Yuri I like: Girls Last Tour

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It's fall going into winter, and while the seasons just ain't what they used to be the shift is still tangible. And with winter, comes the conflicting feelings of the wonder of a truly quiet world and the hell of sunset at 4pm.

Maybe it's just me, but winter really brings out a lot of vague, undirected yearning alongside a lot of thinking about life. How you've lived, how you're living now, all the different types of person you've been at this time of year. In other words, winter is perfect for yuri. Not just direct yuri, but queerplatonic and miyazawan yuri too.

2 girls snuggling up by the fire, maybe they'll kiss, maybe they'll snuggle closer and bask in their special relationship, maybe there are no girls there at the time we're looking and the yuri is in the way even the landscape is yearning. Leafless trees swaying in a light breeze, occasional pine needles the only pop of color in a near monochrome scenery. Mornings which would be scored by a squad of songbirds in other seasons are only graced with the howl of a biting wind. In places that should BE, there is none.

Winter is quintessentially yuri. And the manga that is quintessentially winter in my mind is Girls Last Tour.

Where once was life, is now none. An endless landscape of grey and white. Life will continue, but it won't be for humans. Nature withers in winter, so that it will grow back stronger in spring even if some individual creatures die in the process. In girls last tour, humanity has finally reached its last winter.

Only a few stragglers cling to the hostile landscape they are no longer welcome on. The last of a species know their days are numbered, but that doesn't make those days worthless. You make peace with your number and create your own meaning for each one. Life continues, and it will continue without you.

But when you give up your ego it's easy to love the world all the same. You are not the main character, but you are important. When you finish your time your death is appreciated. Your coming decay is just the process of feeding and creating new life. You won't be remembered the way humans do, but your carcass and all the time within will be passed from generation to generation for millenia to come. Not in the same form as it was, but it will be loved and last beyond your time. Even if all life down to the bacteria was burned to a crisp, we will all remain in our own strange ways.

And this blending of being is quite yuri, isn't it?

Girls last tour perfectly captures this strange winter feeling, and is already yuri as such. But rest assured, it's yuri in the other way too. Chito and yuuri don't have a canonically romantic relationship, but humanity has collapsed. Romance is a very human cultural thing, and when humanity is on it's last gasp of course they don't know about it. Maybe if they knew romance they would have it, but even without romance there are yuri relationships.

If anything there are ONLY yuri relationships without cultural influence, because friendship is also a construct. They aren't just friends or just girlfriends, they are chito and yuuri. The love between these 2 girls doesn't fit in a construct because they don't know any. You could technically fit them in the square hole, but that's not what that shape is. And relationships between girls or things that defy constriction are also very yuri.

Also they'd 100% be gay if they knew the concept. If you take issue with that, take it up with tsukumizu and their official anthology comic. Not just one of the anthology comics, it's specifically the one that tsukumizu wrote themself.

And shimeji simulation is great, and definitely a detached sequel to girls last tour but the vibes are juuuust different enough not to fit here. But please read it anyway if you like strange yuri! And the shimeji simulation girls DO understand the concepts of romance, friendship, and sexuality and they have weird sex about it so. Highly recommend