Subtext to Confessions: Examining Several Recent Yuri(ish) Anime

Originally I hadn’t been planning on writing this article, but when putting together my list of the top 20 anime for 2024, I realized that many had yuri themes, either as romantic or platonic yuri, so this article made more sense. Specifically, Pon no Michi, Metallic Rouge, Madlax, Train to the End of the World, Nana, Tropical Rouge! PreCure, and Soaring Sky: Pretty Cure!, arguably have platonic yuri, while El Cazador de La Bruja has more romantic yuri (as subtext). For the other six, more than half have romantic yuri themes (Beloved Zako Streamer, Sailor Moon, Whisper Me a Love Song, and Girls Band Cry), while the other two have platonic yuri themes (The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio and Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night). [1]

Considering that I’ve already written reviews of Metallic Rouge and Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure!, the shortness of Beloved Zako Streamer, the fact that three are series from the 2000s (Nana, Madlax, and El Cazador de la Bruja), I will not be examining those series in this article, nor will be I talking about Sailor Moon, Tropical Rouge! PreCure, or Pon No Michi. Instead, I will focusing on five series which released this year (Train to the End of the World, Whisper Me a Love Song, The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio, Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, and Girls Band Cry), noting their themes, interconnections in terms of streaming services, staff, and voice actors, and related topics. My views on these series are more positive than reviews elsewhere, all of which, apart from one of them, have no associated manga. This analysis will continue more in Part 2.

There is no doubt that Crunchyroll and HIDIVE, owned respectively by the Sony and AMC Networks corporate conglomerates, are trying to garner a share of queer anime fans on their streaming platforms. Two of the series aired on HIDIVE (Whisper Me a Love Song and Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night), which has a dedicated LGBT “genre,” while the other two aired on Crunchyroll (Train to the End of the World and The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio). [2] However, one series could only be found on less-than-legal sites due to Toei Animation’s failure to get a license which would have allowed the series to stream on Crunchyroll, HIDIVE, or even YouTube: Girls Band Cry. The latter is the most unfortunate, as it is such a powerhouse series in more ways than one.

All of the studios that produce these series are completely different. There’s no overlap whatsoever. Whisper Me a Love Song is produced by Cloud Hearts and Yokohama Animation Laboratory. EMT Squared produced Train to the End of the World. Doga Kobo produced Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night. Connect produced The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio. Toei Animation produced Girls Band Cry. Of these studios, two are less than ten years old: Cloud Hearts (founded in 2021) and Yokohama Animation Laboratory (founded in 2015). Two others are more than ten years old: EMT Squared (founded in 2013) and Connect (founded in 2012). The other two are over fifty years old: Doga Kobo (founded in 1973) and Toei Animation (founded in 1948).

The fact that some of these studios are younger undoubtedly affects production, as was clear in the case of Whisper Me a Love Song. The series start date was delayed three months after a new director was hired, and the premiere of the eighth episode, and subsequently the ninth and tenth episodes were delayed too. Leaks on social media described problems in the show’s production, reportedly including crunch times, overwork, outsourcing animation, and the entire Yokohama team reportedly left because of terrible working conditions. Some fans griped about the bad show quality, nitpicking certain scenes, and attacking animators for their “bad work.” Such behavior is not only unproductive and hostile, but unhelpful to those working in bad conditions, when it is the studio executives who should be criticized, not the animators. Others said that fans were getting overworked about production problems.

Some of the voice actors lent their talent to multiple characters. For instance, Nao Tōyama voiced the secondary character in Train to the End of the World, Yōka, along with Mekuru Yubisaki in The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio. Additionally, Chika Anzai who voiced Shizuru Chikura, also voiced Hajime Amasawa in Whisper Me a Love Song. Asasmi Seto voiced the primary protagonist of the latter series, Yori Asanagi, along with Koharu in Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night.

