OG’s 20-Gay-Three Anime Highlights

As usual a mix of laziness and my personal schedule were what delayed this post. Here is Part 2 of my celebration of 2023, aka 20-Gay-Three. One of the best years in Yuri history. Part 3 will hopefully cover Western stuff and video games that I am aware of. Part 2 will center around my personal Yuri anime highlights of 2023 such as couples, scenes/moments and other thoughts.

Consider this a follow-up to Part 1 and all-out spoiler talk.

Let us begin with the two honeys that kicked off the year into high year. Anis X Euphie from The Magical Revolution. Anis, the reincarnated magic loving beauty who was delighted to potentially make her dream of blessing the world through magic come true, hit a big snag of being unable to use magic. Thus through long and often painful shortcuts which were a mix of knowledge from her past life and what she could gather from this new world she concocted a Plan B, magitechnology. During this journey she met the one who would become the love of her life in Euphie, a girl trained since youth to make her family proud. Thanks to shenanigans they would join forces and begin a journey together where their relationship would reveal the truths about how exactly they felt about their current roles and each other.

Anis, caring more about helping others than herself, while also having a mix of love and envy for Euphie’s incredible and beautiful magic, hid her true feelings and insecurities behind flirting and wisecracking antics. Euphie, initially wary of the openly lovesick princess discovers through Anis’ compassion, kindness, courage, stubbornness and devil may care personality that maybe her true calling were tacos all along, specifically Anis’.

After many trials and tribulations the sweeties at last fulfilled their destiny, albeit with several strings attached. What mattered was they became lovers and “TECHNICALLY” hitched. Of course the best part was Anis being shocked that all her advances not only worked but she helped create a lesbian monster of nearly uncontrollable romantic lust. She was not prepared for this much lovin’ but also was somewhat not afraid to let her eat when hungry either.

Their journey brought me much joy, especially Euphie realizing she wanted Anis’ salad and growing stronger thanks to the power of love.

Of course I cannot forget the side-couple that ticked almost all my Yuri boxes.

• Age-gap? Check
• Vampirism? Check
• Big sexy badass and her beautiful timid maiden who can act when needed? Check
• Embraced the taco sooner than the main couple? Check
• Lainie has a sweet face, incredible body and a bobcut? Check
• Elite redhead Ilia? Check
• Blood soaked healing kiss? Checkaroonie

Can’t forget the second most beautiful maiden in all the land surpassed only by the former queen, Tilty. Goth goddess and supreme wingwoman to Anis who would have given our heroine her heart under different circumstances, aka parallel universe where they hooked up instead. Bless you Tilty and hope you eventually found a princess of your own.

As mentioned every time I brought this show up, enjoying OniMai depends entirely on whether the viewer can accept Mahiro was a boy, turned into a girl who is slowly realizing maybe this is who she is meant to be. Since the manga is ongoing I do not yet know if that will be the case. That did not stop me from enjoying the anime a lot more than expected. Anyway the Yuri is a straightforward one. Momiji is a tomboy who quickly falls for Mahiro after an amusing first encounter. The highlight for me was the Christmas episode. Though Momiji showed her femininity before this it was here it hit me in the kokoro somehow. The scene where she asked Mahiro to take a Christmas selfie. When our heroine accepted and Momiji gleefully skipped toward her my heart melted.

Special shoutout goes to my Mihari X Kaede ship and the marvelous Yuri fangirl Miyo. A true heroine indeed.

Another surprising highlight and best part of the girls judo series, Mou Ippon!, was the super adorable Anna Nagumo’s journey to joining the club. She started as one of, if not the strongest member of the kendo club, constantly pursuing main girl Michi to join. Turns out it was a mix of feeling left out and a yearning to be by Michi’s side until it became clear her feelings for the genki knucklehead went much further than that, going so far as to leave the kendo club for judo for that very reason. The leadup to that realization and the end result were most excellent… specifically then end of her arc. Her not getting to compete in one match at all, not even after the end of the season finale tournament, sucked. I know it happens in later chapters but you couldn’t sneak in at least one of her matches?

Speaking of lame endings, Alice Gear Aegis Expansion. You had a mostly funny comedy starring lovesick fangirl Nodoka who did her best to balance her fangirling for her idol Yotsuyu and being a good teammate. Naturally she failed in the former as her infatuation with the pink beauty grew every day. While the fun stuff was going on there was a serious plot brewing behind the scenes and Nodoka would be the target because she felt she wasn’t good enough to fight by Yotsuyu’s side while envying her deep down. Near the end she was captured and her envy was cranked up to 11 via brainwashing. One battle later and she’s all “I need a lot more training to be worthy of being by your side so I must take my leave and train off-screen somewhere, most likely never to be seen again in the mobile games”. What a load of bollocks. Maybe she did appear in the games but I doubt her love for Yotsuyu went anywhere after that. Can’t deny I mostly enjoyed this show before the final two episodes. Eh. I’ll just watch the good stuff and ignore the final episodes next time.

