Take this Seme Uke Quiz to find out are you Uke or Seme. We update the quiz regularly and it’s the most accurate among the other quizzes.
“Seme,” “uke,” and “riba” are terms used in the Boys’ Love (BL) genre community to describe a character’s function in a male/male sexual relationship. “Seme” refers to the character who is the more dominant part of the relationship and usually takes the lead. In contrast, “uke” refers to the character in the relationship who is less powerful or who follows the lead. In English, it’s essentially equivalent to the top and bottom sexual positions. “Riba,” on the other hand, refers to a relationship in which the characters’ roles do not remain strictly unchanged and they can rotate between seme and uke. It also denotes a figure who can move between seme and uke roles.
Etymology
“Seme” () is written with the kanji for “to assault” (), but “uke” () is written with the kanji for “to receive” (). These expressions were first used in martial arts to denote the person who pursues their opponent’s attack and the person who is attacked. However, the doujinshi community later hijacked these names to define characters’ sexual duties in a male/male relationship.
Seme Uke Quiz
“Riba”()is written in katakana as a shorthand for “reversible” (), indicating that the couple’s sexual duties are not firmly defined. Interestingly, unlike “seme” and “uke,” “riba” is highly popular among Japan’s LGBT community. Also, you must try to play this Seme Uke Quiz.
A Short History
Nobody appears to know when the terms seme and uke first became popular. According to a former editor of JUNE, a magazine that publishes tanbi, or stories about platonic love between handsome males, the phrases seme and uke appear after the JUNE era. The famed Year 24 Group, often regarded as the forefathers of male/male interactions in the manga, never strictly divided roles in their works into seme and uke. Tanbi may have evolved into the BL genre we know today as a result of the advent of seme and uke.
Riba is a newer idea than seme and uke. While the BL manga business has recently seen an increase in the number of works depicting reversible relationships, it is more typically found in the doujinshi (self-published works) community. Many people are highly particular about their tastes and preferences, and finding riba in the works they’re reading is a tremendous turn-off for some. This is why doujinshi works depicting a riba relationship are frequently accompanied by a disclaimer.
About the quiz
Modern Application of Seme/Uke/Riba
While the phrases seme and uke are still frequently used in Japan’s BL genre business and male/male doujinshi community, many more fans are beginning to utilize different terminology to describe characters’ responsibilities in a relationship. Some use the phrases “tachi” () and “neko” (), and in recent years, a growing number of fans have begun to use words like “hidari” ()and “migi” ()to refer to the non-sexual duties of the characters in the relationship. Riba is still more common in the doujinshi community nowadays, but it’s also become one of the BL subgenres that can be found in stores.
This varying use preference also exists in English-speaking fan circles, albeit people appear to be more prone to use seme and uke when discussing original BL comics rather than transformative works. The non-strictly defined and switchable riba relationship appears to be less of an issue in the English-speaking fanbase than it is in the Japanese fandom. If you’d like to learn more about this, have a look at the results of futekiya’s poll on the use of seme and uke in the English-speaking BL fan community here!
For more personality quizzes check this: What Is Your Fate Quiz.
