Anime / Manga / Visual Novel Awards of 2014

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2014 is slowly coming to an end, which is why it’s now time to hand out my personal Yuri Awards for the year. Enjoy!

Best Yuri Anime: Sakura Trick

Unlike last year, I actually had some shows to chose from, which was really nice. I asked myself whether maybe Akuma no Riddle or Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san were better picks, but in the end, only one of these 3 shows really delivered the yuri we were all waiting for.

Sakura Trick is simply the most yuri show we got in years. I even think that it ranks within one of the top three anime with the most yuri action of all time (hentai not included).

All in all, thanks to Sakura Trick, I’m sure many of us had a great start to the new year, and hopefully, Yuri Kuma Arashi will do a similar job.

Best Non-Yuri Anime: No Game No Life

2014 had A LOT of great anime in store for us, so it was really hard to pick the one I liked the most. However, as hard as it was, and as much as I wanted to pick Kill la Kill, this one managed to excite me even more.

I loved the setting, and I loved ALL the characters, which happens like… never. The whole thing ended in a way that I think is meant to indicate that there is going to be another season at some point, and I sure hope that they aren’t going to let us wait for too long~

Best Yuri Manga: Citrus by Saburouta

Please don’t hate me too much for choosing Citrus. It’s already been on this list last year, but we just can’t deny that this manga really is the most popular yuri one around right now.

You can’t see past that fact, and if this wasn’t enough already, we also got a promotional video for this manga, which enhances my last statement even more. I know many of you hate it, and you might even have good reasons for that, but I think we can all agree that thanks to Citrus, we already gained a lot of new yuri fans.

Best Yuri Manga Character: Mika (Fragments of Love)

During the time Fragments of Love was still ongoing, I repeatedly mentioned Mika as one of the most awesome main characters in yuri manga. And now, since this story came to an end this year, I can finally list her here and expose her as the awesome character that she is.

Seriously, I’ve rarely seen a main character this interesting, this strong, and this grown up. And this is especially remarkable since this is, yet again, a manga with a high school setting.

Well, I wished for a different end for her, but I’ll talk about that in my review about the manga sometime in the future.

Best Yuri Anime Character: Haruka (Sakura Trick)

Is anyone surprised by this pick? I actually don’t think so.

I barely even had to think about who to pick in this category, since it is so obvious that it just needs to be her. But before I just move on to the next category, I have to hand out a few extra awards for Haruka.

First of all, she’ll get the award for the Best Yuri Fangirl of 2014. She had some competition there thanks to Inugami-san, but I think she really deserves it more.

Lastly, we also have to give her the award for the Best Lesbian Girlfriend of 2014. Really, whoever is able to manage to be with someone like Yuu and make her happy, simply deserves this beyond anyone else.

Best Non-Yuri Character: Satsuki (Kill la Kill)

How much I loved Kill la Kill, Satsuki and even Ryuko is still hard for me to put into words. It’s something not all of you will understand, since for some people, Kill la Kill was simply put trash, with over-the-top action and annoying characters.

However, the ones that don’t see things like this will probably agree that this show was one of the best and most refreshing ones 2014 had to offer. And Satsuki-sama is one of the main reasons why I think Kill la Kill rocked so much. She kicked ass, had awesome eyebrows, and best of all, she was the main reason for the great turning point in the anime, which was such an awesome moment!

I know it probably won’t happen, but I really wanna see more of this show.

Best Yuri Visual Novel: FLOWERS by Innocent Grey

Hands down, FLOWERS by Innocent Grey is by far the most appealing yuri Visual Novel this year has brought us. I even think that the new Sono Hanabira titles can’t catch up to the greatness of FLOWERS.

Well, I still haven’t played more than like 10 minutes of the trial version, but the art alone already makes this game look better than probably anything I’ve ever seen, and I’m hyped beyond believe to play this game in English some day.

Best Anime Opening: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

I only recently discovered this awesome anime, but I fell in love with it super fast and I still hope that it’s going to have a second season at some point.


Isn’t this super catchy?

Best Yuri Canon Pairing: Kotone x Shizuku (Sakura Trick)

I think most of you were expecting me to name Haruka and Yuu, but I think Kotone and Shizuku are a way better couple. Not only is Kotone a super awesome yuri tease, I even think that her personality goes really well with Shizuku’s rather shy nature. They just click, which I can’t really say for Haruka and Yuu. Well, okay, Yuu was also too much of a bother to me, so I just can’t name them. 😛

But back to Kotone and Shizuku, I really wish Sakura Trick had some more screen time to offer to those two. But even with the little time they got, we were able to see a lot of really awesome moments. The scene you can see up there is one of them~

Best Unofficial Yuri Pairing: All Love Live! pairings

(Besides Kancolle and Touhou) this show managed to become so popular in our yuri fanbase that we’re basically overrun by the amount of yuri Love Live! doujinshi available. Though, the fans don’t only go for the most obvious pairings, such as Niko x Maki or Nozomi x Eri, they now start shipping anyone x anyone.

