Okazu Staff is back today to wish you a wonderful end of ear Yuri wrap-up. We called out a few of our shared and most popular favorites in our Special Awards post earlier this week. Today we are wrapping up the year with our picks for the very best of Yuri in 2025, so please enjoy!

Ashley

This Monster Wants to Eat Me

We had both an anime and three volumes of manga in English this year. The slower pace of the anime compared to reading the manga makes it a very different experience. The lethargy and sadness of Hinako, the effort it takes for her to get through the day, is made much clearer in an animated medium.

I know that it’s way of dealing with sadness and depression to not be for everyone, but this is absolutely for me.

Hinako’s particular level of depression was incredibility familiar to me as was her ability to draw multiple eccentric women into her orbit. At last a yuri protagonist who I can really relate to.

Super Robot Wars Y

It’s wonderful that the Super Robot Wars game that is the most accessible in English is also the game that introduces characters from Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch from Mercury.

We only have events from the first season in this game so Miorine and Sulletta are still engaged all the way to the end with no arrival of the Witches from Earth and Guel ends the game with the name Bob. The real fun is in the crossover, it is hilarious to see Miorine have to spar with Lelouch (from Code Geass) over the military budget while Sulletta becomes fast friends with Freyja (from Macross). Sadly not a lot of the cross over fun adds more yuri scenes but Sulletta is so into Miorine that she is totally immune to the disgusting charisma of Paptimus Scirocco.”.

If you want my recommendation make sure to give both Sulletta and Chuchu the hit and away skill when you can. Their best weapons are only available before moving so this will make it easier for both of them to keep up with where the fighting is thickest.

Star Sword Nemesis

Christine Love returns to science fiction and heartbreak; this time alongside art by the incomparable Max Schwartz, the artist behind Heaven Will Be Mine. Star Sword Nemesis was one of the best evenings I spent with a story this year.

Eris is in training to be the next wielder of the titular star sword. Her teacher is the exhausted previous owner Comet Halley who is only teaching her as a prisoner of war between the Earth Sphere and Neptune. However that does not deter Eris from falling head over heels for her cool older instructor. Eris is certain that she will be able to bring light back to Halley eyes even though her attempts just make the older woman roll them instead.

Because this is a short novella I don’t want to outline anything else other than how refreshing it is to have a hopeful utopian science fiction setting. The Trans Neptunians have a society that feels similar in ideals to Ian M Banks’ The Culture except they are the underdogs. I did not know how much I had missed some good sci-fi world building until I read this.

Frank

Fragrance of the First Flower, Season 2

Recently we’ve been blessed with more and more releases of live-action yuri series, principally from Thailand but increasingly from elsewhere in East and Southeast Asia as well. It’s all one can do to keep up with news of new and upcoming series (although the r/GirlsLove subreddit’s wiki can help), and only the most dedicated viewers will be able to watch them all. To help cut through the clutter, here are my selections for the best of 2025.

The first is the Taiwanese series Fragrance of the First Flower, the second season of which concluded last April. As befits a show in which marriage equality (or something close to it) is the law of the land, Fragrance is a realistic contemporary drama in which the obstacles to romance are not tropes like “but we’re both girls!” but one of the protagonist’s marriage to a man and being a mother to an autistic child. In season 1 these obstacles drive the main couple apart; season 2 chronicles the slow and halting progress of their relationship after they meet once again.

He Lei in When We Met and The Secret of Girls

My next choice is not a show but an actor, He Lei, the star of two Chinese baihe dramas, When We Met and The Secret of Girls. In both series He plays a down-on-her-luck twenty-something lower-middle-class woman, struggling to survive in a patriarchal society, discovering she loves women, and encountering an older woman with whom she finds love, however fleeting it might be.

Unlike the typical Thai yuri lead, He Lei does not have beauty-queen looks. She compensates for that with her acting, moving effortlessly from wide-eyed naïvety to flirtatious teasing to passionate desire to deep despair. I’m not sure if her starring in two different baihe works is a coincidence or a trend. If the latter, it’s a welcome one, although I hope she doesn’t get typecast in downbeat age-gap romances—I’d like to see her appear in an unequivocally sunny series.

ClaireBell

We closed out the year with what I’m rapidly concluding is the best Thai yuri live-action series to date, the prison drama ClaireBell. It’s a first-time production from Thai entertainment power couple Mai Davika Hoorne and Ter Chantavit Dhanasevi, and what a production it is: stunning cinematography,  immersive set design, and stellar acting from a cast of veterans and newcomers, including a scene-stealing performance by Belle Kemisara Paladesh as the primary antagonist.

First caveat: If you are allergic to heterosexual couples in your yuri, be aware that (despite its setting in a women’s prison) ClaireBell has two of them. It’s as much as an ensemble piece as a straightforward yuri romance, but the central romance is very touching, and Mable Siriwalee Siriwibool and Pangjie Paphavarin Sawasdiwech are excellent as the titular Claire and Bell respectively. Second caveat: the series contains scenes of bloody violence and sexual assault.

Eleanor

There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… (anime and novels)

SPOILER BELOW

This is one of those brain off shows which I wasn’t expecting to enjoy as much as I did. As with one of my last year’s picks, I Don’t Know Which Is Love, (which we finally got volume 3 of in English this summer, a year and a half after volume 2 was released) this is a goofy harem wish fulfillment story. Shy introvert Renako decides to reinvent herself before starting high school and ends up attracting the most popular girl in school, “super darling” part time model Mai, as well as 3 other girls. There’s nothing deep about this at all, but as popcorn it’s very enjoyable. The anime is a close adaption of the first 3 novels, and there is more to come. Being a comedy, the animators must’ve had great fun making it and it shows. Most of all though, I respect that the author actually went for a poly relationship rather than having just Mai be the end game and that the series doesn’t just end after they (all) get together. The full anime is available streaming on Youtube until the 5th January.

Pink Candy Kiss

As I said in my review of volume 2, “I have come to the conclusion that I need more josei yuri in my life”.

Something just hits differently about material written by women aimed at other women and Pink Candy Kiss has definitely been one of my favourite series this year. Quite the opposite of There’s No Freaking Way, this series is gentle, layered and subtly sweet like a strawberry candy.

Volume 4 is set to come out early next year and I am very excited to read and review it. I could also see this working very well as a live action drama.

Not So Shoujo Love Story

As someone who grew up reading classic shoujo manga, I really appreciated this yuri take on the old tropes. Originally serialised on the WEBTOON platform, Viz Media picked up the print rights and have begun releasing the series in physical volumes starting this year and it’s just as much of a joy to read now as it was online.

There are a lot of visual gags, the dialogue is snappy and funny, but the characters actually make you care about them.

My only qualm is that the series has been on hiatus since May 2024 with no indication of a return date.

