Yuri Is The Purest Form Of Love

About

Yuri Is The Purest Form Of Love is a catchphrase among anime and manga fans that asserts that a romantic relationship between two women, known as Yuri, is the most emotionally genuine iteration of romantic pairings between sexes because it is supposedly unclouded by physical attraction. The phrase has been used to praise Yuri relationships in anime, though some have acknowledged that Yuri is not always depicted as the "purest" form of love.

Origin

It is unclear when the phrase started but it has been a part of the anime community for some time. One of the earliest known comments featuring the phrase appeared on May 28th, 2013 in the Dynasty Scans^[1] forums, where user Troid used it in response to the question, "Why is yuri so good?" (shown below).

Spread

The phrase was commonly used by anime fans and manga fans over the following several years, often in unironic praise of Yuri storylines. On June 19th, 2018, a deleted Reddit^[2] user on /r/animemes used the phrase in a meme pairing an edit of the My Disappointment Is Immeasurable template with Yuri art, gaining over 2,200 points in six years (shown below, left). On July 30th, user Divino-Galdino of the same subreddit^[3] posted a meme in which a Yuri relationship is labeled as "The purest form of love" and is a "horsemen of wholesomeness," gaining over 1,400 points in a similar time frame (shown below, right).

On September 15th, 2021, Urban Dictionary user Luzay uploaded a definition for the phrase to the site.^[4]

The idea has seen some pushback online. TV Tropes^[5] discussed the phrase in an article about the phrase "Het Is Ew" and argued that it stems from a belief that men cannot have emotional closeness with anyone without sexual lust being a factor, stating:

Finally, misandry is also an arguable factor, as there is the problematic assumption that a male cannot have emotional closeness to anyone -- even family members -- without sex being a factor. Such a notion often underlies the romanticized portrayal of lesbian pairings as healthier, more wholesome, and more sincere than het pairings, with the implications that (a) straight men are too horny to feel genuine love towards their female partners or even see them as anything other than sexual objects, and (b) women are naturally above physical attraction and therefore more attuned to genuine love, so two girls can love each other without lust clouding their minds. This is why the memetic phrase "Yuri is the purest form of love" exists amongst anime fans, with varying degrees of seriousness from those who espouse it.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References