Yuri

Yuri is a Japanese genre depicting romantic or sexual relationships between female characters, especially in manga and anime. Its stories range from emotional intimacy to explicit sexuality.

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Class S literature: A Japanese literary tradition depicting intense, usually nonsexual romantic bonds between schoolgirls. Its schoolgirl romances shaped early conventions later associated with yuri.
Girls' love: A Japanese publishing and media label for stories about romantic or sexual relationships between female characters. It is the closest widely used alternative name for yuri.
Yuri manga: Japanese comics centered on romantic or sexual relationships between female characters. Manga is the genre’s most established publishing form.
Yaoi: A Japanese genre label commonly used for male-male romance and sexual stories, especially in fan contexts. Like yuri, it centers same-gender relationships, but its characters are male.
Sapphic: An adjective for women who are attracted to women, derived from the Greek poet Sappho. The term can describe yuri relationships without assuming characters use a lesbian identity.
Yaneura no Nishojo: A 1919 novel by Nobuko Yoshiya about two schoolgirls who form a romantic bond. Its influential depiction of girls’ love is an early precursor to the genre.
Shōjo: A Japanese demographic category for manga and other media marketed primarily to girls. Yuri has substantial roots in shōjo publishing, though it is not limited to that audience.
Yuri anime: Japanese animated works depicting romantic or sexual relationships between female characters. Anime adaptations and original series bring yuri stories to a broad screen audience.
Lesbian literature: Literary works that portray lesbian lives, relationships, identity, or desire. Yuri overlaps with lesbian literature but does not always frame characters through lesbian identity.
Lesbian identity: A personal or social identification of women who experience romantic or sexual attraction to women. Yuri characters may or may not identify as lesbian, a distinction central to representation debates.