Adventurers seek to take the demon queen’s head, but a love-struck young female mage wishes to take her hand. Join us won’t you, for this ba
In case you missed it, Mage and Demon Queen's final chapter just went up! This has been one of the most delightful fantasy stories I've ever read, and I encourage everyone to give it a look now that it's come to a close. Action! Adventure! Lesbians! Dumbasses! Too Gay To Function! What more could you ask for?
So, I’ve been reading a lot of yuri manga lately. Like, a lot of yuri manga. Outside of One Piece, yuri manga basically makes up my entire manga diet. And the thought occurred to me: if I’m reading this much yuri manga, and if I’m really loving a lot of them, why don’t I make a big-ass recommendation list so my followers can learn about some titles that might have slipped under their radar? Well, that’s just what I did. Here before you is a list of the best yuri manga I’ve read, the ones that made the biggest impression on me and have stuck with me the most. Give it a read and see if you pick up anything new for your reading list! I’ve also included each manga’s current chapter count, whether they’re finished or ongoing, and how much spice they have going on. It turns out, yuri manga can be veeeeeeeery sexual when it wants to be.
One last thing: don’t expect to see any of the big names on this list. You don’t need me to tell you to check out Bloom Into You, Kase-san, and Adachi and Shimamura. Those manga already have plenty of exposure, not to mention superb anime adaptations (though to be clear, those titles are all fantastic and you should absolutely read/watch them as well). This is a list of more obscure titles, stuff you probably haven’t heard about and likely won’t ever get an anime. I prefer anime over manga as a general rule, so if a manga seems bound to get an anime, I prefer to wait until the anime comes out and experience it in anime form. But I doubt any of these manga will ever get the silver screen treatment, which means it falls on me to be their hypeman. You probably haven’t heard of many of them, if any at all, but they absolutely deserve your attention just as much as the ones you have heard of. Give them a shot, and you might be surprised just how many of them steal your heart away.
A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow
On the one hand, I hesitate to list this as a yuri manga because it’s very much operating in the real of frustratingly ambiguous subtext. The main relationship between Konatsu, a girl who moves to a new town by the sea, and Koyuki, the girl who welcomes her to the school’s aquarium club, is deep and intimate and absolutely dripping with unspoken emotions, but the ultimate conclusion leaves it up for you to decide whether it’s simply a very close friendship or something more. If you prefer manga that are actually explicit about depicting WLW love, this might not be for you. On the other hand, if you don’t mind rolling with that ambiguity, I cannot recommend Tropical Fish highly enough. This is a beautiful coming of age tale, both in its serene artwork and the deep, aching sincerity of the emotions it explores. It’s a story about what it means to be alone, how to forge meaningful connections in a world where time is forever marching on, and the tragedy of knowing that nothing can last forever, but that’s no excuse not to hold fast to the things that matter most to you. There are moments in the back half of this manga that will absolutely fucking destroy you, in heartbreak and happiness alike. And it doesn’t need any huge displays of emotions to do it; all it needs is the quiet, understated agony of everyday life, how the most mundane moments can give way to the most overwhelming surges of feeling. It might require a decent set of yuri goggles to technically classify as yuri, but as long as you don’t mind that, it is absolutely worth checking out.
STATUS: Finished, 34 chapters
SPICE LEVEL: Wholesome as can be. Handholding is the lewdest it gets.
Bright and Cheery Amnesia
What happens when the love of your life gets amnesia in an accident and no longer remembers you? Well, in the case of Bright and Cheery Amnesia, that just means you get to fall in love all over again. This is pure fluff, following grown-ups Mari and Arisa as they reforge the relationship that memory loss took from them. Don’t expect much in the way of deep plot, complex characters, or even accurate portrayal of medical amnesia. Just get ready to put a big smile on your face as these adorable lovebird’s antics work their way into your heart.
STATUS: Finished, 69 chapters (nice)
SPICE LEVEL: Pretty high. Characters talk often about sex and do sexy acts to each other on a fairly regular basis, though there’s no explicit nudity.
