Why do guys like Yuri?

There are a number of think pieces on the Internet psychoanalyzing what so many women are into Slash fiction and Yaoi, often presenting seemingly mutually exclusive theories that I suspect are none the less all correct. But when it comes to guys liking wlw content there’s no such effort, just assume the most superficial explanation is sufficient. 

But in my view, for any guy who is particularly interested in Girl on Girl content rather than it just being one on a long list of things they can enjoy, it does say something about them deeper than just that they like women. 

The average guy talks about their enjoyment of Girl on Girl scenes in a way that encourages the purely superficial assumption, but it’s not like women never say the same kinds of things about their Yaoi. And men unlike women often feel pressured to act like they only care about the carnal stuff. 

I’m someone who was assigned male at birth and has seen myself as a Cis-Het Male for most of my life but has been increasingly questioning my own gender identity the last several years. So maybe I’m not actually the most reliable spokesperson for the Cis-Het perspective on Yuri, but I’m gonna try anyway.  

I’m going to talk about a few different ideas that may also interact with each other.

Given what I just shared about myself I should lead with how it is now well documented that some who once thought they were Cis-Het Male Yuri fans were actually Eggs who eventually cracked, like Trixie The Golden Witch. And indeed the more it seems like someone only likes Lesbian content, like they are hostile to male anatomy being present in their erotica, the more that could be a symptom of dysphoria.

But I’m still not gonna call it a guarantee, because there are reasons in our society why even a Cis Male might feel a little dysmorphic about seeing their own anatomy reflected back at them. In a culture that keeps euphemistically equating male sexuality with violence and visa versa, naturally boys who don’t want to be violent might become averse to sexual scenarios that actually involve them. 

I was never quite on that level of a Yuri fan even if I sometimes talked as if I was, I’ve always had Het ships I supported and Het fantasies I was into. And I’ve become even less like that as I’ve become more questioning of my own gender identity. In fact there was a recent period when I was starting to wonder if my interest in Yuri was disappearing entirely as the Yuri shows each season became less guaranteed to keep my interest.  But then I really enjoyed a couple of the new Yuri shows of 2026.

And more importantly during my most recent phase of overthinking about my favorite Visual Game franchise I can’t actually play, the Radish Vacation Trilogy, filling in the gaps in what I’ve read on the wikipages, I’ve once again fallen in love with a Yuri Ship almost certainly not intended by the creators, Hatsuka/Kagura. The dynamics I’m imagining here are very particular, If I made a Radish Vacation Anime canonizing it some Yuri critics would perhaps hate on it for being sad melodramatic Doomed Yuri “Crying Porn” because of how much of the timeline it spends being one sided on Hatsuka’s part with Kagura not even knowing (and if you don’t change how everything ends Hatsuka loses to her own son).  But I think very powerful stories can come from such tropes (and I have considered altering the canon ending of Summer Radish Vacation 1, changing who Kagura ends up with won’t interfere with how that story creates the cast of School Days/Summer Days). 

That’s a good jumping off point for just talking about the fact that in general one of our biggest gender stereotypes is that only Girls actually care about romance.  And so that becomes a factor in how people debate whether a piece of Lesbian content is for Lesbians or for men. But it's complicated in the Anime context by how people talk about the “Otaku fixation on purity”.  But Xena Warrior Princess wound up becoming a show about a Lesbian Romance that the Lesbian community liked even though its main creative force was Sam Raimi. While what I’ve noticed in the Otaku content explicitly evoking Purity as a concept is that it’s seeking to subvert it,the people avoiding sex with their girlfriend who wants to do it (whether straight boys or lesbians) because they’re afraid it will taint the purity of their relationship are the ones who need to change their attitude. 

The point is, I think men are as capable of rooting for a romance they can’t project themselves onto as women are, and I think we sometimes vocally root for a F/F ship to prove that, or for some insecure ones to do it while having plausible deniability that they actually a Romantic. 

One idea for a story I sometimes start writing in my head is about a boy who accidentally stumbles upon the secret hiding place where two girls have their intimate rendezvous and he doesn’t watch them, he immediately leaves them to their privacy. But because this is in a time and place where he knows things would likely go very badly if they were caught by any adults or even most other students he feels compelled to protect their secret without them ever knowing he knows.

