With the year over halfway over, we regret to look back and see that the Japan Gay Guide has been light on yuri anime content. While shipping characters who are not in an explicitly yuri anime continues forever (or at least, we hope so), what about 2025’s yuri anime?
Let’s take a look through the released and still upcoming yuri anime for anyone who has more than a passing interest in the lily.
This Monster Wants to Eat Me
Keen readers who noted JGG’s disdain for Baban Baban Ban Vampire may balk at our anticipation for This Monster Wants to Eat Me, which has a somewhat similar theme. Based on Sai Naekawa’s manga of the same name, the story follows the story of Hinako, a young woman who lost her family, and has been seriously considering taking an early exit.
But one day, she meets a mermaid, who tells her that her flesh and blood, once matured, are delicious to monsters. In return for protecting her from other monsters until she reaches the age that she will be most delicious, then eat her up. Hinako agrees, and the horror-romance journey begins.
The difference between this and the aforementioned dire vampire (vamdire?) show. Well, consent is the main thing! Hinako enters into her contract with a supernatural creature of her own free will, and they develop a relationship wile understanding exactly what the deal is. Readers of the manga are also excited to see it come to the screen as it has similarities to the acclaimed The Summer Hikaru Died. While it is apparently not quite as surreal, it is still a beloved queer horror romance, so definitely one to mark down for this fall.
Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games
While it might be considered yuri “bait” by some, fans are clear that this is the real deal. The backdrop is an elite all-girls school, where videogames of any kind are banned. nevertheless, some of these girls learning to be upstanding young ladies want to put the “EVO” into “devoted.”
Based on the manga of the same name by Eri Ejima, the series follows Aya, an outgoing young woman who hides her affinity for frame-perfect parries and infinite combos, until, she comes across class beauty Shirayuki. The opposite of Aya, Shirayuki is calm, collected, and serene — until someone puts a fight stick in her hand, and then all bets are off.
While not explicitly romantic, the tension between the two leads is so palpable to readers that it might be considered a yuri videogame equivalent of Yuri on Ice: a sports anime with unstated but obvious queer undertones. With a rumored Street Fighter 6 crossover, this is definitely one to get hype for — maybe even consider buying the fighter’s pass.
Bad Girl
This anime, which started streaming in July of this year, is based on the four-panel comedy manga series by the pseudonymous Nikumaru. It stars the intelligent, hard-working, kind and thoughtful Yuu Yuutani, who, upon seeing the drop-dead gorgeous Atori Mizutori, the school’s disciplinary chairwoman, resolves to get her attention in the fastest, most effective way possible: by becoming a bad girl!
The fun of this anime and its preceding manga is in watching the good two-shoes Yuu struggling to be naughty in order to make senpai notice her, even as every fiber of her being is crying out to do the right thing. Watching characters play against type is always funny: and especially as Yuu doesn’t really know how to be bad, her efforts are even more absurd and amusing.
If you’ve ever been a teen with a crush, and fondly cringe when looking back at how you went about things, then this will bring back fond memories, as well as laughs. And if you are a teen doing cringe things to get your crush’s attention? We wish you the best of luck. Go get ‘em!
There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless…
Adapted from the light novel series by Teren Mikami, this series follows our leading lady Renako Aomori, who enters high school filled with regret, after she spent her middle school years as a student who never attended school, and has no friends. Determined to make the most of her time, she befriends the most popular girl in school, Mai Oduka. But things get complicated when, after a misunderstanding leads to Mai saving Teren’s life, she confesses her love.
The hook of this series is that while Mai wants the two to date, and Teren just wants to be friends, they agree to play a game: they will take turns, alternately being lovers on some days, and just friends on others. Whichever they eventually decide works best for them, they will stick with. The English translation sums this arrangement up excellently with the term: “friends with Rena-fits.”
This is a terrific subversion of the “will-they-won’t-they” template by having them be both, at once, will and won’t. There’s also the joy of the show not playing around the edges with suspense or winks and nods: our leading lad is being courted by a girl. The real tension comes from the fact that while she’d never thought of being with a woman before…maybe she is now? Definitely one for anyone who likes a flustered protagonist.
The Moon on a Rainy Night
Announced last year, we’re still waiting for an release date announcement for this one, but it’ll be worth waiting for. Originally a manga by Kuzushiro, the plot revolves around Saki Kindachi, who hurts herself when she bumps into a woman as she walks back from piano lessons. After the woman treats her wound, Saki tries to thank her, but is met with a cold shoulder. Turns out, this same woman is Kanon Oikawa, a beauty and her new classmate — who is nearly deaf.
If this is giving A Silent Voice vibes, then you’re not far off. The story revolves around Saki realizing that Kanon is lonely and set apart by her disability, and trying to get closer to her to understand her more. As the manga continues, Saki slowly begins to understand that what she feels towards Kanon is more than friendship.
As mentioned, the release date has yet to be announced, but this is definitely one to look out for.
2025 is filled with funny, thoughtful, and passionate series for anyone into yuri anime. Here’s hoping the trend continues into 2026!