Can’t Defy the Lonely Girl
So apparently, there’s a subgenre of yuri called “blackmail yuri” where one girl asks another girl for romantic/sexual favors in return for some kind of help. You’d think that would lead to nothing but trash, but to my surprise, that setup has served as the starting point for some of my favorite entries on this list. Case in point? Can’t Defy the Lonely Girl. Top student Ayaka is tasked with making her delinquent classmate Sora stop skipping school. Sora agrees, under one condition: for every day she comes to school, Ayaka must perform one favor Sora asks of her. And the first favor she asks for is a kiss! What follows is a short, streamlined, no-bullshit rollercoaster of a rom-com that spins a far more emotional story from that premise than you might expect at first glance. There’s some fantastic character work exploring the main leads and their various hang-ups, and their dynamic together is solid gold from the very first chapter. Add to that an equally fun supporting cast and a relationship that blossoms swiftly without feeling hurried, and you have yourself the perfect bite-sized treat. This one seems to be approaching its end, with the latest chapter reaching what feels like the story’s big climax, so there’s no better time to check this one out.
STATUS: Almost finished, 16 chapters currently
SPICE LEVEL: No sexual content.
Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon
Some of the yuri I read takes a decent chunk of chapters to get going. This one, in contrast, sunk its claws into me from the first moment and never let go. On the one side, there’s Hinako, a repressed lesbian who throws herself into makeup and fashion and romance with guys to try and turn herself into a “normal” woman, the failure of which only deepens her self-doubt and aching existential loneliness. On the other side, there’s her co-worker Asahi, a sensible woman who devotes so much of herself to taking care of her teenage sister that the thought of having a life for herself barely crosses her mind. When a chance encounter makes them take notice of each other for the first time, they begin to grow closer, first as friends, then increasingly as something more intimate... and more terrifying. This is a fantastic story about two lost souls finding their missing pieces in each other’s company, all the aching emotional serenity (and gorgeous artwork) of Tropical Fish with explicit romantic tension and a powerful focus on the societal pressures faced by women who don’t fit society’s standard of “normal.” It’s heartwarming, delightful, often devastating, at times breathtaking, and nothing short of remarkable at every turn. And considering it’s only just begun, there’s the potential for this to end up an all-time great, so consider checking it out now so you can say you were a fan before it was cool.
STATUS: Ongoing, 12 chapters currently
SPICE LEVEL: No sexual content.
Even if It Was Just Once, I Regret It
Another surprising triumph from the “blackmail yuri” genre, this time focused on adults. Chiyo has lost her job and retreated into a hikkikomori shell, and it’s not until her nineteen-year-old landlord Ritsuka bangs on her door that she realizes she’s desperately behind on rent. Ritsuka’s solution? They’ll live together- and have sex- until Chiyo’s able to get back on her feet. And yes, even with a premise as full of minefields as that, Ichi Dake Demo is an absolute delight. It dives headfirst into adorable character interactions and heavy emotional drama alike, mining real pathos from Chiyo’s depression, Ritsuka’s fear of emotional vulnerability, broader societal prejudice, and the strength it takes to rise above a rotten situation and forge a life worth living for. There are moments in this manga that took me by surprise in so many different ways, and by the time the climax rolled around, I was genuinely close to tears at points. This one’s really fucking good, y’all. So don’t mind the concerning premise and give it a shot; it might just surprise you like it surprised me.
STATUS: Finished, 19 chapters
SPICE LEVEL: High. Sex and nudity are both present in generous dollops.
Failed Princesses
Out of all the manga on this list, Failed Princesses probably took the longest to get its claws into me. The story of a shallow popular girl who suffers a bad breakup and finds solace in the quiet, bookish girl she once turned her nose up at takes a while to shake off the discomfort of feeling like these two just aren’t good for each other. Nanaki is deeply disrespectful of Kanade even after they begin to make nice, and it feels like the narrative is inadvertently embodying the exact kind of shallowness it’s trying to critique. But then around chapter 14, it finally starts leaning into the lesbian side of the equation, and I swear, the quality just fucking skyrockets. It turns out, Failed Princesses was way smarter than I gave it credit for, and it absolutely knew what it was doing with all those uncomfortable moments and ideas. This is a story of genuine transformation, where characters change so radically from the people they used to be that you almost don’t recognize them by the time it’s wrapping up, but every stage of that development makes sense and packs a real, affecting punch. From internalized homophobia to harmful beauty standards, from the bullshit power structure of high school cliques to the way women and girls of all walks of life are hurt by patriarchal expectations, this manga tackles so many weight subjects with precision, thoughtfulness, and above all else, impact. The final chapter is almost upon us, and the most recent developments had me practically shaking with emotions, so there’s no better time to get on board and experience this wild ride for yourself.
STATUS: Almost finished, 33 chapters currently
SPICE LEVEL: No sex or nudity.
