Interest Stacks

This stack is dedicated to Class S, a famous phenomenon in Japanese youth girl culture of the early 20th century and the literary genre it inspired. Cultivating caused by situational homosexuality and the closed, same-sex nature of education at that time, passionate homoerotic friendships between young girls in all-girls' schools and universities of the 1920s, Class S has had a huge influence on the formation of traditions of both friendship and lesbian media in Japanese culture in the 20th and then 21st centuries.

In particular, many of the tropes, trends, and mythology of Class directly inspired and became the prototype for the yuri genre, thanks to the huge popularity of the Class S "Maria-sama ga Miteru" LN series and its anime adaptation in the 00s. Because of this, the original "homoerotic passionate female friendship" nature of Class S has been somewhat diluted, and now literal or Class S-inspired shows can be completely platonic or ambiguously homoerotic, or even outright lesbian romance. Much depends on the premise and the intentions of the authors in each individual work. So, you can get both a de facto MariMite in a modern setting like Hibike! Euphonium, and a full-fledged romance emulating the Class S aesthetic like Strawberry Panic. Or even a yuri show directly parodying this concept like Watashi no Yuri wa Oshigoto desu.

Although Class has not existed in its classic form for many years, it continues to inspire Japanese girls' media both directly and through various influences.