Archive for the Top Yuri Lists Category


Top Yuri Manga of 2016

December 29th, 2016

I started these lists because I’m very bad at recommendations, and while that has not changed, I do think it’s worth taking the time out every year to note the stories that surprised and pleased me over the course of year. If you have also enjoyed any of these in scanlation, please buy the original, even if you cannot read it. 2017 will present an extraordinary opportunity for you to get many of these in English, so there’s really no excuse! I know that Okazu readers are very likely to contribute to the Yuri ecosystem and for that, I thank you all. And, with that….Welcome to the Okazu Top Yuri Manga List for 2016! 

 

10. Mahou Josei Chimaka

There’s a number of reasons I wanted to put this graphic novel on the list. The first and most important reason was that it was good! I really enjoyed the storytelling and the characters. I love stories that take a look at after the story ends, and this story was that AND a fun magical woman story AND had a WoC lead AND was just generally cute as the proverbial button.  And it was from Sparkler Monthly, which is the one fully truly original English language women-focused comic and prose magazine. I cannot begin to tell you how important I think this magazine is.  Yes I can…I think it’s immensely important.  For all these reasons, Mahou Jose Chimaka makes my best-of list for the year. ^_^

 

9. 2DK, G Pen Mezamashitokei

I love this story. I want so badly to take Nanami out and have a good long talk with her. Sure I want her and Kaede happy together, but honestly, I don’t really care about Kaede, I want Nanami to be happy. 

I love Ohsawa Yayoi’s art, which has really leveled up. I love that it’s a story about adult women that has adult things like face soap and nice clothing and marketing promotions at work. 

Volume 2 made me think that I couldn’t wait to read Volume 3. And that’s why it’s on the list. ^_^

 

8. Hana to Hina ha Houkago

Morinaga Milk has had a rough couple of series. Trying so desperately to apply a “Yuri” formula to characters she should have felt free to just tell the right story for, is no fun. But it feels like she’s hit her stride again in Hana to Hina ha Houkago, with a cute, cherub-faced innocent and ever-so-slightly-more-worldly girl who loves girly things. It’s a formula she’s used before, but it’s working here. I’m enjoying this series and hope she’ll be allowed to, and want to do, something beyond another coming out drama.

Coming in 2017, we’ll all be able to enjoy this story in English with Hana and Hina After School. Volume 1 and Volume 2 are already up for pre-order!

 

7. Last Waltz

Katakura Ako’s art is a trainwreck and so was the story, but this highschool Jane Bond just really appealed to me.  Shinobu took everything annoying about the “nonverbal anti-hero” wrapped it up in a school uniform, her ‘M’ was everything annoying about every ‘M’ ever….and slathered in Yuri for no reason. I loved it.  

This is not even the only title on this year’s list that had no redeeming qualities. ^_^

 

6. Seesaw Game/Renai Log/ My First Lady

Takemiya Jin continues to be an absolute machine at putting out good-to-excellent Yuri. And I continue to enjoy the heck out of it. 

Her art has come a long way, her touch in storytelling is so deft that I’m probably holding her to higher standards than I have ever held anyone else. It’s not fair, but she’s just that good. It’s always a good year for Yuri when her work has to be this far down the list. ^_^

 

5. Yagate Kimi ni Naru

This is a manga that is on the list as much for the splash it made, both here and in Japan, as it is for my reaction to it. The formula was typical…and not typical at the same time. The story is playing with the audience, making us dance to it’s tune, rather than rushing forward into the most obvious ending.

The art is clean, the characters have depth and you’ll be able to start the new year off with the first volume of this series in English, from Seven Seas as Bloom Into You, Volume 1.

 

4. Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo 

Another series on the list that is here as much for General Effect as it is for anything else.  While the world may not have needed another all-Yuri couple school, Canno has included some slightly-less typical stories and created characters that exceeded their initial boundaries. I’m also just really glad that Canno’s got a breakout hit. Every artist ought to have at least one series that catches the Zetigest.  

