The Structure of Yuri: the Shift from Female to Male Audiences
Strawberry Panic - Nagisa and Shizuma
Yuri, shoujo-ai, girl’s love, cute anime girls getting it on with each other – no matter what you want to call it, these names refer to entertainment that contains romantic and/or sexual relationships between women. Yuri first developed as a genre mainly targeted towards women, much in the same way that lesbian literature in other societies began growing as homosexuality became an issue in developed nations. However, it seems that a large volume of yuri being produced is now marketed towards male audiences rather than ones composed of females. Why is this?
At first, the answer may seem quite simple. Perhaps men simply enjoy entertainment with themes involving female same-sex couplings; after all, plenty of guys have been interested in “Sapphic erotica” (girl on girl pornography), so to say. But there’s an interesting fact about the consumers of lesbian-themed anime, manga, or novels that one should note: namely, that while pornography is purely sexual, non-erotic yuri still seems to draw customers, particularly male ones.
There several examples of how yuri can be used to target male audiences. First, yuri can serve as a supplement to the main story: one that may be originally designed for males, and uses lesbian undertones to attract even more fans. Just take a look at Akamatsu Ken’s Negima!. Not only do you have a ten year old in the ultimate harem situation, you also have two of his students in a blatantly obvious more-than-just-friends relationship. Second, yuri can serve as a secondary central theme along with the main theme. Titles such as My-HiME scream: “Think yuri damn it!” In these shows, the action and the yuri are very closely entwined.
Setsuna and Konoka from Mahou Sensei Negima!
In contrast to the first two, the third type of yuri that also attracts men is the kind of anime that is relatively close to pure shoujo. By “shoujo” I mean that much of the “action” in the story revolves around character progression. Anime such as Maria-sama ga Miteru and Strawberry Panic fall into this category. Termed “Class S” yuri, these series focus on the platonic relationships between girls, often utilizing the setting of a girls’ only school. For those males without an interest in this third type of yuri, it wouldn’t be surprising if you’re confused at why some men would like this kind of series. After all, this kind of yuri is clearly created for girls. But why do guys seem to be oddly attracted to these girls and their relationships with their sophisticatedly complex yet beautiful upper-classmen?
The reason for this, I propose, is that, underneath the crazed, obsessive outer behavior of otaku, there lies an attraction to themes of romance that seems to be more emotional than superficial. It’s almost as if fans of this type of yuri take to heart the somewhat more spiritual nature of the relationships involved in these stories. This means that the attraction yuri has over (some) men isn’t necessarily limited to something sexual. Otaku are consuming previously female-oriented material, and empathizing with the relationships that are being represented in anime, particularly if the couples in the shows have a relationship that borders romantic love and friendship. The theme here is the tension between romance and friendship, which is a universal theme that attracts more than the superficially-minded viewer.
Here, I point to Sasameki Koto for two particularly telling scenes that mimic the heart-rending situations any one of us could experience in our lives. In the first scene, we see Sumika gazing longingly at her best friend Kazama, who is in turn staring at a magazine of a cute girl who caught her interest, all of which occurs over a ten second long backdrop depicting the glowing orange of the late afternoon sun. The image is perfect – they’re sitting next to each other, just as friends would, but the viewer can easily feel the distance that Sumika must feel lies between herself and her object of affection. The fact that their eyes never meet expresses visually the sadness of one-sided love. What struck me about this scene was just how easily it could mean the same thing if the two characters were guy and girl, or even a guy and a guy.
Later, when we see Kazama and Sumika sleeping in the same room (as friends, of course), we see even more of this tension between friendship and love. Kazama, heartbroken by this point, seeks comfort in staying over at her best friend’s home. Here, the same tension between friendship and love is expressed through the bonds of trust: Kazama trusts Sumika enough to sleep next to her. As I was watching this particular scene, it dawned on me just how powerful this image was. Many, many years ago, I happened upon my mother watching some scene from some drama (I never asked the name) where a male and female character spent the night in the same bed, but as friends. At the time I innocently asked my mother: “Are those two boyfriend and girlfriend?” She replied, “No, they’re friends. The girl trusts the guy, so she’s not afraid to sleep next to him.” I immediately realized how this obscure subgenre of anime reflects on this same universal theme that I had barely understood as a child.