That makes 9 x 9 possible combinations (plus Honoka x Tsubasa), so there are a lot of possibilities. Not everything works out in my eyes, but some artists surprise me by drawing such nice doujinshi that I start liking even the weirdest pairings, like Maki x Honoka. Seriously, why would you pair them up?!

Though, that doujin was… good…. *cough*

2014 has been great for us fans, hasn’t it? I’m still stunned by the amount of yuri we got this year. So now, why don’t you tell me about your personal highlights? I’m always interested in reading your opinions~

Also, if you’re interested, check out my Yuri Awards of 2013.

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41 thoughts on “Anime / Manga / Visual Novel Awards of 2014”

  1. You haven't played not even 10 minutes of FLOWERS and you are saying best VN ever? Really?
    I'll give you that the art is great but the novel is more class S than actual yuri and I really hate class S stuff.

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  4. Class S? In East Asia, there'za ranking system of lowest alphabet in order to highest rank of “S” rank so I'm assuming you're saying it's good stuff despite her not having played much yet (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻

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  6. I saw Citrus coming up a light-year away~ skipped the non-yuri parts~~

    Honestly speaking, the stuff covered this year was pretty scarce, tho I understand we have less translated yuri media than we do in Japanese (I could name many untranslated 2014 yuri stuff, but that would be in vain).

    But yeah, FLOWERS is probably the most appealing yuri vn we got for 2014; heck Innocent Grey didn't even add any h-scenes to it and it still shone. Perhaps that's what made it so good, lack of h-scenes were filled by great music, story and aesthetics. Maybe once I have the yuri VN text properly extracted, I'll might finally be able to start translating the game script. I get the feeling someone will beat me to it tho. will keep you updated~

    I still haven't played the next seasonal arc releases and am actually still repeating the game for completion (´・ω・`)'

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  8. The main point of class S is the thought that same-sex love was a transitory and normal part of female development leading into heterosexuality and motherhood. Class S stories in particular tell of strong emotional bonds between schoolgirls, a mutual crush between an upperclassman and an underclassman.

    It nothing about subtext or no-subtext. It is about being lesbians until graduation. If you play the game you would understand why is class S more than yuri.

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  10. Guess some of ya'll, er, can't handle subtext. Clearly anonymous 1 is a purist dood. Let's ignore him.
    @ Max Barnt
    No, you're mixing two different things up together. Class S is a genre/label/adjective. Bad endings are endings.
    And no, as someone who played the game, it is not Class S. I repeat: FLOWERS IS NOT CLASS S!!!! So don't get misled by the opinions of others and go plaayyy the game to judge yrself.

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  11. i cant believe 2014 is almost over already, im really hoping for more yuri next year, also nice 2014 awards lena k. heres my 2014 awards hope its not too long.

    first off i agree with you lena k. that sakura trick is best yuri anime of 2014, it was the most yuri anime of this year and i just loved the yuri moments

    for best non-yuri anime of 2014 i havent chosen it yet since i loved mahouka koukou no rettousei (the irregular at magic highschool) and no game no life but during the summer and fall season i was also blown away by how amazingly A-1 Pictures did sword art online ii, it was almost exactly like the light novel which i was happy about but they did leave out some stuff, i was also blown away by madhouse and their adaptation of parasyte and im still blown away by ufotable with their fate/stay night unlimited blade works adaptation just amazing so im pretty much stuck for favorite non-yuri anime of 2014

    best yuri manga of 2014 is also citrus for me, i love how saburouta-san is making the manga more exciting as it goes on, but i still really do hope it can get an anime

    for best yuri manga character i still have to give it to mei (citrus), i just love her cool headedness if thats even a word but she can be too cold at times but she's still my favorite character in citrus and also plz confess already mei

    for best yuri anime character i give it to haru (akuma no riddle), even though akuma no riddle was mostly subtext, i just loved how innocent haru was but she still had the will to live, oh and also even though it was to save tokaku's life i loved that underwater kiss

    best non-yuri anime character for me goes to shiro (no game no life), she's an awesome imouto, she's the second half of the unbeatable blank/kuhaku, she's an awesome gamer and she's just so cute!!!!!

