Yuri Anime Recommendation

[Bara_no_Hime]

I've been watching a yuri series call Sakura Trick and love the series so far. Since I'm not that familiar with the selection of yuri anime out there, I was hoping the members of the escapist could give me some recommendations on some other yuri anime. If it helps, I'm currently using a Crunchyroll free trial.

Bonus points if the title has a dub since I'm more of a dub guy.

I have no idea what is or is not on Crunchyroll, but I will throw out a few titles for you.

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Puella Magi Magical Madoka

Mai Hime (or My Hime for the Dub)

Those are top three Yuri animes that leap to mind. Utena and Madoka feature Yuri as the main relationships while Mai Hime yuri is the side relationship.

 

[coates32]

You could always check out Daughters of Mnemosyne if it's available. Seen about half of it and it doesn't seem too bad of an anime.

I've saw the entire series of Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne. I thought it wasn't bad, but wasn't really into the show.

I have no idea what is or is not on Crunchyroll, but I will throw out a few titles for you.

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Puella Magi Magical Madoka

Mai Hime (or My Hime for the Dub)

See post #17 for what I mentioned about Madoka and Utena. As for My Hime (one of my favorites), I've purchased that series a little while ago before Bandai's demise.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I don't think I've watched any Yuri anime yet, but I know of a channel that has a top 10 of best Yuri anime so you can check those out. Channel name is ChronexiaMisty.

He usually makes top 10's about multiple animes of different genres. He also talks about the small plot and shows a clip of the animes in question so maybe those top lists can help you out.

I personally have a list of backlog animes that I need to watch because of his top 10's so maybe you will find some Yuri animes from him.

 

[otakon17]

...no mention of Senki Zessho Symphogear(aka Symphogear)? For shame! There is one real yuri relationship but the undertones are all over the show for the mostly female cast. Plus, it's basically magical girls that get power armor by singing to fight eldritch horrors that can kill with a touch. Fun series overall, has two cours. I recommend it.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Certain Scientific Railgun has a lot of yuri in it, but its not exactly a romance series. Long story short, its about psychics with x-men powers living in a high tech city. Kind of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun?from=Main.ToAruKagakuNoRailgun]. It has two season, the first is dubbed and its partly slice of life, mystery, and action

Spoiler

This is my favourite Yuri.

He ain't got nothing on my favorite yuri

Spoiler

 

[SonofaJohannes]

Haven't watched all that much yuri anime, but one I enjoyed was Sasameki Koto. It's about a girl who's secretly in love with her openly gay best friend. Personally I prefer the manga though, because stuff I liked happened after the anime ended.

 

[ForumSafari]

Spoiler

This is my favourite Yuri.

Every time someone discusses yuri this is exactly what I picture. Then I think about what a great anime it would make and I feel sad.

 

[coates32]

...no mention of Senki Zessho Symphogear(aka Symphogear)? For shame! There is one real yuri relationship but the undertones are all over the show for the mostly female cast. Plus, it's basically magical girls that get power armor by singing to fight eldritch horrors that can kill with a touch. Fun series overall, has two cours. I recommend it.

I'll definitely check Symphogear, especially since Funimation got the streaming rights to it. Hopefully, it will get a home video release in the near future.

 

[Legion]

Though my weeaboo phase is long over, but isn't yuri anime usually pornographic? I guess the correct term is "shojo ai".

This is one of those things like "Otaku" where Western people use it differently than the Japanese. Yuri is the Japanese word for same sex romance between girls (Yaoi being for guys), whereas Westerners sometimes use Shoujo ai (literal translation = girl love).

So Yuri is the correct term really. It doesn't have any bearing on whether or not it is sexual in nature.

 

[Coakle]

Love Live is an idol anime with a lot of Yuri overtones.

That's the closest I can think of.

Kampfer is another one, but I don't think its got the tone you're looking for.

 

[Little Woodsman]

My standard disclaimer that my recommendations tend to be older series--

There's the Iczer series, American releases were titled Fight Iczer-oneand Iczer Reborn, plus the old Project A-Ko movies.
And let us not forget that the most stable couple in the old Sailor Moon series were lesbians.

On a somewhat more contemporary note there is a critical lesbian romance in Rio! Rainbow Gate, but I don't think there's a dub available of that....

 

[FPLOON]

Damn... Besides most of the ones that were already suggested, I can only think of Kashimashi... Granted, I'm more familiar with the manga then the anime, but I digress...