Futaribeya
At first, you could be forgiven for thinking that the yuri tag on Futaribeya is misplaced. This manga starts out looking like any generic cute-girls 4-koma, centered on the wacky misadventures of two high school girls who share the same dorm room. Plenty of cute moments, to be sure, but nothing outside the realm of obvious shipteasing. That is, until Sakurano kisses Kasumi out of nowhere in a drunken haze, and that’s when the breaks truly come off. Futaribeya isn’t content to just stay in the never-ending high school bubble; it takes its characters through graduation, college, and even into the world of working adults, maintaining its 4-koma slice-of-life energy all the while but constantly pushing the status quo forward. New characters enter our protagonists’ lives and old characters leave it behind, relationships blossom and develop all around, simple fun-time hijinks start to share the space with deeper, more soul-searching episodes. And at the center of it all is Sakuranoa and Kasumi, two girls fumbling through their feelings in a space that isn’t quite romance yet but sure as hell can’t be classified as friendship. Not with all the kissing, hand-holding, declarations of love and casual intimacy that are springing up between them. This isn’t a manga to go to for rip-roaring romantic development; this is a slow-burn focused on individual snapshots of an expansive life that feels like it’s still only just begun. But if you’re in the mood for something as uniquely expansive as it is adorable, Futaribeya might be worth checking out.
STATUS: Ongoing, 68 chapters currently
SPICE LEVEL: No sex or nudity.
Hino-san no Baka
Score three for the blackmail yuri genre! This one is pure Cute Girls Doing Cute Things, centered on the titular delinquent slacker Hino-san and the goody two shoes Koguma whom she mercilessly teases in return for going to class. It’s not particularly deep or emotional, but my god is it entertaining. The core comedic loop of Hino getting Koguma all hot and bothered, only to reveal her actual request was something far less lewd than she made Koguma believe, makes for a constant stream of hilarious gags and adorable moments. There’s even some nice character development as the two start becoming more aware of how much they mean together and start becoming more honest with their feelings. It’s been running for a long time, but it’s still just as fresh, funny, and squee-inducing as when it started, if not more so. Check it out for a good time, no braincells required.
STATUS: Ongoing, 75 chapters currently
SPICE LEVEL: Surprisingly raunchy. Very little fanservice, but many bawdy gags and sexually charged situations, often with a great deal of embarrassment for poor Koguma.
How Do We Relationship?
Here’s one for the lovers of college romance in the audience. Shy introvert Miwa and loud extrovert Saeko are both lesbians who’ve struggled to accept their identities thanks to heteronormative pressure from all sides. When they meet in college, equally unlucky in love, Saeko suggests they just start dating each other, because hey, not like they’ve got many other options, right? But what starts as a relationship of convenience quickly blossoms into something much more genuine, and soon they both have to content with all the perils and pitfalls of navigating their first real romance, pressures exacerbated by the heteronormative bullshit that refuses to leave them the hell alone. It’s a refreshingly honest look at a lesbian relationship, documenting moments good and bad and everything in between with a frank refusal to shy away from the less pretty sides of love. It’s hilarious and hard-hitting in equal measure, and it’s very well worth your time.
STATUS: Ongoing, 28 chapters currently
SPICE LEVEL: Very high. Sex and nudity are frequent, explicit, and important factors in everyone’s character and development.
I Wanna Be Your Girl
Looking for a yuri that really dives headfirst into tackling the struggle for LGBTQ+ acceptance? Look no further than the story of childhood friends Hime and Akari. Hime’s nursed a crush on Akari pretty much since they met, and not even Akari coming out to her as a trans girl has changed that. But now that they’re in high school, Akari’s decided to take the huge step of living openly as a trans girl, and Hime’s determined to stick up for her friend no matter what prejudice or ignorance they face for it. But Hime’s got baggage of her own to work through, and she very quickly comes to realize how little she understands about what it means to be a good ally, especially when her own romantic feelings are a constant nagging presence in the back of her mind. I Wanna Be Your Girl pulls no punches, exploring heavy topics like transphobia, homophobia, harmful allyship, internalized LGBTQ+ self-loathing, the dehumanizing effect of gendered expectations for girls, and even acephobia. It’s rarely gentle and never compromises, but it wears its heart on its sleeve and always pushes forward towards acceptance and self-love, with kindness and compassion for the curable ignorance in all of us. It’s a hell of a read, and if you can handle the aforementioned content warnings, I highly recommend it.
STATUS: Finished, 50 chapters
SPICE LEVEL: No sexual content, but lots of heavy topics and emotionally taxing moments.
