Lizstar's Big Post of Yuri You Should Read
Every damn day before I go to bed, I lay in bed and read yuri until I fall asleep. And then I post cute little snippits from it (or really dumb snippits from it) onto this website for your enjoyment. And I get a lot of people who go "Liz, as the world's leading yuri sommelier, what would you recommend?"
And I always say just ask and I'll give you a yuri or two to tide you over, but someone suggested I just put that shit in a post SO I'MMA PUT THAT SHIT IN A POST
The following is a list of manga that I recommend, alongside a brief description and anything that might be controversial or content warningy. If you like any of these, let me know whatcha think, and consider supporting the artists and writers! You can often find a way to do that on the website I'm linking.
Also, this is not NEARLY a list of EVERYTHING I'd recommend, and I may add to it in the future. I'm also avoiding yuri that's not finished or finished being translated, so there's a LOT of amazing ones that I don't want to get you into and then have you be sad when it never finishes getting translated. If you all like this enough, I might do another one where I recommend a bunch of yuri that's still being worked on. I might also do another post down the line about oneshots I really like. This is ENTIRELY series.
Anyways, bring on the cute girls!
Warnings: Age gap (both adults), parental abuse
This is a historical story taking place either in the late Meiji era or early Taisho. Yuki is a young lower class woman working at a cafe frequented by upper class society. She's a quiet and shy girl who lives her life between work and her books, her favorite of which are by the fluffy romance author, Azuma Beniko. So when Azuma Sensei shows up in her cafe, it overwhelms her. And then Azuma says that she wants to use Yuki as reference for her new novel...
Read this if you like: Extreme fluff, light drama, hot women playing with soft shy women.
If you like this, you should read: Literally anything else written by the author, Nagori Yu. She has a type, is what I'm saying. This is, to my belief, the only thing she has ever actually FINISHED, but all of her unfinished manga that's halfway through has this dynamic of hot powerful woman and shy cute woman.
Even If It Was Just Once, I Regret It
Warnings: Oh boy, a lot. Age Gap (both adults), starts with sexual assault, power imbalance dynamics, light ecchi
Okay now listen, when I describe the conceit of this manga to you, you are not gonna like the sound of it. This is the hardest manga to recommend but it's also one of my favorites, okay? Here we go.
Koduka-san is a game dev who has recently gotten fired from her job. She's drowning her sorrows in alcohol, and is unable to function or pay rent. Her landlord (the manga CALLS her a landlord, and Miss Landlord, but she's really more of a person who works at the apartment complex managing it and working with the occupants, she does not own the building) comes by to check up on her and gives her an offer on how to keep living there. The offer, at least through Koduka's drunk haze, seems to be "sleep with me, and you can stay here". So Koduka does.
Once she awakens, she immediately regrets it, and Miss Landlord gives her another offer. She can stay there with her, and if Koduka "services" her, she will consider the debt repaid.
Now I know how this sounds. It sounds fucking horrible. But trust me, this is actually a REALLY good manga. It's light and fluffy, but is built on MASSIVE misunderstandings that will eventually give way to almost slice of life pleasantness as these two live together and grow closer.
Read this manga if you like: Lots of fluff and can put up with a bit to get there, enjoy seeing "straight" girls realize "oh shit wait why DID I immediately jump to having sex with her", idiot couples, medium levels of drama
Warnings: School girls in high school, lightly echii. Nothing explicit, but they are REALLY makin' out.
Shiine and Ichika aren't quite friends. Barely even acquaintances. They know of each other, as the other... fascinates them in a way they can't explain, but they never had a chance to interact. However, at the start of the school year, they're both selected as class representatives, and thus work together on the student council. After Ichika is late to a meeting, Shiine offers to help tell her what she missed, and they begin to talk to get to know each other... and the conversation goes to kissing.
Ichika assumes Shiine has dated and kissed COUNTLESS boys, after all, she's so hot and cool. Shiine hasn't but feels embarassed and embraces the lie. So Ichika wants to know... what is it like to kiss...?
