Girls Love (GL) anime, also called ‘Shoujo Ai’ as well the popular urban word, ‘Yuri’ refers to anime of lesbian interest. Anime is Japanese for animation which consists of hand-drawn and computer art works that only originate in Japan.
Anime has been popular in Japan since 1917 and has rapidly found its way across the world. Netflix has its own Anime section as well as other western streaming platforms.
Anime books are as popular as the anime series and movies. Here we have found a list of lesbian anime for you to enjoy whether it be books (which are read from right to left in traditional Anime/manga style, micro series or movies.
Try something a little different!
Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto) [2011]
Sumika Murasame is a high school girl who is in love with her female best friend Ushio Kazama, but is unable to confess how she feels as Ushio only likes girls she considers to be “cute” and “small”, while Sumika is tall and athletic. Sumika discovers one of her classmates, a boy named Masaki Akemiya who likes her, started cross-dressing to catch her attention, but inadvertently was hired as a model.
Sumika and Ushio get to know two girls in their class who are a couple, Tomoe Hachikusa and Miyako Taema; Tomoe wants to start a “girl’s club” where only lesbians can join but is wrought with opposition. Sumika agrees to go on one date with Masaki, who comes cross-dressed as his female persona Akemi Yamasaki.
Sumika becomes involved with her classmate Azusa Aoi, a quiet girl and aspiring writer who plans to attend a dōjinshi convention fueled by her love of yuri author Orino Masaka, which is the pen name of Ushio’s older brother Norio. Sumika gets roped into helping Azusa and attending the summer convention as well, despite wanting to spend time with Ushio.
Watch full episodes of ‘Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto)’ on YouTube
Buy ‘Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto)’ on DVD on Amazon
Buy the ‘Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto) Book Volume 1 on Amazon
Tokyo Love ~ Rica ‘tte Kanji! [2012]
Rica ‘tte Kanji!? story revolves around the main character Rica, a new student at a Women’s Junior College in Tokyo. Having never met another openly lesbian individual before, Rica visits Shinjuku Ni-chōme, Tokyo’s gay and lesbian district.
On her first night there, she makes several new friends, including Miho, a fine arts college student who eventually becomes Rica’s girlfriend. Each chapter presents a slice of Rica’s life, such as going on dates, preparing for Christmas, or doing college work.
Buy the ‘Tokyo Love ~ Rica ‘tte Kanji!’ book on Amazon
12 Days [2006]
For the first eight chapters, 12 Days centers on Jackie Yuen, a 29-year-old part Cantonese and part Korean editor. After the death of her former lover, the Korean American school nurse Noah Yoon, she decides to drink her ashes over twelve days in beverages as a way of coping with her grief. Nicholas “Nick” Yoon, Noah’s younger half brother, steals some of Noah’s ashes for her to use, and soon joins her in mourning.
She reminisces on how she met her and became involved in a lesbian relationship; however, Noah ended their relationship to marry a man to appease her father, and died returning from her honeymoon in a car accident a month ago.
As Jackie continues her ritual, she begins to feel ill and eventually faints. Nick takes her to the hospital, where she recovers. On New Year’s Day, she parts from Nick and returns to her apartment to find that he has taken the engagement ring she had wanted to give Noah, and unknown to her, he mixes it in with the remaining ashes.
Buy the ’12 Days’ anime book on Amazon
Claudine [1978]
Transgender interest. Claudine is a shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Riyoko Ikeda. It was serialized in two issues of Shueisha’s Weekly Margaret magazine in January 1978 and later published in a single tankōbon volume under the Margaret Comics imprint on May 20, 1978. Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the series for an English-language release in North America, published on June 26, 2018. Claudine is notable for being one of the earliest manga to feature a transgender protagonist.
The story is narrated by an unnamed psychiatrist as he reflects on the life and loves of Claude, the child of an aristocratic French family in the early 20th century. Assigned female at birth, Claude (born and often referred to throughout the story as Claudine) has identified as a boy since the age of eight; Claude’s parents take him to the psychiatrist, who befriends Claude after confirming that he is in good health.
As a teenager, Claude falls in love with Maura, a servant in his family’s house. Though Maura loves him in turn, she goes back to her home after the death of her father. As a high school student, Claude falls in love with Cecilia, a librarian at his school. Cecilia does not reciprocate his feelings, and is, in fact, secretly having an affair with Claude’s father, Auguste; Louis, Cecilia’s brother who himself had an affair with Auguste in his youth, kills Cecilia and Auguste out of jealousy.
