u/Odd-Reputation-1170

After episode 1, I know the obvious setup is “Little Mermaid falls for a prince-like boy again,” but my yuri brain is already refusing to be normal about Mari.

Like… yes, Lara’s first love was a prince, and Luca is clearly being framed as the reincarnation/parallel of that romantic tragedy. But Mari feels way too important to just be “the helpful human girl.”
She’s the one who meets Lara in the present, takes her in, and seems positioned as the person who can show her what “true love” might actually mean this time.
So I’m wondering: are we looking at a Cosmic Princess Kaguya! pattern here?
As in, the story starts from a classic fairy-tale premise that looks like it should be about a girl and a destined guy, but the emotional center quietly shifts to the bond between two girls until it becomes the real heart of the story.
I’m not saying “yuri confirmed” after one episode.
I’m just saying Mari stocks are open, I am buying, and I am ready to be hurt.

https://youtu.be/P4oxsg2vjc8

Okay, I know we should not overhype before release, but The Ribbon Hero is making it very hard to stay normal.

Pine（left side of image’s golden haired girl） is officially “Sapphire’s friend,” but the trailer framing is suspiciously soft: Sapphire meets her, lives with her, opens up around her, and there is that expression Pine makes when Sapphire looks at her. That is not proof of romance, obviously, but it is exactly the kind of “girl who becomes the heroine’s emotional home” setup that yuri brains are legally required to notice.

And then there is villain Velvet.
Velvet being a beautiful crossdressing boy immediately reminds me of Noi from Cosmic Princess Kaguya! — not only because they’re similar archetypes （and also both movies are the collaborative project between Netflix and Twin Engine）, but because both occupy that “beautiful theatrical outsider who complicates gender and desire around the heroine” space. So the movie already has Sapphire, Pine, and Velvet creating this very Takarazuka-ish triangle of heroism, intimacy, and gender performance.

The big comparison for me is Willema from New Princess Knight.
Willema was much more direct: assassin sent after Sapphire, gets emotionally shaken by her, and the relationship becomes explicitly romantic. Pine probably will not be “Willema 2.0” in such a straightforward way. She seems less like an enemy-to-lover assassin and more like Sapphire’s ordinary-life anchor — the girl who teaches her that Goldland is not just a place to survive in, but a place worth protecting.

So my current prediction is:
Willema = dramatic yuri, blade-to-heart, “I was sent to expose/kill you but fell for you.”
Pine = healing yuri, home-to-heart, “I met you after you lost everything, and now you have something to protect again.”

Will Netflix actually go there? Maybe not.
Will I treat Pine looking at Sapphire like that as evidence anyway? Absolutely.

I found a fascinating little piece of mid-2000s yuri fandom history from Yamibo /百合会, a Chinese-language yuri forum.

In 2006, they held a "Most Popular Female Character in Yuri-related Works" tournament for the forum's 2nd anniversary. What surprised me is how the Utena characters did when they ran into the Kannazuki no Miko characters.

In the first round, Chikane Himemiya faced Anthy Himemiya and Chika Ito. Chikane won overwhelmingly:

Chikane Himemiya — 292 votes / 73.00%
Anthy Himemiya - 25 votes / 6.25%
Chika Ito - 83 votes / 20.75%

Later, Himeko Kurusugawa faced Utena Tenjou in the round of 16. That one was much closer, but Himeko still won:

Utena Tenjou — 323 votes / 40.83%
Himeko Kurusugawa — 468 votes / 59.17%

And the final winner of the whole tournament was Chikane Himemiya, who narrowly beat Shizuru Fujino:

Chikane - 409
Shizuru - 397

What I find especially interesting is not just the numbers, but the way the Kannazuki supporters framed the Himeko vs Utena match. One support post described Utena as the "recognized prince," Himeko as the princess seen only by Chikane, and then had Himeko basically say: "You may be the prince in everyone's eyes, Utena, but the prince l need is not you. The princess you should protect is not me. I have to go find the true black-horse prince who is waiting for me."

That "true prince" is Chikane.

I find this both funny and fascinating. Utena is a show about dismantling the prince/princess system, but this 2006 yuri fandom context seems to take the prince symbol and re-crown Chikane with it. Not
"there should be no prince," but "my real prince is this tragic yuri girl on a black horse."

It feels more like a snapshot of what a specific yuri fandom community in 2006 found emotionally powerful: not Utena's deconstruction of the prince fantasy, but Chikane's melodramatic, sacrificial, girl-as-prince devotion to Himeko.

