I've been reading a lot of Yuri manga lately and thought it would be nice to highlight a number of stand-outs.
Though I should explain the title of this post in that it does not mean "yuri manga released during winter 2021", but "yuri manga I read during winter 2021". Since I've really only just begun with reading yuri manga (or manga in general really) I've got a lot of catching up to do so there are likely to be some older series here (I honestly didn't check the dates).
I'm also including a little bit at the end about how I think it would turn into an anime. Not that I really expect any of them to. But it's a nice thought exercise. Though predictably I wouldn't really mind any of them being turned into an anime.
Anyway, some of my quick takes on a bunch of yuri manga after the break.
Girl Friends (link)
The story revolves around a shy high school girl who, one day, gets approached by the most sociable and fashion-conscious girl in class. The two become close friends and the second girl helps the first girl become more fashionable and sociable as well, helping her get out of her shell a little even as she remains a little awkward. Of course this wouldn't be a yuri manga without the first girl starting to develop romantic feelings for the second girl and the story revolves around those feelings and their ever evolving relationship.
Of course, by the end they predictably become a couple. But I like that they don't stop the series the moment they officially become a couple but continue on a bit after that with the struggles that a new couple might face. Uncertainty about their relationship, jealousy at seeing them with someone else, how to approach sex, things like that. I also like that it isn't the case that every other girl in this universe is also into girls and that there are struggles and misunderstanding revolving around the assumption from most everyone that a girl would date a boy. And I do like that both main characters have their own personality and lives rather than just going the same way just to be together.
So yes, I really did enjoy this manga and feel that it was, for me, a pretty good introduction as it were into yuri manga in general. The art style is lovely to the point that one could consider it iconic for the genre. Very enjoyable.
I also think that it would make for a pretty good anime where in its five volumes there is probably just a little more material than would fit in a single season. Depending on pacing might even be able to get two seasons out of it, but perhaps I'm just being greedy now.
ntasies, sometimes these are the paths not taken. It's never clear what. Sometimes these are happy stories, sometimes they are sad. But they are always stories revolving around the relationships between girls.
Thus each issue has its own separate story, tied together by the overarching story of the main character and this strange, magical shop.
It's a neat and interesting idea that could have a lot of legs for a long series. There are a lot of short, little stories that could be told and could be woven in with the story of the main character and her struggles in life and potentially her relationships with people. It could even take an anthology approach with different mangaka writing these different stories; there's no reason why the art style would need to stay the same within these magical realms. But none of that is really realised. The stories within the shop barely weave into the main story. Sure, at one point the main character is worried about keeping secrets (namely that she's asked to keep the magical nature of the shop a secret) and as a result we get a story about keeping secrets, but this doesn't really seem to have much impact back (in fact the story seems to suggest that keeping secrets too long is bad).
The stories themselves are generally lovely. Though despite them being called "yuri" they only feature romantic relationships on a few occasions. Most of the time it can be seen as 'just' friendship between young girls. Which is fine and lovely, but it does make me feel like it fell short a little there. The main character herself also doesn't seem to have any romantic relationships, or much in the way of relationships in general. She has a friend, but the friend doesn't appear much and the relationship she has with her friend doesn't seem to evolve in any way.
In the end I did quite enjoy reading it and the art was lovely. And I do wish that there was more to it than that there was as it felt too short. But it also feels that the series didn't quite live up to its potential. This could make an interesting anime where, just as the manga, each episode could show a different short story. But it'd have to weave that into the 'main' story a bit better. There might also need to be a bit more material to fill a full anime season.
ining, etc. This genius girl isn't really interested in anyone since she's learned that nobody wants to play with someone who's always best at everything. But when the main character declares that she'll totally beat her and take first place back she instantly falls in love with her 'rival', even encouraging her to succeed in beating her. Much to the confusion of the main character who takes the whole of the series to figure out her feelings in return.
