All the Yuri you could ever want (and more!)

Please check the "Getting Started" section (or search for the "#getting started" tag if on mobile) to be briefed on how this blog funcions. Dedicated to finding, reviewing, categorizing, and promoting all the best yuri shows. This blog is for those looking to get into the genre as a whole, or who want recommendations for shows in particular subgenres. 

[yurirecommendations]

Updates

School has been really busy, and I’ve slowly been chugging through mangas for existing series on this blog. However, I do have a few breaks from school coming up soon, so hopefully I can do some catching up on those then!!

(Basically, this blog isn’t dead, just resting...)

[yurirecommendations]

Anime recommendation: Princess Principal. Its about lesbian spies in steampunk London

Hell yeah, that sounds like something I can get behind!! I’ll add it to the list!(Thanks anon!!)

[yurirecommendations]

Updates!

As per request, I will be reviewing series that have both a manga and anime adaptation as part of the same canon. This means that some series that have already been reviewed may be updated in the future to reflect this change!

[yurirecommendations]

Sweet Blue Flowers (青い花 [Aoi Hana] lit. “Blue Flowers”)

Manga: 8 volumes (52 chapters) Anime: 1 season (11 episodes) Subgenre: Shoujo-Ai / Slice of Life / Drama Explicit Content: Minor nudity, sexual implications, occasional minor incest implications 

Summary: As a child, Manjome Fumi was quite the crybaby, but always had her energetic best friend Okudaira Akira to cheer her up. That is, until Fumi’s family was forced to move when the two friends were in second grade. Now Fumi is in high school, and is dealing with the struggles of being a teenage girl. But none of the struggles of high school can compare to the complicated feelings Fumi is having for some of her fellow female students. Is it really so odd for a girl to love another girl...?

Enjoy for: Reunited childhood friends, unrequited love, coming to terms with one’s sexuality, and useless lesbians

How good is the series itself?: The series itself is actually really well done. Despite being a slice of life series, which tend to forego any sort of overarching plotline, the characters’ narratives actually all blend together into a cohesive coming-of-age-type story that is told beautifully. While the manga has loads and loads of side characters, some of whom even become secondary protagonists, and follows Fumi all the way from her first year of high school into college, the anime tends to focus mostly on Fumi and her close cohort of friends, and only goes through Fumi’s first year of high school (which roughly coincides with volumes 1-3 of the manga). In general, the series takes a realistic approach to its narrative, exploring some of the cultural taboos surrounding lesbian relationships in Japan, the struggles of high-school relationships, arranged marriage, and so on. In short, it tells a very relatable story of a gaggle of high school girls coming to terms with their sexualities, and their place in society as young adults.

How gay is the series?: So, so gay, made even better by how realistic and mundane the characters’ relationships are depicted. The series even explicitly uses the words “lesbian” and “bisexual” (or, at least translates words as such), though it generally prefers phrases such as “like that” or “that way” when characters are talking about others. While the anime is relatively subdued when it comes to actually portraying intimacy between characters, the manga pulls very few punches in that respect, and the series as a whole is very explicit about their lesbian characters. In addition, while a lot of the drama does revolve around the complexity of characters’ relationships (both platonic and otherwise), both the anime and manga do a good job of (eventually) having characters actually express their feelings to one another in a (relatively) healthy way, and allow for them to grow and change as a result. All in all, this series will give you plenty of both happy and sad gay feels, and wrap it all up on a lighthearted and tender note. 

Final Statements: While I hesitate to make too many comparisons between series, so that these reviews can all act as standalone critiques, I will say here that this series is basically everything I wanted Strawberry Panic to be but that it wasn’t. Unhealthy relationship dynamics actually get resolved through communication! The drama and miscommunication, while it is the main force driving the plot, never feels contrived or lazy, and instead feels much more like how real-life relationships would play out. Characters display real growth as they come to terms with their past experiences and feelings, and change in healthy ways as a result. All in all, this show has become another one of my favorites

[yurirecommendations]

Question for y’all...