Luce

The Summer You Were There by Yuama

I’m not normally one for tragedy, but equally, there is something poetic about a situation that cannot end in happiness. How do you cope? What do you do? The Summer You Were There poses this question to a degree; Shizuku, haunted by a trauma in her past, writes a tragic Yuri novel, and plans to bin it, along with herself. Kaori, a classmate, finds it and falls in love with her writing, and proposes that they fake date to provide material for her next story.

Over the course of the story, we learn that Kaori is terminally ill, and Shizuku has to come to terms with losing someone she has come to care about, and surviving afterwards. While it’s not without its faults, I really enjoyed this story, and felt it was told really powerfully. It hits its stride more so in the second volume, I felt, and I mention it here as the sixth and final volume came out this year. If you want something more sombre, I’d recommend this one.

Rainbows After Storms by Luka Kobachi

On the other hand, Rainbows After Storms is pure fluff. Chidori and Nanoha started dating, although as the first four volumes are keen to point out, they’re keeping it a secret! I’ve gotten up to volume six, and this series has thoroughly charmed me. I love the art, and all the little details. The two of them have relationship issues and problems that are true to a teenage relationship. But they get through them. Rather than melodrama, this is a quiet slice of life examining two young women embarking on a new relationship, with all the joys and problems that can cause. I’ve been looking forward to every volume, and it feels like a breath of fresh air.

It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea – if you like more action oriented series, then this may well bore you, but I have found it lovely to read. But if you are fed up of series finishing when the couple gets together, or cry ‘but what happened between!’ when the epilogue is a wedding, this series would be right up your street.

Maebashi Witches on Crunchyroll

I’m going to stretch the definition of Yuri a little bit here, although with rose tinted glasses, you could definitely see some positions here. Maebashi Witches is about a group of girls who suddenly receive an proposition: gain enough magical energy, and they can become real witches. They’re not strong enough to do this alone, so they’ll have to work together.

What ensues is essentially a short magical girl show, except rather than them going to the fight, or attacking monsters, people with issues end up at their ‘shop’, and the girls magically turn into idols and sing a song about their woes. Sounds simple? But Maebashi Witches steps outside of the core concept and really looks at issues in a new light. One of their first customers is a plus sized model, and the girls assume she wants to lose weight. But that’s not it at all; she wants the courage to stand up for herself and put herself forward for more diverse roles. In doing so, this show tackles a lot of topics most shows would shy away from, and each of the girls have their own issues which crop up over the show, including getting creepy messages from someone you admired, fatphobia, body image, youth carers, unequal relationships, amongst others.

This anime was refreshing in the way it portrayed characters realistically, but also how they grow and stay to work together. It’s lovely to have a cast of girls that are genuinely diverse in character and motivation. Well worth a watch.

Christian

Girls Made Pudding

A sci-fi slice of life visual novel / adventure game from Kazuhide Oka and KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO, this was a quiet and cozy oddity that came out in April of 2025. 

As a visual novel, the gameplay is not super convoluted or complex, which is great, because you will be focused on the story about two young ladies motorcycling around mostly-deserted streets, surviving a world that humanity has left behind, and trying to make sense of what happened to everyone who disappeared. 

While the premise may sound anxiety-inducing, the tone of the game is actually very relaxed, helped along by the warm instrumental Midwest emo acoustic guitar score by Daijiro Nakagawa. Character illustrations are warm and expressive, and the speculative plot, along with what our two protagonists mean to each other, is revealed at an enjoyable pace. While short, I don’t think I’ve had a better time in Yuri this year than Girls Made Pudding.

Rock is a Lady’s Modesty

Rock is a Lady’s Modesty starts off with strong Class S vibes, as we are introduced to Suzunomiya Lilisa, a first-year at a prestigious upper class private school. Lilisa is hell-bent on navigating the rigid social and academic hierarchies so she can ascend to the top, but she secretly indulges in shredding on electric guitar with her friend / rival / love interest Kurogane Otoha, on the drums. (Well, I say ‘love interest,’ but that’s putting it extremely mildly whenever these two jam.)

This anime was known for having BAND-MAID not only perform the music, but also provide motion capture for the CG performance animations. It was also famous for having its protagonists get all hopped up on rock music and act up after a performance. Also, going with instrumental rock instead of music with vocals tickles that part of my brain that appreciates going down the road less traveled.

Long after I forget most of what happened in this anime (the side characters, the drama, the motivations), I will always fondly remember it for when Lilisa yelled “You’re gross, you c*m covered jerkoff!” at a locally-famous crooner in fierce, rebellious triumph.

Galette

Using Kickstarter for preordering and funding, the English editions of Galette magazine feature translations of tales that were originally published in 2017. That time differential gives us the luxury of getting several chapters of the same continuing story in each volume, which makes the selected narratives that much easier to follow. 

As a compilation, we get a variety of stories, and not all set in high school, even! (Although my favorite, the loosely-sketched Sky blue melancholic by Ringo Hamano, certainly is.) The cover illustrations by Pen and the designs by Blankie are particularly compelling, standing miles above most other covers you’re likely to see. Foil embellishments are used artistically and not as a gimmick.

I think what impresses me the most about Galette is the fact that these stories feel rescued. There’s no current anime that’s driving up interest in these older works, and if they wanted to, the publishers could have simply gone with their most recent comics, considering the recency bias that is often a part of anime/manga fandom. Instead, we get a sampling of Galette in its infancy, with sets of stories that, as a collection, feels stronger than the sum of its parts. These are stories the authors wanted to tell, and that the publishers wanted to show you, and it’s honestly a treat to be able to read these eight years later in 2025.

Matt

How Do We Relationship?

After a challenging stretch through the end of “Act 2”, the series starts its march to its ending with rediscovering what made this series so great to me: realistic depictions of intimacy and a sense of humor.

We know what the end game is going to be, so with that question aside, all that’s left is the how—and Tamifull manages to keep things fresh with a surprise or two.

Alter Ego 2: Noel & June

I had been eagerly awaiting this follow-up volume since it was announced, and I was not disappointed. After getting over their mutual unrequited crushes for their best friend, Noel and June are together now and need to figure out what that means for them.

Noel’s growth here is satisfying, although the drama, as it were, does lean on one tired trope that could have been swapped out for something more interesting.

I’d love to see a third round of these two goofs. And also, June grew a nose between volumes? Growth all around.

Rock is a Lady’s Modesty (Anime)

The premise was pretty simple: what if Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games were about rock music instead? Easy sell for me, a wannabe rock guitarist. It delivered on its premise in spades, and even adds a layer of class commentary to the formula which plays perfectly with rock ‘n’ roll’s anti-establishment history. I have some quibbles—some valid (the 3D animation took some getting used to), some petty (I’m just not a fan of PRS guitars)—but overall it was a helluva good time.

Erica

Well, this year was a banger wasn’t it? There was SO much good Yuri that it was impossible to decide, which is my favorite problem to have.