Perhaps all of what I have discussed here may seem a bit trivial to most anime fans, but it seems to me that this phenomenon reveals diversity in a fandom that is now thought of as largely being influenced by the moe boom. Of course, yuri anime can be moe-fied in the way other anime can, but the existence of male fans of Class S yuri anime seems, to me at least, to show that being an otaku is just a bit more than drooling over cute anime girls forming strangely talented bands or acting silly with one another. Consumers of anime, while often sensationalized by media and intellectuals alike as being particularly obsessive over superficial elements, reveal an interesting contrast in their behavior through their appreciation of certain types of yuri anime.
Firstly, nice post. I like the categorization into three modes of yuri.
I think concerning the 3rd category, otaku might be attracted to themes of romance and emotion, but they don’t want boys to be any part of it. And the ones that are involved are typically insensitive louts (White Album, School Days) or milquetoast Made-For-Harem viewer avatars. Exceedingly rare in the romance genre is the male lead that’s written as both complex and realistic, and the fandom rejects those anyways. What can producers do? Make ‘em all girls!
What cheaper way is there to instantly gain a bigger audience than to make the entire cast female? I don’t think Saki would’ve worked as an all guys Mahjong team. Yuri’s surging popularity is part novelty and part giving the audience exactly what it wants.
Aoi Hana definitely comes to mind as a Class S yuri show that manages to handle its drama just right. While watching it, I was struck by how well it handles the gaze and distance aspects along with the artwork to really bring out the bubbling feelings that took place between its characters.
There could be two reasons for this. The first is similar to what kadian is saying above… that men don’t want to see “good” men getting the chicks. Most of the Class S yuri lead females tend to be somewhat masculine, but in that masculinity also comes the charm of the nice guy male type. We’ve become conditioned to believing that nice guys don’t get the chicks, and since most otaku are generally “nice guys” (read: no balls), they don’t want to see someone like them winning the day while they themselves can’t.
Another part of it might be in masculinity itself, and this also has two subparts. The first subpart relates to the rise of homosexuality the world over. Male homosexuality has, quite frankly, ruined it for a lot of straight people. This isn’t the fault of the homosexuals, but the heterosexuals who have become so paranoia about being thought of as “gay”, that they simply display nothing but machismo 24/7. Because of that, the idea of being “nice” to the girls on the level necessary to match that of a Class S yuri heroine, is much too wimpy. But if it’s a girl, it’s okay.
The second subpart is that, I think, and this is just me talking, men want to have a yuri like relationship with another guy, but not have it be gay. Let me explain: back when I was growing up, during the rather relaxed 80s, I had several guy friends who I considered to be close mates. Look at the movies we had then. The Big Chill, Stand By Me, etc. Films that show men or young boys forming actual bonds with each other. So was the same with my buds. They were guys I could trust, talk to, do shit with, and generally have a real platonic deep frienship with without the pretense of anything sexual going on. That “Best Bud” relationship has basically died. Sure, I still have friends, but I have nobody with whom I could connect with on a deep level like I used to. Nowadays the only time you’re going to talk about stuff you worry about or bothers you is with family or if you and your buds have had too many drinks.
Just my thoughts.
I think people are multi-motivational as a whole so there could be many different reasons. I think fundamentally if the work is entertaining, gripping, artistic, and otherwise “good” it will find fans, male or female.
The blind spot, so to speak, of this post, is treating “lesbianism” too widely. I mean I sort of cringed when you say guys are interested in lesbian porn. I don’t think that is an accurate description–guys are interested in girl-on-girl action, which really has nothing to do with lesbianism per se. At any rate I don’t think it’s accurate to define homosexual relationships purely by the sex act between the parties.
