Looking at the Girl Prince in Yuri Manga

May 2nd, 2011

I trace the literary and historical roots of The Girl Prince in Yuri manga today on Hooded Utilitarian in this month’s Overthinking Things.

I’ve discussed three main Yuri tropes so far: The Yamato Nadesico/genki commoner couple, the private school location and the Girl Prince/Otokoyaku.

I was thinking of touching upon codes for “lesbian” in Yuri manga for a future column over at HU. What other common Yuri tropes would you like to see traced back to their roots? No promises that anything will go anywhere, but I’ll at least consider all reasonable ideas. (^_^)

4 Responses

  1. ArcaJ says:

    Great article Erica! The Girl Prince dynamic was one of the main reasons I got into Yuri in the first place.

    To be honest, I would cast myself in that roll as a child. I even made a big fuss one Halloween when I wanted to be Luke Skywalker instead of Princess Leia. Not because I wanted to be a Jedi (I did) but because I wanted to rescue the princess. (this was before Return of the Jedi released ^_^;;)

    Putting that aside, thanks for this look into another Yuri mainstay.

    ::HUGS::

    Arca Jeth

  2. @ArcaJ Thanks, I’m very glad you enjoyed it. I also wanted to be the Girl Prince, before I grew into my natural role as a curmudgeonly old woman. :)

  3. Pocky says:

    I’m kind of the Yuri fan who wants to see more stories break away from the common tropes.

    It’s likely not going to happen, unless I try and write my own lesbian stories, but a fan can dream, right?

  4. Anonymous says:

    In old works (1970s/1980s) it seems that lesbian = stalker. This trope was apparently well-entrenched enough to even be parodied in Kimagure Orange Road. I’ve always wondered how the perception of lesbians as stalkers in manga came from.

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