But despite these being the two main characters the story isn't only about them and many sequences of chapters are devoted to the relationships between other girls in the school with the main characters often not even appearing at all. Some of these other relationships I didn't get, such as those of the gardening club girls. Others were near problematic, such as that between a girl and her aunt. But most were absolutely lovely in their own right. I particularly enjoyed the polyamorous relationship between three girls. With love so often presented as an exclusive thing between two people it was really refreshing and lovely to see this one. And I love how all these relationships came together in the end when the main character, trying to figure out her own feelings, went to all these other couples to ask them about their relationship so that it might help her understand her own.
The art is also quite lovely. I very much enjoyed reading it as I tore through the series. At ten volumes it's quite a long series too, and yet I certainly would've loved there to be more. It had me tear up a few times as emotions came to a head. Overall this is one of my favourite manga I think. As such I would love to see an anime of this, but it'd have to be a pretty long anime to get a satisfying conclusion to the story and with the way that the manga is structured it'd be weird when whole parts of the anime wouldn't focus on the main characters. A lot of restructuring and chopping would probably have to be done to make it work and I'm not sure that'd be for the better.
It is very rare to see a good polyamorous relationship, or even one at all, presented in any media. So it was absolutely lovely to have a manga completely devoted to one, and take it seriously too. All too often love triangles 'resolve' themselves by shutting one person out in the end because love is for some reason only between two people. But this series treated the relationship between the characters very well and did so with quite lovely art too.
I read YasaKan before I read AnoKiss. And when I got to the polyamorous relationship in the latter I was elated to have found a second comic with one in such short order. It was almost disappointing to find out a little later that they're both from the same artist. For a moment I was hoping that polyamory would be more common in manga, but unfortunately not. And no, harems don't really count as that's all just focused on a single main character (and seems to be more fantasy fulfilment that an actual workable relationship). Still, it's nice that there is this artist at least. Maybe they'll write more such stories in the future.
But yes, I did very much enjoy this manga that's in some ways an extension of AnoKiss. The school that the main character wants to get into could easily have been the one from AnoKiss. As such I would also love to see this in anime form. But at two volumes there might not be enough to fill a full season. Maybe a movie?
The story takes place at a prestigious all-girls high school that's always been split into two divisions. The Botan division of 'rich' girls and the Shakuyaku 'peasant' division. When the main character, belonging to Shakuyaku, is the only one of her division who has to share a room with a Botan student things slowly start to change and the two girls sharing a dorm room get increasingly close to each other.
it is a relatively slow-burn manga over a quite long series (counting 200 chapters), but the slow pace serves it well as the main characters, as well as the other characters in the school, deal with a variety of issues and challenges around the divisions, school itself, and family relationships. And the art is absolutely lovely (and full colour too). It had me in tears a few times and biting my nails a few others as I couldn't wait to see what'd happen next. Again, one that is high up on my list of favourite manga.
Making this into an anime might be similarly tricky to AnoKiss due to its length. Though since the story focuses on the main characters much better and the story can be chopped up into chapters much better it's probably easier to structure this as a number of anime seasons.
First off, I have no idea why any school would issue a blanket ban on all part-time jobs, particularly since having a part-time job seems very good for a young person's development. I can understand them putting a ban on particular kind of work, such as certain adult modelling work (though not the kind of modelling that the second main character does), but a blanket ban seems... irresponsible. Anyway.
The story itself is quite lovely with a nice art style. I love how the relationship between the two main characters develops over the three volumes of the manga. Though the whole "we're doing something that's technically forbidden" thing didn't really work for me (see also the previous paragraph). And though the ending is ostensibly happy, I'm not sure it's entirely a good one (spoiler, since one of the characters got kicked out of school, though I'm assuming she just ended up going to another, more reasonable, school). Overall I did quite enjoy reading it.
I think this might be nice as an anime as well, though again there might not be enough material to fill a full season and on the flipside there's probably a bit too much for a movie. I'm not sure it'd be that easy to stretch the material enough to fill a full season without just continuing the story (which I'd be fine with).