That is part of what goes behind what Kadian is saying: in essence, in the post-modern, trope-swapping world of disposable entertainment, they’re all interchangable parts. If the audience like moe-moe school girls and don’t like pathetic harem leads, then you could essentially create the same story just by swapping a few interchangable narrative components and characters.
So the work could have nothing particularly interesting about lesbianism yet flags up all these people looking for lesbianism in these works, causing some confusion. Only because a girl kisses another girl or something, as a gag.
At the same time, the audience do find works that they may not have otherwise any interests aside from a few well-done parts, and it can draw from a more mainstream audience. This is particularly notable in shoujo manga and anime adaptation of such works. Actually there is probably a lot of stuff written about guys (gaijin guys especially) who love shoujo manga. But anyways.
Here’s why I like yuri: it forces one of the girls to take charge. Men like knowing that women have sexual desires, which you’d never know if you’ve only watched heterosexual relationships. In those cases, it’s the men who are always pressing for sex while the women act like sex is evil and ungodly. In a yuri series, at least one of the girls has to express some sort of sexual desire.
Another problem with heterosexual relationships is that most guys in male-targeted romance anime are bland in the best cases and complete losers in the worst cases. I’m guessing it has something to do with male anime fans not wanting to see any male characters higher up the ladder than themselves. Yuri relationships often have characters much cooler than any of the men you’ll ever see in anime.
Strawberry Panic is a fan service-y parody of Marimite and only superficially shoujo.
Concerning Marimite and Aoi Hana, I don’t see anything about either that suggests that they were marketed to male fans.
When it comes to categorizing yuri, I find the “real yuri” / “super yuri” divide, akin to “real robots” and “super robots”, interesting (I might be wrong, but I think Baka-Raptor came up with it). The Class-S yuri you were talking about here probably firmly fit into “real yuri”, where the settings are closer to reality and there’s more focus on emotions and relationships. Alternatively you have titles which are either over-the-top melodramatic (Strawberry Panic) and/or set in fantastical, action-themed settings (Kannaduki no Miko) that are “super yuri”. Sasameki Koto is an interesting case, since it didn’t quite fit neatly into the “real yuri” category until later on, despite appearing blatantly “real” after the first ep.
But the appeal of Class-S yuri among male anime fans speaks pretty loudly about how romantic a lot of them are, IMO.
@Sorrow-kun: You are correct
@zzeroparticle
I was just about to mention Aoi Hana for Class “S” yuri; that’s an anime made right. I’ve never followed any of the Marimite series so I shan’t comment about it.
In Aoi Hana, I’m particularly fascinated in Yasuko. She’s a little on the masculine side: nonchalant, knows how to take charge, selfish and even occasionally cold. Yet, this masculine demeanor completely shatters the moment she cries in episode 6, and subsequently she shows her feminine side.
Overall, I like Class “S” yuri over any of its related branches, provided it’s made with the right intentions. I can relate to TIF’s second paragraph; I don’t know what the otakus are thinking, but yuri-themed anime titles see female characters embodying desirable masculine nobility, without being male. Females have a closer intimacy than males, so if a female character is perching on the fence between feminine and masculine qualities (or, embodying both qualities), it puts them under a positive light.
Does seeing nice male characters getting the girl eventually, rub the male viewers the wrong way? I can’t say; I don’t mind seeing that as long as the story is told in such a way that the male character deserves it.
Thank you for the critical responses, everyone. I appreciate them a lot! It was unfortunate I hadn’t been able to finish Aoi Hana before making this post; it seems that was a series that was done particularly well.
