mikami teren interview & what's the type of yuri that's popular

[michifugu]

I stumbled upon a tweet about an interview with Mikami Teren (the author of Watanare), and I was honestly shocked because he dropped some truthnuke lol.



I mean, he’s basically telling the truth, and Twitter himejoshi probably won’t like hearing it, but yuri, in the grand scheme of things, is still a much niche genre, especially when compared to BL.

This mindset doesn’t just apply to so-called yuri fans, but also to fujoshi. The difference is that among the many fujoshi who primarily engage with BL through shipping characters from non-BL series, there are still a LOT of fujoshi who also read commercial BL. I mean, that's given. romance is an extremely popular genre among women, and many women are attracted to men.

I do think there’s some nuance here, though. With the recent wave of yuri adaptations getting anime adaptations (especially from light novels), there’s definitely an argument to be made that yuri has gained popularity in recent years, which is a good thing. But the sales still don’t hold a candle to BL manga sales.

Honestly, yuri being niche isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes things just aren’t popular, and that’s okay. Besides, yuri still feels like it’s in a growth phase, and in many ways it’s more easily accepted by mainstream audiences than BL, which can still be seen as less palatable to the general public.

This honestly doesn’t surprise me because, while men seem to consume a lot of yuri content on the surface (i.e: fanart, anime, and so on) their preferences tend to be quite different from those of female yuri fans.

A lot of male yuri fans seem to prefer yuri in a more "yuri bait" flavour, or stories that don’t delve too deeply into romance or lesbian identity. I mean, if you look at the yuri works that are most popular among male audiences, they often focus more on moe elements, teasing, or ecchi fanservice.

There’s nothing wrong with that, really ( I enjoyed that kind of yuri too www). But I’m not surprised that people who enjoy that kind of content aren’t necessarily interested in buying works that focus heavily on lesbian relationships.

Watanare also taps into that particular style of yuri, where the romance exists within a comedy framework. On top of that, it’s a harem series, which naturally appeals to shipping-focused audiences.

In the end, it often feels like yuri becomes more popular when it doesn’t focus too heavily on "lesbianism" or romance itself.

Anyway, Watanare is GOATED. Please watch it.

Comments

[guildrone]

This honestly doesn’t surprise me because, while men seem to consume a lot of yuri content on the surface (i.e: fanart, anime, and so on) their preferences tend to be quite different from those of female yuri fans.

[…]

In the end, it often feels like yuri becomes more popular when it doesn’t focus too heavily on "lesbianism" or romance itself.

Basically, yeah—under the cishet male gaze, if it isn’t “lesbians are hot” it’s “lesbians are cute” broadly speaking.

[michifugu]

yeah, it's also why yuri media in general have hard time to do darker element because publisher still want to chasing moe-loving male audiences

[stepnix]

hmmm i wanna figure out a good way to talk about the "popular to talk about but not to spend money on" that's being gestured at here. I see it in some other genres too, locking down good language for it would be helpful

[michifugu]

I think it's a case of ''cultural popularity vs commercial popularity" or "audiences interest doesn't convert to sales". in this case Yuri is often culturally larger than it is commercially.
like how there's many ''non-yuri'' anime having canon lesbian couple (like Gwitch) or so many yuri anime adaptation but it does not translate to yuri manga sales boosts