Genre: Non-Fiction
LGBTQ+ Category: Lesbian
Reviewer: Beáta
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About The Book
The Untold Story of Lesbian Love in Japanese Anime and Comics.
“By Your Side is the complete Yuri resource I only ever dreamed could exist. Decades in the making, this glorious collection surveys, analyzes, and contextualizes Yuri with unparalleled detail and enthusiasm. Friedman graces readers with illuminating insights as they follow her through a century of the genre’s evolution and revolution. By sharing her extraordinary knowledge, she provides inquirers, scholars, and aficionados alike with a deeper appreciation and understanding of lesbian anime and manga while galvanizing them towards the next era of Yuri.”
-Nicki Bauman, Yurimother
The Review
There are two ways of reading this book: If you are already familiar with Yuri as a genre, and if you are not. I want to start by stating that I was the second. In order to get a full picture of what Erica Friedman has accomplished here, you should read the reviews from actual Yuri fans.
As the title By Your Side – The First 100 Years of Yuri Manga and Anime makes perfectly clear, this is a nonfiction book about Yuri as a genre. It was written by Erica Friedman, a prominent figure in Yuri fandom who has been active in the US Yuri circles for over twenty years.
The book contains a collection of essays she’s written during this time, and goes over the birth and development of Yuri, where the different tropes came from, how they evolved, the growth of the Yuri fandom, and how they managed to get Japanese publishers to accept Yuri as a valid genre. They can be read both chronologically or out of order.
As someone who didn’t know a thing about Yuri before reading this book, it was a truly wonderful discovery that opened the doors to a whole new world. The essays were easy to read and fascinating, and the fact that there is some overlap helps you to remember landmark works.
Some discussions were more engaging than the others, but that’s normal, given that the book covers a lot of different subjects, and I am naturally more interested in some than in others. I learned a lot, and feel like I have at least an idea of how Yuri as a genre works, as well as some nice titles that I am interested in checking out.
Of course, I can’t speak for people who are already fans of Yuri, and I don’t doubt that they would have an interesting critique of this book that is different from mine, but I would encourage them to seek it out too. By Your Side is a very interesting book and well worth reading, especially if you’re new to the genre, or just generally interested in literature history. It will give you a good place to start.
The Reviewer
Beáta Fülöp is an aspiring filmmaker and writer. She identifies as aromantic and asexual, and has an autistic Special Interest in the representation of minorities. One day, she will use this knowledge in her own stories. Until then, she is happy to sit here and give her opinion on other people’s hard work.
