I don't know what you're talking about. Beside the male co-worker, none male are bastard at all and i prefer having some het girls then having the classic "all lesbian" trope.
Right, this manga might just raised my heterophobia level a lot. This is more like het story with bisexual main couple, not yuri. Lots of het + bisexual main heroines. And it could not be other way, since it is sell out successful manga, so Morinaga had to make it this way to make it more "acceptable". While this fact is really sad - I understand this, Morinaga wanted money(not so much I guess, but still) and fame(mostly). You need to add trendy "society acceptable" crap to sell your stories.
But, such attitude - "Oh, I almost got raped by a guy while being drunk in love hotel, so... I will try girls instead" by Akko, and - "Oh, my beloved girl act like a het bitch, so... I will hook up with a male" - by Mari. Such attitude I do not like, it made me really mad, acting as trendy bitches. Certainly I can't call this true yuri. Overall this story is not yuri, but just about trendy bisexual bitches who failed to meet a guy and thus they stick with a girl, for now. May be later in their life they will go for the males again, may be not, depends.
Okay, I didn't wanna join in, but this is just ridiculous... Neither Akko nor Mari have ever displayed a real interest in boys. They didn't figure out their sexuality right away, but there is absolutely not a single shred of evidence that they are bisexual. It wasn't forced in there and has no relevance. This is the stage in their lives where they figure themselves out and in this context thinking that their feelings might be romantic is hard to swallow. Mari realized it, but she was afraid of Akko's rejection so she made some mistakes. That doesn't mean she ever cared about boys.
This is just a realistic depiction of such situations (minus the "friend kiss" part). These plot points have literally nothing to do with sales or fame... what a ridiculous thing to assert.
Heteronormativity is a thing and that the friends are hetero is not a problem at all. You are literally ignorant if you believe this bullshit about "May be later in their life they will go for the males again, may be not, depends." Did you even read the manga? Do you remotely understand what their relationship is like by the end? There is absolutely no reason to think they would break up. They didn't "settle" on going out with a girl as a replecament for failing with guys, they love each other.
I have never seen such a blatantly bad reading of this plot before. It's beyond baffling. You already revealed your heterophobia, so I guess that makes your thinking a bit more unreasonable, but this story is 100% yuri in every facette. It's the love story of two girls who fall for another girl. They end up dating and have a solid relationship. It's yuri. For fucks sake.