Too bad the "yuri parts" in both Bleach and Code Geass are too small to even consider recommending, anyway...

Edit: Although I don't think it's dubbed, Nyaruko does have a sub-plot involving a lesbian rival with the main female character...

 

[FireAza]

Unfortunately, there's precious little yuri anime out there, OP. Sure, there's a number with yuri overtones, but series where the focus is romantic relationships between girls? You can count them on one hand:
Candy Boy (this one is REALLY good, amazing animation too. It's only 5 episodes long though, and the episodes are short!)
Sasameki Koto (this series almost doesn't count, since it ends just when the two girls might get together)
Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl
Sweet Blue Flowers
Sakura Trick

 

[coates32]

I can't speak for dubs, but I can probably give you a good amount of recommendations for anime.

Spoiler: For straight up romance:

Aoi Hana: The anime sadly doesn't get very far before ending, so I'd recommend picking up the manga with it since you won't be satisfied otherwise, but this is a really sweet story about a high school girl dealing wit her romantic life and her feelings over her best friend.

Sasameki Koto: Again, you should probably pick up the manga too, but this is also pretty good and more focused on comedy than Aoi Hana. The protagonist is in love with her best friend who in turn is attracted to cute girls, the problem being that the protagonist is a strong, tall martial arts master who isn't considered cute. They meet an openly gay couple at their school and start a club focused on yuri (can't remember what they actually call it).

Candy Boy: I'll warn you that this involves incest so steer clear if you're not okay with that, but this is about fraternal twins dorming together and pretty much constantly flirting with each other. Also, all the side characters (there's more attention spent on them in the manga) are openly in love with or in relationships with one of the other girls.

Spoiler: Now for comedy and slice of life focused ones with yuri under or overtones:

Yuru Yuri: The yuri pretty much amounts to flirting and attraction for the sake of comedy, but it's pretty funny and pretty much everyone's gay for someone else (or just someone who likes fantasizing about it).

Yuyushiki: Again, the yuri is pretty much there for laughs (it's intentional on the characters' parts), but it's funny and they dip into the yuri a good amount.

Kiniro Mosaic: This is more cute than funny, and there's nothing overt. Shino has a fetish for blonde, British girls (including the two blonde characters), Aya(ya) is tsundere for Youko, and Alice (one of the blondes) has a fetish for Japanese things (she sees Shino as the most Japanese in Japan).

Spoiler: And now for more actiony shows with yuri as more of a side aspect:

Akuma no Riddle: This ones actually started this season and it's about assassins who attend a school for the sake of a job to kill one of their classmates. While there hasn't been anything too overt in the anime so far: one's a lesbian version of Jack the Ripper who takes sexual pleasure in killing girls, one pretty much constantly flirts with her roommate who she's always holding hands with, and one gets turned on from seeing naked girls with scars. And that's without the whole premise of the story being what amounts to the hero just deciding to protect the damsel for no practical reason.

Strike Witches: If you can get passed the fanservice (there's a lot), it can be a pretty good show with a good magitech war story, who also happens to have a lot of yuri in it. The protagonist develops a particular fetish as time goes on, one character is crushing on her superior officer, and two of the others are always together.

Vividred Operation: Like Strike Witches, there's no problem with dropping this due to the fanservice, and it's pretty much Strike Witches if it took place slightly in the future and the magic powers required you to kiss each other.

Saki: It's more sports than action (mahjong, but epic and involving magic), and again the fanservice can be a bit ridiculous, but the main characters spend a lot of time staring at each other and blushing, while pretty much every other team has one couple amongst its members, most of which are more popular than the main characters.

Jormungand: The yuri mostly involves the protagonist and one of her bodyguards who is completely devoted to, and in love with, her and often sleeps in the same room/bed as her. Several other female characters also act pretty flirty with each other. Other than that though, it's a really good action show about arms merchants in full, gritty detail.

Bodacious Space Pirates: Most of it is subtext between the protagonist and some of the other main characters, but I will say actual yuri shows up later on. And, again, it's a pretty good show about pirates in space even without that.

Rinne no Lagrange: The creator apparently wanted to put in more yuri and make it much more overt, but even without that the three main characters are pretty much in a polyamorous relationship by the end of it, to the point their classmates make a movie about two of them. Other than that it's a pretty good (and incredibly optimistic) show about magic mechs fighting the mechs from two other planets.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear: Combine a (somewhat) diverse set of music with Super Sentai and have several of the characters be in what amounts to romantic relationships with each other and you've got this. It had some good music and some decent action, and I hear it's actually getting a third season.