And, again, you can celebrate 2017 with the first volume of the English–language release of Cannos’ series, Kiss and White Lily for my Dearest Girl.

 

Which brings us to my Top 3 manga for the year. The shuffling around on this list has been shell-game worthy, but these are the three that landed on the top. ^_^

 
3. Murcielago

I warned you that Last Waltz wasn’t the only manga on the list that had no redeeming qualities, so you should have, honestly, expected this one. ^_^

Murcielago is ugly, it’s violent, the sex is nasty, the characters are cracked. The plots are absurd strings of ways to kill and dismember people and the dialogue is absurd. When it hits low points, it gets really low. Lower than Weather Woman low.

High points include creative ways for horrible people to die, consensual lesbian sex and perfectly matched psychopaths fighting.

And! You too can read this “violence Yuri manga” in English in 2017 from Yen Press (I like to pretend I don’t know why) as Murciélago, Vol. 1. Isn’t that amazing and cool? I certainly think so!

With so many of these titles coming out in English next year, it’s a fair bet you’ll see some back on the list next year. ^_^

2. Comic Yuri Hime Renewal

I’m not going to lie here. I was on absolute pins and needles about the January 2017 issue of Comic Yuri Hime, especially after Ichijinsha was bought by Kodansha. I was worried for a lot of reasons. Comic Yuri Hime had just gone through a cover series of extreme moe-blob faced covers, and a cover “story” which had me stabbing my eyes out with boredom and disgust.

There were, still, artists I liked, but how long would they be allowed to remain…and most of all, would we get anything ever again that was even remotely original? I don’t hate school girls, I just wanted a frikkin’ story that isn’t the same exact thing over and over. 

While Comic Yuri Hime is not (and never can be, if it is to survive,) perfect, I was super pleased to see some genuinely original stories and new artists who didn’t need to retread the same old stories. Kind of out of relief, but also because I was so genuinely pleased at the direction the magazine is taking, the Comic Yuri Hime renewal is number 2 on the list!

No drumrolls, no cutesy leadups. This year my top Yuri Manga is….

 

1. Collectors, Volume 2

This manga has everything I’ve ever wanted in a manga. Adult women in a commited relationship, with lives and friends and family and snark and romance….

Shinobu collects books and Takako collects clothes and they love each other very much, even if they’ll never understand the other’s obsession. 

Nishi UKO’s art is slick and adult and beautiful and I physically relax everytime I look at it. Collectors is everything a Yuri manga could be if it was ever allowed to grow up.

 

My Top Yuri Manga for 2016 is, once again, Nishi UKO’s Collectors.

One more list to go…!





Top Yuri Anime of 2016

December 28th, 2016

When I say that I could not have written this list without you, my dear readers, I am not being hyperbolic in the slightest. If it hadn’t been for your guest posts and suggestions on Twitter, this list would have been three series – and two of them would have been Sailor Moon. ^_^ So, thanks to everyone who helped! As always, please feel free to disagree by posting your choices for Top Ten in the comments.

 

10. Any series you think ought to be on this list

I’m weaseling out on the first item, because being told by some random person that a series is Yuri is, for me, not quite sufficient to get on a Top Ten, but I also strongly believe that fanon has a very important place in a healthy fandom. Ultimately Yuri is the one genre that, by it’s heterogeneous nature, is defined by fan perception. Therefore, insert whatever series you think ought to have been here. ^_^

 

Tied for 8. Izetta, The Last Witch and Harmony

These series had enough Yuri (or Yuri service) to get mentions this year. Whether you see them as “Yuri” or akogare or loyalty or friendship is entirely up to you.  

Izetta The Last Witch is available on Crunchyroll, Harmony is available on Amazon Video or DVD/Blu-ray combo from Funimation. 

