Shōjo-ai

: 少女愛 【しょうじょ-あい】
Literally "Girl - Love", Shōjo-ai refers to stories that feature romantic ties between female characters. Not to be confused with Yuri, which refers to lesbian pornography. The differences are that Shōjo-ai focuses on the relationship and often does not contain any explicit material (the romantic relations may even exclude sex).

Similar to the situation with yaoi / shōnen-ai, it has become increasingly popular in North America for shōjo-ai titles to be labelled "yuri," both by fans and distributors.

See also: shōjo, yuri, shōnen-ai

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