Nijiyon. This cute Love Live! Nijigasaki spinoff solidified Yu Takasaki as one of the greatest Yuri harem protagonists of all time. Truly a legend. The extra/bonus episodes are a MUST SEE. Very excited for the second season and main series sequel movies.

Lots of Yuri goodness to be found in Season 2 of D4DJ, aka All Mix. The highlight was every time Muni did a poor job hiding her love for Rinku. Arisa from BanG Dream taught her very well, yes.

Ayakashi Triangle is the opposite of OniMai in that I somewhat looked up what happened next in the source and got the okay to give this one a rec, SPECIFICALLY uncensored because I am one of those viewers who does not find censorship rays or “stickers” funny unless they are intentional as part of a joke. Anyway another show about boy turns into girl with Yuri shenanigans only this one it is not as much about exploring one’s true self, not until later anyway. I owe peeps a Quickie of the uncensored version at some point.

Moving on to Spring we had the couple that dominated the mainstream. Not since LycoReco had a Yuri pair captured the imagination of the majority like Suletta X Miorine did in Fall 2022 and later Spring 2023. It helped that the story was set in the Gundam universe so they got more eyes on them by default. What started as a classic tsundere X shy girl pair became much more. The girls both had their strengths and weaknesses, helping each other grow stronger as a result. Although Miorine was more the brains and Suletta the brawn it did not mean our lovable big tanuki was dumb, only that Mio-Mio dealt with the more intellectual and strategic elements while Suletta handled combat. Then we had Miorine’s lack of social skills where Suletta, despite being a shy cinnamon bun, made up for it with her stronger sense of caring and reasoning with others, helping the grouch open up to people more despite rough past experiences.

This being Gundam there obviously had to be war drama and political shenanigans thrown in making our heroines’ journey to finding peace and love together more difficult with a painful middle point that was necessary to help their bond grow even stronger.

Fortunately they persevered and though not unscathed found their happiness, wedding rings and all. Suck it corporate old farts.

Also Nika X Chuchu 4 life and kudos to the extra background couple hidden from all but the eagle-eyed till near the end of the show. Nice touch.

Not to be outdone by the Gundam Gays in the Yuri drama department we also had Yuri is My Jon in Spring. First up were Hime and Mitsuki, a classic baka couple whose main drama stemmed from misunderstandings that are easily resolved from an outsider’s perspective but when you’re experiencing them in real time with no outside guidance like they were it’s not as easy to navigate out of the dramatic labyrinth.

Do not get me started on Sumika X Kanoko who have a far more complex journey of their own. Both very intriguing dramatic stories with what I thought were very nice outcomes. Like many shows on this retrospective I crave another season.

Special shout-out goes to best girl Nene who did not get much screen time but when it was finally her time to shine she layeth the smacketh down like no one’s business.

I hoped Tokyo Mew Mew New would go further with Mint X Zakuro and for the most part they made the two notice each other even more in this remake and were so close to achieving greatness but alas they did not go far enough. What we got was pretty good but the lack of a follow-up soured me a bit. Good journey, disappointing destination.

Birdie Wing. Oh Birdie Wing what a rollercoaster many of us went on watching this show. This is what I believe to the pinnacle of women’s sports anime and Eve X Aoi epitomize a sports Yuri couple to a tee in the sense that both are obsessed with each other and only play at their best against each other. No one else matters. Eve is the more sporty side of the two being driven to her limit in her quest to have a one on one duel with Aoi subconsciously realizing that her feelings for Aoi go beyond “that sexy girl is a very special golfer and I NEED to play against her”. Aoi meanwhile is more open about her desire for Eve’s taco. Add token sports drama, superpowers, family issues and the freaking mafia of all things to the mix and you have a glorious blend of SHONEN GOLF BABEH! Eve being a chick magnet who clearly favors women is a bonus.

Same goes for Aoi and her caddie who have “alternate universe couple” potential. However, as much as I loved the show from start to end the epilogue could have been better. It did not sour my experience personally but I know some destroyed their screens and living rooms.

