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! ^_^)