@kadian1364
In my opinion, the removal of the male lead is the same as bringing out that aspect of tension between friendship and romance, which I mentioned in my post. I do agree that removing male characters for the most part brings a very wide range of benefits as well as popularity (as seen in the usage of the catch phrase “Garden of Maidens” or “Otome no Sono”). However, I don’t think the fanbase necessarily rejects the simplistic, insensitivity typically associated with the male lead. Drawing from Strawberry Panic and Sasameki Koto, both shows have elements where the girls are completely oblivious, often to the point of being completely insensitive to another character’s feelings. Furthermore, I think there is something to be said about the necessity of having some of the girls in the series play more masculine roles. I think what is really at play here is part of that “novelty” you mentioned. Here, the novelty lies in the fact that the traditional balance of male-female is somewhat retained by the presence of a more masculine female character. Instead of the typical forceful male acting the role, we find a more refined, yet equally forceful and stubborn, female taking initiative.
@zzeroparticle
I haven’t had the chance to watch more than the first episode of Aoi Hana, but I have a hunch it’s done quite well, just from my sampling of it. I’ll be sure to take a look at this series closer the next chance I have to finish it.
@The Typical Idiot Fan
I agree that the reasons behind this are numerous. However, I disagree about the idea that otaku hate sympathizing with the wimpy male lead that gets all the girls — in fact, I think harem series still remain far more popular. It seems to me that the appeal of harem anime lies in the fact that these girls have come to appreciate the male lead in a way that may be very well impossible in real life. These fans that engage in the subculture may be experiencing much prejudice or even rejection from the society that does not embrace their interests, and for this reason, there exists these fictional women that are capable of accepting them despite their faults. I am -definitely- not making claims about women here, since I think much of the fault here lies with the unsocial tendencies of otaku more so than anyone else, but I think that you can reverse the “I don’t want to see some guy who’s better than me get the girl” into “That 2-D girl can understand me better than those girls who are superficial.”
As for the first part your second point about masculinity: I think there is much that needs to be looked at here. First of all, I think it’s very difficult to argue that male fans of yuri anime reject the wimpy status of males acting nice to girls. Here, I would point to statistical data about certain types of fans preferring certain genres, but, alas, I have no such data (I would certainly like to collect it via several forums in the future.). But, if what you propose is true, then we should see a failure to overlap between the fansbases of yuri and other genres involving idiot male leads. If what you said is not a particularly telling factor of the fanbases, especially if fans of yuri tend to like genres such as harem (for males), then I think that makes a case about the issue of masculinity involved. While I’m more inclined to think the latter (that masculinity has a smaller role than we think it does), at the moment I can only speculate.
The second part of your second point: in all seriousness, I do believe that there is a sense of innocence involved in the platonic relationship, and that deep sense of friendship in these series that is pure. Exactly because of this purity, some men are attracted to it. I think I know where you’re coming from.
@omo
First, thank you in particular for pointing out the faults of the article in a very straightforward manner. This allows us to get to the point I wanted to make. When I was using the term “lesbianism,” I wanted to emphasize that, at least from my experience, we hear a lot of male attraction to lesbian-themed material largely because of the possible sexual aspect of it. You are indeed correct in the fact that men are attracted to girl-on-girl action, which was what I wanted to emphasize. This is why I brought up the topic of pornography. But by no means was I trying to define the term itself as relating to sex; rather, that was more of a point I wanted to touch, rather than a definitional matter to be defined. As the author, the burden falls on me to articulate my point clearly (which I haven’t done here), and in the future I will make sure to look for a more accurate description. For the time being, forgive me for the misuse of the word lesbian, and I would like readers to think of my use of the word in the most colloquial sense.
