was rewatching the 2nd season of Love Live when I noticed something. Ever since my first time watching Love Live, I've always held Honoka to a high regard, but in between rewatching the first season and me restarting the 2nd season recently, something happened, but I'm not sure how. My overall opinion of Honoka was declining very steadily. In my mind, I started to slowly see her as just a lazy, gluttonous member of the group with no unique traits. Somehow, my mind was poisoned with the thought that Honoka's personality was purely made just for the sake of needing a "leader" of the group, just being an genki "pull everyone with me" type of person.
Just 5 episodes into my rewatch of the 2nd season, I realized I saw Honoka differently than I used to. She's not some immature girl who has a forced personality for the sake of being a leader, she genuinely has amazing characteristics that makes me respect her. Her serious side is something I always found amazing about her. I'm not good at straight explaining things, so I'll use examples.
The first that came to mind when typing this was just before their performance in S2E3 of Yume no Tobira. After they saw A-Rise perform Shocking Party, the whole group just lost hope and started discrediting themselves. Honoka on the other hand, doesn't do her genki "we can do this!" cliche, she goes completely serious instead. She had given up once before, but was determined to not let the team fall to the same level she had. I just love how she didn't just give some generic genki speech before they started, no "we can do better", just a serious "let's do our best, we've got a chance here".
That wasn't super significant, just somewhere to start off.
I jumped ahead a bit with that, and linked it to an earlier scene. S1E12/S1E13 have always been one of my favorite episodes of Love Live. I've heard people complain about the "lame drama" in these type of anime, but I love these moments, and feels it's extremely good character development. Honoka's decision to quit always affects me whenever I think about it, it's such a powerful scene, and such a powerful thing for her character. Her longest lasting best friend was leaving, she had failed her entire group, and couldn't go on. She just gave up. And then E13 comes after Umi hit her, she had still given up. Her resolve for quitting wasn't weak enough for one person to convince her to stay with just one slap. And then, adding on to that, she's so afraid of letting her friends down again, she's hesitant to lead them towards the Love Live again with the thought of failing them again.
As I started in my Rin Post a while ago, helping other people for just the sake of helping them is a HUGE plus to me, very few things can top it. Honoka displays this in Rin's episode, S2E5 (and I feel bad now for forgetting to include it in my Rin post). Throughout the episode, she's expressing concern over Rin. She was actually acting the part as a leader, helping guide her members to help each other in their problems. Another serious moment from her.
The last example I will give is something that stuck with me since the moment it happened (I really don't know why, this is the least significant thing yet). The specific scene was with Tsubasa and Honoka when Tsubasa was talking about how A-Rise lost to u's. The whole time, Honoka was being serious, and extremely respectful to Tsubasa. And when Tsubasa asked Honoka what the driving force for u's was, Honoka got flustered, but DIDN'T make a stupid response from being flustered (as expected of a stock genki character), she took it completely serious and, again, very respectful of Tsubasa. She even calls Umi after and thinks about it for a while to try and find an answer.
Ran out of examples since I wasn't very prepared, just things that came to mind when typing.
I guess the last thing I'll say doesn't really go along with all this analysis of her. I also personally find Honoka as one of the most attractive looking out of the members of u's, alongside Umi and Maki. Just personal preference.
I'm sorry I stopped believing in you, Honoka, but at least I know someone that never will
As usual, I type these long posts but they feel like garbage. This took like 3 hours to type, but I'm always multi tasking between multiple threads on multiple forums, watching anime, playing games, chatting on multiple chat programs, etc.
I have always ranked Umi low on my favorites (usually 6th). Something about her, just don't click with me. I find her embarrased moments adorable, her strong qualities are very respectable, her singing is phenomenal, and her looks are amazing. She's extremely loyal as well. I think it might be her chastising that annoys me, how she can be harsh.
.thumb.png.f5b3ef2eb8287926cfdb9d7f0cc20541.png)
Ceris reacted to OriginalRen in Birthday Wish Thanks
Ceris got a reaction from Abernite in Love Live! School Idol Festival Thread
Ceris got a reaction from Eclipsed in Love Live! School Idol Festival Thread
Ceris got a reaction from ExtraMana in Hyperdimension Neptunia+Spin offs
Ceris got a reaction from Tyrael in Love Live! School Idol Festival Thread
Ceris got a reaction from Stray Cat in Post pics you like (Powered by Jun Inoue™)
Ceris got a reaction from Kenshin_sama in Post pics you like (Powered by Jun Inoue™)
Ceris got a reaction from Mr Poltroon in Post pics you like (Powered by Jun Inoue™)
Ceris got a reaction from Rina (RinaSaruChan) in Love Live! School Idol Festival Thread
Ceris got a reaction from Narcosis in Love Live! School Idol Festival Thread
Ceris got a reaction from Zehel in Love Live! School Idol Festival Thread