 

7. Riddle Story of Devil

This series is more “Yuri because they said so” than substantively Yuri, but there is one canon couple a priori and another by the end. It wasn’t as good as I hoped nor was it as bad as I feared. I have yet to watch Funimation’s home video release, but I am looking forward to refreshing myself on the series. ^_^

Riddle Story of a Devil is available on Crunchyroll and on DVD from Funimation.

 

6. MAGICAL GIRL RAISING PROJECT

Sister Nana and Winterprison  are a canonical couple. That their story is not a happy one puts it towards the bottom of the list. So if you’re using this list to find cool anime to watch, do be warned. Nonetheless, one of the signs of a mature genre is when not all the endings are happy. (But, yeah, ugh.) If anyone is interested in reviewing this series for us here, do let me know!

Magical Raising Project is available on Crunchyroll 

 

5. Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon 

This entry is on the list entirely because of the strong case for Yuri made by Mariko S in her Guest Review for Okazu.  Like so many series that include Yuri as a plot element, it’s as much service as Yuri, but canonically lesbian characters is pretty acceptable. 

Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon is available on Crunchyroll. 

 

4. Flip Flappers

Again, a series appears on this list not because of my opinion, but someone (in fact multiple someones) else’s opinion.  Miles Thomas is not alone in reading this series as a queer narrative. I’m almost moved enough by the passionate defense of this series to give it a try myself. Again, if you’ve watched and would like to write a guest review, do contact me!

Flip Flappers is available on Crunchyroll.

 

Okay, here we are at my top three of the year, and none of these are likely to surprise anyone, although undoubtedly, there’ll be some eyerolling. ^_^

My Top 3 Yuri Anime of  2016….

 

3. Sailor Moon Crystal, Season 3

This was the manga come to life. This was the Haruka and Michiru Takeuchi Naoko wanted us to see in the first place. This was the tender embrace and touch of two young women with no one except each other to rely on. 

I hope you’ll understand all the many “whys” that, for me make this series my third best Yuri anime of the year.

Sailor Moon Crystal, Season 3 is available on Crunchyroll, on Viz’ website (and it will become available on DVD and Blu-ray, eventually.) 

 

 

 

 
2. Yuri Kuma Arashi

Talk about a big old “duh.” By it’s nature, Yuri Kuma Arashi has to be on the list, doesn’t it? Even though it’s more like a game of Madlibs or Cards for Humanity than a story, this anime has something I’d long wanted to see – Morishima Akiko’s characters come to life.  

The story is indubitably Yuri, as is the ending, and all the middle bits and the empty spaces between – there’s pretty much never going to be a series that is more “Yuri” than this one, to the point of obsession and beyond. 

In 2016, it was released in English by Funimation, which makes it totally worth a rewatch! Yuri Kuma Arashi is available on Crunchyroll or in DVD/ Blu-ray combo pack from Funimation.

 

 

Here we go, my number one anime title of the year is…

 

1. Sailor Moon S 

I’ve been writing Okazu for almost 15 years now and obsessing about Yuri for longer than that. And through all those years, the Queens of Yuri have been – and always will be – Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, struggling to live…and to die…together. They are the reason I am here, and the reason so many of you are, as well. 

Sailor Moon S is available streaming on Viz’s website and on DVD/Blu-ray combo from Viz Media.

If Haruka and Michiru make an appearance in any given year on Okazu, they are always going to win by default.

And so they do, this year, where my Top Yuri Anime for 2016 (and for now and forever) is Sailor Moon S.

 





Top Yuri of 2015

December 31st, 2015

Here we are on the last day of 2015, a year that brought many wonderful things and many difficult things to all of us. I love taking the time to remember some of the wonderful things over the last year, it’s good for anything that might be left of my soul. ^_^

As always, I remind you that this list is my opinion and you are not expected to agree nor do I care if you don’t. ^_^ As long as you’re reasonably civil, please consider yourself welcome to add anything you found notable in 2015 in the comments!

