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! ^_^)