Ayaka Is In Love With Hiroko Live-Action second season

Lesbian literature in the west is filled with tales of lesbians falling for  apparently straight women, sometimes successfully, other times leading to tragedy. It’s such a standard for those of us who grew up on pulp novels that it’s refreshing to not see it so often in media from other cultures. But it is rare in any visual media to get a romantic comedy about two lesbians who just can’t seem to manage to connect, even though they both like each other.

Sal Jiang’s comic was goofy, loud, and ultimately kind of sweet as generations collide in this office romance. The live action was faithful to the original in a way that allowed for conversations about being a player in the lesbian bar scene and communications issues. In a series that didn’t then take that information and lead into a 20 minute sex scene with low lighting and and incoherent camerawork, made this a far more interesting watch. Shiho Katō’s Ayaka drives the emotional impact while Hiroko played by Kanna Mori once again excels at reactions, and an ending that fully satisfied.

Ayaka Is In Love With Hiroko Live-Action second season is streaming now on GaGaOOLaLa.

Now come the inevitable ties. I am not indecisive, there was just a lot of good stuff this year. ^_^Anime had a load of interesting titles in 2025, but for me, there were two standouts.

This Monster Wants To Eat Me

As I have repeatedly said, this is not a romance story. It is a tale of grief and loss, and having one foot in the otherworld. One could debate that this is not Yuri at all, as none of the emotions are what we think of as romantic, but I prefer to expand the Yuri umbrella to other species as well.

I absolutely love the manga by Naekawa Sae, for both art and story and the seamless way she has weaved yokai into the tale of a child suffering from a tremendous loss. The anime is atmospheric, heavy, quiet and suffocating as if we too are always drowning, as Hinako is. Unnerving and uncomfortable, but beautiful and as quiet as the deep water. I am sincerely thankful we got the manga and the anime in English.

Rock Is A Lady’s Modesty

This fusion of the ‘S’ aesthetic of girls’ private schools, band stuff, and lesbian BDSM with great music was a genuine hoot to watch. The only anime I grinned at quite as often was the highly satisfying May I Ask For One Final Thing? Christian says everything you need to know, but I’m throwing my glove in as a vote for Top Yuri of 2025 for this wackadoodle anime, as well. I’ll have to add the manga to my to-read list in 2026.

My final picks are a tie as well as they so often are. This year we had a remarkable explosion of Yuri, in part lead by the two Yuri manga magazines. Both these magazines deserve praise. This truly is a tie, because both magazines hit incredible milestones this year, as well.

Galette Magazine

Since Christian already mentioned the amazingly successful English language kickstarter campaigns for Galette magazine, I’ll start with them. I have been a supporter since day one. Now I am a member of their Galette Fanclub, but it has been my pleasure to read every volume and encourage them with every new year. I am particularly partial to Galette becuse it is a creator-owned and crowdfunded title – they are their own publishers!  This gives the creators a chance to do anything they want…and in 2025, they ran with that. They opened a 140-character reader column with a winning story being illustrated every issue and they did an artist event, as well.

Congratulations to Galette for yet another wonderful year of independent Yuri in Japanese and English. The next issue will be their 10th anniversary. They just sent out the sincerest email to Fan Club supporters about how they aren’t doing anything special, because Galette has always been meant to be kind of chill and just doing what they want. I have very much run Okazu this way, so rock on Galette!

Comic Yuri Hime Magazine

I cannot forget the Yuri magazine that is this year celebrating a 20th anniversary. Comic Yuri Hime has been through many changes. I love their current annual style change-up with a new story, and new look every year. Honestly, its outstanding. So many great Yuri manga artists have gotten their chance at doing Yuri professionally in the magazine, so many incredible artists have drawn for them.

Yuricon turned 25 and Comic Yuri Hime turned 20. Wow, what a year. Yuri’s all grown up. ^_^

Here is my sincerest congratulations for a Yuri magazine making it for two decades in a business where magazines regularly come and go. I look forward to the next decade of great Yuri with Comic Yuri Hime! ^_^

Before I wrap up I want to thank all the publishers, translators, animators, editors and creators who have brought us amazing Yuri this year. It has been an incredible year and you’ll have to trust me when I say that 2026 is going to be just as amazing.

Let us know what your favorite Yuri of the year was in the comments!

As the Okazu Staff has been pondering this year’s Top Yur iLists, we encountered a Really Good Problem to Have(TM). There is so much good Yuri, and some of it is so obviously influential and important that we all were adding it to our lists. So instead of multiple staff picks with repeated series, I decided to split off the four Yuri manga this year that were so mentioned in reviews and conversation, in our Gift Guide and, inevitably on the Top Yuri lists, into their own Special Award list. 

These four are, absolutely some of the very best Yuri of 2025 and each deserve a spotlight of their own.

She Loves To Cook and She Loves To Eat

The fifth volume of this outstanding manga about queer life, disability, friendship, navigating society and food made last winter warm and delicious for so many of us. 

This is a series that shows us diversity even within a small group. It focuses on the importance of found family, of friends, of having people you can talk to and who will accept you as you are. It’s not about accepting limitation – it’s about understanding  those limitations and chosing what to spend one’s energy on. That the series gleefully allows the characters to enjoy foods of all kinds, is an added bonus. We’ve taken some of these suggestions and done our own food parties.

Most importantly this series gives insight to the real-world difficulties faced by same-sex couples in contemporary Japan and offers some advice and resources. It takes time to discuss the effects of home life and relationships on trauma and on healing. There is no way to finish Volume 5 without a grin on one’s face.  

For being affirming, loving, kind and feeding us so well, She Loves To Cook and She Loves To Eat by Sakaomi Yuzaki, published by Yen Press wins the first of Okazu’s Top Yuri of 2025 Special Award. 

Love Bullet

I unconditionally enjoyed this manga when I read it in Japanese. I enjoyed it in English and I am currently reading Volume 2 in Japanese. There is something fun and sad and beautiful in a story about cupids who did not fall in love – may not be able to love?- tasked with bringing love to others. Making other people’s successful relationships a form of currency is an incredible idea. Pairing cute art and the brutality of close-range fighting to cause a specific hormonal imbalance so many people desire is something. 

What really sets this series apart is that it proved, once and for all, that the global Yuri market is finally significant enough to have real-world impact on publishing and licensing. Until now we have seen some hints, but this manga made this point – to the extent that Yen insiders said that they expected this to be among the year’s best sellers…with a December release. 

For making an irrefutable statement that Yuri is a profitable genre, inee’s Love Bullet, published by Yen Press gets a Okazu Top Yuri of 2025 Special Award.

The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All

Arai Sumiko brought together online art, with a street aesthetic, music of the 1990s to contemporary rock (we all kind of fixate on the older stuff but there is some newer music in there!) with a high school Yuri romance. She added some gender identity issues, and colored it so brightly we couldn’t miss it when it slid past on our feeds.