I’ve only been reviewing anime on here thus far (and should have a new one up soon!), but there’s a good chance I’ll start adding manga to this list as well!!

Question is, should I review the anime and manga from the same series as two entities, or treat them as one canon together, and update my existing series that were adaptations of manga/received manga adaptations??

[yurirecommendations]

More Updates!

Once again, this blog isn’t dead, just resting!

Summer was incredibly lethargic (and not the kind conducive to watching copious amounts of yuri unfortunately), and now things are getting kind of busy since I’m back in school again, and have other personal projects that I’ve committed myself to such as fanfic writing and more...

Nonetheless, I’m a few episodes into another show for this blog, and once I work my way back into a scheduled rhythm at school, there’s a distinct possibility that more updates will appear here as I begin to utilize shows from this blog to procrastinate on my senior thesis...

[yurirecommendations]

Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl (かしまし～ガール・ミーツ・ガール～ [kashimashi: girl meets girl])

Length: 1 season (12 episodes) + 1 OVA Episode Recommended Order: Season 1, OVA Episode Subgenre: Shoujo-Ai / Slice of Life / Drama Explicit Content: Rare sexual implications (multiple episodes), and suggestive dialogue/fantasy (most episodes)

Summary: When protagonist Osaragi Hazumu is rejected by their high school crush Kamiizumi Yasuna, they try to run away from their sorrows by climbing Mt. Kashima, only to be killed by a crashing alien UFO. The aliens are able to resurrect Hazumu from the dead, but in doing so had to switch their biological sex, and in turn broadcasted their actions to the entire planet in accordance with interstellar codes. Now, Hazumu must get used to their new life as a girl, including the way it will change their existing relationships with their friends. Meanwhile, the stranded aliens responsible for Hazumu’s gender-swap decide to investigate earth, and discover something that causes them to worry about the future of the human species...

Watch for: love-triangle drama, perverted men, weird aliens, and the struggles of being a girl. 

How good is the show itself?: The show overall is, in all honesty, and perhaps despite its best efforts, excruciatingly average. Seriously, it takes a lot of risks, but they all seem to fall flat in some way: the plot makes an attempt to go for a hybrid love-triangle soap opera / sci-fi alien drama, but in the end, the plots end up feeling incredibly disjointed and separate; even when the show makes an attempt to merge them, it only highlights how poorly they mesh together. The characters are just two-dimensional enough to be characters, but they all seem to fall back on a lot of tropes (tomboy/tsundere-childhood-friend, shy-girl-who-tries-to-break-out-of-her-shell, mr-comic-relief-mc-pervert-pants, eccentric-teacher-with-exactly-one-defining-character-trait, the list goes on), and very few of them feel like they grow at all over the course of the series, aside from maybe some minor episode-contained lessons. There’s also a tendency to drive gags into the ground and then some, so if you already find yourself tired of a joke by episode 3, rest assured you’ll likely see it in every episode until the end. Finally, while the animation and art style are certainly decent, giving the show somewhat of a “retro” feel, they’re once again nothing to sneeze at. I do give the show some credit for the explorations of identity and pretty obvious allegory for being a trans woman (which, as one myself, I quite appreciate seeing!), though even its handling of these two points is less-than-perfect. All in all, the show really isn’t as bad as I might be making it out to be, it’s just really average, despite seemingly taking quite a few risks, including an unconventional hybrid plot, the inclusion of an explicit same-sex love triangle, and the focus on the everyday consequences of gender and identity. 

