About

Yuri vs. Yaoi is a redraw and exploitable meme format based on a piece of wood burning art by CustomWoodBurning (@customwoodburningboss) depicting two anime girls from Madoka Magika having a rap or singing battle with two characters from Squid Game (Thanos and Nam-gyu), the anime girls standing under the word "yuri" on the left and the men under the word "yaoi." The art was first posted online in late May 2025 and became the subject of memes over the following months, including redraws that replace the characters.

Origin

"Yuri" is a genre of anime and manga that focuses on romantic relationships between two women, while "Yaoi" is a genre of anime and manga that focuses on romantic relationships between two men.

On May 10th, 2025, Instagram^[1] user joan.of.arca posted an image of a piece of art by artist CustomWoodBurning^[2] that features the caption "Yuri vs. Yaoi" overtop of several characters having a rap or singing battle. On the left are two anime girls from Madoka Magica representing yuri, and on the right are two men from Squid Game representing the side of yaoi.

The post gained over 330,000 likes in six months. It is unclear if CustomWoodBurning posted this artwork on their social media page prior to this.

Spread

The piece of art by CustomWoodBurning spread over the following months, inspiring memes and referential posts.

On June 13th, 2025, the Seventh Heaven Bar & Karaoke in Brooklyn, New York, used the art for a poster advertising their first annual Seventh Heaven Yuri VS Yaoi Pride Month Cookout on Instagram.^[3] The post gained over 83,900 likes in five months.

On August 17th, Instagram^[4] user yasneez posted a redraw of the art, garnering over 96,000 likes in three months. The art was reposted by Redditor TomatilloItchy9995 to the /r/MadokaMagica^[5] subreddit on August 22nd, garnering over 715 upvotes in the same span of time.

On September 25th, X^[6] user @gibbletiggle posted a version of the meme referencing the game Hollow Knight: Silksong, garnering over 42,000 likes in two months.

On November 17th, 2025, X^[7] user @reinmyhrt reposted the original art, writing, "I love seeing fandoms using this as art reference. thangyu will always haunting the yaoi universe," garnering over 2,100 likes in about a week.

On November 24th, Japanese X^[8] user @kobiton_0618 posted the original art with a caption that translates to, "I'm laughing for 8 hours at this image," garnering over 2,500 reposts and 26,000 likes in a day.

Later that day, X^[9] user @yanvaresa quoted the post, writing, "it's reached japan I'm crying," garnering over 38,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References