This story took off online, was licensed quickly in multiple countries, spawned cafes, a sound track, an audio drama, and we’ll be getting an anime in the new year. I also would bet on a live-action adaptation, because this is just screaming for one. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a stage musical too, that seems kind of obvious. ^_^

This manga broke the merchandising barrier. We’d been seeing other series in other countries getting tons of fun plastic crap, but US editions somehow never got that stuff. Yen and Kinokuniya’s collabs on The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All merch has opened a window for other merch collabs, including Yen and Kino’s Love Bullet pop-up. The thing is – it is a really adorable series. Likeable people, relatable problems, and serious questions about love, relationships and personal needs and wants. 

This totally teen and adult friendly series that has broken walls and made a huge change, The Guy She Liked Wasn’t A Guy at All by Sumiko Arai, published by Yen Press, is the third  Okazu Top Yuri of 2025 Special Award winner.

The Moon On A Rainy Night

In The Moon On A Rainy Night, Kuzushiro addresses two topics of significant interest to her and to us here at Okazu – queerness and disability.

If you are a member of the queer community, you know that there is a significant overlap between LGBTQ+ lives and folks with chronic diseases and disabilities. Generally speaking, manga is only tentatively taking steps towards intersectionality and one of those steps is manga about people with disabilities and disorders. In this manga Kuzushiro tackles both topics with honesty, and from the perspective of two young women who together find ways to incorporate accommodation and understanding into their relationships. This manga is touching and so sincere, with some laugh out loud moments.  We can spend this winter in anticipation of a spring anime adaptation. ^_^

In part because of the joy we have in reading this and in part, due to the progressive and hopeful messaging, The Moon On A Rainy Night by Kuzushiro, published by Kodansha, is the fourth recipient of our Okazu Top Yuri of 2025 Special Award. 

These four series herald a manga wave of queer joy, so congratulations to the creators, the publishers and to Yuri fans everywhere!

Tune back in to Okazu on the 31st as the Okazu Staff picks our personal Top Yuri of 2025 (that wasn’t already on today’s list! ^_^)

2024 was an amazing year for Yuri, no doubt. We’re getting licenses faster than we ever have (even if sometimes it doesn’t feel like it!). Yen Press, Kodansha USA, Seven Seas Entertainment and Viz Media are all still jockeying to put out Yuri, which is fantastic to see. ^_^

As usual, it was nearly impossible for the Okazu staff to whittle this year down to just a few titles – in fact, we’re still talk about how complicated and fraught picking a few “best” are on the Okazu Discord as I type this.

There was a lot of Yuri that we read and watched this year and some we haven’t yet gotten to, so if we’ve left your favorite off our lists, we welcome your lists in the comments! But here we are, with the Okazu Staff picks for Best Yuri of 2024. ^_^

Christian LeBlanc

The Moon on a Rainy Night by Kuzushiro, published by Kodansha. Four volumes of this series came out in 2024, and while I haven’t gotten a chance yet to read the volume that just came out in mid-December, I can safely comment on what a realistic and affecting series this is.

A major trend in this story is people noticing and recognizing other people who are dealing with something heavy, and the different ways in which they offer to help lift some of that heaviness. Sometimes it’s clunky and offensive, other times it’s blunt and constructive. Sometimes it’s an older queer-coded character reaching out to someone who they suspect is struggling with coming out, and other times it’s one single parent reaching out to another. While background characters in romance comics often end up being one-dimensional plot devices, every character in The Moon on a Rainy Night is important. Watching how characters impact each other and help each other grow, even if it’s by adding to their heaviness, leads to a seriously compelling story with well-earned emotional beats.

I Can’t Say No to the Lonely Girl by Kashikaze, published by Kodansha

Impressively, the first five volumes were released in English during 2024, which was fantastic for me, as this was a pleasant surprise of a series I couldn’t get enough of. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a story that uses coercion to initially drive its plot, but it progresses into a wholesome portrayal of a healthy and supportive relationship, told via bright, cheerful and confident artwork. (It doesn’t hurt that introverted/mopey girl and outgoing/cheerful girl is one of my favourite pairings.) The series tentatively dips its toes into real-world LGBTQ themes, but almost in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it way; I’d like to see a little more realism as we go along, but I expect that I’ll be happy with whatever we get.

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games by Eri Ejima, published by Seven Seas

This is a weird series. Two volumes came out in 2024. Volume 6 spends the entire book on ONE MATCH and it is INTENSE and it excels at that sports-manga trick of making you care intensely about a sport (or e-sport) you may not necessarily know everything about – it explains what’s going on, it shows how the participants are in The Zone, it shows how good they are by how the commentators and crowds react, etc etc. By contrast, Volume 7 takes you out of that intense competitive spell you were pulled under and back to reality, and I mean…I don’t care that the girls are in trouble because they got caught playing video games in their dorm rooms when they weren’t supposed to, that’s just not as compelling as the tech and minutiae we were seeing in volume 6. While I hope that later volumes work out the balance between plot and competition better, this series still makes my list based off the strength of Volume 6 alone. I said this about Volume 5 last year, but it’s very rare for me to get shivers of excitement outside of listening to music, and for that alone I am happy to single out this book.

Eleanor Walker

She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat, by Sakaomi Yuzaki, published by Yen Press

Volume 5 is releasing next month so look for that on next year’s list. But for now, every new volume of this series as is delightful as the last. Quite simply, I love everything about it, the characters, the premise the story. It’s also accompanied by one of the best ever live action adaptions of a manga I’ve ever seen. I’ve often found in the past that live action manga adaptions can be a bit too corny and overdone, but this one is perfect and I’m very much looking forward to both the next volume and having some time for season 2 of the drama.

I Can’t Say No To The Lonely Girl by Kashikaze, published by Kodansha

This one has been a long time coming in English, having finished serialising in Japan in 2022 but I’m glad we’ve finally got it. (May 2025 be the year we finally get 2DK, G-pen, Mezamashitokei). It originally came onto my radar from Erica’s reviews of it in Japanese and I agree that it’s a much better story than the initial premise would suggest.

Unlike The Summer You Were There, this one didn’t make me want to throw the book at the wall in frustration. The final volume is something to look forward to next year as well.

I Don’t Know Which Is Love by Tamamushi Oku, published by Yen Press

This is one of the silliest things I have ever read, and I’m so happy it exists. It’s every over-exaggerated harem trope ever, but turned up to 11 and made gay. Serious dramas are all well and good, but sometimes you just want the candyfloss. I also really like the author’s afterwords in this one, they seem super aware of how silly it is and I hope they’re having as much fun making it as I am reading it.

Although Volume 2 was released in English,Yen Press hasn’t listed volumes 3+ yet, I’m living in hope because they did eventually release I Want to Be a Wall 3, more than a year after volume 2.