Given that description perhaps it's understandable that I was worried that this would be about an adult woman getting sexually involved with a teenage girl. It didn't help that the series portrays the girl as very mature for her age (to the point that she's often more taking care of the older woman than the other way around) and that the older woman is very socially undeveloped and thus almost seeming younger than her age. But luckily that never materialised. Instead it's more of a story of a surrogate mother-daughter relationship with the 'yuri' just coming from the feelings the older woman had for the girl's mother in the past. There are no romantic relationship developing.
I kind of wish that I knew that when I started reading, because this nagging worry that a deeply inappropriate romantic relationship might develop between the two main characters detracted from my enjoyment of the manga.
That said I did enjoy the manga in the end for all its three volumes. Both characters grow and mature and their relationship evolves into a healthy and relatively normal one. It had a lovely ending too and the art was quite nice as well. I'm glad that I read it after all.
It'd probably work quite reasonably as an anime as well with again the question of there being enough content for it. This might stretch a bit better as I can see them adding some additional situations that the two might have to deal with (how do they deal with various holidays and such, for example, or the anniversary of the mother's death). But I would hope that they'd make it a bit clearer from the start that this isn't a developing romance.
It does feel that the concept could've been carried a lot further than the two volumes that it got. And at the end everything kind of gets resolved a bit too rapidly. It feels that they could've dealt with the 'puzzle' of a lot more Nomans (in the end there were really only three, a cat Noman, a girl who committed suicide, and the big bad at the end). I'm also not sure why the main character was actually needed as her Nomad companion seemed quite able to take care of evil Nomads on her own (sure they'd all be 'killed', but anyway). And there was this thing with a control spell on the Nomad that was introduced... and then never even mentioned again.
I'm also not entirely sure I'd label this a yuri manga. Granted, the bond was made through a mouth-to-mouth kiss (which happened accidentally) and such a kiss is presented as a way to heal faster too (which happened once I think), but there were no romantic or sexual overtones there. Then there's a lesbian spirit girl who has a thing for the main character, but that's almost played more as a recurring joke. Don't read this manga looking for romance. The main focus is clearly on defeating the Nomans and the main characters dealing with their pasts.
I did enjoy it, even though the art style didn't quite work for me. Not that it was bad, not at all, just something that just felt a little 'off' to me. Just a matter of taste I suppose. And as I said the story felt a bit too rushed and under developed. But I did like reading it and it has a nice "ten years later" ending that can't help but have me wonder at what things could happen after (without all the spirits).
As a concept this is great for an anime series about a teenage girl and her Noman fighting evil spirits. And the final threat is great. It would definitely need more content, more evil spirits to safe, perhaps having that threat be a lingering presence in the background from the start, and probably a different resolution to that as the current one was a bit anticlimactic. At which point it's starting to feel that it would be a completely different series with just the same premise. Which would be fine. But honestly I wouldn't be too bothered if an anime of this manga never materialised either.
I really enjoyed following the progress that the main character makes in her climbing, learning about various things as she struggles to improve, encouraged by her friend and the other two members of the club. Compared to that the relationship between them evolved into being romantic a bit too quickly for my liking. One character blurts out how she feels, the other things on it a bit, does some climbing, and then realises "oh yes, me too". The End. Though we do get a very lovely "ten years later" look (during which, wow, the main character must have improved her climbing a lot).
I also did quite enjoy the general body positivity of the manga. The main character insists that she wants to lose weight, but her friend keeps insisting that she likes her friend being a little softer and a little rounder. I can't say that the, quite lovely, art necessarily sold her as being overweight or such, though she did seem a little bit wider than the very lean and athletic other three members of the club. Either way it is quite rare to see body positivity like that, so that certainly was pleasant.
But I would've wanted to see more of their climbing skills and their relationship slowly evolving. Perhaps that's a sign of a good series, to leave you wanting more, but it feels like there is a lot more ground that could be covered here. Overall it was quite enjoyable.