Once the two start... they fall into a routine. Once a week, sometimes even two or three times a week, after school, the two meet up and kiss each other. They're less than friends, but also more than friends. Kissing friends. Can they move past how they feel and become something even more?
Read this manga if you like: EXTREME LEVELS OF FLUFF. OVERLOAD. OVERLOAD. Girls making out with girls. Idiot couple, like holy shit REALLY BIG IDIOT COUPLE ENERGY. "THIS GIRL KEEPS ASKING ME TO MAKE OUT WITH HER EVERY DAY AFTER SCHOOL I WONDER IF SHE LIKES ME LIKE I LIKE HER"
Warnings: Light to medium drama. Abusive relationships, stalking. Homophobic and abusive fathers.
This one is Thai, so if you read it and think the vibe is different, it very much is! And so are the names. Trust me, these are the character's actual names in the story. This isn't some mistranslation.
Donut is a young girl who is just entering college. She's nerdy, not conventionally attractive, and has never really experienced love. One day she runs into an older student at the dorm washing machine, a cool lady named Mew. Mew is friendly, and maybe a little... flirty? No, that couldn't be, they're both girls! The two hit it off as friends, and find out they're actually neighbors! What a coincidence!
This is a story of their friendship as it grows into something more!
Read this if you like: Girls who are more experienced picking up "straight" girls. Simple concepts. This one doesn't have some major grand arching plot, except for some stuff involving an ex. It's not OVERLY fluffy, but it's good pleasant romance.
A Timid Woman Longing For Her Delivery Girl
Warnings: Sexual Assault in backstory. Sick grandmothers as a plot point. Mid level drama.
Ms. Takase is a woman who works from home, and rarely leaves her house. She is afraid of the outside world, and others, after she was sexually assaulted at her old work, and her coworkers blamed her for it. Now she just wants nothing more than to be alone... until her delivery girl, who brings her her weekly groceries and other things, enters her life. Rinko is a bright and cheerful girl from the boonies, and while Ms. Takase is hesitant at first, they quickly become friends... or perhaps more?
Read this if you like: Short and sweet stories. It's only three chapters long. Mid level drama, there's some heavier misunderstandings, the pre-mentioned assault, and sick loved ones.
Warnings: Age gap, mild drama, ecchi and has some smut that's easily skipped
A half human half monster girl wander the wilderness alone. She is incredibly lonely, and not mean, but her appearance causes people to run from her, and since she's a half monster, other monsters shun her. She lives in an abandoned shack full of books she's found, and reads them to herself. One day, however, she runs into a young girl who doesn't run from her. Lily, the young woman, is blind. The monster, for the first time in her life, lies, and claims she is a traveler, wandering far and wide. Lily asks her to tell her stories, and the monster recounts stories from the books she's read so that she can keep this girl as her friend. As the monster has no name, Lily names her Heath, after her favorite flower.
Read this if you like: Monster girl stuff! Mild angst. but mostly cute fluff of two girls who are DEEPLY in love with each other, one of which just happens to be a big scary monster who would die for the other.
Warnings: MAJOR age gap. One girl is a senior in high school and the other is nearing her 30s. Their relationship is "pure", but y'know, that's still massive squick.
This is a cute couple life manga about Hina-chan, a high school student, and her girlfriend, an office lady named Yayoi-san. Yayoi can't take care of herself, and Hina comes over and cooks for her and other such things. It's mostly cute sweet fluff, but has huge themes of age, maturity, and growing up.
Read this if you like: The themes of maturity and growth. Couple life manga. If you handle such a large age gap, it's actually quite good. Just y'know, illegal.
Warnings: Blackmail, kinda noncon
Ayaka is a young girl in highschool who wants to be JUST like her older brother, who is the perfect student and perfect older brother. She wants to get top marks like him and go to his college, which is REALLY hard to get into... but she's absolutely TERRIBLE at taking tests. So her teacher offers to give her a recommendation so she can get in easily, if she'll just get the delinquent, Honda-san, to actually come to school. Honda isn't your typical delinquent. She's kind of a quiet emotionless girl who just... doesn't want to come to school, possibly due to depression.