When people talk about the Pseudo Medieval ideas of Chivalry and Chivalrous Romance one idea that comes up is the romanticization of the concept of a Knight being more than just okay with his love for his Lady never being reciprocated, that he would be the opposite of jealous at the thought of her loving someone else. That idea maps pretty well onto the idea of being a male Yuri fan does it not?  A Knight whose loyalty to his Princess includes loyalty to the one she loves whether that’s another Princess or a Peasant Girl. 

In Manaria Friends there is a character whose name I don’t remember, he might not have even been named and he doesn’t seem to have a character page on the database websites. But he’s a Knight of Princess Anne and it is established in one flashback that he’s kind of in love with her but there is never any jealousy towards Grea, for the most part his role in the show is to support Anne including when she takes very drastic actions to save Grea in one episode. If any character in a Yuri Anime has ever been an audience surrogate for male Yuri fans I would say it’s this guy. 

Of course it’s sometimes a Girl who plays the role of the Princess’s devoted Knight, like Agrias Oaks in Final Fantasy Tactics.

The Girl-Prince Archetype is one that I think has more Het Male fans then people realize and not just for whatever fetishy motives you can assume, but because we find something Inspirational or Aspirational in seeing a girl be such a perfect embodiment of Positive Masculinity. 

In those think pieces about Women liking Yaoi one idea is the paradox of it being on the one hand wanting stories without the female gender issues they have to deal with in real life, but also an interest in exploring those issues projected onto a male character, typically the Uke. And well to me the gender flip of that is proven to exist by the Anime titled Akuma no Riddle.

The main protagonist of Akume no Riddle is Tokaku Azuma.  She is androgynous but in a particular way, I would not describe her as a Girl-Prince type (another character plays that role) or a Tomboy.  She’s Boyish rather than Manly. 

Her arc revolves around the fact that she’s supposed to be a professional Assassin but she hasn’t actually killed anyone yet (why is a long story I’m not gonna spoil).  The key detail to my analysis is that when the character of Isuke Inukai realizes this she starts calling her a Virgin, in a way that is not connotatively what it usually feels like to call a girl a Virgin, but the way you’d say it derogatorily to a Boy. 

Now I’ve only ever watched this show Dubbed which prompts two notes here.  First Jamie Marchi as Inukai is amazing and the way she so venomously says Virgin I’m certain is intentionally playing into that. But also I know Japanese has more than one word for Virgin making it where this could be a subtext being added by translation, I had it confirmed for me on the Subreddit that in Japanese Inukai says Shojo which is officially a word that refers only to female Virgins, but words are sometimes used in ways that go against their official meaning, so maybe it’s not unprecedented for a Japanese boy to be called a Shojo when someone wants to Emasculate him.

Basically my thesis is that Tokaku’s arc is essentially a Boy’s coming of age story about Toxic Masculinity but being played out with a character who is technically a girl. And how well it does that is why I think it’s one of the most underrated Anime of the 2010s. 

When Anime are linked to each other because they aired together.

You may have noticed that when thinking about recent Anime that some shows are compared to each other a lot simply because they were airing at the same time, premiered during the same season. 

It's expected that this would happen while a show is currently airing, we'll often be watching one show right after another pretty consistently, and the desire to make comparisons whether positive, negative or neutrally when talking about a show will to some extent favor other current shows. 

For Western Ainme fans I feel like noting how this has always been happening in-spite of the fact that we aren't usually using regular TV anymore, we aren't watching two shows side my side because one comes after the other on the same channel, or thinking of a show we don't watch alongside one we do because it's airing at the same time on a different channel. We still watch shows that drop weekly on the same day close to each other, and still hear about current shows we aren't watching in proximity to ones we are. 

But because our brains are often particular in how it organizes our memories, the tendency to associate those shows with each other remains even after neither is still currently airing. I for example still find myself associating Lycoris Recoil and Engage Kiss with each other even though there is nothing about the content of either show to justify that. 

But maybe you're thinking that will eventually wear off once enough time has passed?

