Yaoi vs Yuri Discussion!

[AceD]

Originally Posted by Deus ex Digital Boy

It doesn't help that yuri fans are fucking stupid. They will eat up anything yuri like fucking Strawberry Panic and Kannazuki no Miko and have the fucking nerve to compare it to Marimite and Simoun. Thanks to that, only about half of the tiny amount of yuri out there is actually any good.

i kinda agree with this, GOOD yuri's are few and far between, Mnemosyne is the only good one ive seen recently

[Deus ex Digital Boy]

Originally Posted by Voracious Hollow

i kinda agree with this, GOOD yuri's are few and far between, Mnemosyne is the only good one ive seen recently

If you don't mind hentai, I infinitely recommend Shoujo Sect, especially the manga.

[Sorrow-K]

Originally Posted by Matrim

Tiny amount of anything is actually any good. And personally I woudln't call anyone stupid for liking something that I don't. It's quite easy to become exasperated with all the beating around the bush in yuri manga and anime which probably has a lot to do with the popularity of Kannazuki no Miko and Strawberry Panic. Plus, the former is not a bad series at all, if we manage to forget the god-awful mechas.

And Strawberry Panic isn't that bad if you're willing to accept the melodrama and the characters who constantly make stupid decisions and the hackneyed writing... hmm... Wait, why did I like this show again? That's right, the lesbians and the music.

Originally Posted by Deus ex Digital Boy

In Japan, it is mostly considered that both appeal to females. Polls have shown that men don't like uri because they like a male lead who they can relate to.

If this is true, this breaks my heart. Self-insertable male leads with no personality is the cancer that's killing anime.

[Deus ex Digital Boy]

Originally Posted by Sorrow-K

If this is true, this breaks my heart. Self-insertable male leads with no personality is the cancer that's killing anime.

We just aren't the target audience

[Oppius]

As a straight man who loves yuri, I was disappointed that there are no yuri shows in this year, even three seasons has passed while the girls already has several new yaoi shows. For me this is unfair, why the girls always get the fun while guys like me often forgotten. I knew there are several ecchi shits(yes, they were) like Kanokon, To Love-ru and many more are aimed towards male audience but I am no fan of ecchi stuffs. If the girls were angered with these ecchi shits and what about some yaoi shows they enjoyed? They just pretty the same anyway to me.

[AceD]

Originally Posted by Deus ex Digital Boy

If you don't mind hentai, I infinitely recommend Shoujo Sect, especially the manga.

ill check out the oav

its like a movie - it doesnt matter if theres sex or not, long as theres a plot worth watching

[Coruja]

Originally Posted by nubby

probably from the fact that yaoi is boy/boy and yuri is girl/girl. i dont see why a straight person would be in to such in a thing unless they were just curious, which is understandable. most fans are probably girls tho.

Not really. I am a girl, 100% straight, and I love Yaoi because of the BoyxBoy love; if you can have twice the hotness, why not? I really like to watch men on a sexual contest... Not women. I don't like Yuri at all; maybe your theory would apply better to the fans who like to watch both...? I dunno, personally, I only like it because it's hot.
There's nothing too deep, nor worth discussing about that, imo.

Edit: However, if I want to watch an anime with a good, solid story, I don't care if it's yuri, yaoi, or whatever. What I said above only applies when I am talking about my own selfish pleasure and then Yaoi does turn me on.

[Deus ex Digital Boy]

A theory was stated (well, I overheard it, so I have improvised bits I missed) by the president lady of lillilicious (the yuri scanslation group) to someone at otakon that women like yaoi because it combines the sexual attractiveness of men with the personalities of women. It's almost sexual escapism. After all, women usually hate men's personalities (wish they were more sensitive, less brutish, etc.) and wish they would act more feminine in some ways (not necessarily in all aspects, but many) however they still find men sexually attractive. Yaoi is merely a combination.. After all, men in yaoi act totally like women however obviously the sexual aspect incorporating only men ensures maximum attractiveness for girls.

Yuri isn't the same. Men don't want their women to act like men. Yuri is for women who like other women.

[BetoJR]

Not all yuri have what I'd call women behaving like men. So, that's not the draw, at least for me.

[Deus ex Digital Boy]

Originally Posted by BetoJR

Not all yuri have what I'd call women behaving like men. So, that's not the draw, at least for me.

I didn't intend for it to sound like that's what I meant, but I see how it reads that way.

[Matrim]

It's almost sexual escapism.

Of course it is. But yuri is much the same, isn't it? I mean - a school in which everyone is female and everyone is either lesbian or strongly hinted to lean this way could hardly be more of an obvious case of escapism. Or even the mere fact that 95% of yuri characters looking and most often also dressing cute and also looking very similar to characters from mangas designed to arouse male fandom.

This explanation for the appeal of yaoi seems weird to me (mainly because it's hard to define what is a "feminine personality" and that the popularity of the seme-uke cliche doesn't seem to me as if like fans "wish they were more sensitive, less brutish") but let's see if actual yaoi fans will agree with it.

[Deus ex Digital Boy]

Originally Posted by Matrim

Of course it is. But yuri is much the same, isn't it? I mean - a school in which everyone is female and everyone is either lesbian or strongly hinted to lean this way could hardly be more of an obvious case of escapism. Or even the mere fact that 95% of yuri characters looking and most often also dressing cute and also looking very similar to characters from mangas designed to arouse male fandom.

