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10 Best LGBTQ+ Anime To Watch This Pride Month
Here are some of the best anime movies and series that you should watch now to celebrate Pride Month with some amazing stories.
Even though there are a lot of LGBTQ+ manga and anime characters, it can be hard to find shows that positively portray LGBTQ+ relationships. Thankfully, things have been changing and the stigma around LGBTQ+ relationships is also slowly dissipating, resulting in more wholesome anime content involving same-sex couples.
However, it can still be hard to find genderqueer characters and love stories in anime, although it is changing slowly. But for the 2024 Pride Month, we have compiled a list of anime shows and movies that celebrate LGBTQ+ relationships and characters in a positive light for you to enjoy.
Stars Align
The 2019 sports anime series Stars Align features a middle school soft tennis club. Despite being a sports anime, the series focuses on a lot of problems faced by the members of the club and their relationship with each other. Directed by Kazuki Akane, the original anime series also features a gender-non-conforming character who is treated with respect in the story. Overall, this is a great short series to watch if you are looking for something light-hearted.
Kase-san and the Morning Glories
Based on the Japanese Yuri manga named Kase-san written and illustrated by Hiromi Takashima, Kase-san and the Morning Glories features an adorable relationship between two high-school girls. It centers around a very shy girl named Yui Yamada who is in the school’s gardening committee and loves spending her mornings tending to the plants around the school, and her senior Tomoka Kase, who is a very athletic and tomboyish girl. Yamada and Kase fall in love with one another and we see their love blossom into a full-blown romance despite all the problems they have to face. This series is perfect for those looking for a lighthearted Yuri anime.
Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!
If you are looking for a BL series with some great comedic elements and a very sweet main couple, then Cherry Magic is the way to go. Based on Yuu Toyota’s manga series of the same name, the anime came out in 2024, although it also has a live-action adaptation which came out in 2020. It revolves around a 30-year-old office worker named Adachi who gets the ability to read minds as he is still a virgin on his 30th birthday. Due to his power, Adachi discovers that his extremely popular co-worker Kurosawa is madly in love with him. The series follows the two and their various escapades while figuring out their relationship. Cherry Magic could be a perfect short series for you to enjoy if you love romcoms.
Paradise Kiss
Based on Ai Yazawa’s manga of the same name, Paradise Kiss is a 2005 anime series that features a number of LGBTQ+ characters. The story revolves around a straight-laced high school student named Yukari Hayasaka who changes her view of fashion design students after seeing the amount of hard work the fashion group Paradise Kiss or ParaKiss put into their clothes. The anime features a lot of queer characters including George who is bisexual and Isabella, who is transgender. If you are interested in the world of fashion, then get ready to get immersed in this amazing coming-of-age LGBTQ+ anime.
Wandering Son
Even though homosexuality is something that a lot of anime features, the struggle of transgender individuals is often overlooked in this media. However, based on Takako Shimura’s manga, Wandering Son features two beautifully written trans characters at the center of the story. It features Shuichi, who is born as a boy but wishes to be a girl, and his classmate in his new school, Yoshino, who despite being born as a girl, wishes to be a boy. The anime highlights their journey and relationship as they struggle with society, gender dysphoria, and more.
Doukyuusei
If you want to watch a sweet movie about two high-school boys falling in love, then Doukyuusei, or Classmate, is perfect for you. This 2016 movie features a stunning art style and is based on Asumiko Nakamura’s manga of the same name. The anime focuses on two Rihito Sajo and Hikaru Kusakabe who meet and fall in love in an all-boys school despite being very different in nature.
Bloom Into You
The 2018 anime series is adapted from Nio Nakatani’s Yuri manga of the same name and focuses on two girls named Yuu Koito and Touko Nanami. Yuu is a girl who has never experienced romance in her life and thinks that Touko is the same when she sees the senior turn down a boy’s proposal. But as they become close, Touko confesses her love for Yuu, who is not sure she can ever reciprocate. However, she also starts to fall for Touko as they spend more time together, making a very wholesome and realistic high-school gl story, which is often considered to be the best in the genre.
Sasaki to Miyano
Sasaki to Miyano is an anime for those who like tooth-rotting fluff. Based on Sho Harusono’s manga of the same name, the series features a first-year high-school student Miyano who is a fudanshi but is not attracted to boys himself. However, when his cool senior Sasaki takes a liking to him and confesses his feelings for Miyano, the younger starts to question everything. Featuring some amazing side characters and an adorable plot line, Sasaki to Miyano is a great way to lift up your mood. There is another movie following the series as well.
Given
Adapted from Natsuki Kizu’s manga of the same name, Given is one of the greatest BL series of all time. It features Mafuyu and Ritsuka, who are in the same band and slowly fall in love with one another though Ritsuka has no experience in Romance. The other two older members of the band Haruki and Akihiko also begin a relationship later in the story. Featuring a tragic backstory and second chances at love, Given is a very emotional but phenomenal watch.
Yuri on Ice
Probably one of the most popular anime series of all time, Yuri on Ice is a love story disguised as a sports anime. It features a Japanese figure skater named Yuri Katsuki who starts training under star figure skater Victor Nikifrov. The two of them develop a very close relationship while skating which seems pretty romantic and loving in nature. Even though it was not revealed if the two of them actually got together at the end of the anime, their ring exchange was more than enough proof. Even though the production company MAPPA cancelled the Yuri on Ice movie that had been planned for years and broke the fans’ hearts, the series remains one of the greatest BL love stories of all time.
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