And, of course, there's Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which won the best your award from one website despite not actually having yuri in it. You don't want information on this beyond that bit of prodding you into watching it because of spoilers, but the yuri's pretty much there.

But, if you want more outright, no subtext yuri, you're best bet is to look more towards manga and doujins since they absolutely drown the anime that exists. Things like Yuri Hime, Hirari, Tsubomi, and so on are the usual anthologies for these things.

I already own all of Lagrange and Bodacious Space Pirates, and while I wasn't necessarily for Strike Witches-style of fanservice, I did enjoy the first season of that show. (It should be mentioned that I own season 1 of Queen's Blade on blu-ray). I think I'll give Yuyushiki a shot later this week along with Akuma no Riddle. Thanks for all recommendations.

 

[rellirell313]

Basically, there are 2 sites that have a longggggggggggggggggggggggggggg list of anime that are yuri based. The first one have a ridiculous list of anime where shoujo-ai/yuri is clear visible, less visible but mostly a side plot, and is overall about girls friendship though it might have shoujo-ai/yuri hints or not. The second one will have a more detail explanation of how much the girls go at it in each anime.

http://www.hongfire.com/forum/showthread.php/18742-Shoujo-Ai-Anime-List-(Last-update-02-20-2008)
yurination.wordpress.com/the-yuri-list/ (I recommend this one because it has reviews of most of them)

 

[Dr. Cakey]

...no mention of Senki Zessho Symphogear(aka Symphogear)? For shame! There is one real yuri relationship but the undertones are all over the show for the mostly female cast. Plus, it's basically magical girls that get power armor by singing to fight eldritch horrors that can kill with a touch. Fun series overall, has two cours. I recommend it.

I'll definitely check Symphogear, especially since Funimation got the streaming rights to it. Hopefully, it will get a home video release in the near future.

I'll second the Symphogear recommendation. It's delightfully pseudo-dark, the first season's plot collapses like a dream, and when it's gross it's exactly my wavelength of gross. Yes those are all positives. Second season isn't quite as good, I think, but the visuals and music are a little better so I guess it's a wash. However, Funimation never even bothered licensing the second season, so I wouldn't expect a dub or physical release for the first season...ever, really.

First, I want to thank everyone for their recommendations so far and I really appreciate it. I know I wasn't very specific in what I was looking for in a yuri title. The reason for that is that, outside of lolis and hentai, I'm open to trying out whatever is out there.

I knew someone was going to recommend Utena at some point. I've tried that series, but I had a hard time getting into it due to it's bizarrely heavy (and cryptic) amounts of symbolism. I did thought the main character was cool though.

I don't think Utena is the kind of show that demands you ~interpret~ it. That is, it's deep as a seven-layer cake and twice as delicious, but the through-line is pretty straightforward. You can try to puzzle out the show's obsession with monkeys if you want or take a stab at interpreting song lyrics if you're dumb, but in terms of symbolism the show is trying to be fun first and foremost. The real challenge of Utena, I think, is its structure. It's serialized like Sailor Moon or Kamen Rider - the kind of show you tune in to once a week rather than consume in a big batch.

Also, it's at its core about a romantic relationship between two girls but it's not very yuri at all. It's no Sakura Trick, anyway.

Uh, and but so anyway, skimming recommendations in this thread, I can give a slightly tentative thumbs-up to Saki, which takes what seems to be a very convoluted game whose rules I still do not understand in the least and manages to be fun anyway. The yuri is pretty milquetoast but...that's kinda par for the course. I'd also give a hard (but qualified) thumbs-down to Akuma no Riddle. Hard because I am rarely that un-entertained by an anime, but qualified because it's yuri written by a woman, which all yuri originally was. I guess that's not much of a qualification? Anyway, what the hell, maybe you'll like it. There's a guy I talked to for five minutes at a con who like it. Of course, he also like Black Bullet so, uh, I wouldn't call him a beacon of good taste, but that's at least one person who liked Akuma no Riddle.

...

...

...there's...there's also, um, there's also one other show I can't not mention. You might...just maybe...want to take a glance at Yuri Kuma Arashi. It's airing right now, and it's by the guy who made Utena, but it's...very yuri. Very, very yuri. Having not seen past the first episode of Sakura Trick...probably more yuri than Sakura Trick. But deep. Very very deep and symbolic. And it has bears.

I know at least two Escapist members have described it as possibly the worst anime they've ever seen, so it comes with that ringing endorsement, too.