Monday, October 11, 2010

Top 5 Coming Out Yuri Manga Titles

In honor of National Coming Out Day, I'm listing my top 5 coming out yuri manga titles. They aren't listed in the order of my favorite to least favorite- just the order of when they popped into my head.



1. Hanjuku Joshi by Morishima Akiko (Coming Out to a Friend):
Because seeing Yae work up the courage to come out to her friend/former crush Youko before they go on a double date gives me the warm fuzzies like few other manga scenes.


2. Aoi Hana by Shimura Takako (Coming Out to One's Best Friend):
Shimura Takako can do no wrong. Fumi's coming out scene with Ah-chan is eerily close to my own coming out to my best friend. Sugimoto coming out to her family is also a highlight. (Although she didn't have to drag poor Fumi into it. ^^;)


3. Love My Life by Yamaji Ebine (Coming Out to Family/Mutual Outing):
Ichiko comes out to her dad, and her dad reveals that he's gay too- and so was her dead mom. How could anyone forget this scene?


4. Honey & Honey by Takeuchi Sachiko (Multiple Types):
When you're reading an autobiographical yuri manga by an out author, you're going to get some realistic coming out scenes. lol Takeuchi makes it funny, though, and she covers the coming out process for different sexual/gender minorities, which is something you don't see much. (*straining to think of more examples* ...) I have a soft spot for the Sachiko-Mai interaction because my bff is straight- and in manga starring yuri protagonists, "best friend" is virtually always synonymous with "love interest."

Above: Julia-san, expressing her desire to kiss her kouhai Ran before realizing that she has a crush on her. Julia's manager Saeki, not realizing that this is the beginning of a pattern.

5. Strawberry Shake Sweet by Hayashiya Shizuru (Outed by Stupidity- Multiple Times):
Because we need more funny coming out scenes featuring characters who are too dense to know that everybody can tell- and then don't care after they know that other people know. (Yes, I know I'm stretching it with this example.)

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to chime in with your favorite examples. :-)

Edit: I copied this post over to scans_daily, adding some extra explanation of yuri/the titles listed for the folks who aren't familiar with them- just in case anyone here wants to check it out.

6 comments:

Sheldor said...

Sick, I love them!

I really loved when Medley came out to Husky in that note, it was so adorable but then that whole manga is a punch in the face of yuri cuteness so that's to be expected.

It's kinda hard to think of them. I sorta have Megumi coming out to Aoi in Mermaid Line floating around in my head too. Though it was kinda after the fact and may have lack some impact.

Anyway yours were awesome indeed!

Katherine Hanson said...

Thanks! Your examples are great also. Husky & Medley is adorable and the coming out scene in "Aoi and Megumi" is a (literally and figuratively) very sweet example.

A Day Without Me said...

I like your comment on Honey Honey insofar as the gay friend-straight friend dynamic goes; I love Aoi Hana to pieces, but I've felt a bit frustrated with the fact that Akira and Fumi are being set up to be a couple (and were made into a couple in the latest chapter, although it isn't terribly serious at the moment). On the one hand, I appreciate the way they've depicted Akira's confusion about the whole thing, but there are enough of the friends-become-lovers stories out there, so I was hoping for something a bit different.

Hmm, coming out scenes... I feel like they're actually fairly rare, as so much yuri manga avoids the entire question of homosexuality entirely - yes, the girls are kissing girls, but there's almost never any lesbian or bisexual identity in play.

The closest to a 'coming out' scene that I can think of which was good was when Nittori and Takatsuki in Hourou Musuko realize that they both feel uncomfortable as their socially assigned genders.

Katherine Hanson said...

@ A Day Without Me- Nice; Hourou Musuko's another great example. Imho, there are more good coming out scenes in manga (even if they require some digging)- but I agree that there should be more.

And I understand what you mean about Aoi Hana (when I wrote about Sachiko and Mai, it dawned on me that even my beloved AH follows the "best friends --> lovers" pattern), even though I'm still rooting hard for Fumi and Ah-chan.

Sheldor said...

Sorry Katherine, I hope you don't mind my linking back to your blog on this members page.

http://myanimelist.net/profile/lady_reina

Just spreading your awesome when and where I can!

Katherine Hanson said...

@Sheldor- Aww, thanks! ^^ I definitely don't mind.