How gay is the show?: On the bright side, there is a very explicit girl-on-girl-on-girl love-triangle between the main character Hazumu, and the two other main female leads, Kamiizumi and Tomari, the former being Hazumu’s crush who caused their entire sex-change fiasco, and the latter being Hazumu’s childhood friend. Of course, it should be noted that just about every single character seems to have a massive crush on the new Hazumu, which I feel somewhat undermines this selling point. In addition, this is another show that relies very heavily on miscommunication as a form of drama, although this show does at least market itself as a drama, unlike some other series that use this trope. This means that, while it is gay, it’s not exactly happy gay fluff like some other shows, although there is at least a happy ending for Hazumu and their new girlfriend. In fact, you can technically choose which of the main pairings you want to finish the series with, no joke! If you’re happy with the pairing at the end of episode 12, then don’t bother with the 13th episode, as they retcon quite a bit of ep. 12, including the girl Hazumu finally decides to choose. On the other hand, if the end of episode 12 infuriates you (like it did for me), then episode 13 is there to save the day with a completely over-the-top retcon of its predecessor! It should be noted that, due to the gap in time between the releases of the 12th and 13th episodes, some of the characters/animation/voices may seem a tad off compared to the rest of the series, but I personally feel like the 13th episode (which is also technically a Christmas special btw) was the better way to end the show. 

Final Statements: Maybe I’m just not a drama person, but I feel like as much as I want to like this show, I have a hard time doing so. I don’t actively dislike it, I just feel like it didn’t really do a whole lot in order to stick out in my mind. I do think it had an extreme amount of potential with all the risks it took, so perhaps I just feel ashamed that none of them seemed to quite work out as well as they could have (though, admittedly, they also at least didn’t flop as badly as they could have). If you’re into drama, or don’t really have anything to watch and want some background/filler stuff to watch, I’d say this show is probably perfect for that. Otherwise, I have a hard time recommending this show for any other reason...

[yurirecommendations]

Anime recommendation: Flip Flappers

Thanks for the rec! I’ve added it to the master list!

[yurirecommendations]

The Master List

This list serves to document the shows that have been featured on this blog, as well as to note which shows can be expected to appear on this blog at a later time. For shows I have already done, the title will link to the post for that show. If you don’t see a show on this list that you think should be here, feel free to recommend it to me, and I will try to get around to it ASAP!

Finished Series!!

Sakura Trick

Strawberry Panic

Kiniro Mosaic (KINMOZA) 

Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san

Yuru Yuri

Candy☆Boy

Sasameki Koto “Whispered Words”

Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl

Aoi Hana “Sweet Blue Flowers”

Possible Series to Come...

Shoujo Kakumei Utena “Revolutionary Girl Utena”

Mari-sama ga Miteru “Virgin Mary is Watching”

Houro Musuko

Kannazuki no Miko

Simoun

Yuri-kuma Arashi

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha

Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi

Noir

Mai-HiME

Akuma no Riddle “Riddle of the Devil”

Kuttsukiboshi

Figure 17

Shoujo Sect

Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo

Kämpfer

El Cazador de la Bruja

Kanamemo

Tami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

Sengoku Otome

Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid

Flip Flappers

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Princess Principal

Citrus

Yagate Kimi ni Naru "Bloom into You"

Carole & Tuesday

[yurirecommendations]

Fear Not!...

I am still in the process of continuing to put together content for this blog!

The initial wave of rapid posts was due to the fact that I had already watched those series at the time of this blog’s creation, but my posting habits quickly caught up with my less-than-frequent watching habits. 

In addition, I keep a lot of posts in drafts for periods of time to make sure that the content on them is all true and/or up-to-date at the time of posting. 

This blog is not dead, so stay tuned for more yuri!

[yurirecommendations]

Whispered Words (ささめきこと [sasameki koto] lit. “Things to do”)

Length: 1 season (13 episodes) Subgenres: Shoujo-Ai / Slice of Life / Drama Explicit Content: None!

Summary: Murasame Sumika’s best friend, Kazama Ushio, has always been open about liking girls. She likes how “cute”, “small”, and “delicate” they are, and is hopelessly developing crushes on other girls in school, only to have her heart broken when things go wrong. Sumika doesn’t have the heart to tell her best friend that, despite not being "cute” or “delicate” like most girls, she has been in love with Ushio as long as she can remember. Perhaps if she was more of a “normal girl”, she could get Ushio to fall for her...

