Seme
|
|
Seme is a Japanese term from exercises, especially martial arts, meaning "to attack".
In anime and manga, especially shounen-ai, yaoi and hentai, seme is a general term for a partner in a relationship who is or is intimated to be predominantly butch, a top, and/or a dominant. The equivalent for bottom is uke.
Some fans dislike the term as portraying a sexist notion of relationships - its conflation of gender role with sex preferences and the notion that a relationship always contains one uke and one seme - and its prevalence in some rape fantasy doujinshi.
Some series, such as Yami No Matsuei and FAKE invert the visual concept or abandon it.
The classic guidelines establish seme by appearance (tall, broody, more mature, dark-haired, ugly rather than cute faces, non-effeminate) in relation to the 'sub' uke often regardless of the characters' personality. Recently, most characters (especially in American fandom) are established as seme based strictly on personality, which can conflict with the original visual concept. Some artists are known to physically alter the appearance of characters to fit the sterotyped look.
Similarties appear in yuri fandom, and the term is generally used to refer to female characters.
Insert non-formatted text here==Examples==
Dragon Ball Z's Vegeta is regulated to uke in older yaoi fanworks simply due to his short height, in contradiction to his aggressive, dominant personality.
Gravitation's Eiri Yuki is a canonical seme explicitly designed to be taller, older looking, and more humorless than his exuberant boyfriend Shuichi.
In Gundam Wing fan-works Heero could be portrayed as a seme because of his serious, grouchy demeanor, or as uke because he's considered depressive.
Subaru Sumeragi and Seishirou Sakurazuka of CLAMP's Tokyo Babylon and X practically embody the characteristics of uke and seme, respectively. Subaru is typically portrayed as effeminate and is of smaller and more frail stature than Seishirou (although this latter point lessens somewhat by the time Subaru and Seishirou appear in X). Seishirou is taller with a more serious, mature look to him.