Mage and Demon Queen
Okay, I am absolutely cheating on this pick. I have mentioned M&DQ many times before on this blog, it’s one of the most popular comics currently on Webtoon, it’s already plenty well-known and beloved. But I don’t care, any chance I get to shill Mage and Demon Queen, I will shill Mage and Demon Queen. This isn’t just my favorite yuri manga (or Webtoon, I guess), this is my favorite manga period. At once a tooth-rottingly adorable fantasy rom-com between two disaster gays, a stirring fantasy epic set in the rare JRPG world that actually works as a setting, a deeply compelling character drama between two damaged people learning to be better, and a showcase of the best comedic sensibilities I’ve ever seen in the medium of manga, Mage and Demon Queen is an unqualified triumph on every front. It makes me laugh, it makes me cheer, it makes me squee, and it consistently delivers on a story that’s only getting bigger, better, and braver without ever losing the adorable yuri mushiness at its core. So please, I am begging you, read Mage and Demon Queen. It’s currently on break after the incredible season 2 climax, so this is the perfect time to catch up before season 3 starts up later this year. I promise, you won’t regret it for a second.
STATUS: Ongoing, 126 chapters currently
SPICE LEVEL: Some kinky stuff, but no sex or nudity.
Our Teachers are Dating
This one I don’t have much to say about: it’s just pure fluff and exactly what it says on the tin. Two lady teachers working at the same school fall in love, start dating, and their relationship is the most adorable thing ever. But just because I don’t have much to say about it doesn’t mean it’s not worth checking out. Trust me, it’ll put the biggest smile on your face.
STATUS: Finished, 24 chapters
SPICE LEVEL: Very high. Lots of (cute and fluffy) sex and nudity.
She is Also Cute Today
Welcome to the world of Chinese Manhwa! This is another story about a model student falling for a delinquent slacker who doesn’t fit in with their school’s model of success, albeit without the “blackmail” angle. It’s a very slow burn and takes its sweet time getting anywhere, but it’s packed full of hilarious, heartwarming moments, and it’s even setting up a MLM relationship on the side which promises to be just as adorable as the main ship. Also, the artwork is fucking beautiful and I want to swim in its color palette. Oh, and its reference game is second to none. I’m talking Jojo’s references that put all other Jojo’s references to shame here. Come expecting a good time and you won’t be disappointed.
STATUS: Ongoing, 84 chapters currently
SPICE LEVEL: Very wholesome, no sex or nudity.
Still Sick
This manga combines two of my favorite yuri tropes; working adults, and rediscovering your passion later in life. Office working Makoto writes yuri doujins as a side hobby, a secret she keeps from everyone until her fellow co-worked Maekawa stumbles across her at a con and reveals that she used to be a manga writer herself, before burnout and self-loathing forced her out of the profession. As their relationship develops, they push each other to recommit to the things they love, and watching them blossom together is nothing short of incredible. I also love how to explores the fandom side of yuri, and how many real WLW use yuri as a medium to explore their feelings and understand themselves a little better. It’s short, sweet, and absolutely delightful, so give it a look if you’ve got the time.
STATUS: Finished, 23 chapters.
SPICE LEVEL: Mild. Some steamy bits, but no sex or nudity.
The Two Sides of Seiyuu Radio
This one’s only just gotten started, but I think it has the potential to be something really special. On air, voice actors and radio personalities Yuugure and Utahani are best friends, two high school girls in the same class pursuing their dreams of becoming stars together. Off air, though, the real girls behind those personalities, loner Chika and gyaru Yumiko, are polar opposites that can’t stand each other’s guts. Their chemistry is electrifying; every sparring match and moment of connection hits like a lightning bolt. I could watch them talk about anything, butting heads and slowly coming to understand each other, and it would make for some of the most exciting conversation I’ve read in manga. Add to that some fantastic artwork, hilarious gags, an equally compelling supporting cast, and a fascinating look at the realities of entering the seiyuu industry in Japan, and you’ve got a recipe for one hell of an entertaining read. Climb aboard the bandwagon while it’s still fresh; something tells me this is gonna be one to remember.
STATUS: Ongoing, 8 chapters currently
SPICE LEVEL: Very mild. The most recent chapter has a bath scene, but there’s no sex or explicit nudity... yet.