Honda learns of Ayaka's deal with the teacher, which worried Ayaka. If word gets out that she's doing favors to get a recommendation, it could kill her socially with the other students! But Honda san offers a deal. If Ayaka does whatever Honda asks her to do, once per day, then Honda won't tell anyone. And what kind of things will Honda tell her to do?
Yep! Gay things!
Read this if you like: Shockingly wholesome stuff. Like, considering how it starts with noncon kissing, it evolves in a great way. Read this if you like seeing someone come to grips with loving someone else and just being too fucking dense to realize it.
Warnings: Major angst
Nanaki and Kanade couldn't be further opposites. Nanaki is a gyaru who is OBSESSED with being the prettiest girl. She's rude and forceful, and a bit of a bully. Kanade, meanwhile, is a shy and quiet otaku wallflower. However, once Nanaki is dumped brutally by her cheating boyfriend, she can't go to any of her friends, because they're just as cruel and as big bullies as she is. So who is there to support her and give her a shoulder to cry on? The "ugly" wallflower, Kurosawa Kanade.
Thus begins Nanaki's slow character growth and transformation as she and Kanade grow closer...
Read this if you like: Major character growth plots. LOTS of angst and drama, no one in this manga is actually alright deep down.
Warnings: Very lewd
This one is interesting cause at one point, it was my #1 suggestion. I LOVED this manga. It's severeled cooled on me though, especially after it just unceremoniously ended, with the artist ending it with a big sex scene that felt a little odd, after the entirely of the manga. Anyways, the description.
Tadokoro-san is a quiet gloomy otaku in high school. She draws manga and keeps to herself. Sakurako, meanwhile, is the school idol. She's gorgeous, rich, and perfect in every way. So when Sakurako falls hopelessly in love with Tadokoro after seeing her art and how adorable she is, Tadokoro can't help but be overwhelmed.
Read this if you like: Essentially yandere, without any of the actual violence or death or anything. Sakurako is BASICALLY yandere levels of in lvoe with Tadokoro. So, read this if you like seeing really horny girls be VERY horny for other girls, because that's like 70% of this manga. Also lots of height gap and gap-moe.
Sekai de Ichiban Oppai ga Suki
Warnings: This is practically just porn, it's so ecchi.
This is one of the goofier ones I'll recommend.
i got this new anime plot. basically there's this high school girl except she's got huge boobs. i mean some serious honkers. a real set of badonkers. packin some dobonhonkeros. massive dohoonkabhankoloos. big ol' tonhongerekoogers. what happens next?! transfer student shows up with even bigger bonkhonagahoogs. humongous hungolomghononoloughongous.
In all seriousness, there's two girls. The cool prince of the school, Chiaki, and Harumi, who is a normal school girl who happens to have some serious honkers. Chiaki confesses to Harumi, but not y'know, a love confession. This isn't about love. This isn't even about sex or perversion! Chiaki just REALLY likes tits.
Chiaki must grope Harumi like, once a day, or she will run out of energy. Boobs are her recharging spot. She LIVES for boobs. This manga is so fucking stupid but I kinda like it anyway?
Read this if you like: dobonhonkeros. massive dohoonkabhankoloos. big ol' tonhongerekoogers. humongous hungolo-
Warning: MASSIVE angst. Abusive relationships. Cheating. Pregnancy. Lots of self enforced heterosexuality and internal homophobia.
Maki and Midori dated all through highschool. Come the end of highschool, however, Midori decided to call it off. After all, they were "too old" to be "playing" at that anymore, right? They had to grow up. Start a family.
Ten years later, by a chance of luck, the two run into each other again! Midori is living her dream. She's getting married, and she gets to meet her old highschool best friend again! At least, things look good... on the surface. Her marriage is worse than it looks, and re-discovering this long lost love isn't helping. Can the two of them run away together, away from all of this?