In another overlap, Miyuri Shimabukuro, voices a mysterious composer named Mei “Kim Anouk” Takanashi in the latter series, also voiced Wakana Kawagishi in The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio. Also consider that Miku Itō, who voiced one of the main characters in The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio (Yumiko Satō/Yasumi Utatane), also voiced developing artist-protagonist Mahiru Kōzuki in Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night! Many of these voice actors have experience voicing characters in yuri anime.

In fact, three of these voice actors voiced more characters than anyone else, specifically Itō, Ikumi Hasegawa, and Ami Koshimizu, with the latter two voicing Otome Sakuranamiki  and Ringo Kagasaki in The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio respectfully. Each of these voice actresses has voiced at least five lesbian or lesbian-coded characters in series with direct, or indirect, yuri themes, including Yurikuma Arashi (Katyusha Akae), Adachi and Shimamura (Hougetsu Shimamura), The Aquatope on the White Sand (Kukuru Misakino), Ippon Again! (Kotoko Nogisaka), If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die (Sorane Matsuyama), Birdie Wing (Amane Shinjō), and Bocchi the Rock! (Ikuyo Kita), to name a few characters.

Apart from Itō voicing Katyusha, Hougetsu, and Kukuru, she also voiced Kokoro Tsurumaki in BanG Dream!, Misuzu Moritani in Fragtime, and Akina Kubo in Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible. Additionally, Hasegawa, who voiced Kukuru, Kotoko, and Sorane, voiced Shizuka in World Dai Star, Lene Aurousseau in I’m in Love with the Villainess and Koito in My Master Has No Tail. As for Koshimizu, she voiced Sailor Jupiter in Sailor Moon Crystal, Yang Xiao Long in RWBY (Japanese dub) and RWBY: Ice Queendom, Natsumi Tokugawa in Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions, Mizuki Nakahara in Lycoris Recoil, Maria in Management of a Novice Alchemist, Elda in Otaku Elf, and Nozomi Fujisaki in Cherry Magic! Apart from this, Hasegawa will voice Sayaka Taniyama in Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian this year.

They are followed, in the number of characters voiced, by Seto, Ai Kakuma, and Aoi Koga. The latter two voice characters in Whisper Me a Love Song, specifically keyboardist Kaori Tachibana and Himari Kino’s best friend (Miki Mizuguchi) whose sister Aki Mizuguchi is a bassist in the light music band SSGirls. As for Seto, she previously voiced Charlotte Scherzen in Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid, Asuka Takizawa/Cure Flamingo in Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure, Aoi Amawashi in Birdie Wing, and Nene Saionji in Yuri Is My Job!, all of whom are either lesbians or lesbian-coded.

Kakuma voiced characters in a few series last year with yuri themes (one romantic, two platonic): The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady (Ilia Coral), Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure (Mashiro Nijigaoka/Cure Prism), and Ippon Again! (Natsu Umehara). Koga, for her part, voiced Ange le Carré in Princess Principal: Crown Handler, Princess Ellee/Cure Majesty in Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure, and Natalya in Shine Post, to name a few roles. Seto also voiced a trans man named Yoshino Takatsuki in Wandering Son. Koga is best known for voicing Kaguya Shinomiya in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War and Shoko Komi in Komi Can’t Communicate.

Other voice actors among the five anime examined in this article, with romantic or platonic yuri themes (either direct or indirect, have lent their voices to characters who are arguably queer. Azumi Waki, who voices Nadeshiko Hoshi in Train to the End of the World, voiced Fina in Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear and Takumi Hikage in Do It Yourself!!. Hina Kino, the voice of Akira Shinonome in Train to the End of the World, voiced Lorea in Management of a Novice Alchemist and Koharu Minenaga in The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess. Waki voiced the protagonist Catrina’s maid, Anne Shelley, in My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, and Tsukimi Teruya in The Aquatope on White Sand. Kino also voiced Julie in Princess Principal, Hinatsu Hinomoto in Shine Post, and Lishu in The Apothecary Diaries.