For me the first season I was at all following currently airing Anime was Fall 2016, as I mentioned earlier this year, and interestingly we now during the 10 year Anniversary of when those shows were starting. And I still default to associating those shows with each, most shows from that season I don't have to look to remember they were from that season. Flip Flappers, Izetta The Last Witch, Yuri on Ice, Keijo, Magical Girl Raising Project, Occultic;Nine, the second season of Hibiki Euphonium. Even ones I didn't watch at the time or still haven't' watched my memory recalls those shows being contemporary. 

Maybe that season is special because it's my first, but this remains in effect for all of 2017. For 2018 I've never forgotten that Citrus and Katana Maidens aired at the same time, as well as two Isekai that aren't easy for me to remember their name but that they were airing at the same time I do remember. 

Perhaps the simple act of making note of anniversaries helps encourage these associations to continue. If you had stopped thinking of the Fall shows form 10 or 15 years ago alongside each other, all the anniversary posts happening at the same time are causing you to do so again. 

The question is, given how complicated memory can be, will people sometimes eventually keep associating two shows each other after forgetting why?

Comparing Death Note and Code Geass happens so often it's a Meme, a YouTube Channel I follow is currently videos about those two shows and nothing else. They aired along side each other in Fall 2006 into early 2007, meaning both are turning 20 now. Officially the Western Fandom wasn't able to watch Anime as they currently air yet, but clearly many were already, and/or just how the Japanese buzz talked about them alongside each other influenced us. Or I could look it up and learn both also aired on Adult Swim at the same time for at least some of their runs. 

There are natural reasons to compare these shows to each other independent of that, both involve protagonists who can be described as Anti-Heroes who are often trying to outthink their opponents and who start the show in High School, and the ways they do those things differently is what makes comparing them interesting. But they can't be the only two Anime that share those qualities can they?  I am having trouble thinking of a third off the top of my head, but there is also still a lot of Anime I haven't seen. 

Of shows from Fall 2006, they seem to be pretty solidly the most popular, especially in terms of long term cultural impact. So being currently compared to other Fall 2006 less may be because the others are remembered less in general.  I've seen other shows this season and generally like them more then Death Note, but I'm weird, I also like Kanon more then Clannad.

Nana has it's own reasons to be compared to Death Note being another show whose Dub was by Ocean Productions so I assume they share some VAs though I can't say I noticed any voices sounding similar instantly. 

I wonder how many common seemingly inexplicable Anime pairing are because of this that even I haven't noticed yet? 

Everyone is a Normie and no one is only a Normie.

Normie is a relative term, Gamers talking among other Gamers will use the word Normie of people who aren't particularly into Video Games, while others might perceive gaming itself to be a pretty Normie interest to have. 

Lately Anime is the fandom I’ve been most into and so past uses of Normie on this blog are in that context. In fact it was in the Anime fandom I first heard the word and so it’s among a list of terms I at one time mistook for terms the Anime community coined. So it was jarring for a part of my brain while watching a YT not too long ago I saw someone in the context of what they’re talking about refer to Anime as being for Normies. 

I'm talking about this because recently I realized some people use the word Normie thinking it has a more objective non relative meaning, that there is a class of people only into the most Mainstream things with no Niche hobbies at all. I don’t think such a hypothetical person exists, everyone is a fan of something that most people haven’t heard of. 

And even when we're talking about the most Mainstream interests one could theoretically have, being a hardcore fan of that thing is still not actually normal. Star Wars movies and now Disney+ shows are normal to have seen but having read any of the books is not.  DC and Marvel Superhero movies are watched by everyone but very few actually read the Comics. Even the most theoretically mainstream interest you can have in American culture, Sports, do you really think the Sports fan who can tell you at the drop of hat what happened in Games played before they were born and don’t even involve their favorite team aren’t using the exact same brain energy we Comic Book nerds are? 

The reason I felt I needed to make this point is because of a video I recently watched about the Fascist adjacent thinking that has always been present in Sci-Fi fandoms even going back to its early days. 

Indeed some will argue that using the word Normie at all is a Fascist adjacent practice.  I would disagree, I think a group having a catch all term for everyone outside their group simply is objectively linguistically useful. In fact it’s Nazis who love to claim Jews are committing some sin against all Goyim by simply having the word Goyim. 

What matters is how you perceive the outsiders that term refers to. I see them as fellow humans with different interests. 