 

615EVWBRbLL-212x30010 – Hayate x Blade

There has been so much amazing Yuri in the past years that I often don’t have room on this list for what is the candidate for my favorite ongoing manga series. It’s not really Yuri, except for Jun being a pervy lesbian, but it fully inhabits all the possible tropes around Yuri and sometimes creates new tropes just to have more ways to pair characters up in our heads.

This year saw the third volume of the 2nd series, for a total of 21 volumes of blood, guts and tear-filled action and comedy and I think it deserves a place on my Top list, because it makes me so damn happy every month to read it.

 

smcall9 – Sailor Moon Crystal and Sailor Moon

Look, I know I go on and on (and on and on) about this series. I know, really, that it’s not really good, per se, it’s just the thing that got me into anime and Yuri, so it has an important place in my heart and on this blog.

I’m probably alone in this, but I enjoyed Sailor Moon Crystal for exactly what it was – an animated version of the manga, with all the weaknesses and the few strengths of the manga. I’m excited for the third season, even though we’re not getting the Haruka and Michiru we want, we’re getting a slightly different version of them from the one we already know and love to learn to love all over again. And, at the end of the day, we can always go back to Sailor Moon S (and finally, Stars) and see them as we remember them.

I love this stupid, crappy series and am very excited to have been able to be excited all over again about it in 2015. ^_^

 

DnBgLdK8 – LGBTQ Comic Essays

As I look over my past couple of years, I see more and more comic essays popping up in these reviews. I’ve talked about the importance of these multiple times, but it bears repeating – these essays by the likes of  Koyuki Higashi and Masaharu Hiroko, Makimura Asako, Nakamura Kiyo and others are critical to the surfacing of real lesbians living real lives in Japan. I can’t get enough of these and hope to see many more in 2016!

 

yurikuma7 – Yuri Kuma Arashi

This was not the anime I wanted, but it was Ikuhara Kunihiko animating Morishima Akiko’s character designs which counts for a lot with me. And it had an Evil Psycho Lesbian in Yurika whom I will treasure and adore for many years to come.

 

 

torikaebaya46 – Torikaebaya

There is so much more very good LGBTQ fiction in manga these days. Stories like Otouto no Otto, or Hourou Musuko/Wandering Son have made massive inroads into manga representation for LGBTQ folks (which is partly why the resistance in anime to be anything but infantile these days is more than a little frustrating.) But along with these very excellent stories, there is a classic of Japanse literature that really needs to be looked at and taken seriously. Saito Chiho’s absolutely gorgeous version of the Torikaebaya has got to be on modern classic lists. This story is an actual Japanese classic, and Saito-sensei’s take on it is modern without being preachy or unrealistic. I’d really like more people to be able to read this manga. It’s not easy but it is worth every moment spent with it.

 

DearBrother25 – Dear Brother

If Torikaebaya is a perfect example of beautiful classic melodrama, then Dear Brother is the modern equivalent. It oozed melodrama from every pore, and as ridiculous as it sometimes was, it was always magnificent. I am beyond glad to have seen it distibuted legally on streaming and disk and will recommend it to anyone who wants a glimpse of anime in the time before moe ruled.

 

 

 

51uHW8gLLYL._SL500_AA300_4 – Omoi no Kakera 

If there is one single problem with Yuri it is that most creators do not provide the characters with society. You get two characters in love with one another, without connection to an outside world, apparently uninterested, unaware or incapable of learning about a larger lesbian community.

This is a mistake that Takemiya Jin never makes. Her characters know they are gay. They know what that means, they talk with other people about it. They have slang and peers and books and the Internet and brain cells where they work out their own paticular issues as individuals who are part of a larger world.

I cannot begin to tell you how refreshing it is to see Takako counseling Mika, and Mika explaining how things work to Mayu. There is community, there is continuity, there is knowledge about gayness as a human experience. Phew. For these touches, once again a work by Takemiya-sensei makes my Top Ten list! (She’s been on here so often, I oughta open up a wing special for her. ^_^)

 

Subscribeeps3 – Okazu Guest Reviewers, Readers and Patrons

Every year I thank you, but it can never be enough.