Beyond this, Tōyama voiced Karen Kujō (Kin-iro Mosaic) and Rin Shima (Laid-Back Camp). In terms of other prominent characters, Mikako Komatsu, who voices bassist Aki Mizuguchi in SSGirls in Whisper Me a Love Song, previously voiced the defender of married lesbians: pirate captain Marika Kato in Bodacious Space Pirates, one of my favorite animated series, which sadly doesn’t get much attention these days. In addition, Shimabukuro voiced Karla Amatsu in The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess. Miyu Tomita, who voices VTuber and student council present Kiwi Watase in Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, previously voiced Sophie Twilight in Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood and Shuri in Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear. Anzai voiced Chisato Nishikigi (Lycoris Recoil), which some fans have coded as gay due to her close relationship with her comrade-in-arms, Takina Inou. [3]

Otherwise, the voice actresses Rie Takahashi, who voices former idol Kano Yamanouchi in Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, and Moe Toyota, who voices protagonist Yuhi Yugure/Chika Watanabe in The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio have lent their voices to well-known series, like Laid-Back Camp (Ena Saitō) and Kanon Matsubara in BanG! Dream. Misato Fukuen, who voices struggling writer Asaka Mrei for the radio show that Yuhi and Yasumi co-host in The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio, previously voiced Anzu Kadotani in Girls und Panzer. Then there’s Konomi Kohara, who voices the drummer Mari Tsutsui in Whisper Me a Love Song. Before that series, she voiced Yūko Yoshida / Shamiko in The Demon Girl Next Door and Minoru Ohkuma in Akebi’s Sailor Uniform. [4]

None of the five anime examined in this article have the same writers or directors. However, some had veteran writers and directors. In one example, Michiko Yokote, chief writer of Train to the End of the World, was head writer for Princess Tutu, Girl Friend Beta, Shirobako, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Tsurune, and The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!. Tsutomu Mizushima, director of Train to the End of the World as well, worked with Shirobako and The Magnificent Kotobuki, along with Squid Girl and Girls und Panzer. Fumihiko Suganuma, episode direction chief of Train to the End of the World, also worked on Shirobako like Yokote and Mizushima. Previously, he was episode director for The Aquatope on White Sand (episode 17), animator for Canaan, episode director for A Lull in the Sea, and key animator for Tari Tari, to name a few. [5]

Similarly, director of The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio, Hideki Tachibana, directed Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, which features some LGBTQ+ characters. At the same time, Ryōhei Takeshita, director of Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, was also storyboarder for Carole & Tuesday, Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, and Flip Flappers, and animator for RIN: Daughters of Mnemosyne. This differs from director Kazuo Sakai, the director of Girls Band Cry. He was animation director for Kaleido Star, and storyboarder for Love Live! School Idol Project and storyboard director for Love Live! Sunshine!! Sakai did key animation for Bodacious Space Pirates The Movie: Abyss of Hyperspace, Macross Frontier, Sketch Book Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie, Sketchbook ~full color’s~, Yurkikuma Arashi, and The Book of Bantorra, storyboarder for Kinmoza,

This connects to the fact that one of the Girls Band Cry producers, Tadashi Hirayama, directed Love Live! Sunshine!! and produced Love Live! School Idol Project. Jukki Hanada, a writer for Girls Band Cry, also worked on the same series as Hirayama (Love Live! Sunshine!!), while previously working as a screenwriter for Love Live! Superstar!! and Love Live! School Idol Project. Before that, he did screenwriting for four series with yuri themes: Kannazuki no Miko, Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl, K-On!, and Bloom Into You.

This showed that the series was in good hands and undoubtedly impacted the series trajectory. Hanada also did screenwriting for Sound! Euphonium, Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu, The Dangers in My Heart, and Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions. On the other hand, Kenji Tamai, music composer for Girls Band Cry, was prominently theme song arranger, composers, and lyrics writer for Ace Attorney, which may have made that series even stronger.