What I do what to emphasize in the rest of the post, is that there is that the murky waters of friendship and love are particularly emphasized by the closeness of gender that we often have today. After all, society is divided along gender lines. But when friendship reaches a point where it borders love, the divides no longer exist, and a certain element of drama becomes particularly intense at this point. I agree that these series may not be particularly interesting in terms of content regarding lesbianism as a theme, but I do believe that there is more involved than simply swapping in “moe-moe school girls” and feeding it to the masses. For this reason, I felt the distinction between the first two categories and the third are particularly significant — in the first two, if a girl kisses another girl, it becomes nothing but fan service. In the third, intimate contact of that sort is limited, because the focus of the series is more so about the tension I referred to both in my post and earlier in these responses. This is where I see an interesting aspect of male consumer behavior. And also, for this reason, I feel there is more to the situation than simply a rejection of the crappy male lead.
@Baka-Raptor
You bring up a very good reason for liking yuri, one I’m inclined to agree with. However, if men simply wanted to know women have these same desires, why not look toward shoujo manga? If I remember correctly, there’s even erotic manga targeted toward women. At least, there’s evidence for it even if you don’t like the sappy content of shoujo. Thus, there must be a second reason that also makes males attracted to yuri. Also, I feel that Class S is far too scarce on the topic of sexuality to be particularly gripping for men interested for sexual reasons, which is a point I wanted to make in my post.
On your second point: perhaps it’s true that masculine characters in yuri are “cooler,” but this, in my opinion, only exists because of what kadian noted as a form of “novelty”. I actually think that masculine female characters are practically the same as the male ones, but perhaps slightly more sensitive. Every bit as forceful, tall, and strong, they drag around the female lead character in the same way one would expect of male characters in shoujo manga. Vice versa, we see the sometimes surprisingly insensitive side of the main female lead, who is utterly oblivious of the feelings of her friend towards her. It may very well be that, by simply changing the gender, these character types become novel aspects of the same story, but I think the “cool” here must be defined in a way, one not centered on the masculine conception, in order to truly analyze just what it means to have masculine and feminine female characters.
@zzz
You’re right in that Strawberry Panic! is not real shoujo; I won’t contest this point. However, I still feel it belongs as a branch of Class S particularly because of its characters and the setting, both of which superficially mimic series such as MariMite. Strawberry Panic!, in every sense, is marketed for guys, but that doesn’t change the fact that much of its character development centers not around physical action, but emotional development. Thus, I feel that it deserves special mention because it was an attempt to bridge the gap between yuri targeted toward females, and that yuri we often see in male-oriented series that is merely complementary eye-candy.
MariMite and Aoi Hana may not explicitly be designed for male audiences, but we have to look at the reception of the anime versus reception of their original forms. MariMite, originally published as a novel, is first and foremost designed for women. Aoi Hana was originally a manga. Both of these, targeted towards girls, have obtained male audiences through anime serialization, which I think is a curious thing that must be looked at. I have generalized a significant amount in my post, which means these objections are perfectly valid, but there is still something going on worth noting.
@Sorrow-kun
Another valid categorization of yuri, one that I particularly agree with. However, my purpose in placing Strawberry Panic! in the same category as Maria-sama ga Miteru lies in, as I wrote in a reply above, similarities in story development that are far too different from other types that belong in Type 1 or 2 (Kannazuki no Miko would fall under the second). You’re right in that SP! is over the top and melodramatic; however, I find this to be one of its most interesting points. The fact that it’s not “real yuri” does bring to our attention this potential shift in marketing strategy. I wrote “pure shoujo” with the quotation marks because this distinction also exists, but for my purposes, I felt that this change in yuri (using Class S as a template for targeting non-female audiences) would be noticeable with SP! and MariMite compared together.
I think that my ultimate conclusion is that we have many hopeless romantics among the otaku population. And this is particularly interesting, because otaku consume at such a superficial level. The question is whether, underneath this behavior, there lies a mind at work that is more complicated than we give credit for.
@AC
I also think it’s too early to conclude that male audiences dislike seeing other males get the girls, which is why I wanted to search for a different reason for male consumers to enjoy yuri. I also agree that the female who can straddle the dividing line between both genders has potential for win, but their designs also work within a frame of interpersonal relationships within the story itself, which is why I think merely looking at the masculine aspects lacks in certain ways.
