manga recs!

the big list of manga i enjoy! probably gonna be like 80% yuri series but there will be other stuff for sure

Apothecary Diaries - Natsu Hyuuga

The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All - Sumiko Arai

My Girlfriend Isn't Here Today - Kiyoko Iwami

My Sister's Best Friend, My Lover - Mei Fujimatsu

Otherside Picnic - Iori Miyazawa

i have been recently informed by a friend that this technically counts as an isekai, proving that even the worst trends can be fixed with yuri. it's about a pair of women, Toriko and Sorawo, who explore an alternate world, called the Otherside, populated by a bunch of monsters from urban legends. they're nominally in search of Toriko's lost companion Satsuki, but more often than not they end up adventuring either by accident or to collect artifacts to bring back and sell to their friend Kozakura. this all carries on while Sorawo and Toriko get to know each other, and then act incredibly stupidly about their feelings for each other, because they are the most useless lesbians. Sorawo is an antisocial little gremlin, she's in college and spends most of her time exploring abandoned buildings. Toriko, on the other hand, was raised in the us and is very outgoing, always dragging Sorawo out to celebrate after a successful mission, and lightly pressuring her to make more friends so she's not so alone all the time. Sorawo doesn't want any part of that, which is totally unrelated to how her vision fills with sparkles and lilies when she looks at Toriko. it's a fun relationship and makes for good contrast with the spooky bits, though it seems to be changing some as of the latest volume. the manga was originally based off a light novel series which i haven't read yet, and each volume contains an excerpt from one at the very end, which is cool, though it also feels a bit weird to switch reading directions like that.

She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat - Sakaomi Yuzaki

This Monster Wants To Eat Me - Sai Naekawa

a series about a very lonely, very depressed girl named Hinako who catches the attention of a mermaid named Shiori, who would very much like to eat her (munch crunch not sexy times). unfortunately for her, being a depressed loner makes people taste bad, so she sets about trying to bring happiness to Hinako's life. Hinako is pretty ambivalent on finding happiness, but spotting a way to die without having to work up to suicide, she goes along with it. none of this sits very well with Hinako's only friend, Miko, who is incredibly protective and does not trust Shiori suddenly following Hinako around, but Miko herself has many secrets she'd rather not be revealed. this series has a special place in my heart, which probably shouldn't be surprising, weird depressed lesbian enjoys story about weird depressed lesbian, news at 5. it really does nail the feeling of being chronically depressed and suicidal tho, and i really struggle to not see myself in Hinako. the art is also absolutely gorgeous, easily worth reading just for that imo, i still have a bunch of panels saved from when i was reading the scans. speaking of which, i found out like 10 minutes ago that this got licensed by yen and will be launching in june, so def go check it out then!

Witch Hat Atelier - Kamome Shirahama

Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games - Eri Ejima

not sure if this one is actually yuri but the opening definitely feels straight out of a classic yuri manga. Aya Mitsuki goes to a prestigious all-girls academy, and she has developed a bit of an obsession with Mio, the quiet, perfect girl who everyone seems to love. One day she ends up following Mio into an empty classroom, only to discover that Mio has snuck in here to play fighting games! you see, this school has banned all personal electronics, except as needed to do schoolwork, and Aya used to be super into fighting games before she stopped playing to focus on school and fitting in. Mio thinks that's a shit reason and challenges Aya to a match to try to rekindle her love of the game. this ends up working, as Aya loses but can't stop thinking about her loss, which leads to another late night meetup for a rematch. soon enough, they're meeting regularly after curfew to play match after match, and after one big round of "girl what were you doing at the devil's sacrament", they even add their RA and her friend to their group. after playing together for a few weeks, they decide that it'd be fun to enter a tournament, which starts the kinda-tournament-arc thingy that's gone on for a couple volumes now, tho i've not read the latest. it definitely reminds me of yu-gi-oh a bit, both in that it manages to make a relatively casual game seem like the most dramatic thing in the world, and that a lot of the people featured at the tournament are just the weirdest dudes. it's a very good