Well, my dear friends. Here we are at the end of another year together. We’ve lost some important people, and had some hard times, so we should definitely take a moment and give each other a pat on the back and a hug, because we made it through this year, together. Good job, us.

2017 was a banner year for queer media generally and an especially strong year for Yuri, so we have a lot to celebrate! Get settled in while we look over Okazu’s list of top Yuri people, companies and series of the year. As always, comments are open for you to add suggestions, so lets have ’em!

10. Publishers of Yuri

Over the years, I have often taken time to thank the various publishers of Yuri in Japan and America. This year the list of Japanese publishers is so long it would become unwieldy, but it’s worth calling out Shinshokan, Ichijinsha, and East Press for their continuing commitment to Yuri and LGBTQ manga. We’ve had more lesbians in our manga in 2017 than ever before.

This is true in the west as well, with Seven Seas. Yen Press and Viz all putting out beautifully adapted Yuri – marketed as Yuri. This is such a huge step forward that it has to be noted.

Yuri bookshelves in manga stores, Yuri manga – and lesbian manga – on those shelves. Thank you publishers of Yuri for all your efforts in promoting and publishing good Yuri!

9. Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫)

Several Yuri magazines have come and gone in the past decade and new anthologies have filled some of the gaps, but it’s really heartening to recognize that not only has Comic Yuri Hime survived since it’s launch in 2005, it’s been successful enough to go monthly this year and has sustained that for a whole year. Even though I don’t always agree with their editorial direction (and especially loathe their choices for series to adapt to anime,) that’s a fantastic benchmark for the Yuri market. 

Here’s to another year of good Yuri, bad Yuri and wtf is that!? Yuri from the folks at Comic Yuri Hime. For staying power, and for being a cornerstone of the Yuri market, Comic Yuri Hime makes the list at #9.

8. Kiss and White Lily For My Dearest Girl / Sweet Blue Flowers 

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – I love work that understands and revels in its literary roots and creators who recognize the tropes they are playing with, but who refuse to let those tropes limit them. I love work with one foot in the early 20th century and the other foot and an arm clutching a cel phone in the 21st.  This year we have two great examples of this, Canno’s Kiss and White Lily For My Dearest Girl and Takako Shimura’s Sweet Blue Flowers, both available in Japanese and English.

These series are getting editions that not only “get” the content but also “get” the art and the references and the way the whole package is meant to work. It’s not just melodrama for melodrama’s sake, it’s melodrama that is supposed to evoke the heartfelt and passionate magazine letters of girls in the 1930s…with the understanding that all of this is not limited to school crushes anymore.

These stories are the fusions of old and new Yuri and, as a result, resonate with readers all over the world. 

7. Yuri With Adult Women

I will always want more Yuri about adults. I will *always* want more. High school and coming out and painful awkwardness in regards to my sexuality are many years behind me. And so, this year, I’m having a little party inside my head for series like Yuhta Nishio’s  After Hours, Yoshimurakana’s MURCIÉLAGO  and Ohsawa Yayoi’s 2DK, GPen Mezamshitokei.  (Of these, only  2DK, GPen Mezamshitokei isn’t available in English, which means that we need to pester Seven Seas to license it. ^_^)

I love that none of these series are even remotely similar. Schoolgirl Yuri might have to regurgitate the same stereotypes, but once we graduate, all bets are off. Murder, music raves, or living a life as a successful career women are all on the plate. ^_^ (Oh god, I just realized that Yuri has only *just* made it to Mary Tyler Moore territory. ^_^;) I just wanted to wallow in the fact that for this moment time, it’s not just all school girls all the time. Yay! 

More Yuri about adults please!

6. LGTBQ manga (and comics and cartoons and scifi and…)  

Shimanami Tasogare, The Bad Lesbian and the Seven Wives, My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, My Brother’s Husband, Bingo Love, Red as Blue, Always Human, Steven Universe, Legend of Korra…the list here on Okazu of manga and comics by creators who are queer women of color, queer creators with disabilities, out queer manga artists is longer than it has ever been. This year has been a gold rush of amazing queer work from queer creators. I am practically beside myself with joy at the spectrum of diversity in my reading these days.

What the future will bring us is still unknown, but I think this is a genie that will not be put back in the bottle. I expect that we’ll see more great queer media from folks all over the world as 2018 develops.