What is the distinctive separation among the three types of yuri you’ve mentioned? If it’s the different ways the three attract viewers, I’d argue that the first is simply the second type on a smaller scope. If we were to compare Negima! (which I have not seen nor read, so I’m going to take what you’ve said at face value) and Kannazuki no Miko, the choice of adding yuri is the same: to appeal to particular audiences at a superficial level. If it’s the scale of each one, with the first being the concept of adding yuri as simply a peripheral addition instead of as a central aspect that the second and third entail, I would argue again that it’s a matter of scale. If, say, secondary characters that are not the main focus appeared to be in a class S relationship and their interactions were those that would be seen in the third type of yuri, would that fall under type one or type three? Or am I completely missing the point?
Sorry, I was bugged by the fact that the distinctions weren’t quite equal.
On this note, I’d say that Sorrow-kun/Baka-Raptor’s separation of “real yuri” and “super yuri” could be easily mapped onto the second and third types of yuri. The third type and “real yuri” place utmost emphasis on the emotions, while “super yuri” and the second type focus on the exact opposite. In light of this, I think Strawberry Panic gains its spot in the type two category because it takes the “real yuri” category to such extremes that it comes down to being less about emotions and more about “lol yuri.”
For the delineation of type three’s appeal, I never really thought about it as tension between friendship and love. Interesting. Perhaps yuri is used to sidestep the baggage that comes with a heterosexual relationship? So by setting up a bond that doesn’t have the sexual tension we inevitably expect from a boy-girl relationship, a series can focus on the emotional development instead. This probably also encompasses TIF’s comment on masculinity; the fears of homosexuality and weakness that are drilled into the head of every male by today’s society stem largely from the fact that both question sexuality. Yuri is thus an aspect they could readily accept, as it’s to some extent a pure relationship that doesn’t hold the connotations real life same sex relationships do, be they platonic or romantic.
@kadian1364, omo
I don’t think it’s as simple as swapping out males and putting females in. As Kylaran pointed out, it fundamentally changes the dynamic, and decisions to make the entire cast girls, like say in Saki, tend to aim for people who like type two instead of those who like type three. Again, perhaps the fundamental part of the type three yuri is the necessity that both sides be female, because females can be shown to be far more emotional without treading into sexual territory
Now this post reminds me that I have to get around to watching Aoi Hana and Sasameki Koto. Hopefully the spoilers across the internet didn’t ruin them for me.
*sigh* Ugh, didn’t expect the formatting to be like that. Is it possible for someone to fix it for me?
I had an additional thought about yuri when it comes to otaku. Perhaps it’s possible that the kind of emotional development that otaku want from a relationship are those that appear in yuri anime? There is, after all, some level of social isolation, one that a relationship that focuses more heavily on emotion would be able to breach. Or am I overgeneralizing?
Wow… that’s quite a debate. I just spent the last while reading it all, even though I’m supposed to be working… shhhh =X lol anyways, I want to drop in my two cents on this topic as well.
First of all, I think there’s multi-reasons that an individual would watch yuri but generalizing… I totally agree that yuri is targeting more males than females these days. I don’t watch yuri because girl-on-girl action (no matter how emotional the attraction is) is not something that I can watch without cringing. Much like how guys don’t like watching gay porn, girls don’t like watching lesbian porn (I know there’s exceptions, but this is from my POV).
Therefore, assuming that the target audience for yuri and lesbian-porn is dominantly male, why hasn’t there been more attempts to bring these themes into other mediums? What I mean is… if males (un)consciously enjoy the thrill of drama and character development between two potential girl (best) friends, why is it that we don’t see more yuri-themed movies or tv shows? The reason I believe that it doesn’t work, is because it doesn’t sell. No typical male (who doesn’t watch anime?) is going to watch two girls “almost” kiss and not have sex. Correct me if I’m wrong… but I feel like when society thinks “lesbianism”, they don’t think deep, meaningful relationships between two girls.