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Gun Blaze Vengeance is finished airing now

It's a good show, but does it justify being a Nanoha show?

When it comes to making a show that is both a sequel to prior shows and stars new characters, there is a delicate balance to be struck between making the Legacy characters feel like they are there for more then just justifying the branding but also not completely overshadowing the new leads. 

EXCEEDS kind of feels like a show that's a Nanoha show only to get Nanoha fans to watch it. The trade off for connecting your new show with a new premise and new characters to an established franchise for the marketing shortcut is the people who may choose not to watch it because they assume they need to have seen all the prior Nanoha stuff to follow it.  In the case of EXCEEDS you certainly don't, not all prior Nanoha stories are even in this continuity and the ones that are aren't really mentioned beyond the fact that the Nanoha characters exist. It's in the Movie continuity and only the first two movies (which remake the first two seasons of the TV Anime) even remotely feel like they would add any context. 

That's the irony, the Nanoha franchise has done this before, Strikers is also largely about Nanoha and Fate mentoring new trainees some of whom we meet before being reintroduced to Nanoha and Fate. That show I also think can work being watched on it's own without the prior Nanoha shows, but while still justifying being a Nanoha sequel far more then EXCEEDS does.  It might be simply the advantage of having two Cours to work with. 

EXCEEDS is certainly thematically consistent with the Nanoha franchise, but so are lots of Anime, you could tell me Symphogear was in the Nanoha universe and I'd believe it. 

Nanoha and Fate and Hayate are in the show a decent amount, but their roles could have easily been replaced by original characters without losing anything.

The Dawn of The Witch is a 2022 Anime that is classified as a Spin-Off of the 2017 Anime Grimoire of Zero. But it honestly could have been classified as a sequel.  The two main protagonists of GoZ are supporting characters in DOTW but very important ones, they can't' be easily replaced or written out and their story in this show does meaningfully continue their story from the first show. 

Infinite Crisis and it’s tie-ins

Almost every DC Comic Book writer I consider myself a fan of comes with some catch, a part of their body of work I hate just as much as I love the stuff I like. 

Geoff Johns is someone I'm a fan of because I love his Teen Titans run and Infinite Crisis and a few other things. But I hate his contributions to Green Lantern and The Flash’s histories and most of his impact on Superman.  

The irony is Infinite Crisis is great in part because it’s a critique of Toxic Nostalgia, and yet what I don’t like about Johns work is when his own weirdly Toxic Nostalgia for the Silver Age comes in. And 2005 is the year he made Hal Jordan the main Green Lantern again, pandering to Silver Age nostalgia at the same time he’s vilifying Golden Age nostalgia, maybe that’s actually perfectly consistent from a certain POV?

The thing about Infinite Crisis is it’s one of those Events that is viewed as needing all its tie-ins to work, but in my opinion they don’t, certainly not all of them. But the tie-ins can add to the experience.  Some of my favorite scenes from the DC Comics come from unnecessary but awesome Infinite Crisis tie-ins. 

It’s a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths, but not in a way where you need to have actually read that to follow what’s going on. 

The build up to Infinite Crisis arguably begins with Identify Crisis or more directly things that happened in the aftermath of Identity Crisis. Identity Crisis itself stands alone perfectly, it’s informed by when in the then current continuity it takes place, but everything you need to know it explains on its own. 

Identity Crisis shares the theme about Nostalgia.  And while CoIIE isn't as a whole about Nostalgia it's eventual sequel being a story with that theme is foreshadowed by it's very last page. 

There were four concurrent miniseries that DC promoted as being the Countdown to Infinite Crisis. 

The OMAC Project written by Greg Rucka.

Villains United written by Gail Simone

Day of Vengeance written by Bill Willingham

Rann-Thanagar War written by Dave Gibbons

But in my view the only one even close to qualifying as necessary, as being the main story of what’s going on in the DC Universe at this time, is the first of those. For one thing the bottom two I still to this day haven’t read and don't feel like I’m missing anything. Villains United is great. I absolutely highly recommend it on its own merits, but the main protagonists it’s following don’t even appear in Infinite Crisis. 