Frank Hecker

The Loyal Pin

Against the backdrop of 1950s and 1960s Thailand, Princess Anin (Rebecca Patricia Armstrong) and Lady Pin (Freen Sarocha Chankimha) find that the course of true love does not run smoothly. They struggle with the expectations and restrictions placed upon them and try to win the approval of their (fictional and idealized) Thai royal family, in this lesbian storybook romance from Idol Factory, the company that put Thai yuri on the map with GAP: The Series.

The production values are top-notch (thanks to funding from the Thai Ministry of Commerce), the scenery is beautiful, the cuisine looks scrumptious, the love scenes show why “FreenBecky” are Thai yuri’s most celebrated “love team,” and the overall message of LGBTQ acceptance ties in quite nicely with the advent of Thai marriage equality. Overall The Loyal Pin has hit the trifecta: it’s an effective commercial for Thai tourism for international audiences, an excellent example of positive government-sponsored propaganda for the Thai domestic audience, and (most important for our purposes) one of the best Thai yuri live-action series ever.

Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born

This may seem an odd choice for a “top yuri series of 2024” list, since it’s a live-action adaptation of a Korean yuri webcomic that deliberately erased that comic’s explicit yuri (and more generally, queer) content in deference to a conservative domestic audience. Nevertheless, I’m including it here for three reasons: First, its setting and premise—a newcomer trying to break into an all-female theatrical troupe in 1950s Korea—should be of interest to anyone also interested in the Takarazuka Revue, whose all-female productions have influenced many yuri works without being themselves yuri. And although the explicit yuri elements are gone, yuri subtext is almost omnipresent in this series, especially in the relationship beyond the titular Jeongnyeon, the would-be “prince” of the troupe, and her would-be “princess” Joo-ran.

Finally, Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born is a top-notch series all around, with a uniformly excellent cast (headed by Kim Tae-ri, who previously starred in the Korean lesbian drama The Handmaiden), high production values, and a compelling if often bittersweet plot. Yuri fans who can look past the (self-)censorship of a canon yuri story will find an entertaining and emotionally resonant drama elevated by standout performances, along with splendid recreations of classic theatrical performances.

Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord

After the sturm und drang of Thai live-action yuri, it’s nice to experience a story without superfluous melodrama, in which the characters generally behave like mature and responsible adults (even those characters who aren’t technically adults yet) and the conflicts that do arise are resolved by people communicating with each other instead of relying on implausible plot contrivances (like many Thai series, not excepting The Loyal Pin). In some cases this might make for a boring read, but Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord (by Yadokawa) succeeds based on the strength of its characters, older manga editor Asako and young idol-turned-landlord Miyako (the central couple) and their friends and associates, Ruri, the new center for idol group Elm, and mangaka (and Elm uber-fan) Hato.

Those without Japanese will have to wait for the concluding volumes 4 and 5 to appear in English from Yen Press, but based on the first three volumes the final volumes of Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord should confirm its position as one of the best yuri manga of recent years, a very well-executed blend of slice of life, comedy, idol intrigue, and romance.

Luce

Mayonaka Punch (anime)

MayoPan, as it has been affectionately shortened to, cannot be called high art, but it was fun, and it was memorable. Even though it was perhaps lacking in Yuri content, considering that Live seems to want a bit more than to drink Masaki’s blood, it was an interesting look at the dangers of placing your self worth in the comments section of social media.

It was also incredibly daft, but somehow managed to be heart-warming at the same time. Masaki is a gremlin enough that it’s entertaining rather than off putting, and the last two episodes actually threw me. I’d like a session 2, but I’m happy with this one if that’s all we get.

She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat, Volume 4,

I must confess, I’m not much of a fan of food manga. If it’s basically recipes with set dressing, I’d rather not read it. But the lure of Yuri pulled me in, so I was reading along as it came out, but not quite seeing the huge draw. Then this volume comes out, and opens up new ground – a character states on the page that they are asexual. It ceased to be about the food alone, but the connections it can and had brought to our characters, including Nagumo who had issues with eating, but in the warm and supportive environment fostered by the other three, is able to start to explore it. This is the volume that caught me on this series, so it’s earned its spot!

The Guy She Was Interested Tn Wasn’t A Guy At All

Boy has this one been hyped. Dubbed ‘green Yuri’ by some, the powerful use of the colour really punctuates the volume and elevates the already good art. Two teens start to bond over rock music, and although Aya mistakes Mitsuki for a boy initially, the misunderstanding is resolved by the end of the volume – and fairly realistically, too, which is unusual for these types of plot contrivances.

I’m excited to see where it goes next (and hoping it becomes more available in the UK!)

Matt Marcus

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Volume 5

In this final volume, the years slip by and things slowly change. Children grow into adults, relationships evolve, and humanity’s imprint on the world further fades. As with the rest of this series, there isn’t much plot development. We don’t learn any more about the apocalypse or the mysterious ship gliding above the earth. But little of that mattered before, and it really doesn’t matter now. YKK offers a space where we can slow down and soak in the feeling of gentle contentment, with perhaps a touch of warm sadness.

It’s a series I can see myself going back to on slow Saturday mornings, alongside a nice cup of coffee.

The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All, Volume 1

It’s been hard to be in yuri spaces and not be aware of this stylish manga. Never has a series been so laser-targeted on my nostalgia. The Western rock music that the protagonists bond over brings me right back to driving to high school in my ‘98 Camry with no AC, flipping the radio between 99.1 PLR and Radio 104.1. A little Aerosmith here, a little Radiohead there. The only generational divide between these girls and my own experience is that back in my day, awkward music-based flirting required the use of a CD RW drive. Kids have it so easy these days.

There isn’t much story or character work to be found here; this series runs heavily on vibes alone, but they are my vibes, damnit! Sometimes pandering works!

The Moon On A Rainy Night, Volume 5

Like Christian above, I also had to give a nod to this series, which is a known favorite among the Okazu staff. (If you didn’t know, Erica has a pull quote on the back cover of every volume!) It’s thoughtful, well researched, full of likeable characters, and certainly well-drawn. Each volume has been a really pleasant surprise, and I’m thrilled that it’s getting an anime adaptation in the near future.

I wanted to highlight volume 5 in particular among the four (!) volumes that were released this year because of how it handled Tomita, a classmate who appears at first to merely be a bully, but is also struggling with hearing loss. There are no villains in this series, merely people with their own struggles who fail to do better. It makes me hope that with a little work and understanding, everyone can learn to be kinder to each other. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Erica Friedman

I have a few Honorable Mentions this year, which I don’t want to ignore entirely, but my criteria for “Best” this year is the same as last year, which means the benchmark is veray high.  If I was putting together this post by myself as I used to, these would all have landed in my Top Ten, for sure!