Later, as he works towards his master’s degree, Claude falls in love with a ballet dancer name Sirène. The two begin a relationship, though Sirène eventually falls in love with and becomes engaged to one of Claude’s brothers. Believing that his female body makes him an “imperfect man”, and with a final appeal to Sirène having been ignored, Claude falls into despair and commits suicide. In a closing narration, the psychiatrist confides to the audience that he has “no hesitation” in his belief that Claude is transgender.
Buy the ‘Claudine’ manga book on Amazon
Adachi and Shimamura [2012]
First-year high school student Sakura Adachi skips class and sits upstairs in the school gym to pass time and distract herself. She meets Hougetsu Shimamura, a girl who also skips class.
They begin to play ping-pong, spend a lot of time together and become great friends. Eventually, they both decide to return to classes. Through these interactions, Adachi has trouble expressing her feelings to Shimamura, while Shimamura feels like Adachi is merely a friend to her.
Buy ‘Adachi and Shimamura’ Volume 1 on Amazon
Candy Boy [2007]
Yukino and Kanade Sakurai, twin sisters and natives from Hokkaido, move together to a student residence in Tokyo to attend high school leaving their younger sister, Shizuku “Shi-chan” alone with their parents.
Sakuya Kamiyama, a first year student, seeks out and stalks Kanade, saying that she’s in love with her and will do anything to be with her, she pays Yukino with candies in exchange of photos and personal stuff of her sister. Later, Kanade feels that the close relationship between Yukino and her is falling apart because of their lack of spending time due to her schoolwork and Yukino’s part-time job.
Watch Episode 1 of ‘Candy Boy’ on YouTube for free
Buy the ‘Candy Boy Volume 1’ DVD on Amazon
Strawberry Panic! [2006]
The plot of Strawberry Panic! revolves around the lives of the adolescents who attend one of three affiliated all-girl schools which share a campus and dormitories. The schools are: St. Miator’s Girls’ Academy, St. Spica’s Girls’ Institute, and St. Lulim’s Girls’ School. There are twelve characters the story revolves around, four at each school. The story’s main character is Nagisa Aoi, a young girl entering her fourth year at St. Miator after being transferred from another school.
On first entering the campus grounds, she is overcome with joy by the overall appearance of the surrounding area, but her joy is soon turned to sorrow as she accidentally stumbles down a hill, causing her to be lost and disoriented. While walking around the grounds trying to work out where she is, Nagisa comes across an older student named Shizuma Hanazono, who happens to be Astraea Hill’s Etoile, a very important person who acts as a representative between the different schools and has specific duties that she must fulfill. Nagisa is instantly overcome by Shizuma’s beauty, and after Shizuma kisses her on the forehead, Nagisa loses consciousness and awakens in the school’s infirmary.
In an adjacent chair is another girl of the same age, Tamao Suzumi, who informs her that they are to be roommates in the dormitory.
Watch the Trailer for Strawberry Panic! on YouTube
Watch Episode 1 of ‘Strawberry Panic!’ for free on Daily Motion
Buy the complete series of ‘Strawberry Panic!’ on DVD on Amazon
Buy the Complete Book series of ‘Strawberry Panic!’ on Amazon
First Love Sisters [2003]
During a visit to Tsunojo Girls’ Academy, Chika Matsuzato meets the girl of her dreams, cool upperclassman Haruna Kizaki. Even though they spent only one short day together, Chika will never forget Haruna’s kindness, and has made it her life’s goal to study hard and get accepted into Tsunojo Girls’ School so that they can be together.
However, things do not go as smoothly as Chika had planned when she finally arrives.
I’m in Love with the Villainess [2020]
Oohashi Rei, an ordinary office worker, is overworked to death and suddenly finds herself reincarnated as Rae Taylor, the heroine of her favorite otome game, Revolution.
However, Rae has no interest in the game’s three original romance routes with the Blume Kingdom’s princes. Instead, she sets her heart on Claire François, the game’s main antagonist. Using her knowledge of the game’s events that are yet to come, Rae tries to give Claire a happy ending before the coming revolution destroys any chance of it happening.