As a result, I believe the reason that yuri sells in anime/manga and not in real life dramas/movies/TV shows… is simply because it’s fake. It’s unrealistic (to an extent) and perhaps because a lot more people can relate to 2D characters on a screen. So I agree with TIF in a sense that… unconsciously males are looking for a way to have that kind of relationship with a girl (or guy? O_o). They can relate to the longing for another female (which is probably why I don’t enjoy it… because I don’t love my best friend that way). If you believe in Freud’s theory of id-ego-superego… then everyone has a (un)surpressed desire to have sex as well. When you add up the fact that males want sex, males can sympathize with anime characters that develop the emotional relationship that they want… I can see why yuri would appeal more to guys.
So that turned out to be a post WAY longer than I intended =S I feel like I went off topic a bit… but I guess it’s all the school-textbook material talking =P I hope I didn’t offend anyone =X I’m just generalizing and it’s all based on personal opinion/experience. I like the discussion this topic started though. Kylaran made a great first post =)
@Elineas
To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the first category of yuri, according to Kylaran’s article. Personally, I don’t think it’s a distinctive category; in other words, this category still fundamentally sound like it belongs either to one of the other two categories. The second and third are easy to relate, and I’m convinced that “super yuri” and Class “S” yuri are distinguishable.
Quote:
“If, say, secondary characters that are not the main focus appeared to be in a class S relationship and their interactions were those that would be seen in the third type of yuri, would that fall under type one or type three?”
I’d say it falls under the Class “S” yuri (type 3 yuri). In this case, it doesn’t matter if the characters are secondary; it’s the yuri genre itself. Come to think of it, I’ve yet to see any title where both “super yuri” and Class “S” yuri are included. It would sound contradictory if both are in a single title, don’t you think?
Watch Aoi Hana, if you please.
@Butters
“No typical male (who doesn’t watch anime?) is going to watch two girls “almost” kiss and not have sex. Correct me if I’m wrong… but I feel like when society thinks “lesbianism”, they don’t think deep, meaningful relationships between two girls.”
I don’t quite agree with your first notion, but I agree with the second. I know that men are a little shallow (yes, I’ll say this) but I won’t necessarily associate kissing and bonkering. Men who are up only for the bonkering aren’t in for the emotional development; at least, I haven’t seen any instance where an anime features a sexual relationship between two girls, and male viewers take it as a serious emotional issue. Case in point, the popular Shizuru-Natsuki relationship in My-HiME, people may argue that it’s a serious relationship issue in topic, but male viewers are in it just for the sexual lulz.
For your second notion, people’s perception on “lesbianism” and “yuri/homosexuality” can be distinctly different. I’ve seen people who see the former category as something more sexual, and the latter as somethimg emotional. At the same time, I’ve seen people with the opposite POV. To be honest, the former type of people seems to be more predominant.
@Elineas
Thank you for your insights. First and foremost, I do want to emphasize that I myself do not consider the three distinctions to be equal; in particular, the second and third stand out to me as the area in which most of this debate will be centered. The confusion here over these three distinctions is that, while I wanted to focus on the marketability and fan receptiveness of yuri as a whole, my categories are actually based on the usage of yuri/yuri elements as a plot device in the story. Thus, we have yuri as a completely secondary theme, yuri as a (potentially) central theme that is paired with more typical male-oriented themes, and yuri as a central theme with little aid from other themes. As you said, the first two are indeed collapsable. In regards to your example, of a type 2 anime with a Class S relationship: it would have to be placed in type 2. The point is, the yuri element is not the only thing that attracts males when we look at the plot. To give you an example, Kannazuki no Miko isn’t just yuri — there’s mecha, and fighting, and all that other crap guys sometimes like. (Just for the record, I would doubt the possibility of a Class S appearing in a type 2 because the focus of type 2 would most likely be battles, action, or other male-oriented themes.)