Some composers and writers worked on series with platonic or romantic yuri themes before. Miho Tsujibayashi, music composer for Train to the End of the World, did theme song arrangement, composition, and lyrics for the first season of The Demon Girl Next Door, and insert song arrangement, composition, and other tasks for that show’s second season. Keiichirō Ōchi, head writer for The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio, worked on The Demon Girl Next Door as series composer, while doing the same for eight episodes of Adachi and Shimamura and nine episodes of The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess. Tsujibayashi also did music for From North Field and two seasons of Restaurant to Another World.  Others have not worked on yuri series, such as Masaru Yokoyama, music composer for Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night.

The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio producer Chiaki Kondou worked on psychological horror and thriller yuri Happy Sugar Life as assistant producer. Hiroshi Anami, another producer on the same former series, worked on Adachi and Shimamura. Natsumi Tamura, a producer on that series too, worked on Yuri Is My Job!, as did Fumihiro Ozawa, another producer for The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio. Chiaki Kondou, another producer for The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio, helped produce Stardust Telepath.

Non-yuri series had an impact on The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio as well. After all, series producers Akira Kubota and Shuka Nishimame both helped produce Bibliophile Princess. Yuki Ogasawara, another producer, was associate producer for The 100 Girlfriends and on the production committee for The Dangers in My Heart. Similarly, music composer Keiichi Hirokawa did music for Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible and Kuniyuki Takahashi, the other series music composer, did series for non-yuri series too. Since all four of these series had romantic themes, it may have impacted The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio.

Other staff were not as experienced, especially for series writer Hiroki Uchida and music composer Hiroshi Sasaki for Whisper Me a Love Song, undoubtedly affecting that production-addled series. Series director Akira Mano previously worked as storyboardist and episode director for Bibliophile Princess and episode director for Cardcaptor Sakura. This could account for some positive moments in that series. One music composer, with Sasaki, Wataru Maeguchi, on Whisper Me a Love Song, also worked on Snow White with the Red Hair. Uchida previously did script series composition for I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness. Yūki Yaku, head writer for Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, did the story for Minami Nanami Wants to Shine, and the creator and story for the light novel, manga, OVA, and TV of Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, but has not done much more beyond that.

Despite this overlap and similarity, on some level, these series were competing with one another, even though they began at different times in April. In fact, Train to the End of the World came first, on April 1st, followed by Girls Band Cry on April 6th and Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night on April 7th. Later in the month, The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio (April 10) and Whisper Me a Love Song (April 14) premiered. These series played off each other, especially Girls Band Cry and Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, since both were focused around girl bands. Apart from Whisper Me a Love Song, which partially focused on a girl band named SSGirls, the others didn’t have much similarity, apart from having romantic or platonic yuri themes.

Of all five series, Train to the End of the World, also known as Shūmatsu Torein Doko e Iku? or Where Does the Doomsday Train Go?, was the most far-out. It mixed absurdist comedy, science fantasy, slice-of-life, and post-apocalyptic themes together! It reminded me of Snowpiercer, except that this is series about four girls, specifically Shizuru Chikura (voiced by Chika Anzai), Akira Shinonome (voiced by Hina Kino), Reimi Kuga (voiced by Erisa Kuon) and Nadeshiko Hoshi (voiced by Azumi Waki). They travel abroad a 2000-series train together. They are on a quest to find Yōka Nakatomi (voiced by Nao Tōyama), who went missing. Among the other genres, this series falls into the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things (CGDCT) genre. As Erica Friedman described it before the premiere, the series plot is “driven by deep emotional connection between two girls,” placing it in the platonic yuri category.

The series goes further than Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet or Land of the Lustrous, in terms of the post-apocalyptic themes, moving from strange occurrences in a rural town, to travels on a train, with Shizuru, Reimi, Akira, and Nadeshiko unsure whether they will come back in one piece. In this series, dangers await them, as they bond. It is even said that everyone turns into an animal of some type and can only communicate over short distances, as energy over long distances doesn’t work anymore. The series shows a skepticism of technology, with Yoko absurdly beginning everything by touching a “7G button” which messes up the world, and the events of the series itself taking place two years afterward, with some turned into talking animals, and only some humans surviving.