Whisper Me A Love Song Anime – based on the manga by Takeshima Eku, Published by Kodansha. On the positive side, we did, finally get to see the complete anime series, something that was not a given.  On the down side, an exceptional, ongoing manga was rendered meaningless by absurdly low budget, poor treatment of staff, unreasonable deadlines.

If I were Takeshima Eku, I would be devastated. It should have been delightful and charming and something you point tweens towards. At least we have the manga, which is delightful and charming! Shoulda, woulda, coulda, but I’m tired of Ichijinsha cheaping out on Yuri anime. All that said, this anime is still extremely cute and Yuri. ^_^

The Loyal Pin

This Thai live-action series based on the novel of the same name by by Mon Maw, made a case for the legitimacy of same-sex lives, just as Thailand was considering the same issue in real time. In this case, love won the day in both the series and the law. Popular actress/ pairing Freen and Becky did some of the best acting of their careers to date. While the story was not perfect – and I’d really like to see some queer actresses take up the mantle of Thai GL stars sometime soon – this was an undeniably excellent live-action series.

The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy At All by Sumiko Arai, published by Yen Press

Manga, Drama CD and upcoming Anime. This visually arresting manga has made one of the most undeniable splash in Yuri marketing that I have ever seen. I hope it will continue, of course. The characters are lovable and we all are rooting for them very hard. The art is vibrant, dynamic, and the soundtrack is Gen X in a playlist. It’s absolutely a fabulous fun Yuri series. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it as an anime.

Galette Magazine in English

The Okazu Staff were talking about how insanely difficult it is to pick “best”series and titles for this list.At which I suddenly realized I had left off an incredible title! There were a lot of fantastic Yuri Kickstarters this year – Mutsumi Natsuo, Aneido, Yorita Miyuki, Hanakage Alt all ran successful campaigns. Galette Magazine ran a hugely successful campaign, raising almost $45K for their first project. As I write this I was waiting for my copy to arrive, which has just arrived in time to post. ^_^  I very much look forward to this perfect example of the power of the global Yuri market. ^_^

This English-language volume is so stylish I want to show everyone I know how good it looks. I’m excited for you all to be able to enjoy something I have been enjoying for more than 5 years now. I am very gratified to see so many familiar names among the backers. We made this happen. Wow.

In 2024…and indeed, going forward into 2025, “the girl gets the girl” is bare bones. We want to see it, we expect it in our Yuri, but it is not enough. Not for me, at least. I am not opposed to coming of age, coming out stories, or bildungsroman in my narratives – I’ve certainly read and enjoyed my share of those. What I want in my Yuri  are exceptionally well-conceived three-dimensional characters whose lives are not rendered into one simplistic concern of “will they or won’t they”.

My choices for Best Yuri of 2024 treat the characters as if they are people, and treat the readers as if they are intelligent and interested in learning about those people.

She Loves To Cook And She Loves To Eat by Sakaomi Yuzaki, published by Yen Press

This narrative centers adult women in our world, the real world, dealing with real issues – the kinds of casual homophobia every queer person encounters, as well as other obstacles of physical and mental health. When we read this series, we are watching as a family creates itself, and the people in that family supporting and loving one another in different ways. I’ve written about this series over and over with the Original JP edition, the EN edition and the live action drama. I wish this series could last forever, because I think it has a lot to teach us. Every issue of this manga is a delight, every episode of the live-action drama was equally as wonderful.

Yuzaki Sakaomi has set a high bar for LGBTQ manga excellence with this series. I look forward to the series that beats it. ^_^

The Moon On A Rainy Night by Kuzushiro, published by Kodansha

Like She Loves To Cook and She Loves To Eat, I have spent a great number of words explaining just exactly why this series by Kuzushiro is an exceptional series and everyone needs to read it. ^_^ Please indulge me while I continue to exhort you all to read this manga. ^_^

The first queer representation most young people encounter in their media is a portrayal of a young person like themselves, wondering what they are feeling. There is nothing wrong or trite about that – every generation needs their own coming out stories. I hope that every generation gets a coming out store this sensitive and affirming. Saki has an adult she can speak to about her feelings, Kanon’s circle of friends widens to include peers who experiences are the same as hers and those whose are different, but help them to understand how complicated life can be.

The Moon On A Rainy Night centers disability and chronic conditions in the very same way it handles queerness, that is to say…they are portrayed as normal things that exist. Queer people exist, people with disability exist, these are perfectly normal things in human society and it is up to all of us to create a society that is more inclusive and adaptive so everyone can participate. Hopepunk, ftw.

We can anticipate an anime for this series in the new year. Let us hope that the animation studio treats it well and gives it the love it deserves. ^_^

Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāngzǐ, translated by Lin King, published by Grayworlf

In the 20+ years I have written Okazu, I’ve been pretty honest about what makes a “good story” in my opinion. I’ve never stopped being the Comparative Literature student of my college years – honestly, this is why so many manga and anime that seem super unique and innovative to others seem fairly predictable to me. I admit, I ask a lot of “literature.” ^_^ When I encounter something that is that well-written, I’ll shout about it to the heavens. This is me shouting. Right now.

This year, it was my incredible pleasure to read Yáng Shuāngzǐ’s Taiwan Travelogue.

This book has deep roots in Class ‘S’ and early Yuri tropes, and is both an homage to and criticism of Yoshiya Nobuko. It is a pointed commentary on the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, (with reverberations into today’s situation of a Taiwan poised in between China, Japan and the US) and a loving guide to the food, people and places of Taiwan.  It is a tragedy that is not tragic and a comedy that is bittersweet at best. It is…a love story, by an award winning contemporary Baihe author.

In a year in which it was almost impossible to chose among all the amazing Yuri, Taiwan Travelogue is a must-read book for anyone interested in Yuri as a genre.

Many thanks to all of the Okazu Staff and Guest writers for their efforts and to Okazu Patrons and Supporters for making this and all our reviews possible. And thank you to our Okazu readers – you make this all worthwhile.

Happy New Year and happy new Yuri to all of you!

Table of Contents

All The Things
Top 10 Yuri Series
Top 3 Yuri Series of 2022

Well my goodness. 2022 was…amazing. Not only do we have so much Yuri this year – and so much to look forward to next year – that it is too much to contemplate without my head spinning a bit. But I am going to do my best to put together a list that gives you a feel of just how incredible the year has been. Because I’m doing the same format as last year, this is not a countdown, it’s a list of media I read, watched, wrote, spoke and thought about in 2022, at least partially in the order of the amount of time I spent on that thing. ^_^

All of this is wildly capricious and has been subject to multiple alterations. This year was particularly hard with so, so much Yuri media from so many different countries and in different forms. But, we have to start somewhere.