As I have mentioned before, Strawberry Panic! is categorized as type 3 exactly because, in terms of storytelling and presentation, it has many similarities with other Class S anime, notably in setting and design. Many elements of SP! are, admittedly, more similar to harem anime such as Love Hina, and fanservice is definitely much more noticeable. However, this is precisely why I see a distinctive weak point of the real yuri/super yuri classification; for if we classify super yuri merely as attempting to draw in the sexual drive of male viewers, then it still remains to question why males would indeed watch something such as MariMite. Again, we could run a survey of self-reported interests, and search of overlap between fans of real yuri and super yuri. A significant overlap would mean that the population base is largely the same, and a different one would mean that some guys like MariMite, and not, say, Strawberry Panic!, and vice versa. From my experience, male fans of yuri tend to like yuri in general, and, while there are some who stay away from the sappier stuff, in general the fan bases overlap. This has spurred me to make the distinctions I have in my post, which is essentially a claim to a separate form of categorizing yuri that may have more explanatory power over consumption of yuri as a whole.
My conclusion is, as you have noted in your comments, an emphasis on non-sexual relationships in yuri that may be the reason for male interest in not only yuri with plenty of fan service, but also yuri that lacks it.
@Buttercup
Focus on your work! Actually, right now, I’m procrastinating on an essay…
Anyway, I do agree with your point that otaku here may be longing for something that they themselves are lacking, but this is much speculation. I also felt that my categories have succinctly delineated a problem with marketing yuri as purely sexual or non-sexual, especially since there seem (at least, in my eyes) fans that like both sexual and non-sexual yuri. As explained in my response to Elineas, my focus here is to change our fundamental assumptions that guys just like to see girls get it on with each other, otherwise it would be difficult to fully account for the popularity of certain Class S series.
I am also very reluctant to refer to any form of psychoanalysis here, and elsewhere in examining behavior, because psychoanalysis is more of a pseudo-science than a real scientific theory. In my categorization of yuri, I wanted to achieve a method of analyzing the male fans of yuri as a whole that can generate hypotheses about fan behavior, and these hypotheses can subsequently either be proved or disproved by the general (note: general) trends in the fandom. It is possible to collect data and subsequently analyze whether my distinction accounts for popularity of both Class S and type 2 yuri, or if the super yuri/real yuri distinction exists to such an extent where fans can be generally divided among these lines.
@AC
I myself would refrain from using “super yuri” and my own type 3 as being comparable categories of yuri, particularly because my type 3 classifies Strawberry Panic! as being, essentially, a more Class S than “super yuri” series. Although, strictly speaking, it does have elements in its direction that make it more noticeably geared toward men. If you read my response to Elineas above, you would see why I have placed Strawberry Panic! with other, more stereotypical Class S, and why I feel my categories must be considered a separate method of categorizing from the real yuri/super yuri distinction, despite the fact that similarities exist.
Very, very interesting hypothesis.
Being a half yuri fan myself (loved marimite, although I didn’t enjoy explicit yuri like Candy Boy), I haven’t given too much thought about this myself, but you could be right. But then again, your post seem to imply that majority of the guys are consuming their entertainment media with a superficial, sexual intent. I don’t have any evidence to disprove that, but I am not certainly not convinced at this stage.
But no doubt it’s a great and thought provoking article.
Yuri is for men and why make such big fuss about it? It just as same as yaoi for women.
I actually think that there is a very stark contrast between Strawberry Panic and Marimite. Stopan is very clearly male oriented. Yes, there may be a lot of drama and romance, but everything is much more blatant, including the fan service.
On the other hand, Marimite is so subtle in everything it does and the yuri is not explicit.
I don’t consider Stopan anime to be very shoujo, at least not in the same way as Marimite or even Aoi Hana.
Anyways, very very interesting post.