Watch for: Melancholy relationship drama, unrequited love, and cross-dressing, all with a hopeful ending. 

How good is the show itself?: In all honesty, the show itself is pretty average. It’s your typical “person has unrequited crush on their best friend” drama arc played almost entirely straight (you know, with the exception of all the lesbians...). However, the episodes do do a good job of blending together nicely and forming a cohesive narrative, without feeling disjointed. The characters, while not one-dimensional anime archetypes, still feel somewhat flat most of the time, possibly due to them all feeling less like characters and more like archetypes. The art style is pretty old-school, the music is simple, and the animation is nothing to sneeze at, but none of them stand out as bad. It’s overall just a really mediocre show, though not necessarily in a bad way.

How gay is the show?: Super gay, albeit in an incredibly melancholy way. Uchio, in many bouts of dramatic irony, constantly laments about her unrequited love for the girls she falls for, which only causes Sumika to feel more heartbroken about loving her friend. In turn, Sumika tries to distance herself instead of getting in her friend’s way of love, which then only causes Uchio to worry about her and try and cheer up her friend, and the cycle of constant miscommunication repeats ad infinitum. To the show’s credit, the gay characters are at least very open and explicit about their attraction to the same gender; in addition to the hopelessly infatuated lesbian protagonists, two major side characters are in a committed lesbian relationship that’s reasonably well-potrayed, if not a bit trope-y at times. Hell, there’s even a token straight friend, who is very blunt about “not getting this liking girls thing,” but who remains supportive of her friends nonetheless. All in all, while the show is super open about characters being gay, some characters have some trope-y or stereotypical ideas of what “love between girls” should be like, and most of the time the gayness takes the form of depressing angst. However, there is a happy ending for our protagonists in the end, which helps make up for some of it. 

Final Statements: While I cry at a lot of forms of media, I fully admit to bawling my eyes out by the end of this show. I stand by the fact that there wasn’t anything remarkable about it; it was incredibly average all across the board (though not necessarily in a bad way), and the miscommunication drama was incredibly frustrating most of the time. However, despite that, I still found myself clinging to the show and begging for a happy ending the whole way through; maybe it was just so depressing that I was hoping for things to eventually turn around. Hell, the opening and closing themes are even really sad and depressing in their own ways; so maybe the appeal this show offers is just finally getting the least bit of happiness in a sea of gay depression. 

[yurirecommendations]

Candy☆Boy: Nonchalant talk of the certain twin sisters in daily life

Length: 1 ONA (“Candy☆Boy – Side Story for Archive”) + 1 season (7 episodes) + 2 EX episodes Recommended Order: ONA/Prologue (”Side Story for Archive”), Season 1 (episodes 1-2), EX01 (”Forecast of the Future”), Season 1 (episodes 3-7), EX02 (”Theory of Happiness Sharing”) Subgenre: Shoujo-Ai / Slice of Life Explicit Content: Occasional sexual implications and suggestive fantasies (throughout)

Summary: The Sakurai twins, Yukino and Kanade, have always been close ever since they were born, even moreso than most sisters. However, when the two move to Tokyo together for high school, they start to realize that perhaps their feelings towards each other are of a...different sort. Despite the hardships they face at school and in their personal life though, the twins always know they can count on each other, no matter what. At the end of the day, just being together is what matters most to them. 

Watch for: Happy gay fluff, the struggles of being a teenager, and casual incest

How good is the show itself?: What started as an 8-minute add-on animation for a music single, became a short, but very well-written slice of life series. "Minimalism” may be the best word to describe the series overall; there are only 4 recurring characters (3 of whom are all sisters), and only 9 episodes of content, excluding the original short. However, the episodes all mesh really nicely into one cohesive story about the twins’ past, and their struggles in day-to-day life. And each of the sisters at least feel like very real, human, three-dimensional characters (the fourth recurring character feels like more of a one-dimensional anime trope, but even she’s a bit deeper than first meets the eye). The art style and music are very plain, but in a way that helps add to the grounded, almost mundane atmosphere of the show that just gives it so much charm. It’s very bare bones, but what it does, it does very, very well.

