These Are The Seven Best Lesbian Anime Series Ever Made
After considering many opinions across the internet and consulting with fellow yuri (百合, lesbian themed Japanese media) fans, these are the seven best examples of non-explicitly erotic girl-on-girl animation from Japan.
7. Oniisama E (Brother Dear Brother)
Oniisama E actually ranks lower on this multi-person synthesised list than it does on my personal list (where it comes in at #5). The series centers around the high school experiences of Misonou Nanako (note: for this and subsequent names, family name comes first) when she enters the elite preparatory school, Seiran Academy. The series deals not only with issues of lesbianism, but also issues of suicide (still very relevant given the high rates amongst LGBT+ youth), mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, and incest. For those who might be expecting overt romance, however, they’ll be disappointed. As Yuricon‘s Erica Friedman points out, the series deals more with akogare (yearning) than it does with actual romance.
There is a great deal of akogare in this series, and very little outright Yuri, but I’m going to have to weigh in on the yes, Yuri camp.
There are better works which deal with queer themes by Oniisama E‘s artist, Ikeda Riyoko, but none are (in my opinion) amongst those which have been animated. Most people tend to think of The Rose of Versailles or Ace wo Nerae. However, in both cases, the yuri elements are quite minor. Like most classic yuri, Ikeda’s works which do deal with female/female relationships are pretty tragic. Indeed, ultimately, they are depressing in the extreme. This is largely because of the influence of the Class S novels of the early twentieth century, exemplified by the works of Yoshiya Nobuko.
Her stories of dosei-ai (same-sex love) and of female friendships had a direct influence on later Shōjo manga. In particular, her works often fall in line with the Class S genre, which depict lesbian attachments as emotionally intense yet platonic relationships, destined to be curtailed by marriage, school, or death.
While the relationships depicted aren’t always “platonic,” with plenty of them making their way into actual “forbidden” relationships, the tragic nature of this classic yuri trope means the death and/or utter despair of the “transgressing” characters. Oniisama E certainly walks this line to great effect.
6. Simoun
Simoun is a world where gender and sexuality, not to mention biology, just do not work in the same ways as in our own. On the planet Daikuriku, all people are female. Only at seventeen do they choose a “permanent” sex, either male or female. As with many anime series, the trope at play here is teenager pilots: people who have chosen a “permanent” sex cannot pilot the airships which protect the nation state of Simulacrum.
Each of the Simoun airships requires a pair of girls to pilot it. As all of the teenagers in the series have grown into female puberty to some extent by the age of seventeen, any romantic or sexual feelings towards peers would obviously be “same-sex.” And the romantic entanglements between the pilots is a major part of the character interaction. However, given the nature of how gender, sexuality, and biology function in Simoun, some argue the series isn’t actually yuri. Ironically, this is what makes Simoun such an interesting series to watch, despite its “fanservice” moments and the general style of its character designs. It leaves you questioning what relationships are heterosexual, what relationships are homosexual, and what relationships simply are or should be simply un-labeled.
5. Sasameki Koto (Whispered Words)
Unlike the previous two series, Sasemeki Koto is unabashedly yuri. The main characters in the series are all pretty much self-identified lesbians, aside from the one recurring male (but possibly gender-variant) character.
Kazama Ushio (on the right) isn’t shy about announcing that she’s interested in other girls, and she often bemoans that homosexuality is still taboo in Japanese society. She specifically says she prefers “cute,” “feminine” and “shy” girls. This turns out to be problem for her best friend, Murasame Sumika (on the left), who is secretly in love with Ushio and is anything but “cute,” “feminine,” or “shy.”
One of the strongest aspects of the series is in the subtle message that there is strength in shared experiences. For both Ushio and Sumika being gay is isolating in the straight society represented both in high school and the wider culture. Discovering that they are not the only queer students in their high school with the formation of what essentially becomes a de facto queer student group called the “Girls’ Club,” turns out to be very beneficial to Ushio and Sumika as they fumble towards each other in a typical angsty teenage manner.
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