This explanation for the appeal of yaoi seems weird to me (mainly because it's hard to define what is a "feminine personality" and that the popularity of the seme-uke cliche doesn't seem to me as if like fans "wish they were more sensitive, less brutish") but let's see if actual yaoi fans will agree with it.

of course yuri is too - all anime involving relationships tends to be sexual escapism, I'm just saying it applies to women in this case.

And as for the 'more sensitive' thing you can also say want them to act in whatever certain way you want. Honestly, it's no different than anything else in fiction. It's just that it's 2 guys.

[cheesie]

*summons thread up*

Originally Posted by Deus ex Digital Boy

A theory was stated (well, I overheard it, so I have improvised bits I missed) by the president lady of lillilicious (the yuri scanslation group) to someone at otakon that women like yaoi because it combines the sexual attractiveness of men with the personalities of women.

That seems to be the general theory, although I've observed that, rather than using the personalities of women, some of the men in BL seems to embrace certain perceived stereotypes of women more commonly found in the shoujo genre. If I happen to see the first glimpses of a girl with penis parading around in a yaoi work I'm reading, I'm sure it'll nestle nicely in the new home of my trash bin.

After all, women usually hate men's personalities (wish they were more sensitive, less brutish, etc.)

On the contrary, those type of qualities in a guy that usually makes up a more entertaining read for me. I can't speak for the rest of the BL fanbase, but the majority which I met along the way seems to agree with this sentiment.

[Rawgers]

Originally Posted by crisis

On the contrary, those type of qualities in a guy that usually makes up a more entertaining read for me. I can't speak for the rest of the BL fanbase, but the majority which I met along the way seems to agree with this sentiment.

The thing is, the "men" main leads (for many shows) tend to be not "manly" as in, they are fucking annoying. For example, most shounen action/ecchi shows have a male lead that makes anybody want to get a knife and cut him up into little pieces. I tend to like the shows more where the male lead is portrayed stereotypical "strong, mean, less caring" which usually appear in shoujo romance, as well as seinen shows.

Since I find a hatred toward most men in the anime world, I seem to prefer yuri, or shows that revolve more around a female. Sadly, I'm not considered part of the fanbase in Japan, so, yeah.

[Amray]

I think that it is safe to say that, as a male, I prefer Yuri.
Strawberry Panic! was an amazing series for me, the Yuri was good, but so was the general comedy and cuteness.

I have never been a fan of Yaoi, despite being just a simple fan of Bridget from the Guilty Gear series. He goes into the catergorie 'Cross-Dressing' more though.

[klowny]

i like Yuri, but i don't watch it much because I'm usually bored with the storyline at some point. I did like Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl, it was pretty funny and the plot was Okay for my standards. I did see Gravitation but i'm not sure if it was Yaoi, but it did make me laugh

[Kafriel]

Ever since getting my hands on my first doujinshi around two years ago, I've seen many many things...yuri included. At first I didn't really like it, but I came to realize it's not as bad as I initially thought-then a friend of mine recommended yaoi, thinking I'm gay, and somehow she settled for futanari...I can't tell if that's yaoi or yuri or a bit of both, so I'm sticking to normal hentai and yuri.

[Ayame_]

Jees, you people are awfully hard on Strawberry Panic. I took up the series because it was often mentioned as less superior to Marimite and I was bored and figured I would give it a fair shot. So far, it has been very entertaining, the music is great and the characters are extremely cute. The big sticking point so far on the series is that it is entertaining. It seems to me that this entertainment factor is often lost among people who watch series. I like a mental workout as much as the next person, but more often then not, something that is entertaining and light-hearted is much better. In this case Marimite still rules over Strawberry Panic, but I found both shows to be good in their own rights.

On a more yaoi-yuri note, I think that the character relationships seem a bit, hmm..smoother in way. I havent watched any yaoi to make a comment on it, but on yuri shows I have seen, something just feels more right about it. There isnt any harem style improbable stupidness going on. There is more idolization, sort of like a pop-star fanbase on a smaller level. I dunno, either way, i find it easier to put the social analysis cap on the hook when watching something like these and just enjoy it and not cut it to shreds.

[NDK]

This blows. It all depends on who you're talking to. It's like saying is Mecha better than Feudal. Strawberry Panic! was smut to me, but to someone else it's their favorite yuri.

[Fweakin]

Interesting topic.

I watch and enjoy both yuri and yaoi. Each have their own independent qualities that make one preferable over the other.

I like that in yuri, the majority of relationships are more equal in affection. Both parties are generally equally involved in the relationship. However, yuri stories tend to fall into the school-girl realm, which can get dull after a while.

In yaoi, there can be some incredibly touching romantic scenes that you may not find as much in heterosexual relationships. However, I have a real problem with a lot of yaoi as the relationships are generally very onesided, to a very rapey degree, which is very much not my thing. That and there is generally a very large age gap between the two, which I know can parallel real life quite a lot, but it is usually not as enjoyable to watch (see Loveless)

So I guess for statistics sake, I'm a straight female, so the gay theory doesn't really fly.