Of all the manga in this post this one is definitely the one I would most want to see turned into an anime, despite it not being my favourite manga of this post. Perhaps it is in part because that would mean that they'd have to extend the story. But I also think that the climbing could make for some great animation. I know that there is another sports climbing anime (Iwa Kakeru!: Sport Climbing Girls), which I haven't seen yet, and which apparently didn't score that high. The premise of this manga sounds better than that anime though (admittedly in no small part things to the yuri) and I know the manga executes well on the whole "learning to climb" concept (which that anime doesn't sound like it really focuses on). Unfortunately, unless that other anime proves to be popular, it seems unlikely that this manga will ever be turned into one.
The title comes from the fact that when they were a couple they had a tendency to run off together to find secret places to kiss each other. But now society around them seems to pressure them into living a 'normal' live where they marry, get kids, etc. The main character who is indeed doing that feels that she has to, despite her would be husband being an ass, and has given up on the possibility of happiness. While the other is socially awkward (that dynamic, one introvert and one extrovert, seems to be quite common in these stories) and unsure how she can, or if she even should, try to act on her still lingering feelings.
What I do love about this manga is that the relationships and everything are not perfect. And it is a reflection of the struggles that queer people face with closemindedness around them. Such as when one of the main characters confesses her relationship with another woman to her mother, the mother instead says she should give up such 'childish' ideas and get a husband instead, thinking she's just being dragged along into something by someone else like she always has. Even at the end where we get a look some thirteen years into the future, though we don't get to see the main characters we do learn that even then everything isn't perfect for them. Just like a normal life is.
In general I do dislike the "but two women can't be together" that pops up as an obstacle in so many yuri manga. But here it feels realistic and fits well within the story. It's not that everything is going well but someone suddenly has some doubts because they're both girls as if that's strange and unusual until she gets over that and finally can be with her love. Here it is much more an internalised thing that forms a real basis to the struggles that they're going to, and even after overcoming that themselves the world around them still exerts those pressures.
So yes, I really enjoyed reading this. The art style is quite lovely though it felt a bit different from the usual as well. Can't wait to read more from the artist. And an anime for this could also be really good with there probably being just about enough content to fill out a season without needing to invent much more new stuff.
write this post, so it's quite fresh in my mind. It's about an office worker who, secretly, also draws fan yuri manga (doujinshi, to use the proper term). But she's found out by a female colleague. Much to her surprise, rather than deride her for it like she's always been in the past this colleague seems very interested in the whole thing. And thus starts a relationship between the two with surprising twists and turns (even considering knowing that it's a yuri manga and thus the two will almost certainly end up together).
And yes, I really enjoyed this one as well. It's a bit meta in that it's a yuri manga about someone who loves to draw yuri manga, but that's just endearing. Both main characters have their own kind of weird. One in how obsessive she is about her ships, and the other about how she deals with the whole situation and her own feelings regarding it. And as the story progresses it becomes both more serious and I'd say more 'normal' as both characters set themselves to their respective goals. The doujinshi angle becomes less of a focus, but that is alright.
The art was nice. Though to me it felt, particularly at the start, that it felt more like the doujinshi that it was talking about than a professionally published manga. Perhaps that was intentional. There were certainly good looking panels, but the quality seemed inconsistent. By the end I no longer felt that way, which could just mean that I got used to it. Then again, I don't really have an eye for this sort of thing and I certainly didn't dislike the art.
I did really enjoy reading it though and thought that it was a really good and interesting story. I'm less certain about how well it would work as an anime. The meta-ness of "manga about a manga artist" would work a little less in an anime. Though I think the story could stand up well enough on its own. It might need a little more content to fill a full series, or maybe it should just take a slow approach to things, lingering more on situations. The manga starts the moment the two characters come face-to-face, but you could start with a wide shot of the con, see all the people milling about, maybe see the first main character selling her manga to people alternating with shots of the other walking through the crowd, that sort of thing. Could be quite a fun series.
And that's it, all the main manga I've read this season for now. I've read a few more than this, but these were the main ones that I felt were interesting enough to talk about. Though I'll probably read a few more before the season is out. Still have two weeks or so. In fact I think I'll go and start another one right now.
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