It also makes the contrast between the two works really sharp:

Utena: escape the roles of prince and princess.
Kannazuki no Miko fandom in this tournament: reclaim the prince role for a girl who loves another girl.

I thought people here might find this strange, amusing, or historically interesting.

Link
https://bbs.yamibo.com/thread-35527-1-1.html
https://bbs.yamibo.com/thread-39163-1-1.html
https://bbs.yamibo.com/thread-39164-1-1.html
https://bbs.yamibo.com/thread-41143-1-1.html
https://bbs.yamibo.com/thread-41360-1-1.html

Maybe I’m coping a little, but Goodbye, Lara is giving me very strong Cosmic Princess Kaguya!

vibes: a classic fairy tale reimagined as a modern anime about a strange, mermaid girl Lara entering the life of a high school boxer girl Mari.

And the director is Takushi Koide, who was assistant director on Revue Starlight and handled some of the iconic MayaKuro material, including the movie’s Maya x Claudine revue. So I’m definitely watching this with yuri goggles on.

There's a male character named Luca who resembles a prince, but I think he'll either be rejected due to critisism of heteronormative like Akio Ootori in Revolutionary Girl Utena because of the prince connection, or his love will end in heartbreak because of the love between Lara and Mari, like Souma Oogami was defeated by Chimeko in Kannazuki no Miko.

Not saying it’s guaranteed, but if CPK was the Kaguya-hime version, this really feels like the Little Mermaid sister project.

I know not all of these are “confirmed canon yuri,” but as a yuri fan, this summer lineup is looking absolutely ridiculous.
Actual yuri / very obvious yuri bait-to-believe-in:
● I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day
● Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games
Massive yuri-adjacent / ship-fuel / girls-with-intense-dynamics energy:
● Goodbye, Lara
　　● The Ribbon Hero （Personally, I'm especially looking forward to this.）
● GROW UP SHOW Sunflower Circus
● Draw This, Then Die!
● Dodge Danko
● BanG Dream! Yume∞Mita
● Azur Lane: Slow Ahead! Season 2
● Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. Season 2
● Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Gun Blaze Vengeance
And then we have the “my yuri goggles are on and I refuse to take them off” picks:
● Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia
● Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)!
● My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren’t Wicked
Again, I’m not saying every single one of these will be canon yuri. Some are actual yuri, some are yuri-adjacent, some are girl-focused stories, and some are pure yuri-copium.
But still… for one summer?
Yuri fans are eating way too good.

Starts as: haha funny gun-nun and demon boy adventure

↓

Ends as: >!they spend their last day together, smile, hold hands, and die!<

Kaguya: “THIS IS A BAD ENDING!”

Drop more anime that would make her react like this.

[supprimé]

When the final episode aired , I saw a noticeable number of Japanese watchers on X calling it a “yuri ending” or celebrating it as if Machu/Nyaan（Nyachu ）had basically won.

Of course, there was also pushback from other Japanese fans. Some people denied that calling it a yuri ending especially because the finale gives Machu/Shuji a very direct romantic moment. I was hoping to be yuri ending, sadly, I have to say this was far from yuri ending.

But, the “yuri ending” interpretation still existed and was not just one isolated comment in Japan. That made me wonder if the word “yuri” is being used differently depending on the fandom space.

Is this a difference between:

・“yuri” as an actual romantic relationship between girls
・“yuri” as strong emotional female bonding / girls choosing each other
・“yuri” as a fandom/ship interpretation regardless of canon
・or people simply joking/copium-posting after the finale?

So, The Ribbon Hero is coming to Netflix on August 8, and I honestly think yuri fans should keep an eye on it.

To be clear, I’m not saying “confirmed yuri.” We all know how dangerous it is to build a whole castle from a key visual and vibes alone. But this is based on Princess Knight, and that premise already has huge queer/yuri potential: Sapphire is a girl raised as a prince, forced to perform a role that society demands of her, while trying to decide who she actually wants to be.

That alone is very different from “there are cute girls, therefore yuri.” Sapphire’s whole character is about gender, role, image, expectation, and self-definition. “A girl who becomes a prince” is already one of the most yuri-compatible fairy-tale setups imaginable.

And after reading New Princess Knight, the potential feels even less like pure copium. In that version, Willema is an assassin sent after Sapphire because Prime Minister Lester suspects Sapphire’s secret. But instead of just exposing or killing her, Willema becomes emotionally drawn to Sapphire, and their relationship turns into something explicitly romantic/affectionate（images of right side is their wedding scene at the end of this manga）. So the idea of giving Sapphire a female love interest is not some random modern fandom invention. It already exists inside the broader Princess Knight reimagining lineage.

