Actually Good Queer Manga

8/10

Autobiographical. The protagonist learns what it means to love others and learns to love herself. We follow kabi as she struggles with self love, family, sexuality, mental illness, and self worth. Lovingly illustrated and not very glamorous. Not a whole depiction of queerness but a nice little snapshot.

tw. ED, mental illness

9/10
A beautifully drawn manga depicting an ensemble cast of LGBTQ+ characters.

The protagonist is a gay highschooler struggling with his identity who makes an unusual group of friends. Each other person is a different member of the GRSM spectrum and we get to peek into each of their lives. This story is about the exploration, examination, struggle, and acceptance of GRSM identities.

It explores queer themes and makes good use of it’s medium.

8/10

There’s so much fun in sailor moon that even if you didn’t want queer representation you should read it anyway. But there’s plenty for the gays too.

9/10

Recommend the anime over the manga.

The complexity of the anime never ceases to amaze me. It would be difficult for me to condense the themes concisely. While the main focus isn’t necessarily queerness, it is inextricably tied to the overarching thèmes about gender, sex, and femininity.

7.5/10

A simple and emotionally complex story depicting two kids exploring gender expression opposite from the ones they were assigned at birth. A refreshingly responsibly depiction of trans characters.

PS**** The gender of the main characters are not explicitly stated to be trans.

cw: transphobia, homophobia

8.5/10

Based off the life of a famous LGBT activist from Japan; autobiographical and tells about his life from childhood as a gay man in an intolerant society. Simple, realistic, and mature. Fairly unremarkable (or exciting) plot, but it gives the readers space to process the emotions! well i think haha

8/10

Cute fluffy and warm slice of life from POV of a mom with a gay son. It also weaves in lessons about love and acceptance quite nicely. Also, the joy of seeing LBGT youth being accepted by their parents is immeasurable.

7.5/10

Protag is a closeted trans man struggling with his relationship with others and with himself. And learning to express who he is through fashion.

9/10

First of all, such a good manga in it’s own right. I’m also a painter and I think the author does a really lovely job of portraying the internal thoughts and struggles of an artist.

So this manga is not explicitly an LGBTQ, but several characters are pretty explicitly not heterosexual and the gender non-conforming nature of several characters (and one very much in particular) means it’s an LGBTQ manga to me.