World Dai Star is a Yuri hotpot of goodness. Main pair, love triangle, destined pair, childhood pair, magical pair etc. Expect magic on and off stage. Let us just put it that way. The ending had me laughing with glee for reasons viewers will have to see for themselves. It is something else I tell you. I only have one itsy-bitsy nitpick with it but again viewers will have to see themselves to find out if they can spot the source of the nitpick.

Summer was kinda dry as far as Yuri went but we did get Yohane of the Parhelion which featured an Aqours from an alternate fantasy world and Yohane as the main protagonist. Not only that but she was kind of blessed with a “Yoharem” of her own, especially her #1 girl Hanamaru. This show was what YohaMaru fans craved in the original anime.

That’s all for Summer 2023. Yup. Nothing else happened that season.

On to Fall!

First up is the overlooked show of the season, SHY. The first part was much better than expected with a mix of superheroes and emotional deep dives of the human psyche. Very excited to see what happens next, especially with our main pair of Teru, aka SHY X Iko with their precious Spider-Man X Gwen Stacy relationship dynamic.

Next up are is the show the other heavy hitter of the year in I’m in Love with the Villainess. A lot of hype went into this one from fans and creators and what we got was a pretty good Part 1. Now all we need is a Part 2 and maybe 3 for non source readers to acknowledge its greatness. What we got from heroines Rae and Claire was a delightful genki x tsundere dynamic that, like SuleMio, had more going on besides their archetypes. Special shout-out goes to the scene discussing homosexuality, specifically lesbianism, and what it means to love someone of the same sex among other topics rarely discussed in anime, let alone in less than 10 minutes. Nicely done. That discussion playing a big part in one of our heroines’ drama is also a nice touch. While the season finale was especially delightful we need more to see the bigger picture. Another special shout-out goes to the excellent English dub. Great excuse to watch the show again after the subs.

On to Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 3. Kitasan Black X Satono Diamond are similar to Eve X Aoi in that they are driven to do their best by each other. The difference is they also have a regular bond as soul mates who treasure each other. Basically they’re attracted to each other as rivals and potential lovers. Basically give them both Eve’s sporty love and Aoi’s taco love.

As a bonus the other two lead couples, Special Week X Silence Suzuka and Tokai Teio X Mejiro McQueen are seen together too. Vodka X Daiwa Scarlet are the same as always. Lovely.

Most important of all were the return of the PEAK horse girl couple Rice Shower X Mihono Bourbon. My heart was fulfilled.

Next we have the Yuri harem protagonist of the year in Terakomi Gandesblood from The Vexations of a Shut-in Vampire Princess who more than earned the love and adoration of several gorgeous well-endowed warrior maidens, all of whom have dark pasts but were saved emotionally by the hope of one day reuniting with the shining light of their hearts, the beautiful little vampire princess who is a badass herself even if she is not aware of it.

First we have the one true #1, Komari’s right hand maid Vill who makes crystal clear the princess if the only one who matters most, other allies be damned.

Always willing to offer her scrumptious body or set up traps on the battlefield that hurt everyone but Komari.

Next (actually introduced last in the anime) is Nelia, a proud warrior maiden whose love for Komari is the most grounded and straightforward as the mixes competition with passion in her quest to make the princess hers, preferably through combat.

Sakuna being my favorite harem girl could be because she has the same appeal to me as Laine? Is it because she’s a precious beauty at first glance but also an incredibly dangerous and cunning yandere? Is it because she plays dirty in the name of love?

The answer is yes.

There’s also this glorious surprise moment.

Last but certainly not least is Stardust Telepath and its gift to the Yuri world that is foreheadpathy, aka forehead kisses. What was once a sweet moment between people now has a whole new meaning when girls do it with each other. Oh yes indeed. Summing up every single moment between the main couple of the super shy but determined Umika and the genki but suave romantic Yu would be as long as this post already is so put simply every special UmiYu scene is a highlight. Every, single, one. That is how good they are.

While Haruno X Matataki did not go as far as I would have liked…yes, what we got was good enough. Pretty good start between them. Hopefully one day we are blessed with their continuation once the source has enough chapters to adapt.

Can’t forget Kei and her homies who are heavily implied to fight over who is best suited to become her girlfriend.

There’s a moment during the rocket festival our heroines’ homeroom teacher said she had to meet up with an old friend. You can guess where I’m going with this speculation.

There you have it. I know there are some Yuri moments I missed. The purpose of this post was to continue to celebrate what was an incredible year for Yuri anime fans. Feel free to share your own Yuri anime highlights of 20-Gay-Three.

Next time we conclude the celebration with Part 3 where we take a look at Western Yuri and video games.

PS: Three lesbian heroines’ ultimate attacks being dazzling rainbows of justice is icing on the cake of the glorious year 2023.