Train to the End of the World‘s strong art and animation mix with voice acting talent, an episodic feel, slice-of-life themes, and horror comedy. The latter involves three protagonists almost taken over by soul-sucking head mushrooms! One of them, Akira, is later saved after a mushroom takes over her mind. There’s also a human posing as a zombie queen, people who were shrunk to toy soldier size, and massive waves. It’s later revealed that Yoka ran away after a fight with Shizuru two years before, and that she is isolated with those around her trying to insulate and influence her. Some described the eleventh episode as showing that “yuri hatred is so strong the raw emotion of it can survive amnesia and has the power to break the world.” This observation is spot-on, as she has some memories, but they are fractured, and they are unable to save her.

In the final episode, there is a train chase to get Yoka (who is trapped on a train), with Shizuru and Yoko having a talk with one another about what happened, with the help of Shizuru’s other friends, and she begins to piece together her broken memories. Shizuru and Yoko renew their bond as friends. They all help Yoka so she can press the 7G button and everything sort of goes back to how it was before, but also not really. It is a fitting ending to this platonic yuri series.

My second post in this mini-series will go into more detail about comparisons between Whisper Me a Love Song, The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio, Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, and Girls Band Cry.

Notes

[1] For this article, and follow-up, I’m using the definition of yuri posed by Yuricon founder Erica Friedman in her book By Your Side: “any anime or manga series (or other derivative media, i.e., fan fiction, film, etc.) that shows intense emotional connection, romantic love, or physical desire between women,” a genre not confirmed by the audience’s gender or age, but by the audience’s perception. In my view, yuri is more than just romantic or sexual lesbian relationships or characters. It is, as the translation notes to Yuri is My Job! manga (Vol. 1) state, a genre “covering female same-sex relationships within manga, anime, and other media…it can also cover female friendships.” As such, I am differentiating between “platonic yuri” (also called “intimate friendships” or “romantic friendships”) and “romantic yuri” (also known as textual yuri, or more narrowly defined as yuri).

[2] Also, Tropical Rouge! PreCure, Soaring Sky: Pretty Cure!, Metallic Rouge, El Cazador de la Bruja, and Soaring Sky: Pretty Cure! are on Crunchyroll. I know Nana and Sailor Moon are on Disney+/Hulu, Pon no Michi and Beloved Zako Streamer are on YouTube, but I don’t believe that Madlax is streaming anywhere presently.

[3] Tōyama also voiced Marina Yonekura (The Aquatope on White Sand) and Nozomi Kasaki in Sound! Euphonium. The latter has been accused of yuri bait, a charge that defenders cannot deny. Previously, Komatsu voiced Cinnabar in Land of the Lustrous and Kaoru Shimabukuro in The Aquatope on White Sand. Shimabukuro voiced Carole Stanley in Carole & Tuesday as well, a character some fans believe is gay due to her close relationship with Tuesday Simmons during the series. Anzai also voiced, previously, Reina Kōsaka (Sound! Euphonium) and Nana Ōkami (My Roommate Is a Cat). Tomita voiced Akari Seto in Otherside Picnic, Homari Torawatari in Shine Post, and Karante Inda in The 100 Girlfriends. 

[4] Takahashi also voiced Takagi-san in Teasing Master Takagi-san, Ai Hoshino in Oshi no Ko, Chloe Forkroad in Tearmoon Empire. Toyota voiced Sapphire Kawashima in Sound! Euphonium, previously while Fukuen voiced Hikage Miyauchi in Non Non Biyori and Natsuki Umino in BanG Dream! Kohara also voiced Mina Hibino in Teasing Master Takagi-san.

[5] Yokote was also a writer for Cowboy Bebop, You’re Under Arrest, Bleach, Gin Tama, Kanamemo, Kamisama Kiss, Tamako Market, and a head writer for Gravitation, Mononoke, Red Data Girl, Kobato, and Kiss Him, Not Me.