is a Japanese word that, in the West, describes sexually explicit or pornographic comics and animation-especially those of Japanese origin, such as anime, manga, and eroge. Instead, it is up to the imagination of the viewer. Works considered as ecchi do not show any sexual intercourse or primary sexual characteristics. While the word ecchi could mean anything from mild to insulting in Japanese language, it is used in Western culture to divide between pornography (hentai) and playful usage of sexualized imagery (ecchi). The word is not only common in Japan, it is also used worldwide inside the fandom of Japanese media to describe sexual themes or undertones. The yaoi vs shounen-ai distinction is similar to the yuri vs shoujo-ai one. Characteristics of shōnen-ai include that they were exotic, often taking place in Europe, and idealistic. Shōnen-ai originally connoted ephebophilia or pederasty in Japan, but from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, was used to describe a new genre of shōjo manga, primarily by the Year 24 Group, about beautiful boys in love. In this case, yaoi is used to describe titles that contain largely sex scenes and other sexually explicit themes and shōnen-ai is used to describe titles that focus more on romance and do not include explicit sexual content, although they may include implicit sexual content. The terms yaoi and shōnen-ai are sometimes used by Western fans to differentiate between the contents of the genre. In North America, shoujo-ai is generally less explicit/sexual, while in Japan it generally denotes pedophilia. To summarize, the way it is used depends on who you ask. The western use of yuri has broadened in the 2000s, picking up connotations from the Japanese use. girl love) is not used with this meaning, and instead tends to denote pedophilia (actual or perceived), with a similar meaning to the term lolicon (Lolita complex).
Following the pattern of shōnen-ai, a term already in use in North America to describe content involving non-sexual relationships between men, western fans coined the term shōjo-ai to describe yuri without explicit sex. In North America, yuri has initially been used to denote only the most explicit end of the spectrum, deemed primarily as a variety of hentai.
Yuri focuses on the sexual or the emotional aspects of the relationship, or both, the latter of which sometimes being called shōjo-ai by western fans.