Thank you for reading my posts, for commenting on them, for writing in with opinions and ideas and disagreements and for never being disagreeable. Special heartfelt thanks to my Patrons who have allowed me to do so much in 2015 and with whose help I have amazing things planned for 2016! (Keep your eyes peeled for a new campaign in the coming year.)

Thank you to my Guest Reviewers – so many of you become friends as you help me build Okazu and expand its reach and scope.

Thanks to every last one of you, you are all an important part of the Okazu family!

 

 

ww312 – Whispered Words in English from One Peace Books

I can’t overestimate the importance of this book. The series itself was a delight and for that I’m super glad we got it here. You finally got to see the ending we always wanted for a school life Yuri romance. But for me, more importantly, this book saw the entrance of One Peace Books – a publisher who values the readers here at Okazu. We appreciate this and appreciate their ongoing efforts!

For  a great series, all the Yuri tropes all at once with a great ending, Whispered Words makes number 2 on this year’s list. It might have made number one, except for one little thing…

 

 

tys1 – Same-sex Marriage

There is something so much more important to me than even the best Yuri manga. If you pay attention to my reviews, you’ll see that I reward realism every time. Not because I dislike fantasy, but because the power of realistic representation can never be overstated. In 2015 two reasonably amazing things happened. In one, every single same-sex couple in the United States was given the right to be married if they wanted – to have their relationships recognized by their city, their state and their federal government.  The USA was not the first country to do so, obviously, but let’s be honest about the effect this decision had. It was big.

And in the way that decision was big, the decision to offer same-sex marriage certificates in Shibuya was small. A teeny-weeny first baby step only. And then Setagaya Ward took anothet teeny-weeny step by joining Shibuya. There are 23 wards of Tokyo, of these only 2 have these certificates. Then Takarazuka city in Hyogo prefecture took that same baby step. And Iga, in Mie prefecture. And so the baby steps are taken, one at a time. The baby steps grow to big steps. It works like this with humans, We fear what we don’t know, what “they” are doing, but the more familiar with it, the less fearful we become. And so, I end this year’s top list with the recognition that same-sex marriage has come to the USA, and a hope for all my friends in Japan that they will see it soon there.

Again, thank you for an amazing year and here’s to an even better 2016!





Top Yuri Manga of 2015

December 29th, 2015

And here we are at the second of our three Top Lists of the year. Once again, I break all the rules because, duh, they are my rules and I get to do that! ^_^ Objectively speaking, there’s no *way* anyone should use this list as a list of recommendations for anyone else other than me.

Strap yourselves in and get ready to disagree in the comments!

10 – Otouto no Otto

Yes, number 10 on my top Yuri manga list is not a Yuri manga. ^_^ It is, however, one of the most important LGBTQ manga published in Japan in 2015. In this manga, creator Tagame Gengoroh sheds every single trope for a pared down, crushingly beautiful and realistic look at a gay man visiting his dead husband’s hometown. This story runs in a mainstream men’s manga magazine and I desperately hope it paves the way for more realistic LGBTQ manga fiction in the future.

 

CYH0915-275x392-210x3009 – Comic Yuri Hime, Rakuen Le Paradis, Comic Cune, Comic High and all the Mangatime Kirara magazines

Let’s face it, if it weren’t for these magazines which run Yuri manga, we wouldn’t have much Yuri manga. The fact that we can actually go to something like Bookwalker Global and click on “Yuri” as a category is because magazines like these, imperfect as they are, are supporting and investing in Yuri artists and in the end, that kind of financial support is what Yuri needs. So I’ll keep buying them, and once again, want to thank these folks for their investment.

 

murcielago1-212x3008 – MURCIÉLAGO

I am pretty confident that no one else but me would put this ugly, violent piece of utter crap on a Top List, but that’s okay. I actually look forward to getting new volumes of this particular piece of crap. It has no redeeming qualities, it just happens to hit my soft spots for psychotic violent lesbians. This is not a recommendation for you to read this, just recognition that I do.