The OMAC Project is the only one featuring DC’s Big Three as prominent characters, it provides what serves as the equivalent to the Red Skies during Infinite Crisis. But most importantly it bridges the gap between Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis while building on their shared theme of Toxic Nostalgia. It is a great story on its own in my view, and also the second most important storyline to Infinite Crisis after Infinite Crisis itself. 

The Infinite Crisis Companion Trade Paperback collects DC Specials that were epilogues to those stories going on during the events of Infinite Crisis. They were needed precisely because Infinite Crisis itself did not tie up all of those storylines loose ends. But the one for OMAC Project is needed mainly just to cap off Sasha Boredeaux’s storyline. 

An Auteurist would suggest other stuff written by Johns this year are what should be considered most important.  I haven’t read his JSA run or his Green Lantern stuff (but it's safe to say Green Lantern Rebirth happens before any of the Countdown storylines start). His Powergirl story from the first four issues of JSA Classified included in the Powergirl Trade Paperback do set up where she is when Infinite Crisis starts and does also add to that theme. JLA Crisis of Conscience is similar, dealing with the aftermath of Identity Crisis in its own way and ending right before Infinite Crisis starts. 

His Teen Titans run’s main tie to what happens in Infinite Crisis is Connor Kent/Superboy’s importance since that’s where his character arc played out which had been his arc since the start of the run in 2003. 

The Future Is Now Trade Paperback first collects a Time Travel arc Teen Titans Vol 3 16-19 which takes place before Identity Crisis (these are as far as I can tell the only comics featuring Time Drake that seem to take place between the deaths of Stephanie Brown and Jack Drake), but it then finished with issues 20-23 an Arc that takes place after Identity Crisis and I would argue is the first real direct Aftermath of Identity Crisis as well as our chronologically first glimpse of the Secret Society of Super Villains. After that comes Teen Titans/Outsiders: Insiders, then The Return of Donna Troy then the framing device of Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files and Origins 2005 and then Teen Titans: Life and Death is events happening concurrent with Infinite Crisis. 

Superman is the main lead character of the DC Universe. So here are the main Superman Trades to recommend. 

Superman: The Healing Touch by Greg Rucka

Superman: In The Name of Gog by Chuck Austen and J.D. Finn

Are the Superman books from right after Identity Crisis. The Day of Vengeance Trade Paperback includes some Superman issues that take place about here as well. 

Superman: Sacrifice ties directly into the biggest climatic event of OMAC Project, and thus much is written by Greg Rucka.

Also regardless of how the cover dates may confuse you, Supergirl:Power the first 5 issues of Supergirl Vol 5 written by Jeph Loeb ends before Infinite Crisis starts.

Superman: Ruin Revealed By Greg Rucka and others.

Superman: Strange Attractors by Gail Simone

Superman: The Journey by Mark Verheiden

Are the Superman books that lead into and were concurrent with Infinite Crisis. 

Superman: Infinite Crisis collects the last Superman comics before the One Year Later leap forward. 

For Wonder Woman this is all happening during Greg Rucka’s run and the concurrent period is collected in Eyes of The Gorgon, Land of The Dead and Mission’s End. 

JLA: World Without a Justice League collects the JLA books during Infinite Crisis which were the end of JLA Vol 1.

The Batman books don’t feel as relevant, references happen but Batman’s mostly in his own little world. Under The Red Hood and War Crimes were the key Batman events this year.  Detective Comics mostly was doing City of Crime, a story that seems like it has to be set before War Games to make sense. Gotham Knights was doing Hush stuff which is best ignored. 

For Tim Drake/Robin the Robin/Batgirl:Fresh Blood, To Kill A Bird and Days of Fire and Madness Trades cover this period, and for Cassandra Cain/Batgirl also Fresh Blood then Kicking Assassins and Destruction’s Daughter. 

Someone Nerdier than I will have to deduce the ideal reading order for all the Comics I mentioned here. 

No most modern Jokers are not bad rip offs of Heath Ledger's.

At most I would say maybe The Joker we got briefly in The Batman and it's deleted scene can be criticized that way.  But given how little we have to go off there I'm reserving judgment. 

The high profile Joker we've gotten most egregious criticized this way in Jared Leto's in Suicide Squad.  I've already talked about how Jared Leto's Joker is supposed to be Cringe, and pointed people to both Jack Saint's video on the topic and 16 Attempts to Talk to You about Suicide Squad. 