All The Things

This category represents the ecosystem for Yuri. Upstream from me are the creators, publishers, distributors, stores and shows and downstream are all the folks who engage with and consume my content about the upstream stuff! I do not and cannot engage with all media, and there are multiple formats that I never engage with.  So here are my broadest thoughts about things that strike me as top trends and concepts to be thankful for this year. ^_^

Publishers and Magazines

I stopped listing all the publishers who publish Yuri when it became almost all the publishers in the US and Japan. This year, I’d like to thank all the publishers from all the other countries who have been or are picking up Yuri licenses from Japan and translating their own native titles. We’ve seen a dam break in Thailand, France, Vietnam, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Poland, and many other countries where Yuri fandoms are growing. While there are way too many to list now, I once again want to nod in sincere thanks to all of the US publishers who have invested in Yuri…and even more, in openly queer works this past year.

I also want to  take a moment to celebrate Galette magazine’s 5th year and Comic Yuri Hime‘s continued success as a monthly , as well. Having two “Yuri” magazines as anchors and many others running Yuri content, will never get old. ^_^

Okazu Patrons, Supporters, Reviewers, Correspondents and Commenters and Staff

Once more I’d like to take a moment thank all of you.

To those of you who financially support our efforts here at Okazu, Yuri Studio and Yuricon on Patreon and Kofi- because of you, we’ve been able to run 260 posts with a full 10% of those being guest reviews this year. We were able to do 9 Yuri Studio videos this year, 6 of them for the official Season 3.  Saying “I could not do it without you,” seems banal, but it’s true. Thank you all so much.

To Okazu readers and commenters – I appreciate your comments and very especially your different perspectives. Thank you for correcting me, or just disagreeing from time to time. It keeps me thinking.

And my very warm thanks to those members of the Okazu community who write Guest Reviews! I love having your thoughts about the Yuri you love (or not) here for us to learn from and enjoy. Many thanks to the YNN Correspondents, you are my eyes and ears and I delight in the news you send me!

Not lastly, thank you to everyone who has helped out on the back end: Ashley and my wife, and everyone else who has made things like logos and formats and translations and stuff I use every day that don’t get seen by everyone. I’m really hoping we can grow the Patreon a little next year so I can hire someone to help out with the Yuricon Store. There’s so much to do and my time to do it gets smaller every week. Yay staff, thank you so much for your help. Could not do it all with you.

Thai Live Drama

This year Thai Drama slammed otself into the Yuri stage with pyrotechnics. Thai BL is going strong and, based on the number of likes and views, it looks like Thai GL is going great gangbusters. We’re looking at a number of new series for the new year. How exciting! Because the push to specifically create and promote Yuri content is pretty new in Thailand, I wanted to give it a nod here.

Webnovels/Light Novels

I don’t even know where to begin with these. There are so many actually decent Yuri webnovels and light novels ….and a lot of trashy ones…that I just wanted to nod to the category as a whole. The good ones may be good, but I think we should also appreciate some of the trash like Girls’ Kingdom and Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, which are not literature, but are fun as heck. ^_^ Sure, we’ll talk about a key series or ten here on Okazu, but when I look back at light novel reviews here, wow, have we come so far from forgettable, laughably awful stuff that I used to review in the 00s.  (Cough/Kanojo ha Megane-holic/cough).  And even the not-great ones, like, oh, The Executioner and Her Way of Life are pretty decent comparatively.

But, then we have surprisingly wonderful series like The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady and, of course the force of nature that is I’m In Love With the Villainess, and we have got so say, that we have come a very, very long way.

Maybe this decade we’ll finally be worthy of the Maria-sama ga Miteru novels. ^_^;

Visual Novels

I endlessly feel bad that we don’t cover more Yuri VNs here. I don’t read them and while I get an offer of a review every once in a while, I don’t actually get finished reviews very often. I’d love to have more (pitch a review of your fave!) But there are a number of studios doing sensational Yuri work right now, from Studio Élan, Bellhouse, YuriEureka, YuriSoft Games, SukeraSparo, and MangaGamer and Lilyka who license and distribute games from Japan. So many stories, by such talented artists and writers and folks creating new ways to experience original and licensed Yuri stories, …. what a bounty we have.

***

Now, it’s time to crack down and get serious about the things I thought really made the year special. These series all took up a lot of space in my head, in various media and languages. They are all notable, enjoyable and some are, IMHO, important.

I’m focusing on the English language editions where they exist, but many of these I also followed and reviewed in Japanese. The fact that we have English language releases for most of these is itself a notable thing. It wasn’t long ago that half this list was me crossing my fingers, hoping we’d hear about a license…eventually. In fact, there’s only one title on this list not licensed or released in English yet.

I’d love to hear what your favorite series were this year – drop them in the comments!

Top 10 Yuri Series

I’m waffling like crazy in this section, so let’s start, as I often do…with a tie.

The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This / Catch These Hands

It was really nice to see Ikeda Takashi to return to Yuri with The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This, a realistic, yet whimsical, story about two complete goofballs. What puts this story over the top, for me, was moments in the art that were honestly breathtaking.

This story about two women trying to make it it their respective industries is touching, it’s laugh-out-loud funny, it’s embarrassing, it’s heart-warming. It’s also such a low-key series, I’m afraid it just isn’t getting the coverage it deserves, but it was – and is, and will be, a delightful not-typical Yuri series.

I absolutely adore Catch These Hands. Both this and Two of Them are goofy, interesting, alternate visions of adult life, beyond just another office story. Not everyone works in an office or becomes a mangaka. There’s all sorts of other ways to be dysfunctional. ^_^

I just love this look at women who hit their peak in the girl gangs of high school and are flailing a bit since. How do people find their interests, build a common experience and make room for “like” and “love” when all they have ever known is rivalry and competition? Takebe and Soramori have no idea, but they are gonna try and we’re gonna root for them the whole time. ^_^

Yuri is My Job

One of my favorite things about a good writer is their ability to create a premise that promises to be entertaining, then do something extra. In Yuri Is My Job, Miman reaches into the tropes of “S” for a silly, light-hearted romp. And it is very funny. …Then it gets serious and kind of touching. Now, it’s getting queerer and kind of adult and a little dark! I can’t even imagine where it’ll go next.  

The art is getting better and better…and in 2023, we’ll get an anime to remind us of the things that made us laugh in the early volumes (even as we chew our fingernails at the current volume….)

A Yuri concept cafe based on a light novel series that doesn’t exist? Exactly my kind of meta. ^_^

Amayo no Tsuki

I’ve been a huge fan of Kuzushiro’s work for ages and *finally* English-language manga publishing is catching up with me. Square Enix’s Manga-Up platform licensed Living With My Brother’s Wife, (a great series to read to watch her art improve, among other things) and even more exciting, Kodansha has licensed a manga that I genuinely think is outstanding for a number of reasons.

Amayo no Tsuki, licensed as The Moon on a Rainy Night is a gripping high school drama about a hard of hearing girl and the hearing girl that befriends and falls for, her. There are so many things I sincerely love about this story, including representation of both disability and queer life.

