I am trying to find whose main protagonists in a Yuri are homosexuals out right. NO excuses, no explanations, I made nine of my favorites and perhaps you can add a 10th one,
A..Prism: HIkaru confesses that she likes girls and it is gross.
B. I favor the villainess: Rae came out in front of friends.
C. Citrus: Yuzu states that she just happened to fall in love with a girl (pansexual), while Mei showed extreme discomfort being kissed by the hot teacher Amamiya. No problem handling Yuzu though.
D. Fragments of Love .MIka, that's isays all, confessed and sleeps with older women.
E.. An Absurd Relationship. Emma is the boss in charge!
F. How to break a triangle (Al three protagonists are in a lesbian love triangle),
G My girlfriend's' not here today. Nanase, Yuni and Fuuko call came out one way or another.
H The sister's best friend, my lover. (Kiku being lesbian stalker of Sena)

I am trying to find whose main protagonists in a Yuri are homosexuals out right. NO excuses, no explanations, I made nine of my favorites and perhaps you can add a 10th one,
A..Prism: HIkaru confesses that she likes girls and it is gross.
B. I favor the villainess: Rae came out in front of friends.
C. Citrus: Yuzu states that she just happened to fall in love with a girl (pansexual), while Mei showed extreme discomfort being kissed by the hot teacher Amamiya. No problem handling Yuzu though.
D. Fragments of Love .MIka, that's isays all, confessed and sleeps with older women.
E.. An Absurd Relationship. Emma is the boss in charge!
F. How to break a triangle (Al three protagonists are in a lesbian love triangle),
G My girlfriend's' not here today. Nanase, Yuni and Fuuko call came out one way or another.
H The sister's best friend, my lover. (Kiku being lesbian stalker of Sena)

That’s a pretty subjective distinction. As one extreme example, in Miss Sunflower, a series that some purists might argue isn’t even explicitly yuri let alone lesbian, the very first thing out of MC Matsuri’s mouth is a confession to Miss Sunflower, and she never swerves from that over 100+ chapters.

I take the point, though. There are also the distinctions among characters who are “out only to the themselves,” “out to one or a few besties,” and (the fairly rare) “out to everybody.”

Yuri does feature a lot of Single-Target Sexuality (character is in love with a specific woman rather than generally loves women), which may cover Mei’s case in Citrus.

last edited at Sep 1, 2024 10:13AM

I mean, Mei's discomfort isn't much of an indication in either way, seeing how it has little to do with the teacher being a man and all about him simply being a horrible person regardless of gender.

I mean, Mei's discomfort isn't much of an indication in either way, seeing how it has little to do with the teacher being a man and all about him simply being a horrible person regardless of gender.

Well, we’re not entirely sure that Mei even knows the word “lesbian” let alone if she would ever apply it to herself.

• Ayaka, from "Ayaka is in love with Hiroko." Some others from that series too.
• Akari, from "Even Though We're Adults"
• All the women from "Straight Girl Trap"
• Same from "How do we Relationship"

Definitely, a lot more but those are the first few that popped up immediately.

last edited at Sep 1, 2024 9:51AM

OP are you looking for characters that specifically talk about being gay as opposed to the "single target sexuality" that Blastaar mentioned which is extremely common in manga?
You should check the Coming Out tag if you haven't already: https://dynasty-scans.com/tags/coming_out

"How Do We Relationship" is a funny example because there's a scene where the protagonists both claim to be bi while teasingly accusing each other of being lesbian, and then they both separately look at a male friend and go "....nahhhh, they really can't compare to being with women..."

I’d still say that series where both protagonists start the story as self-aware lesbians are uncommon, and where they’re out (to any degree) even less so.

The “third-wheel,” on the other hand, might be an “out, at least somewhat experienced lesbian” as often as not. (Hence my self-coined term for the character type, “Tomolo”: The Other, More Overtly Lesbian One.)

The request and examples are ambiguous. Do you want lesbians or WLW -- you say homosexuals but then include pan Yuzu.

But there are lots and lots of WLW. Really, it's kind of the yuri default these days?

last edited at Sep 1, 2024 10:25AM

The request and examples are ambiguous. Do you want lesbians or WLW -- you say homosexuals but then include pan Yuzu.

But there are lots and lots of WLW. Really, it's kind of the yuri default these days?

Are you using "WLW" to describe characters that are shown to be attracted/in a relationship with another woman but aren't explicitly stated to be lesbian? Is that a standard use for that term?

I'm assuming they mean women who are clear about being lesbian, are involved in the community, use that language, and don't say things like "I love you for you," or "it doesn't matter who you are." I thought they meant stories where the characters are openly gay and will say that explicitly. There was a recent conversation about this in the "Whisper Me a Love Song" thread about how a good amount of yuri manga will avoid direct language and such. Those examples they showed seemed to be about that. Maybe I interpreted the intent wrong though.

last edited at Sep 1, 2024 10:45AM

I'm assuming they mean women who are clear about being lesbian, use that language, and don't say things like "I love you for you." I thought they meant stories where the characters are openly gay and will say that. I think there was a conversation about this in the "Whisper Me a Love Song" thread recently.

Yeah that's what I'm assuming OP is talking about but I was asking Rainbow8 specifically about "Do you want lesbians or WLW?", which makes "lesbian" and "WLW" distinct terms with different definitions.

And yeah I was in the middle of that Whisper Me a Love Song thread lol

last edited at Sep 1, 2024 10:47AM

I'm assuming they mean women who are clear about being lesbian, use that language, and don't say things like "I love you for you." I thought they meant stories where the characters are openly gay and will say that. I think there was a conversation about this in the "Whisper Me a Love Song" thread recently.