How gay is the show?: Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room that, yes, the main romantic couple of the show are twin sisters, related by blood. There’s no denying the incestuous nature of their relationship, and if that’s not your thing (totally understandable), then this is definitely not the show for you. However, if you can accept the series’s premise, there’s a really beautiful and mature relationship to be experienced within it. The twins have some pretty undeniable chemistry together, which is perhaps enhanced by their literal sisterly-level of closeness. And the most remarkable part of their relationship is how much of it is able to be portrayed without the need for a lot of physical intimacy or surface-level romance; sure the two are often physically close, holding hands, leaning on one another, sleeping side-by-side, or helping do each other’s hair, but rarely does any of that feel mushy or in-your-face. And the majority of their relationship still comes through much more in their emotional and unwavering support for the other, even when they’re apart. Of course, things aren’t always perfectly happy for the two, but their relationship is incredibly strong and genuine, and they always manage to work through things together. And to top it all off, the end of the season (not including the second EX episode after it) is perhaps one of the cutest and most hopeful cliffhangers I’ve ever seen. 

Final Statements: I was honestly shocked by how much I ended up enjoying this series despite its premise. It’s definitely one of my all-time favorite series, and has a really genuine and maturely-portrayed relationship that is unfortunately rooted in an incredibly taboo subject. While I completely understand that there are plenty of you who simply can’t bring yourselves to accept the premise, I encourage those of you who are only skeptical of it to give this series a try, because I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! (Also, personal opinion, but Kanade’s aesthetic is such a Look™)

[yurirecommendations]

Yuru Yuri (ゆるゆり [yuru yuri] lit. “Loosely Yuri”)

Length: 3 seasons (12 episodes each), 1 OVA (“Yuru Yuri Nachuyachumi”), 2 TV Specials (“Yuru Yuri Nachuyachumi+”) Recommended Order: Season 1 (Yuru Yuri), Season 2 (Yuru Yuri♪♪), OVA (“Yuru Yuri Nachuyachumi”), TV Specials (Yuru Yuri Nachuyachumi+), Season 3 (Yuru Yuri San☆Hai) Subgenre: Shoujo-Ai / Slice of Life Explicit Content: Occasional gore (graphic blood resulting from nosebleeds-multiple episodes) and rare sexual implications (multiple episodes). 

Summary: In their second year of middle school, childhood friends Toshinou Kyouko and Funami Yui form a secret club together in the school’s abandoned tea-ceremony house. They invite their first-year friends Akaze Akari and Yoshikawa Chinatsu to join them in their so-called “Amusement Club”, which involves nothing more than spending their after-school hours getting into whatever amusing shenanigans they can together. And when they all eventually befriend the members of their student council, it only adds to the wacky adventures to be had between them. 

Watch for: Happy fluff, laughs, and plenty of shenanigans

How good is the show itself?: It’s cute, feel-good, and surprisingly funny. Like, legitimately-laughing-out-loud funny. As with most slice of life shows, there isn’t a whole lot of overarching plot to be had, though each season and the OVA+TV special combo each feel somewhat self-contained on their own, which helps the series feel connected somehow. There’s a huge cast of loveable and unforgettable characters that all get along in such unique ways, including the four cover protagonists, the supporting cast of the student council, and even everyone’s older and younger sisters and relatives in the later seasons. And each character is so distinct that some episodes manage to be amusing and engaging despite only featuring one main character for the entire episode! In addition, the art style is simple, the music is upbeat and catchy, and the animation is quite polished, all of which give the show and its characters a remarkable sense of vibrant personality. 

