Is Yuri Bait Starting to Annoy Japanese Fans?

Recently, I published a post here about Japanese fans discussing how this is the current season of yuri anime, since we have many yuri series airing, along with several other anime where yuri isn’t the main focus but still features yuri scenes—or at least seems like it will.

With that in mind, the discussion took another turn when an otaku said that all this yuri has been bothering them. Let’s take a closer look at what they said (or she did—I honestly don’t know).

“As time went on, I started getting bothered by the increasing number of series where girls clearly seem sexually attracted to one another or interact with the kind of closeness you’d expect from a romantic or sexual relationship, as if they were saying, ‘Here you go, otakus. This is what you wanted.’

When I rewatched K-On!, I rediscovered something: ‘Wow, anime about girls back then portrayed friendships in a much more natural way, with the kind of distance you’d expect between normal friends!'”

Their tweet gathered nearly 4 million views, and one of the most popular replies said the following:

“I think that’s exactly why Yuru Camp△ and Bocchi the Rock! became so much more popular.

The characters are close friends and get along really well, but they still maintain a natural distance that feels realistic instead of constantly clinging to each other. That’s what makes those series so appealing.

For example, Rin Shima enjoys camping by herself, and there’s that moment when they realize they barely spent any time together during summer vacation, so they rush to hang out on the very last day.”

What they’re basically saying is that, in their opinion, modern writers no longer know how to write stories where female characters are simply normal friends. There always has to be some kind of sexual tension between them or some form of yuri bait.

Let’s bring up Sayonara Lara again. It’s an original anime inspired by The Little Mermaid. Right in episode 1, Lara falls in love with the prince and spends time with him, but as soon as he discovers she’s a mermaid, he calls her a monster, and their relationship comes to an end.

I saw some people commenting things like:

“See? Everything went wrong because she chose the heterosexual route. This anime should be yuri.”

And apparently, it might actually head in that direction, since there have been interviews about it, and many viewers felt that episode 3 had noticeable yuri vibes between the two female protagonists.

From what I’ve seen, some people really disliked hearing that Sayonara Lara might become a yuri series.

Anyway, let’s take a look at more reactions…

• In terms of social media buzz, there’s also the fact that it’s hard to openly say you like series where the girls are too clingy with each other. On the other hand, when those romantic feelings are actually the main focus of the story, like in Watanare, the series can become popular for a completely different reason.

• But in K-On!, Yui is always all over Azusa, and her younger sister Ui is pretty much like that too.

• I think the ideal balance is when a series has such a good atmosphere that, even if you replaced every character with middle-aged men, you’d still think, “You know what? This is actually great.”

• Even Pretty Cure has been like this lately, with an overly high level of emotional intimacy. Pretty Cure isn’t the kind of franchise that should be trying to sell itself through that sort of appeal.

• If a series is yuri from the very beginning, then that’s perfectly fine. But titles like BanG Dream! Yume∞Mita, Kore Kaite Shine, Grow Up Show, and Tai Ari Deshita aren’t yuri works. Even so, they have girls blushing at each other or acting far too close. Whenever I see that, it just feels… wrong to me.

• Stories about girls’ clubs or circles and stories about lesbians are completely different things. And it’s the former that has broader appeal.

• I actually feel like cute girls often have a bit of a “lesbian side” to them, so works that avoid that altogether end up feeling a little less realistic and lose some of their charm.

• I do think slice-of-life anime are gradually becoming more yuri. And yuri series are becoming more like romantic comedies. Meanwhile, romantic comedies are becoming more like slice-of-life series. That’s the impression I get.

• If you’re going to use examples of this, I think it would make more sense to mention series that failed because the characters were too close, even though they had other good qualities. After all, there are plenty of successful works where the girls are extremely close to each other.

• I understand what you’re trying to say. But sometimes that’s simply how the original work is. And in reality, many of those series became popular precisely because of those elements and eventually received anime adaptations. So I don’t think it’s fair to completely reject that kind of portrayal.

• The relationship between the characters in Yuru Camp△ and Bocchi the Rock! feels more like the friendship between male friends. Maybe that’s why those series are so well received by male audiences. Of course, it varies from person to person, but people say it’s perfectly normal for middle school and high school girls to hold hands or hug each other without any romantic meaning behind it…

• I think the main point is that these series never gave up on their hobby-related elements or on moving the story forward. The days when simply putting cute girls in an anime was enough to make it sell are over. Nowadays, the story itself has to be interesting, or the direction has to show real effort. In that sense, Girls und Panzer is a very easy example to understand.

• As a woman myself, I think Sora yori mo Tooi Basho did an excellent job portraying the dynamics and level of intimacy between girls. I really liked that aspect of it.

• One thing I like about Yuru Camp△ is that each girl has a different part-time job. In those other kinds of series, they’d probably even work part-time together while flirting the whole time. lol

• I think yuri is something otaku should simply enjoy through fan works (fanworks/doujin). I like yuri in fan-made derivative works, but I don’t like it when the official series pushes obvious yuri so openly.

What do you think about all this? Let us know in the comments!