Their Story (Tamen de Gushi)
If you check out one Chinese manhwa from my list, make it this one. Their Story is Kase-san of the Chinese yuri market, a story so simple and yet so instantly iconic it might as well be the mascot face for the entire damn genre. Sun Jing is reckless, athletic and feisty. Qui Tong is pretty, feminine and sweet. The first time they meet, Sun Jing falls and falls hard. Thus begins, as the title says, their story, as they grow closer together, work through their feelings, eventually make it official and begin to navigate life as a couple. What it lacks in originality, it makes up for in absolutely god-tier execution. There are so many moments from this manhwa that are permanently etched into my mind, whether adorable romantic chemistry or gut-busting comedy, and every chapter has at least one moment that leaves me giggling like an idiot for long after I finish reading. It’s not the best structured story ever, but as a collection of snapshots in the lives of these two girls and the many equally lovable dorks around them, it’s incredible, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
STATUS: Ongoing, 203 chapters currently
SPICE LEVEL: No sex or nudity.
Whisper Me a Love Song
What happens when you take the emotionally intense boy’s-love band show Given and turn it into a cute, fluffy yuri manga? You get Whisper Me a Love Song, and unsurprisingly, it’s pretty damn great. It’s a story of love at first sight between excitable high school freshman Himari and her cool senpai Yori, who gets roped into playing guitar for her friends’ band at the start-of-year talent show and absolutely sweeps Himari off her feet. The artwork is stunning, the romance is tooth-rottingly adorable, and the background plot of Yori discovering her love of songwriting makes for sequences of playing music that you can all but hear, they leap off the page so expressively. Whisper Me a Love Song is a manga that hits you with big, melodramatic emotions and nails them all with fist-pumping joy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up getting an anime of its own eventually. It's so vibrantly realized already that it might as well already have motion and sound. I had a fantastic time with it, and I suspect you will too.
If you’ve been following me for any decent amount of time, you probably know that I am not a fan (heh) of fanservice. Its presence is anime and manga is almost always my least favorite part of whatever work it’s in, and it often actively destroys my ability to enjoy an otherwise entertaining show. I can count on one hand the number of anime where I didn’t mind the fanservice, and in none of those cases was it actually positive, just neutral. And when it’s done especially poorly? Hoooooo boy, does it suck.
The thing is, I’m far from a prude or puritan. I’m not immune to the power of oversized anime tiddies. Hell, I probably read/watch more hentai than is healthy. Sex appeal on its own is just that, sex appeal. The problem is the specific ways that sex appeal is used and tropefied in anime. It’s voyeuristic, exploitative, unnecessary, disrespectful to characters and audience alike, and tonally dissonant with the story going on around it. And that’s even before you get to the really problematic shit. Sex and eroticism has its place in anime and media at large, but the way that anime uses it rarely ever rises above the level of gross, leering schlock.
Why bring all this up now?
Because I just figured out the one story I know where the fanservice is actually good.
Mage and Demon Queen is an immensely horny series. The female characters are all smokin’ hot babes with various degrees of revealing outfits (and heck, even the men are pretty studly). There are frequent sensual moments and erotic fantasies portrayed in glistening detail. Bawdy jokes and boob references are a regular occurrence. Hell, attraction to the female form is arguably the central driving force of the damn premise! This Webtoon is as lustful for sexy women as any bargain-big isekai harem, maybe even moreso. And yet, instead of feeling gross and off-putting, the fanservice actually adds to my enjoyment of the series.
Yes, it’s respectful and non-exploitative and treats its characters with respect and gives them sexual agency and all that good stuff, but that just explains why the sexy bits don’t make it worse. What makes this fanservice good, actually, is that it feels like an integral part of the characters, their personalities, and how they relate to each other. Mal and Vel’s romance, and plenty of other characters’ subplots, wouldn’t work nearly as well if it wasn’t so sensual, so intimate, so earnestly willing to depict physical attraction, all its beauty and hilarity in equal measure. It makes you laugh at their bawdiness, suck in breath at their tenderness, get wrapped up in the emotions surrounding every touch and caress and makeout session. The fanservice doesn’t just respect the characters, it makes them better, more developed characters. And it makes their stories better and more developed in turn.
(Probably has something to do with the fact it’s made by an actual sapphic lady and not a weird thirty-year-old man trying to appeal to thirteen-year-old boys’ libidos idk)
In other words, I now have yet another reason to demand you all read Mage and Demon Queen. Not only is it a fantastic fantasy comedy/drama with genuine worldbuilding and stakes amidst its adorable romantic shenanigans, it’s the rare anime-adjacent story that actually makes being sexy work in its favor instead of coming off as creepy. It just doesn’t miss, y’all.
I don't read that many, but one I absolutely recommend is Mage and Demon Queen. Equal parts bawdy comedy, adorable romance and genuine fantasy adventure, all of it done superbly. It's actually heading into its final stretch soon iirc, so now's a good time to get caught up!