How gay is the show?: As the title sort of gives away, the yuri in the show is pretty casual. However, there’s a whole lot of it (an entire 38 episodes and a movie’s worth in fact), what with so many characters each having crushes on one another, and it makes for quite the confusing web of relationships, crushes, and unrequited love (even this graphic doesn’t begin to describe the various relationships). That also means there’s plenty of fanservice (and a literal deadly amount of nosebleeds) to go around for all. And while no serious romantic relationships ever really develop throughout the series, a few do seem to grow and bloom a little (especially one couple towards the very end), and at the end of the day, they’re all really close friends no matter what. It’s honestly nearly impossible to make it through this show without going “awww” a few times at some of the character’s happiest moments, and there’s bound to be at least one pairing that you can get behind and cheer for during the series. 

Final Statements: This is probably another golden standard for the slice of life genre, even if the yuri is maybe slightly too casual for my taste. It also really helps that it’s one of the longer series, and thus gets so much time to develop the characters and their relationships. Another of my personal recommendations. 

[yurirecommendations]

Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san (犬神さんと猫山さん [inugami-san to nekoyama-san] lit. “Dog and Cat”)

Length: 1 season (12 three-minute minisodes) + 1 Unaired Minisode (”Nekoyama-san and the Hot Spring Vacation”) Recommended Order: Season 1, Unaired Episode Subgenre: Ecchi / Slice of Life Explicit Content: Frequent suggestive dialogue/depictions and rare sexual implications (throughout)

Summary: Inugami (whose name translates as ‘dog god’) Yachiyo is a girl that is, as her name suggests, very dog-like, although she very much prefers cats. Nekoyama (whose name translates as ‘cat mountain’) Suzu, coincidentally, is a very cat-like person who happens to love dogs. When the two are introduced by a mutual friend, they instantly bond over their compatible desires and personalities. This miniseries of 3-minute, short animations details the shenanigans that the two get up to together alongside their other animal-like friends.

Watch for: Dirty humour, sexual tension, and Japanese animal puns. 

How good is the show itself?: This show is a perfect example of “what you see is what you get”; suggestive animal gijinka with generous helpings of yuri fanservice. Short story shorter, there really isn’t any plot. However, the character designs, while very gimmick-y and one-dimensional, are actually kind of clever; Inugami’s ponytail wags like a dog’s tail when she’s happy, Nekoyama’s two cowlicks point back on her head like a cat’s ears when she’s annoyed, etc. The music, art style, and animation, are all simplistic, but also quite crisp, and are of a better quality than one might expect for a short web-series. And since each of the 13 episodes is only 3 minutes long, you either aren’t missing much if suggestive, borderline bestiality isn’t your thing, or you can be done with it in less than an hour for a quick bout of entertainment. 

How gay is the show?: Once again, there isn’t a whole lot to say here. The episodes are short, so not a lot happens in them save some dialogue and heaping amounts of suggestive fanservice. The closest thing to an actual explicit gay relationship is that one of the character’s older sisters canonically seduces both men and women alike, but she is shown only briefly in a couple episodes, and never in the midst of these escapades. 

Final Statements: Honestly, this series could be a lot worse, all things considered. Obvious, uncomfortable bestiality implications are obvious and uncomfortable, but the characters and their personalities can be quite amusing, and the whole series is to-the-point, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. 

[yurirecommendations]

Kin-iro Mosaic (KINMOZA) (きんいろ・モザイク [kiniro mozaiku] lit. “Golden Mosaic”)

Length: 2 seasons (12 episodes each), 1 OVA (”Kin-iro Mosaic: Pretty Days”) Recommended Order: Season 1 (Kin-iro Mosaic), Season 2 (Hello!! KINMOZA), OVA (”Pretty Days”) Subgenre: Shoujo-Ai / Slice of Life Explicit Content: None!

Summary: After protagonist Omiya Shinobu returns from a homestay with the Cartlet family in London, she receives a letter from their daughter, Alice, who says she is coming to Japan to see Shinobu again. She is soon followed to Japan from England by her half-Japanese friend Karen Kujo, and the two foreigners quickly make fast friends with Shinobu’s own close friends, Komichi Aya and Inokuma Youko. The five then spend most of their middle school days hanging out, and having loads of fun together. 