Read this if you like: Really heavy stories exploring homophobia, homosexuality, and societally enforced heterosexuality.
Warnings: None I can think of
Hinako wants to be normal. She just doesn't GET it. All her life, she's been surrounded by a society that tells her she should fall in love. But she can't. No matter what, she can't. And then she ends up getting closer to her coworker in the office, Satou-san, a serious working scary girl... and something begins to change. But it's not what society always told her it would be. What is this new feeling?
Read this if you like: Explorations of asexuality, amidst two girls falling in love with each other in a way neither of them ever expected.
Warnings: Really pushy girl with a crush
This comic is TECHNICALLY still going, but it's two chapters away from the end and you can read it early if you pay. Which I have. So it goes here.
The Demon Queen sits up at the top of her tower. Whichever adventurer can reach the stop, through 100 floors and her right generals, can take her head and gain the admiration of the human kingdom and riches beyond their wildest dreams. But to reach that point, not even just kill the queen, you have to be top of your class. And the top of the adventurer guild's school is none other than the mage Malori.
Too bad Malori has NO INTEREST in actually killing the Demon Queen and getting all that power and riches. No, she wants to marry the Demon Queen instead.
Read this if you like: Slow burn with one girl head over heels. Idiot couples. Comedy, this one is actually very funny. Video games, it's heavily inspired by JRPGs and is in an Isekai world, but is NOT actually an Isekai story, just takes place in a world where people from Earth get Isekai'd to.
Warnings: Vampires. Blood. Violence. Older than she looks age gap, though she's still mentally a child, she IS a vampire.
Ichika is a normal kid. Her grandmother, a shrine maiden, just passed away. On the day of her funeral, a strange foreign girl named Aria appears... who claims to have been her grandma's friend. She needs Ichika to do something for her, something ONLY maidens of this shrine can do. Aria wants Ichika to kill her.
What follows is a strange romance story where Ichika can't help but fall in love with the terrifying, but very attractive vampire.
Also I fucking LOVE the art in this one.
Read this if you like: Action manga spiced with yuri. Vampires and monsters. Some horror and scary themes.
Warnings: Not much tbh. Gay girl pining for straight girl? Is that a thing to warn about?
Lumiao is a senior in high school who loves dressing up in lolita fashion. One day she meets another cute student, Yuxuan, who she's CONVINCED would be perfect for lolita! Yuxuan, however, is a shy tomboy, who isn't into fashion whatsoever. But the two become friends anyway. But what is Lumiao to do when she realizes her feelings of friendship move past that... and when Yuxuan starts to develop feelings for the popular but friendly sports jock?
Read this if you like: Cute girls and lolita fashion. Gay girl pining for straight girl.
Warnings: Sick girlfriend
Yu Qi wakes one morning to find that she has traveled back in time. Now in the past, she is determined to fulfil a mission! Her future girlfriend, Yuanzi, who she didn't even know in highschool, will one day get diabetes from her terrible habits and diet. Yu Qi must not only meet Yuanzi and keep her cool about the girl she loves, but also try to save her life!
Meanwhile, in the future, Yu Qi wakes up to find that she has been transported a decade into the future. Yes, her future and past selves swap places! Now she has to tackle with the fact that she is living with a woman who claims to be her girlfriend, and that she has to do shit like work and get a stable income, while this girl she doesn't even know wastes away from illness next to her. Is she going to be able to keep it together?
Read this if you like: Supernatural stuff, themes around fate and soulmates, serious trials and themes.
About a College Girl Who Gets Picked Up At A Mixer By An Older Girl
Warnings: Age Gap, both are adults
One more for now! This one is... exactly what it sounds like on the tin. Rika is a shy but sweet college student who is invited to a mixer. The men there are kinda handsy, and she's saved by an older woman, Natsuko, who... slyly takes her out to a cafe and back home instead.
Read this if you like: Fluffy slice of life about cute couples