Yeah that's what I'm assuming OP is talking about but I was asking Rainbow8 specifically about "Do you want lesbians or WLW?", which makes "lesbian" and "WLW" distinct terms with different definitions.

Yeah, I caught that. I guess for them they see a distinction.

I’d still say that series where both protagonists start the story as self-aware lesbians are uncommon, and where they’re out (to any degree) even less so.

The “third-wheel,” on the other hand, might be an “out, at least somewhat experienced lesbian” as often as not. (Hence my self-coined term for the character type, “Tomolo”: The Other, More Overtly Lesbian One.)

I think that's to be expected, what with a lot (I'd wager the majority) of manga being about teenagers, which is the time of sexual awakening for most people.
We are commonly following their journey of self-discovery, and if their sexuality deviates from the majority, that will often be when it becomes noticeable (to both the individual and others).

Series where both protagonists start aware and/or outed are really rare indeed. With regards to series where one of the two is aware and/or out, I'd add Arioto and Warikan.
Can't Defy the Lonely Girl is another potential candidate, and they do have at least a partial coming-out.

last edited at Sep 1, 2024 10:51AM

The request and examples are ambiguous. Do you want lesbians or WLW -- you say homosexuals but then include pan Yuzu.

But there are lots and lots of WLW. Really, it's kind of the yuri default these days?

Are you using "WLW" to describe characters that are shown to be attracted/in a relationship with another woman but aren't explicitly stated to be lesbian? Is that a standard use for that term?

Yes and yes.

Series where both protagonists start aware and/or outed are really rare indeed. With regards to series where one of the two is aware and/or out, I'd add Arioto and Warikan.
Can't Defy the Lonely Girl is another potential candidate, and they do have at least a partial coming-out.

The Moon on a Rainy Night is another one. Saki is very much aware that she's a lesbian and was previously crushing on her piano teacher before falling for Kanon.

last edited at Sep 1, 2024 11:01AM

The request and examples are ambiguous. Do you want lesbians or WLW -- you say homosexuals but then include pan Yuzu.

But there are lots and lots of WLW. Really, it's kind of the yuri default these days?

Are you using "WLW" to describe characters that are shown to be attracted/in a relationship with another woman but aren't explicitly stated to be lesbian? Is that a standard use for that term?

Yes and yes.

Thanks for letting me know. I'd always seen "WLW media" used as an interchangeable term with "lesbian media" or "yuri" and "Girls' Love" when talking specifically about manga.

Series where both protagonists start aware and/or outed are really rare indeed

Only somewhat rare in manga. In Korean and Chinese series it's mostly the opposite in my experience. Less school stuff, more older characters, more aware of themselves. I think if OP is looking for these kinds of characters they could read more of those series.

last edited at Sep 1, 2024 11:07AM

Everyday Lily fits the bill here. It’s a romance between two lesbians, one of whom has been actively dating women for years, and the other of which has been in the closet since high school and is obsessed with yuri manga to cope.

Takemiya Jin's works generally fall under this category. Most of her lead characters are lesbian and never question it. I think Fragments of Love is the only one of her serials I can think of offhand that deals with a leading character who doesn't explicitly self-define as lesbian at the start, and even then she's sharing the spotlight with another character who does.

Takemiya Jin's works generally fall under this category. Most of her lead characters are lesbian and never question it. I think Fragments of Love is the only one of her serials I can think of offhand that deals with a leading character who doesn't explicitly self-define as lesbian at the start, and even then she's sharing the spotlight with another character who does.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'd somehow never read any of her work and added several of her most popular works to my Plan to Read list.

I didn't do any actual statistical analysis, but it feels like if you'd plot yuri protagonists and their love interests from the 90s to now in terms of "outspoken lesbianess", you got way more that are decisively and vocally lesbotic now, and with fewer and fewer that are kinda ambiguous or only "single target", sometimes even just "temporary" with each batch of new manga releases. Give it another few years ...

An interesting(?) inverse of the concept is maybe Transistor Enus, where the heroine is clearly saying she's into women (and young boys, okay, don't judge, she might be a catholic priest), but there's this one guy she has a romantic interest in (nothing comes of it but it's there).

The first character who comes to my mind as "unapologetic yuri protagonist" is Kanako Miyamae from Maria†Holic. Some people probably won't even consider that yuri, but c'mon, she is as unapologetic as it gets.

Next up would be Makihara Midori from Scape-God, and that was the moment I noticed I probably suck at this task.

Here's some curveballs:
Murcielago by Yoshimurakana. You want no excuses then this protagonist is the best lesbian on earth. They even joke about this with her girlfriend, who at one point insists she's NOT a lesbian and only loves her gf for who she is... but later says she wouldn't date her if she were a man because then she wouldn't have boobs. The person she's talking to in both scenes thinks "yeah you're obviously a lesbian". This is an officially licensed series.

Romance Girls File by Akiko Morishima is about two adult lesbians working as mentors for two teenagers, it's really cute.
https://dynasty-scans.com/series/romance_girls_file

Seifuku no Vampiress Lord by Matsumoto Tomoki. A male vampire converts a teenage girl only to find she has zero interest in him because she's a lesbian who already has a girlfriend.
https://dynasty-scans.com/series/seifuku_no_vampiress_lord

last edited at Sep 1, 2024 4:38PM

Takemiya Jin's works generally fall under this category. Most of her lead characters are lesbian and never question it. I think Fragments of Love is the only one of her serials I can think of offhand that deals with a leading character who doesn't explicitly self-define as lesbian at the start, and even then she's sharing the spotlight with another character who does.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'd somehow never read any of her work and added several of her most popular works to my Plan to Read list.

Oh my, Takemiya-sensei’s works are a very particular flavor but, IMO, highly recommended.