    i havent really played any yuri visual novels from this year since most of them are in japanese and i was busy half the time so sadly i dont have a best yuri visual novel of 2014

    best anime opening, i cant choose i love so many of them, like mahouka's first op, tokyo ghoul's op, shigatsu wa kimi no uso's op and just so much more

    best yuri canon pairing for me would be hitsugi x chitaru (akuma no riddle), i love this akuma no riddle couple since they are really cute together especially in the ova they are so lovey dovey over each other

    best yuri non-canon pairing would be yuna x togo (yuuki yuna wa yusha de aru), if you havent seen yuki yuna yet its similar to madoka magica in some ways, both have crazy plot twists and both are magical girls but onto the actual topic at hand, i chose yuna and togo because i love how cute they can be when together, i love their chemistry together and both have so many subtext moments that are to the point of just kiss already!!!! and if thats not enough in the game they literally have an almost kiss scene but of course it doesnt happen sadly

    so those are my 2014 awards hope it didnt bore you lena k. and if it did im really sorry

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  13. i wish we get a season 2 of sakura trick, but i highly doubt it. The blue ray sales were horrid even after including an event ticket and having a strong storefront performance at Gamers. hopefully, it increased manga sales. I really want a season 2 for this.

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  14. I was away for just a few hours and look what happened 😛

    Since I'm talking about VNs that were released this year, it's a simply fact that they won't get translated that fast.
    So I couldn't play any of the games that were released 2014, not SonoHana, not FLOWERS and no other games.

    My decision was based on my hype level, the art work and what ever else I saw of these VNs over the year.
    So yeah, FLOWERS does look great and I was super hyped. And of course, my opinion of it might change once I play it in English.

    Also, thanks for the clarification~

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  16. Being in Japan I now realize just how many yuri works don't have a translation yet.
    I come across manga and doujinshi that I have never seen or heard before and it makes me realize just how much better it would be to understand Japanese 😛

    And you want to translate the game? That's certainly good news, let me know if I can help in any way.

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  18. Thank you very much for sharing, I always love hearing about other opinions, so don't worry about being a bother 🙂

    I agree with your yuri pairing. Chitaru x Hitsugi was really great, but it wasn't obvious enough for me. Though, the special episode surely made things very very clear between them. If I had watched it before writing this entry, I would have surely named them as well.

    Up until now, I was only forced to watch one episode of Yuuki Yuna and to be honest, I didn't much like it, though I will probably continue whenever I'll have some free time, so thanks for the recommendation.

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  20. Yeah, I can't wait for someone else to start translating anymore, and it will give me something to do at least.
    I'm stil struggling to extract the game's story script since I'm beginner to these complex extracting programs ( more translate than compute) [in other words I'm still stuck at step 1] I
    f you know any slightly easier way to do so, please tell- xP

    On the other hand, have fun with the rest of your Japan trip~

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  22. thanks for reading my opinions 🙂 i hope you like yuki yuna also have you tried cross ange yet, i heard it has some yuri moments, well i havent seen it yet so ya i wouldnt know much. also i agree with your yuri pairing, shizuku and kotone are really great and i do like them a little more than haruka and yuu but i still love both pairings 🙂

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  23. did you ever read Murcielago? The main character is a lesbian and there is sex scenes. Her name is Kuroko Koumori ans she's amazing. I love psychotic main characters, so i am a bit biased about her. she's a death row inmate who was granted freedom and now works for the gov killing off deranged criminals. This manga does have extreme gore and stuff, but overall i enjoyed it and loved kuroko (even though her tongue is pretty creepy). It's still ongoing with 12 chapters translated.

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  28. Agree with most of your awards. Won't say which ones I do not though. Take my word for it that you did a great job in 2014 and here's hoping 2015 will also bless us with lots of “work”.

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  29. Well, after reading this I decided to give Sakura Trick another try and I was glad I did. Before I gave up on it since it just felt like pointless fanservice and makeout sessions but it actually gets really sweet during the last half. I also agree that Kotone x Shizuku needed more screentime, at least they get a bit more in the manga and the BD vol 4 bonus chapter was a nice follow up to the pool episode.

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  31. yea, i agree that may be offsetting to some. but for me,i don't if it contains gore or has sex scenes, as long as they're separate im fine. I'm just happy because the manga didn't need to have yuri, het would have worked just as well. on a safe side if u do decide to give it a chance i would love to hear your opinion on it.

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  38. I agree with all points except “Best Non-Yuri Anime”. Right, NGNL was a great show, but the real winner in the category of best anime in 2014 should be Ping Pong The Animation. Wow, these characters, this music, this true representation of sports fighting spirit and lol chinese seiyuu for chinese character. It was all amazing and extremely… hm… caring? Take a look at this title in your free time, please. 😀

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