Watch for: Happy fluff, cute shenanigans, and hilariously bad English voice acting. 

How good is the show itself?: It’s adorable slice of life at its finest, with some of the most hilariously bad attempts at English voice-acting from Japanese voice-actors I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing (to the point that you might need English subtitles over the Japanese subtitles to make out what the Anglophiles are saying). The show is remarkable for its depiction of living as a foreigner in Japan, and being able to fit in with others despite cultural or even language boundaries. Each character is loveable, with their own distinctive personalities, and each learns over the course of the series to embrace their uniqueness and individuality. Even the teachers get their own attention as characters, frequently interacting with their students as both mentors and peers alike. The art and music are simple and energetic, and really help bring the cast of characters to life in an overall simple, but lighthearted and wonderful series. 

How gay is the show?: That all being said, there really isn’t much in the realm of gay content. The two main characters have a very close attachment that could be seen as a budding romantic relationship, but feels much more like a very close (even slightly obsessive) friendship, especially considering their age as middle-schoolers. There are a few other characters with pretty visible crushes on some of the main cast, but they are portrayed as very one-sided, with the other either oblivious to their feelings, or instead mistaking their possible attraction for platonic friendliness, and so nothing ever comes about of them save many moments of tsundere and embarrassment. That’s not to say that the lack of explicit romance detracts from the show though, as there is plenty of platonic love and fluff all throughout to make up for it. 

Final Statements: All-in-all, despite the lack of explicit gayness, there is a moderate amount of subtext, and the show is honestly just too happy and fluffy to dislike. Also, maybe it’s just me, but I find the opening and closing themes incredibly catchy, especially for season 1, so that’s another plus. 

[yurirecommendations]

Strawberry Panic! (ストロベリー・パニック！ [sutoroberii panikku] lit. “Strawberry Panic”)

Length: 2 seasons (13 episodes each) Subgenre: Shoujo-Ai / Drama Explicit Content: Occasional full-body nudity and implications of sex (multiple episodes), trigger warnings for rape (s1 ep7, interspersed scenes between ~13min and ~20min: starts after Kaname shows up to meet Hikari in the woods. s1 ep12, between ~19min and ~21min: starts right after Shizuma exits her shower after the scene by the pool. s1 ep13, interspersed scenes between ~6min and ~12 minutes: starts shortly after Hikari leaves her room.)

Summary: The first day of Aoi Nagisa’s transfer to Miator Academy on Astraea Hill she gets lost in a forest, has an intimate encounter with a mysterious girl, and passes out, only to wake up hours later in the school infirmary. She later discovers that this girl bears the title of Etoile at Astraea, an elected student who is the very picture of grace and beauty, and is expected to represent all three schools (Miator, St. Spica, and Lulim) by fulfilling many important duties. Nagisa struggles to try and figure out what to make of her new feelings for this mysterious Etoile girl, and she isn’t the only girl at Astraea struggling with these sorts of feelings...

Watch for: Gay melancholy, mystery, broken hearts, and really fashionable school uniforms

How good is the show itself?: The show itself is actually quite bittersweet and dramatic, despite being marketed as a more romantic, slice of life show. The plot itself is actually decently intriguing (most of it centres around the lives and mysterious pasts of the major characters), and its conveyance through the various characters’ interactions is actually quite well-done. The main cast from Miator feels decently well-developed and two-dimensional, but at the cost of the side cast and supporting characters (particularly from Lulim, er, Le Rim? Le Lim? Lurim? None of the translators ever agree on the third school’s name...), who are often barely one-dimensional, and can sometimes behave inconsistently from episode to episode. The art style and music are quite good at maintaining a subdued and mysterious atmosphere, and the animation, while nothing special, isn’t particularly bad either. Overall, while it had a lot of potential as a mystery/drama show, it’s ultimately held back by its lack of attention to non-major characters, and the fact that it still primarily tries to be a shoujo-ai, which makes the darker atmosphere feel a little out of place. 