That is why The Ribbon Hero feels so interesting. If this new film really leans into Sapphire’s “I don’t want to be the self others demand of me” theme, then a female character who sees Sapphire not as a prince, not as a princess, not as a fake, but simply as Sapphire, could be incredibly powerful.

And there’s also the Netflix × Twin Engine connection. After Cosmic Princess Kaguya! gave us a modern, very yuri-readable reworking of a classic princess myth, The Ribbon Hero feels like it could be the next arrow in that same direction: another old Japanese/legacy story reimagined through modern animation, identity, performance, and maybe girl-girl emotional centrality.

Again, I’m not calling it confirmed. It could still go full hetero romance, or avoid romance entirely. But if it chooses to make Sapphire “a girl who becomes another girl’s prince,” that would not feel forced at all. It would feel like one of the most natural modern updates Princess Knight could possibly receive.

Basically: I’m buying yuri stocks, but with a disclaimer label attached.

Japanese anime news site, Anime! Anime! is running its 2026 “favorite yuri anime” reader poll.

The 2024 and 2025 results had the exact same top 3:
1:Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury
2:Bloom Into You
3:Lycoris Recoil

This year’s poll is free-response, one response per person, and closes on June 11.
Not telling anyone what to vote for — just sharing because I figured this sub would be interested. Pick your own favorite yuri anime!

Link: https://s.animeanime.jp/article/2026/06/04/99742.html

Okay, I know this is pure speculation at this point, but the marketing for Expelled from Paradise: Resonance from the Heart is giving me some serious “wait… could this actually become a yuri mecha movie?” energy.

First, the currently revealed main/new character lineup is overwhelmingly female. Gabriel, Alma, Danel, and Raguel are the characters being pushed in the recent key visuals and PV material, and the story summary keeps focusing on “the girls” / female agents chasing the mystery of the Fallen. That alone does not make something yuri, of course, but it does create a very different atmosphere from the original movie’s Angela + Dingo dynamic.

Second, Gen Urobuchi is back as the writer. Obviously that does not automatically mean “yuri confirmed,” but this is the same writer associated with Madoka Magica, a series whose emotional core is basically impossible to discuss without talking about the intense girl-girl bonds between HomuMado and Kyosaya. Urobuchi is very good at turning female emotional attachment into something cosmic, tragic, sacrificial, and world-altering. If you give him a mostly female cast, post-human bodies, digital souls, exile from paradise, and “resonance of the heart” as a subtitle… yeah, I’m going to start asking questions.

Third, the latest teaser material shows a two-seater Arhan / cockpit setup. Again, not proof of romance. But in mecha language, a two-seater unit is almost never neutral. It usually means synchronization, trust, dependence, emotional compatibility, or some form of “we can only fight together.” If the two pilots are women, and the title is literally about the resonance of the heart, that is extremely easy to read as yuri-coded.

To be clear: I’m not saying this movie is confirmed yuri. It could easily just be a female-led sci-fi action movie with no romance. It could also remain in the same “strong female friendship / emotional partnership” zone that a lot of anime uses without making anything explicit.
But the ingredients are suspiciously powerful:
mostly female revealed cast
Gen Urobuchi writing again
post-human identity drama
two-seater mecha
“heart resonance” in the title
Angela’s rebellion as the legacy event behind the plot

Either way, I am thinking this movie’s yuri possibility is high!

https://youtu.be/I3LmOryuUw8

Cosmic Princess Kaguya!
→ based on Princess Kaguya
→ Yuri Shimai, the predecessor to Comic Yuri Hime
had a yuri Princess Kaguya story → became extremely yuri-coded / basically the yuri movie of the year

And after Kaguya, this stopped feeling like a coincidence and started looking like a template: classic princess/fairy-tale material + an older yuri
retelling = suspiciously girl-centered modern anime
↓

Goodbye, Lara
→ based on The Little Mermaid
→ Yuri Shimai also had a yuri Little Mermaid story → girl-meets-girl setup with Lara living with Mari

THE RIBBON HERO
→ based on Princess Knight
→ New Princess Knight already made Sapphire x
Willema a thing
→ new key visual is full of girls and no obvious prince romance in sight

There's definitely a pattern here!

Am I going to treat it as prophecy? Absolutely !