YURI JAPANESE ANIMATION: QUEER IDENTITY AND ECOFEMINIST THINKING

YURI JAPANESE ANIMATION: QUEER IDENTITY AND ECOFEMINIST THINKING by Kimberly D. Thompson July, 2010 Director: Su-ching Huang, PhD DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH Yuri or Shōjo-ai, a sub-genre of Japanese Animation and Manga, can be defined as women-loving-women narratives that explore the relationships between women. Although the sub-genre has only been recently introduced to the West, it has been in existence in Japan for nearly a century and has been used as a means to resist stereotypical perceptions of both queer and heterosexual women. With the aid of perspectives found within queer, ecofeminist, and cyberfeminist theory, four contemporary animations are analyzed to challenge the various myths about queer and heterosexual women. The animations Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl and Sweet Blue Flowers defy stereotypes of queer sexuality and identity by demystifying myths about the queer body and mind and the nature of the "closet." The animations ICE and Kurau Phantom Memory deconstruct the woman/nature myth and other fabrications produced within it, such as the goddess myth and the queer against nature myth, through the tales of two queer female warriors who must save humanity.