The Yuri Yap Club is a group that’s centered around enjoying young adult (YA) media that highlights well-developed relationships between woman characters of all ages.
For context, “yuri” is a term that originates from Japanese media involving female relationships both a platonic and romantic nature. While it’s more commonly associated with anime and manga, it spans to include light novels, visual novels, and other works of literature too!
When it comes to our club’s scope, we’ll be leaning on towards written works— though side discussion is more than welcome for other adaptations or appropriate media that fits with our group!
Who am I?
Now that you know a bit more about YYC, I want to take the time to introduce myself! I go by Phoenix Masked online, though all are welcome to call me Nix. I identify as a femme non-binary bisexual and have found a great comfort in being apart of the larger LGBTQ+ community.
I’m most known from my Youtube channel where I focus on an art gifting event called Art Fight and my explorations on the art & OC making hobby. In addition to sharing news, advice, and my rabbit-hole adventures— I also love to live stream!
Why Yuri Yap Club?
If I was to get to the essentials… it’s always been centered in appreciating the personal touch of small creators in their original characters, and getting to enjoy making stories too for the ones I make as well!
As I started reading more frequently again however… my love for characters and storytelling has only increased! Rather than only delving into snapshot premises for one-off characters— it’d be a treat to better appreciate the workings of longer stories overall.
Rather than doing this on my own, I thought it’d be absolutely lovely to share this intention for those who’d like to join me in both appreciation and indulgence for this genre!
Media Selection
Given my more exploratory purposes, I can say that at the very minimum we will be enjoying LGBTQ+ themes and representation, well-developed woman-aligned characters and relationships, and a leaning (but not exclusively!) towards Japanese media.
To give an example that many of you are familiar with— think Puella Magi Madoka Magica or I’m in Love with the Villainess! The first is centered more on the plot driven from the magical girl genre— though its an excellent example for character development and relationships. Because of its sub-textual themes, it can be alluded to yuri. On the flip side, the second example points to a piece that holds romance and LGBTQ themes at the forefront. Our club will have a stronger preference for confirmed romance, though Yuri Yap Club may also enjoy something hinted at or in displaying a stronger platonic relationship.
Club Format
Given our broader stroke and introductory community space, we’ll typically be holding two poll types to start in deciding our primary focus! The first will be for media type and the second will come around afterwards for 3-5 options within that category.
When the winning piece is selected, we will have two posts for discussions, the final one aligning with a stream day where we can have ourselves a good Yuri Yap session for our media of choice as well as other recommendations or new works coming out soon. At that point, another poll will be set in motion for whether we continue with a longer series, or if we pivot to something new!
If you’re someone who’s interested in more regular discussion, you’re invited to join the 16+ Discord server to see our dedicated free-for-all forum section for this group.
Kick-off exception
I’ve detailed a typical set up, but for the first one I have my sights set on a light novel! Just to keep in mind 💙
A Festive Celebration
As our next scheduled big post & stream yap will be on October 18th, why don’t we celebrate the season with the first ever I LOVE YURI Art Contest! I’m sure you can guess who this is for. As a note too— yes I imagine I’ll be doing this again as a big art appreciator.
Requirements
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Be subscribed to this Newsletter (It’s free!)
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Adhere to the prompt & scope detailed below
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Have a Throne Account (You’ll see why 👀)
The Prompt
Paranormal Yuri Romance & Fall Slice of Life
You are to either draw one of your favorite ships in media, or artwork of your own original characters! Simply ensure that there’s a supernatural play to it whether its canon or an AU. You’re welcome to also stick with a costume concept too in which the characters are only pretending as well!
When it comes to Fall slice-of-life, depict your OCs enjoying something you’d do during the Fall season! This extends to Halloween of course, though it can be other comfy activities too for when things get colder.
Artwork Scope
For artworks in consideration for the prize, please make it fully colored and cleaned up in your style! The focus will be for digital and traditional artworks. Full-body is not required!
Top Artwork Selection Process
There will be a top three! I will pick my personal favorite, the community will vote on their favorite of a narrowed down bunch, and finally the last will be a raffle for all pieces that are fully colored, detailed, and fitting to the prompt.
We will be narrowing down to a top 3 based from my personal pick, and two community picks. A smaller group will help me decide for the final ranking which should be out by the 25th or 30th of October!
The Prize
I am running a Bdaython from September 26th to September 19th. A portion of donations and subs will be directed towards a prize pool that will be starting at $50 (and going up)!
This will be the quantity amount that I will be spending for people’s gift requests on Throne.
1st place will get 60%, 2nd will get 30%, and 3rd will get 10% of the final prize pool count! I will update this post for the final outcome 💙 If you have any feedback for the structure of this contest, go ahead and email me at phoenixmasked.contact@gmail.com.
Final Thoughts
I appreciate the time you’ve taken to learn more about the YYC. This ultimately spawned from a whim though I wanted to ensure it was accessible to people outside of my Discord server and to work as something I can hone my focus towards on a regular basis for the pure joy of it. If you like what I do and want to support me, I’d love to actually invite you to become a member on Youtube, or leave a one time donation on my website!
Take Care 😊
(Posted originally on subtack September 26th)