I’ve been reviewing Amayo no Tsuki here on Okazu since last spring – I cannot get enough of it and so look forward to when you can read this fantastic series!

Boyish² Butch x Butch Yuri Anthology

I loved everything about this crowd-funded manga anthology. I loved that I could enjoy a number of artists I already knew and learn some new names. I loved the art and the different approaches to the topic.

I loved that it was crowdfunded in Japanese and in English, proving the power of crowdfunding to reach across physical distances. And, honestly, I just loved the content.

Butch x Butch Yuri Anthology for the win and a great way to start last year! I’m hoping that 2023 will bring us more original, independent works by queer creators.

Hana Monogatari (はなものがたり)

schwinn’s characters are adorable, the story is gentle and poetic. This story of two older woman changing each other’s lives is quietly thrilling. We really feel how Hanako’s small life is opened up by a chance encounter, not just to a new love, but to a whole new view of the world.

The connection with Yoshiya Nobuko’s literary masterwork is absolutely part of the hook for me…as it is for the characters. This story ties past and present together in a way that I apparently longed for…and now I have it.

Of everything on this list this year, this is the only story without a license. It is a Kadokawa title, so we’ll have to convince Yen to license it, which might be an uphill battle, but not as hard as it would have been last year. We’ll circle back to this in a bit.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury

Even before we saw G-Witch, we knew that this was a ground-breaking series. For the first time in it’s more than 40 year history, the Gundam franchise had a female protagonist. Then we saw the first episode and you could hear the shouts.

The homage to Revolutionary Girl Utena is loving, but not confining. THIS is a textbook case study of how you how you expand an audience.  At no point have we felt that this series is doing Utena a disservice…nor is it disrespecting it’s own characters. Well, okay, we would have liked a dance, but we’ll take the L. ^_^

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury is doing it’s own Gundam-y things and bringing a whole new group of watchers into this beloved franchise. I’m not just watching a Gundam story – I’m enjoying it and looking forward to more. That deserves a mention on this list. ^_^

By Your Your Side

2022 was an one of the busiest years of my life. In the middle of all the many things of the year, there’s one accomplishment that stands out.  I’m thrilled that I managed (with so much help from so many people, thank you to my publisher, Journey Press – check out their other titles!) to put together the book I wanted to write, the way I wanted to write it. Even more wonderful, is the fact that so many people have bought and enjoyed it!

Because of the nature of awards and audiences and whatnot, the chance my book ever gets on anyone else’s best of lists is small, so I’m damn well going to blow my own horn. ^_^

I’m proud to have put down something that will allow Yuri students and researchers a starting point for their work. (Spoiler: I have a really exciting new piece of research I’m working on that I hope will offer another cite-able foundational work, check back in the new year.) Now it’s on all of you to continue the effort and send me all of your Yuri research. ^_^

Top 3 Yuri Series

There are probably no surprises here. If you’ve spoken with me, watched me do a presentation, or been within 100 meters of me in the real world, you have heard me talk – endlessly – about these three series. Let me be clear, this is a three-way tie, because every single one of these series was fantastic in every possible way.

I’m In Love With The Villainess

If I rented space out in my head, this series – and it’s spin-off, coming out next year in English – fill an awful lot of the floors. The characters develop in unexpected ways, the portrayal and discussion of life as a sexual and gender minorities is honest and empathetic. I cannot think of a series that has engaged me in this way since Maria-sama ga Miteru. Thankfully, both of I’m In Love With the Villainess‘s publishers, GL Bunko and Ichijinsha, are very responsive to the overseas audience which, btw,  inori-sensei credits as making this series as successful as it is.

Equally as important, Seven Seas has listened to us about how ground-breaking this series is, so we have  the light novels, the manga, the spin-off light novels, as do other out-of-Japan markets, for translations in (I believe) 10 different languages. I do wish we got more of the physical extras here in the west, too. I’m eating my heart out from jealousy of the Vietnamese releases.

From webnovel to light novel to manga…in 2023 to anime. inori-sensei, hanagata-sensei and Aonoshimo-sensei are living the dream. We’re alongside for the whole ride. inori-sensei’s story and characters have captured our hearts.  An openly queer protagonist, in a fantasy Yuri romance and we know she’ll get the girl. I can’t imagine any greater change from twenty years ago.

She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat

If I had to pick one word to describe this series, it would be remarkable.

Food and Yuri are my two favorite topics, so it was off to a good start – then it manifested qualities I long for in my Yuri, like women taking care of each other and creating a support network; women having conversations that feel real, discussion of systemic misogyny, women’s health, family trauma, lesbian identity and found family. THEN they made a fantastic live-action adaptation of this and didn’t lose any of those qualities. Outstanding. I am wholly in love with this series.

Yuzaki Sakaomi’s work is also a remarkable for what it isn’t as much as it is – this series has almost no serious conflict. Instead, it deals with small everyday life things in a wholesome and uplifting way. TsukuTabe, as it is referred to in Japan, is popular enough that the message is pretty clear  – we are ready to feel happy about our life choices.

A few years ago, I might have said that something like Hana Monogatari would have no chance of licensing, but with the popularity of She Loves to Cook, She Loves To Eat, we may genuinely have a chance.  Now we just have to convince Yen. ^_^ It’s time for Yuri to feel…good.

Birdie Wing

When people ask me about favorites, I always fail to respond coherently. However, at one presentation this year, I was asked two questions: What series was I most excited about watching and what was I looking forward to and the answer to both those questions was…Birdie Wing.

With roots in Yuri action series of the early 00s, and clearly made for an audience that was not us, Birdie Wing might very well be the anime I have waited for my entire life. The trailer for season two looks like they are just going to get even more Birdie Wing than the first season. In fact, I may start measuring other anime based on how amazing this one was. “Eh, it’s only 3 on a scale of Birdie Wing.” ^_^

I have been *begging* for a Yuri sports anime for years. With Birdie Wing, we got a sports anime with Yuri, that was about underground mafia golf and elite girls’ school sports clubs, with a banger opening theme and also, it was batshit and amazing.

Thank you Yuri gods for Birdie Wing. I feel blessed.

For the first time ever, we don’t have a single Best-of-the-Year series, we have three extraordinary, completely different series, for completely different reasons and there wasn’t a single one of them that was less good than the other two.

The Okazu Top Yuri this year were LGBTQ+ isekai fantasy I’m In Love With the Villainess, LGBTQ+ josei manga and live-action She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat, and wholly unrealistic fanatsy sports anime Birdie Wing.

An abundance of riches indeed.

As we head into 2023 we already have 2 second seasons, 3 confirmed and one potential Yuri anime before the year even begins. Next year is going to be off the charts for Yuri.

Here is to an amazing year for all of us!