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>--------------TOP FIVE------------------------<

i begin with five of my favourites. i would recommend any of these to someone whose taste i believed they would match, and all of them to a girls' love enthusiast. i suggest in particular that if you are looking to read a work of yuri for the first time, you pick whichever of these you find most interesting. there is not, however, any significance to the order i am presenting them in here

Run Away With Me Girl, by Battan. a shorter story featuring a married woman who falls in love with another woman and finds herself feeling trapped (abused, even) in her current marriage. rich with the difficulties of a later-in-life revelation, and unflinching about what it is to give up the prospect of a nuclear family, this is one of my favourite "steal your girl" stories

Shimeji Simulation, by Tsukumizu. incredibly clever and will surprise you if you are taken in by the charming, but slow, four-koma style that dominates its earlier volumes. tells the surreal tale of a girl nicknamed shimeji who ventures out from reclusion to find a world that insists on acting upon her; the plot, of course, is of her finding out that she herself has the power to shape the world in turn. plays with the medium like nothing else i have ever read, to a stunning climax

Opium, by Aji. a period-piece set in post-WWII south korea, following a doctor who has returned to her birthplace after a lifetime in the united states. of course, she ends up embroiled in an intrigue that pits the exiled doctor she has begun to catch feelings for against the bourgeoisie society she sits at the rim of. offers frequent and pleasant whiplash between tense plot and pornographic interludes - though it would be remiss of me not to mention an undercurrent of apologia for US military occupation

Himegoto - Uniforms at the Age of Nineteen, by Minenami Ryou. some would consider this the dark horse of the list: relentlessly psychosexual, featuring a butch girl with a forcefem kink, a semi-closeted trans woman struggling with dysphoria, and a young woman who takes pleasure in being mistaken for even younger. in a word, this is "messy", but in service of allowing its characters to negotiate their respective desires and embodiments between each other and with the most vulnerable love. trigger warnings for transphobia, homophobia, and sexual assault, among others

Bloom Into You, by Nakatani Nio. a friend described this one as "textured", and i can't think of a better word for it. high school yuri that is eager to tell a full story with an ensemble of characters each developed in their own right. thinks insistently on what can motivate kids who are struggling at the cusp of adolescence and how this will affect and drive their ways of loving. gives space to a relationship between adult women, too!

>--------------FAVOURITES------------------------<

while these did not make the list above, they are all works i would happily recommend. some combination of interesting storytelling, enjoyable art style, and good writing hopefully distinguishes them from the rest...

>--------------RECOMMENDATIONS------------------------<

these were all enjoyable and worthwhile reads for me, even if they were not stunning in particular...

>--------------OTHER------------------------<

this bunch were fine. just fine. but if one catches your eye...

>--------------DISRECOMMEND------------------------<

i actively disliked these, but i'm committed to posterity: