While on the Yuri Tour in 2019, one of the last places I visited was Toranoana’s Yuri section. I mention this because, while it does not have a Yuribu like Animate, Gamers, or Shosen, Toranoana’s logo-less “Yuri Corner” is by far and away my favorite. Of the Yuribu, I think Shosen gets closer than the others, with curation that spans a wider range of interests for Yuri fans, but nothing approaches the scale or comprehensive curation that Toronoana offers. It begins next to a broom closet on the 4th or 5th floor of the Toronoana in Akihabara (I can never remember which floor) that’s covered with fake brick designed paper ( which you can see on the second picture.) The Yuri Corner goes along the wall, across the wall on the side where the registers are, then down back along the first full size bookshelf, then it turns the corner and is now another, growing section on the other side of that same bookshelf. Here a few photos of the section. You can see how low-rent the sign is…totally printed from a computer.
BUT – and here is the key point – this is the best Yuri section in Tokyo.
Why? Because it has manga and novels and light novels and reference guides and mooks and other nonfiction and doujinshi. And so when I am in Tokyo, I always save this store until last, because it will not only have everything I wanted to get, but couldn’t find anywhere else and things I didn’t know I wanted, but it will also have books I didn’t know existed and obviously need to read. Books like the subject of today’s review.
In actual fact, I bought this on Amazon JP last year, but I guarantee that had I been able to visit in 2020, I would have found this book on those shelves.
The Complete Guide to “Yuri Movies” (「百合映画』完全ガイド) by Fujinoyamai is a fascinating look at someone outside the anime and manga industry looking at media through an explicitly “Yuri” lens.
The book begins with an interesting explanation of the history of Yuri, and then a justification for the use of the term Yuri for looking at movies that have lesbian content without lesbian identity…a distinction that breaks down only towards the most modern of the choices here.
The guide itself is split into three parts. It begins with Japanese movies, beginning with the 1933 silent film Japanese Girls at the Harbor (港の日本娘) and continues to 2019’s A Girl Missing, Yokogao よこがお. Each entry includes a synopsis, a short analysis and details of staff and forms of release.
The second part of the book cover non-Japanese movies. These begin in 1931 with the German film Mädchen in Uniform and continue through 2020’s The Half of It, which I reviewed here on Okazu.
The third part might be the most interesting for us here on Okazu, as it covers anime movies, from 1986’s Doreamon movie, Doreamon – Nobita and the Steel Troops (ドラえもん のび太と鉄人兵団,) to 2020’s High School Fleet (ハイスクール・フリート), neither of which I knew anything about. So that’s all to the good.
Some of the anime choices are – to my mind, obviously – not “Yuri” as I understand it, which doesn’t bother me in the least, and one or two that I might have included that are not there. I won’t hold it against Fujinoyamai-san, they’ve taken on a huge topic with this book and done an interesting and thoughtful job with it. I found the book to be a really interesting read. I’m particularly happy to have a guide to Japanese movies I might not otherwise have known about, with English-language lesbian film history being so Europe- and America-centric. On the whole, I’m inclined to agree with their choices.
Ratings:
Overall – 8
If Yuri as a genre interests you, and like me, you believe that it is a useful genre term for media outside anime and manga, this book is a great addition to your shelves…and these movies to your watchlist! And, if you get a chance to get to Tokyo post-pandemic drop by the Akihabara Toronoana and see what other unique Yuri printed material they have for sale. You never know what you’ll find.
