Inexplicably, as I began to type this, the first few words of the song “My Way” popped into my head. ^_^ This list is definitely not a song of the end, it’s a paean to some simply fantastic work that has been done in the past year and a joyful prayer, if you will, for the future.

This final Okazu list of the year is, traditionally, a nod of thanks to the people, companies, trends of note and series that stood out in 2018 above all the rest.

I don’t want for much. I just wanted Yuri to be recognized as a legitimate genre of its own (check) and be a big enough umbrella to be applied to actual stories of queer experience (check) by queer creators (check) as well as all the fetishy crap people seem to like. ^_^ I wanted stories about adult women as well as girls in school. This year, I have gotten all this and so much more….

…so I will begin this year’s list with a complaint. ^_^

Where is my Sports Yuri?!?

As I have said repeatedly, 2018 has been a remarkable year for Yuri. How could I possibly want anything more? 

I want a sports Yuri series. A several-volume, honest-to-god sports rivalry + Yuri series. I’m still vexed that ice skating is out of the question, because that would have been perfect. (-_-) 2019, I’m looking at you because this gap is just intolerable. We have horror Yuri, and idol Yuri and literary Yuri. I really want a sports Yuri. Or military. That would be okay too.  ^_^

Yuri Publishers US & JP

I want to start off with a moment to thank the folks who put Yuri on our table and this year, we’ve got more and more companies who are adding to the pile. I actually cannot thank all the JP publishers this year, the list would be nearly endless. But I can thank a few key players who have done so much: Galette Works, Ichijinsha, East Press and Kadokawa/ ASCII Mediaworks have all contributed some of our favorite manga of the year by some of our favorite creators in Japan.

In the West, we can thank Viz Media, Yen Press, Kodansha Comics and a very serious shout-out of thanks to Seven Seas, which has made a significant investment into queer manga. Thank you all. (Fingers crossed we can add Denpa Books here next year.)

LGBTQ Manga

Which brings me to the first major shift we have recently seen in manga. It didn’t begin in 2018, we just saw more of it ever before. (And, I predict that in the near future we will be seeing more.) One does not need to be a queer creator to create queer manga, but, to be reductive about, it helps. More Yuri manga artists are more out, and the manga we’re seeing – even if it is not lesbian-identified – is queerer than ever. This year, we saw lesbians in our Yuri. And it was good.

American Kids Cartoons

Let’s all give a rousing cheer for the state of children’s cartoons in 2018!

Adventure Time gave us the happy ending we wanted for Marceline and Princess Bubblegum and normally, that final wave of the hands might be all we could expect, but no. 2018 gave us She-Ra and the Princess of Power with subtext aplenty between Catra and Adora, and in previous years, we would have been happy. But…not in 2018. In 2018, She-Ra also introduced itself with an established lesbian couple.  And 2018 gave us Steven Universe with Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding on network TV. A marriage between two female-identified characters in prime time in a cartoon for children.  Beat that, 2019!

Yuri Network

Every year you make this list and every year, I get misty about it. You, my Okazu readers, reviewers, commenters and patrons, you make this worth doing. One of the great joys of having done this for so long is having been able to meet and speak with so many of you. 

So thank you for reading these posts, joining me at events, listening to the podcasts, writing guest reviews, chatting with me online, correcting me when I get things wrong and generally making the Yuri Network the best community in the world. You are always one of the Top Yuri things of the year.

Adult Yuri

2018 is the year the Yuri world realized that lesbians don’t die after they gradate from high school, and they don’t just become straight and live happily ever after. ^_^ This year we saw the proliferation of office romance, and adult Yuri stories in both anthologies and magazines. 

Which leads me to…

2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei/ Bloom Into You

In 2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei Nanami wasn’t ever straight, she just hadn’t ever figured it out until Aoi pointed out the obvious.  And then, we’re told that Nanami, before we met her, had gone out with women. This is important – not in a “aha! gotcha” kind of way but in a very 21st century way in which we as a species are starting to realize that sexuality and gender just aren’t at all what we thought they were. I’m going to just assume most people are “*.*sexual” and then let the story play out. In Nanami’s case the story was, in part, her coming to terms with what everyone around her could see (aka, the glass closet.)

Why is this important? Because in Bloom Into You Sayaka gets an adult lesbian role model. These two things are related; this is the year Yuri creators started feeling more comfortable portraying adult women who are queer (in the broadest sense) in Yuri. Also, young women.  Of all the characters in all of anime, the novel Yagate Kimi ni Naru: Regarding Saeki Sayaka is the closest thing we have ever seen to a coming out narrative.

This kind of thing is a tectonic shift. It will keep changing the landscape…watch this space. I predict 2019 we’ll see even more of this  nonspecific queerness. (And I will let go some of my need for specific queerness.)

Shimanami Tasogare

Case in point!  This series was painful in a lot of ways, and beautiful in a lot of ways and so very real. I have always been convinced that every queer kid needed a gay auntie to guide them and this series (and My Brother’s Husband, and Bloom Into You, as far as it goes) makes the point very well.

Adult lesbians in manga. FTW.  I love the idea that we’re seeing queer adults who can provide positive role models for young queer folks more than just about anything I have seen in years. 

Galette

I long wondered what it might look like for Yuri if Yuri artists just, y’know, did their own magazine, without having to appeal to some editor’s personal preferences, disguised as Market Forces. Galette marks it’s second year –  it is just so damn beautiful. I love the aesthetic of the whole thing.  I love that they have already expanded their reach with their own doujinshi Galette Meets. I love the fact that this is crowdfunded, and one of our Okazu goals for next year is to up our support of this magnificent beauty of a magazine. I’m always excited about the next issue and the next and hope like heck to see it grow Yuri in new and exciting ways. Galette remains one of the top Yuri things of the year.

Which brings us to our number one Yuri anything of the year. No one  can possibly be surprised about this. 

Asagao to Kase-san OVA

There is no more emblematic series for Yuri this year than this one. Shinshokan’s magazine Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari went out of print in 2014, but this series kept on going. In 2017, that seed bloomed as one of the most delightful marketing tests, the Asagao to Kase-san animation clip. Pony Canyon put a lot of love and humanity into that clip and it showed…and it worked! Takashima Hiromi’s series was born again, moving into Wings magazine as the characters were able to move out of high school. It lacks adult role models (although I wonder about that gym teacher) but there’s still time.

Everything about the Asagao to Kase-san OVA was lovingly handled. Animation, storytelling, music, voice acting…everything was so intentional. We learned through the interviews and presentations at conventions, that they really thought all of this through. The end result is a story that works well beyond the tropes of “Yuri” and, while it had neither lesbian identity nor adult role models, it was one of the most realistic lesbian romance stories I’ve ever seen.

As soon as I saw this OVA, I knew that it was the benchmark for Yuri this year. Thank you Zexcs, Shinshokan, Pony Canyon and congratulations and thank you to Takashima Hiromi-sensei for your efforts on our behalf.

Asagao to Kase-san OVA was the Top Yuri of 2018.

“And now the end is near…”   This year on Okazu we had 8 event reports, 11 Guest Reviews, 2 essays and 279 posts!  For Yuri fans, the end  of this year is a moment before an even more amazing year to come. 

Here’s wishing you all a very happy, healthy and wonderful New Year. And here’s hoping us all a 2019 full of terrific Yuri!