I'd like to sometime make a bigger post talking more about stuff, but while reading a lot of yuri (and some yaoi) I've started maintaining a list for myself of manga that has "actual LGBT themes", to distinguish it from stories that are more just interested in gay romance from a purely entertainment perspective. to be clear, this isn't casting any judgement or ascribing any particular value to either - sometimes you do just wanna read about some girls kissing without the Realities getting involved. this is also just stuff I've personally read, and the bar for inclusion here is entirely my own vibe of the work, so not definitive or anything - but lemme know if there's more you like that I've missed, because dang I probably wanna read that too!
Some LGBTQ+ Manga I Liked:
- Our Dreams At Dusk/Shimanami Tasogare
- This manga is one of the most visually beautiful and moving things I've read, and it's a very real and believable queer coming of age story. A high school boy coming to grips with his sexuality finds a home at a local LGBT community center. Incredible stuff, huge recommendation. The author, Yuhki Kamatani, is X-gender and ace.
- She Loves To Cook, And She Loves To Eat
- I was (pleasantly) surprised at how real this one gets, because it definitely presents itself initially as just a sort of "food themed yuri". Deals with realistic themes of sexuality from its lesbian leads, as well as the way food (its consumption and production) is often caught up in gendered expectations.
- Boys Run The Riot
- Has a transmasc lead, much of the story is about expressing himself through fashion while spinning up a streetwear brand with his friends. Deals a lot with the intersection of gender and clothing as a result. As a story I wish it had a little more time to cook, but it's a overall a good time. The author, Keito Gaku, is a trans man, and apparently the localization was done by an all-trans team?
- The works of Shūzō Oshimi (Welcome Back, Alice, Inside Mari)
- I can't give these a universal rec, but they are extremely powerful and fascinating stories that are heavily pulling from a lot of the author's own struggles with gender dysphoria. Neither of these stories fit neatly into clear established queer labels - rather, they're extremely raw, often painful explorations of the idea of being trapped within the confines of one's gender. Welcome Back, Alice does this by working within the trope of the "cross-dressing best friend", and Inside Mari via the "gender/body swap" story.
- X-Gender
- Autobiographical manga - the author, Asuka Miyazaki, is X-gender. Talks about exploring their sexuality and gender identity. At times pretty graphic! But I enjoyed it. I've only read the first volume so far.
- The Girl That Can't Get A Girlfriend
- Autobiographical manga - the author, Mieri Hiranishi, is a lesbian woman and the manga deals a lot with her struggles in finding love/connection. Does get a little "tfw no gf" as the name might imply, but it's a good read.
my additional recs:
- Love Me For Who I Am: Story about the staff of a "femboy maid cafe" and their individual experiences of gender and sexuality, primarily focused on a cis boy who works back-of-house and his nonbinary classmate who he recruits to help wait tables. I need to finish reading this one, but it's already got some of the best visual depictions of gender euphoria I've ever seen put to paper.
- My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness: Autobio manga about the author's struggles with social anxiety, disordered eating, and staying alive and functioning in general. It's very raw and frank and relatable, and has compelling things to say about the nature of connecting with other human beings.
- Catcher in the Rhyme: (This one isn't translated yet, but I am personally determined to fix that someday.) A yuri manga about a group of high school girls who start a rap battle club, finding their own voices and their own spaces in the world through rap. The lesbian representation is all the standard largely-unaddressed sapphic yearning, but one of the main girls is explicitly transgender, and quite possibly my favorite trans character in any manga ever. The author clearly has a lot of love for her as a character, and I really appreciate how they let her be a horny sicko without tying that to her being trans or framing it as negating her girlhood. She's weird and messy just as much as everyone else is; the camera looks at her doubts and anxieties in the same way as it does for other characters, and her experiences of dysphoria and self-loathing are painfully relatable, but fundamentally this isn't a manga about trans issues, it's a manga about rap that has a trans girl in it because why wouldn't she be there? This rec is twice as long as any of the others, which I think speaks for itself; if you can read Japanese, track this one down, and if not – someday. I'm gonna make it happen.
- Koharu and Minato: My Partner is a Girl: (Also not translated yet.) A dramatized autobio manga by an irl lesbian couple. It's extremely sweet and fluffy, just a lot of cute moments from their life together.
- So, Do You Wanna Go Out, Or?: I still have this one sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read it, but I've heard a lot of good stuff about it, and the snippets I've seen have been really funny relatable depictions of trashfire lesbians trying to figure out how to relationship.