How gay is the show?: While the show does have a lot of decent gay content, it comes at the price of every single relationship involving either a love triangle, unrequited love, or incredibly unhealthy relationship dynamics; and the major relationship at the centre of the show has all three. While a couple of these relationship conflicts are resolved by the end of the show, most of them just fall by the wayside, never to be addressed again, a few relationships end up feeling really forced in spite of their unhealthy dynamics, and a couple heartbreaking scenarios in particular are drawn out until the very end, leaving the show ending on an incredibly sour note. Don’t watch this show expecting a lot of happy, fluffy yuri; the happiness in this show always feels bittersweet at best, and is usually shortly followed-up by heartbreak, tears, damaged friendships, betrayal, or even straight-up rape. 

Final Statements: I admit, I had a personal bias against this show, especially with how they chose to end it. That’s not to say I hated it; there were just a few major problems that I had with it that ruined the overall experience for me as a whole, despite a lot of other people recommending it as one of the quintessential shows in the yuri genre. I tried to comment on it as fairly as possible in spite of this, and will say that your mileage may vary as well. In truth, it’s not a particularly bad show, so long as you treat it as a drama, and don’t expect too many happy endings. 

[yurirecommendations]

Sakura Trick (桜トリック [sakura torikku]; lit. “Cherry Blossom Trick”)

Length: 1 season (12 episodes) Subgenre: Shoujo-Ai / Slice of Life Explicit Content: Frequent making out, occasional sexual implications (multiple episodes), minor nudity (intro sequence). 

Summary: With their first year of high school approaching, best friends Takayama Haruka and Sonoda Yuu decide to do something special to help cement their incredibly close friendship; something “no other girls would do together”. That’s how the two girls end up sharing their first kiss, in an abandoned classroom with cherry blossoms blowing in on the wind, marking the beginning of their new relationship together. However, while the girls want to explore their new feelings for one another, they must do so in secret, as not everyone seems to approve of their recent behavior with one another...

Watch for: Adorable gay fluff, kissing, and young love. 

How good is the show itself?: The show overall is super fluffy, sickeningly sweet, and just kinda all-around feel-good. As a slice-of-life show, there’s not a whole lot of plot to follow outside of the individual plots of each episode, but the episode plots themselves are short, sweet, and almost always have a happy ending for all of our characters. Speaking of characters, each of the main cast of seven is relatively two-dimensional, and each is loveable in their own way. The other side characters are somewhat less well-developed, but usually equally loveable, and their lack of development is mostly a result of less screen time, since the main seven are usually driving the show together. The art and music are relatively simple, but very happy and cutsey, and the animation is actually quite gorgeous, all of which contributes to the ludicrous levels of adorable in this show. 

How gay is the show?: This show is full of gay content, and it’s all of surprisingly good quality. The main protagonists’ relationship is actually handled very maturely, and it’s shown to evolve over time as they learn to communicate to each other what the relationship means to each of them. They also face the challenges of having a “taboo” relationship and having to deal with the resulting consequences, and while the relationship is at first very heavily based on physical intimacy (rest assured, there’s plenty of fluff, intimacy, and fanservice for everyone in the main cast), the two come to understand that their relationship is special to them, and doesn’t necessarily have to conform to what others want it to be. And this only covers the main protagonists’ relationship; there is one other canon relationship between two other girls in the main cast that, while it gets decidedly less screen time, is treated with the same level of maturity. The show is also very good about not abusing miscommunication as the sole source of all of its drama (which is a personal pet-peeve of mine), rather using it either for more comedic purposes, or, when it is used for drama, eventually resolving it with healthy communication.

Final Statements: This show is a personal favorite of mine, and I think has become my standard for slice-of-life yuri. It’s cute, and has plenty of fluff, but also has very realistic and maturely portrayed relationships. Sure, it’s not perfect, but neither is life either. If you’re looking for a good entry-level show, this is probably a good place to start.