Buy Volume 1 of the ‘I’m in Love with the Villainess’ book on Amazon
Chirality [1995]
Chirality is a 4-volume yuri manga series written and illustrated by author Satoshi Urushihara. The story is set in a not too distant future, in which Earth has been overrun by a horrifying technovirus. Mechanical parasites, mistakenly created in an attempt to advance technology, attach themselves to human spinal cords and turn their hosts into cyborgs, called GM.
The Original GM were created by Gaia, a program designed by humans to regulate nature. Gaia malfunctioned and started creating their own GM. Currently, Gaia is repairing parts of it that were damaged, and once this is done, it will attempt to destroy the Earth.
Desperate to rid themselves of this technological terror, the remaining human survivors try to band together and learn to defend themselves against these android enemies.
Carol is an artificial being that was created specifically to save mankind. Unfortunately, in her youth she suffered greatly at the hands of the very humans she sought to save, and lost sight of her mission. Only through the kindness of one human girl named Shiori was Carol able to find her focus and a reason to save the world; for Shiori’s sake.
The two reunite years later, as Carol saves Shiori from her friend Elena, who was tragically infected with the parasitic virus. Although Shiori doesn’t remember Carol at first, Carol remembers Shiori and stops at nothing to protect her and express her love for her. Though Shiori is uncomfortable and embarrassed with Carol at first, she quickly grows to return her feelings. However, the two soon find out that their deep love isn’t just a small matter between the two of them; it’ll be a big factor in saving the entire world.
Buy the ‘Chirality’ Chapter 1 Book on Amazon
Citrus [2012]
Yuzu Aihara, a fashionable, spontaneous and fun-loving city girl, transfers to a new neighborhood and high school after her mother’s remarriage to another man.
More preoccupied with boys and shopping than studying, Yuzu struggles to fit in at the conservative all-girls school and frequently clashes with the student council, specifically Mei Aihara, the hard-working, beautiful but cold student council president.
As it turns out, Mei happens to be Yuzu’s new stepsister and Yuzu finds herself having to share a bedroom with a girl she absolutely can’t stand.
The series follows the evolution of the relationship between the two girls, with the animosity slowly lessening as the two begin to learn more about each other and confusion growing as Yuzu discovers that she is starting to develop romantic feelings for her new stepsister.
Watch the Official Trailer for ‘Citrus’ on YouTube
Buy Citrus – The Complete Series [Blu-ray] on Amazon
Bloom into You [2018]
Yuu has always loved shoujo manga and awaits the day she gets a love confession that sends her heart aflutter with bubbles and blushes, and yet when a junior high classmate confesses his feelings to her…she feels nothing.
Disappointed and confused, Yuu enters high school still unsure how to respond. That’s when Yuu sees the beautiful student council president Nanami turn down a suitor with such maturity that she’s inspired to ask her for help.
But when the next person to confess to Yuu is Nanami herself. Has her shoujo romance finally begun?
Watch the Official Trailer for Bloom Into You on YouTube
Buy the ‘Bloom Into You’ DVD on Amazon
Get the ‘Bloom Into You’ Book (Volume 1) on Amazon
Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl [2004]
After being rejected by the girl he loves, Hazumu goes to the mountains to console himself.
A crashing alien spaceship lands on him. The aliens regenerate his body. However, they could only make him into a girl.
Buy the Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl DVD on Amazon
Buy the ‘Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl’ Omnibus book on Amazon
Flip Flappers [2016]
Cocona is a seemingly ordinary middle school student living a normal life with her grandmother. As she ponders over what future career she should take up, she meets an energetic yet eccentric girl named Papika, who immediately takes an interest in Cocona. Without hesitation, she drags her into an organization called Flip Flap.
This organization specializes in retrieving mysterious, amorphous fragments which are said to grant wishes from various alternate dimensions known as Pure Illusion. After completing their first mission, Cocona and Papika are immediately sent to another world in Pure Illusion. As a dangerous creature stalks them, they use their shards to transform into magical girls, Cocona into Pure Blade and Papika into Pure Barrier.
However, as they try to defeat the creature standing before them, three other magical girls from a rival organization barge in and slay the creature, later taking out an amorphous fragment left in its body. Realizing the potential rivalry between them and the rival organization and creatures living in Pure Illusion, Cocona and Papika must learn to work together and synchronize their feelings so that they can transform more effectively.
Buy ‘Flip Flappers’ on DVD on Amazon
Credit and thanks to IMDb, Wikipedia and Amazon for synopsis.
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