 

 

Freya_2015-239x3007 – Comic Anthologies (Mebae, Yu-Ribon, Freya Anthology, Valor, Beyond, Dates  and others)

Anthologies are the best and worst of everything all at once. They are frustrating, when the stories rely on old, tired tropes, they are delightful when they do something never seen before.

On days I am despairing at the future of Yuri, I remind myself that while publishers in Japan may be relying on the tried and true to sell to the same people, crowdfunding allows us to push the boundaries of what we think of as “Yuri” all the time. And when a story in anthology is outstanding, it gives one hope for not only the future of comics, or of Yuri, but for humanity.

 

specialiono1-e14357088049006 – Iono The Fanatics

Iono-sama is the exact opposite of Kumomori Kuroko, except for the lesbian part, but what this series lacks in violence and psychosis, it makes up for in sugary sweet and cool. I adore Flèche and Arata’s romance, silly as it is, and I find the clothing design and set pieces of the auditions amusing and comfortable. It was nice to get a perfect edition of this Yuri classic, complete with new Drama CDs, thus scratching another of my itches. All around a good thing and a series I would love to see more of, even if it was really all just the same thing over and over. ^_^

 

airabuyuu5 – Ai Rabu Yuu Yori Aishiteru

Sometimes a story hits me more after I have read it than while actually reading it. (Quote often, in fact.) For whatever reason, this story struck me as cute when I read it, but as I thought about it, it grew on me.

As I think about it, it comes down to one thing – the characters’ honesty. They talk about their feelings, and don’t let them fester. Kazumi, particularly, seems to be unusually honest and upfront about her feelings. The lack of drama plus the honesty combined to make this one of my top reads in 2015.

 

golondrina4 – Golondrina

This manga just completely flew under most reviewer’s radar. In Japanese, by est em, but not BL, it was beautiful and brutal. Chika was a very real protagonist, even if there were times you couldn’t like her, per se. From beginning to end, she’s a lesbian and in the end that is the thing that helps her find herself as she finally becomes La Golondrina. I really loved this series and was terribly sorry to see it end. But there is no doubt in my mind that it belongs on this list.

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Taking a moment for a deep breath, here, at last, after much consideration is my Top 3 Yuri Manga of the Year!

 

51uHW8gLLYL._SL500_AA300_3 – Omoi no Kakera and Love Desu

Another series that I’m sad to see go, but I’m very glad was created at all, Omoi no Kakera started in one place and ended somewhere completely different. Throughout, it introduced all sorts of excitingly real things from actual lesbian and gay life and threw in a couple of tropey side stories for good measure. I looked forward to this every chapter and knew the moment I put it down that it would be here in the top three for the year. Takemiya Jin’s work is always exceptional.

lovedesu-213x300When I reviewed Kuzushiro’s Love Desu, I began “At last, a Yuri manga that was written for me! I do not care if nobody else on the whole planet enjoyed this book, because I loved it.” And yes, that’s pretty much exactly how I feel about it. ^_^ I enjoyed the violence, the emotional torment, expressed through stabbing and shooting and the tender moments as they laid there bleeding and arguing over who would be uke. This was my kind of Yuri. ^_^

 

 

mangade2 -Non-fiction Lesbian Comics

I mentioned these last year and will continue to mention these until everyone knows how amazing this new trend is. Where Otouto no Otto is opening up new avenues for gay fiction manga, lesbian manga has blossomed into a whole new nonfiction path. Stories like Manga de Tsuzuru Yurina Hibi, Doukyonin no Bishoujo ga Lesbian Datta Ken and the brand new autobiographical comic essay by Nakamura Ching, Okaasan Futari itemoii kana? all tell real stories of real people, living as lesbians, loving and building relationships and families. I honestly can’t get enough of these. I think they are the most important thing to happen to manga in years.

 

Finally…we come to our Number one Yuri manga of 2015! Have you guessed?