But as far accusing the performance on ripping off Ledger's goes, i really don't see it, he doesn't o that thing his tonge. At most the fact that both sometimes annunciate certain words weirdly could be seen as similar. 

The perception that so many post Ledger Jokers are just pale imitations on Ledger's Joker is really just people saying quietly that they're upset the Joker hasn't gone back to being more of the same they usually got before Ledger's Joker. 

Caesar Romero's Joker, Jack Nicholson's Joker and Mark Hamil's in Batman The Animated Series, as different form each other as they may seem in execution are each in my view the same basic kind of Joker.  For each of them the Clown/Comedy gimmick antics are a means to an end of conventional criminal goals.  And The Joker's has been written like that in The Comics sometimes, he was like that in A Death in The Family much to my personal disappointment when I first read it. 

And those three were the only particularly mainstream popular takes on The Joker well known to most non Comic Readers before 2008. The Dark Knight was the first time we got a Joker for whom the Madness was the ends and the conventional criminal activity was the means. 

But The Comics had introduced takes on The Joker who didn't have conventional criminal goals at least by the 80s with The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke.  These stories were quite philosophically different from each other, Miller and Moore allegedly had an argument about The Joker with Moore saying The Joker is Insane and Miller saying The Joker is Evil. There's also Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum A Serious House on Serious Earth.

But even non Comic Readers had gotten a few tastes of this kind of Joker, just off the beaten path of the mainstream. Kerry Shale's performance in the 90s BBC Radio Drama adaptation of Knightfall. Andrew Koenig in the 2003 fan film Batman: Dead End. Even Mark Hamil arguably got his first shot at becoming a better class of criminal in Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker. It is Koenig's performance in particular that I suspect people would be calling a Ledger's Joker knock off if it came after 2008 rather then before. 

The irony is Jared Leto's Joker in terms of what we can see of what he usually does is arguably back to being the regular Criminal with a gimmick take on The Joker that dominated what we got before 2008. But with the added flavor that he's a cringey edgelord who likes to think of himself as something grander then he actually is. 

My point is every time people talk about the history of The Joker in a way that implies Ledger's take is the sole source of every remotely "Edgy" Joker to come since, they are demonstrating their ignorance of how "Edgy" The Joker already was. 

That includes when some makes a deep philosophical video essays founded on this premise treating the Crigeyness of Leto's Joker as a failure rather then the intention. 

DC Stuff I watched in August 2026

I've now watched Batman Nightfall Part 1.

I've never read the original Knightfall comics, the prior version I'm comparing this to is the BBC Radio Drama from the 90s. 

I'll start with the main positive, it was great finally seeing Tim Drake in animation. The DCAU's Tim was in name only and the Tim in the Unlimited movies was forgettable. 

What made Tim special among the Robins back when he was being written by Marv Wolfman and Chuck Dixon and Geoff Johns and Bill Wilingham (I haven't really read much from the Jon Lewis run yet or Peter David's Young Justice) is that he was being set up to be the Bat Sidekick destined to one day surpass Bruce as the World's Greatest Detective. Looking back on that now results in my making Shinichi Kudo comparisons. And in that area this Knightfall film didn't disappoint.

Now for my criticisms.

First of all they cut Film Freak.  Cowards.

Secondly I have mixed feelings on the Artstyle, why not actually try to evoke the arstyle of 90s DC Comics? 

To amend what I said earlier i have read something Knightfall adjacent, the Robin Flying Solo Trade.  This is not that Artstyle. Is Red River can successfully look like a 90s Anime, why can't this look like a 90s Comic come to life?

Third, I'm amazed by how structurally disappointing it felt.

This end about where Hour 1 of the 3 Hour Radio Rama ended, but it felt like less happened not more. In that both the set up of Jean Paul Valley and Bruce's deterioration felt way more successfully fleshed out.

The Caped Crusader season 2 failed to engage at all, couldn't finish one episode.

I've also watched the new Supergirl movie now.  It's a good movie, it's entertaining, but it's not the kind of movie I want for Supergirl.

It felt more like a Star Wars movie much of the time.

I like the bronze Age Supergirl. 

I've also been watching Lanterns since my family currently temporarily has HBO for free. It's good so far.