May our tribe forever increase!

5. The Okazu Community

You, my dear readers, always have a place on this list. And for good reason. You read, you comment, your create Guest Reviews, you become Patrons. You contribute to and support the Okazu community with your time, engagement and your monetary support. 

You correct my mistakes, you make me think differently about series, you send me news items, you are the reason Okazu celebrated 15 years this year! And it’s for you that I try to get to as many events and see as much as I do, just so I can tell you all about it. ^_^ It is my very sincere pleasure to have you all as an important part of the Okazu family.

You are always one of best things about Yuri every year.

If you enjoy these end-of-year lists, and all the reviews, news and interviews we write on Okazu, please subscribe! Even a dollar a month helps us pay Guest Reviewers, cover events and buy the content we review. 

We’re just about at our final countdown and if you know me at all, you had to know what I’m going to squeeze in here. ^_^ 25 and 20 years old respectively. Wow. And not only not dead and forgotten, still alive and thriving. 

Both these stories were vital in the creation of the western Yuri fandom and with luck, will continue to be so for many years to come. These two series always have a place at any Yuri table I set. 

4. Sailor Moon 

Sailor Moon will always be the series that launched a thousand Yuri artists, writers and fans and this year got the definitive edition anime we’d been waiting for for decades AND the anime the creator had always wanted.  

Sailor Moon anime finally was picked up by a western company that wasn’t embarrassed by Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Moon Crystal‘s important third season was given emotional depth by a talented female director, Kon Chiaki.  We pretty much got everything we’ve ever asked for from this series, including the personal approval of both anime and manga by Takeuchi Naoko, who had not had that chance when the series first launched and went on to change the world.

I feel replete with Sailor Moon this year and cannot wait to see what the 25th anniversary brings us!

3. Revolutionary Girl Utena

Revolutionary Girl Utena is turning 20 with a magnificent new chapter of the story unfolding before our eyes. Saitou Chiho’s art has leveled up in 20 years and she’s really gone all out to show us the kind of sensuality, the kind of intimacy, and the kind of surreal mystery and magic we expect from Utena. 

The anime has gotten a remastered release on DVD from Nozomi/RightStuf, with a even more definitive edition on Blu-Ray to come.  

This is a series that delights and confuses and concerns fans still, two decades after it landed. And I expect it will for another 20 years.  Here’s to another chapter of Utena to come (and to seeing Juri 20 years later!) ^_^ 

2. Asagao to Kase-san /Kase-san and Morning Glories

Yes, first love between two girls in school has been done. It’s been done cutely many times over, in fact. But there’s just…something… especially charming about Yamada, the girl with low self-esteem, who falls for the school track star and the way they keep redefining their boundaries and building their relationship with each other, that rings wholly true for me.

The Kase-san manga series is available in Japanese (Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4) and English (Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4).

The animation clip, Kimi no Hikari, is available on Youtube. The commercial for the upcoming OVA looks adorable and more manga is on the way!  I look forward to seeing Kase-san and Yamada come to life. This series is a winner in every direction and has been on this list every year since it first was published. It might have been number one but for the standout hit for Yuri this year.

The Top Yuri anything of 2017 is…

1. Galette

This perfect storm of crowdfunding, distribution, audience, market and creative pool was destined to be the number one most/best Yuri thing of 2017 the moment it launched. 

Galette‘s creative line-up is amazing. Some of the best pro and semi-pro Yuri artists contributing to a creator-owned and run quarterly Yuri manga magazine. What’s not to like?

And even more than it just being Yuri by Yuri creators for Yuri fans, it’s designed with an adult (read: mature) readership in mind. The design elements are elegant and the color scheme is subtle and artistic. Combine the stylish look with solid art and storytelling by creators like Monomo Mono, Takemiya Jin, Morinaga Milk, Otomo Megane, Morishima Akiko, with photos, stories and artwork by other talented creators and you have a hit.

Support Galette on Enty. Buy it in Japanese on Kindle (US or Japan) or buy the print book on Amazon JP, on another online store or at a show, it’s Yuri worth investing in

Galette Yuri magazine is the #1 Top Yuri of 2017!

From everyone at Okazu, we wish you a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2018!