 

ww311 – Whispered Words

This surprising series came to a close this year breaking ground for a new publisher among our ranks and giving us the ending we’d always wanted – not just happily ever after, but happily accepted by peers right now.

It was a comedy, it was a tragedy, it made us uncomfortable and almost without anyone noticing, it was one of the few Yuri manga in which the characters came out to their friends and family and everyone loved them anyway.  It was a hell of a series, and I am utterly thankful to One Peace Books for bringing this out in English so everyone can enjoy it. I know I certainly did.

My number one Yuri Manga of 2015 is Whispered Words, the English edition of Sasamekikoto, by Ikeda Takashi.





Top Yuri Anime of 2015

December 28th, 2015

Of everything I do here on Okazu, this list is always the hardest. Even when there is so much amazing stuff I can barely contain myself, it’s hard. On years where there was very little of note, it’s almost impossible.

I’ve commented over the years that Yuri anime is cyclical. We get a lot….then we get none. Then we get a lot….then we get none. This was one of those “none” years. And like most “none” years, we still got some. ^_^

As always, these are my opinions, you’re never obliged to agree and you are most welcome to tell us your Top Yuri Anime in the comments!

YRYRSH5 – Yuru Yuri

I know you know I’m not a fan. For one thing, there’s very little Yuri in this series, mostly in the form of set-ups for fans to pair characters, not any actual mutual feelings between two characters.  But this series is appealing to some number of fans, and clearly to the folks at Ichijinsha, so they keep throwing money at it.

2015 included OVAs that received theater releases in Japan and a third season of anime. I think it deserves a little recognition for that, don’t you? Here’s a little recognition.

Yuru Yuri is streaming on Crunchyroll.

sound4 – Sound Euphonium, Sabagebu and anything else you watched, not explicitly named here, that had a little bit of Yuri.

Yuri as a character trait, or a fetish or an add-on is still plenty common in anime. As anime, specifically, becomes more and more a media for easily influenced lonely guys, there is never a real lack of characters with vastly overstated crushes. Some of these are very good, others are bad, but it’s worth noting them and thanking them for dribbling little crumbs of Yuri on our plates. ^_^

Sound! Euphonium and Sabagebu are streaming on Crunchyroll.

pp3 – Psycho-Pass 2

The lesbians got to have sex and not die…again. Achievement unlocked!

You can watch Psycho-Pass on Hulu, or buy it on BD/DVD from Funimation in 2016.

 

hqdefault2 – Dear Brother and Sailor Moon ‘S’

I watched every last, miserable fucking second of Dear Brother with a HUGE grin on my face (except for when I was sobbing into a handkerchief.) It was, it is and it always will be an awesome story, with amazing characters, a pile of Yuri and one of the most tragic loves ever.

Sailor Moon S is currently streaming and I’m avoiding it like the plague until the BD/DVD disks come out, because I don’t want to touch anything and ruin it. But the episodes sit there, in their oh-so-very gay glory and taunt me. So very, very gay. Squee. Next year this goes up to Number 1 unless we get something amazing. Gosh I hope we get something amazing!

Dear Brother is still available streaming on Viki.com and Sailor Moon can be watched on Viz’s Neon Alley, with BD/DVDs coming for the third season in 2016.

232b78a7e4e10c28f9fcd2bb74b8b22a1420158390_full1 – Yuri Kuma Arashi

To be honest, this series had no competition at all this year. It was the only actually Yuri anime made.

Yes, it exploited that with a surreal glee, slapping the word “Yuri” on everything until it made no sense, and it was pandery and kinda creepy and did I mention it made no sense, but who are we to complain? Not me certainly, because above all other things, we got an awesome Evil Psycho Lesbian, we got to watch Ikuhara Kunihiko publicly flail with an obvious love/hate thing for Yuri and we got to see Morishima Akiko’s character designs animated and streaming on Hulu.com. There really was never a question about the number one on this list this year.

The Top Yuri Anime for 2015 is Yuri Kuma Arashi.