I recently saw that Scarlet Beriko's works were scanlated and now I'm hungry for more strong uke! I really enjoyed the fact that they were mentally strong and able to go for what they want or figure themselves out. I love that they can push the seme and basically communicate what they desire.

It also helps if the art is sensual, I've read a some very pretty yaoi (Mede Shireru Yoru no Junjou comes to mind) and some just adorable/very solid yaoi (Konbini-kun, Ameiro Paradox, Yuuutsu na Asa), but very few of them have been as sensual as Beriko's. I do understand if suggestions don't quite meet this standard though.

Anyway, suggestions are welcome for yaoi and yuri and please double check my lists before you suggests, though I don't mind suggestions from my To-Read list since as the name suggests, I haven't read those yet.

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Hmm, it is kinda hard for me to crasp what exactly you want, so I'm going to go down the road where the uke isn't portraited as fragile. For the sensual part you could try reading ANIYA Yuiji's works, like Me o Tojite 3-Byou and Mou Ichido, Nando Demo.. Maybe some JARYUU Dokuro and Kyuugou also? They don't really try to differentiate appearance/personality wise who is top and who is bottom, also their ukes normally take the initiative. Honto Yajuu also has a very straight forward uke...

Kuchizuke wa Uso no Aji, with a very manipulative and deceptive uke. The art is nice, too.

On the other hand we have pretty much anything written by Nishida Higashi, where the ukes are really strong: physically or mentally or both. However, the art is terribly unattractive and doesn't really grown on you no matter how many of her manga you read.

Similarly there's Ishihara Satoru, again with strong ukes and pretty nice storylines, but not-so-appealing art.

For yuri it's a bit more difficult... At least in the GL I read, there's no clear butch/femme dynamic like there is seme/uke in BL. But I suppose Amano Shuninta's pretty good about this kind of thing. There's also Husky and Medley.

Last edited by calstine at 4:52 am, Dec 7 2016

Sorry for the late reply, it took a while to go through (most) everything.

I liked Me o Tojite 3-Byou, something about the seme's innocence, both of their inexperience, and probably especially the uke's joy at teasing the seme really worked for me.

I wasn't as into [Mou Ichido, Nando Demo] because of how desperate the uke seemed and especially the whole amnesia trope.

I tried some Jaryuu Dokuro and Kyuugou and maybe it was just bad luck, but I had a run of dark yaoi that I didn't realize I did not want to read. It was especially apparent in Jaryuu, like okay cool fairly equal uke and seme, but wtf ?!! Yeah, I guess I should have stipulated that I don't want the characters to have some sort of tragic/depressing past that makes the characters really messed up.

Okay, Honto Yajuu is so adorable and yep that straightforward uke going for what he wants is just yes!

I really liked Kuchizuke wa Uso no Aji, the art was very nice but what I loved best was the smirking uke. I really enjoy the dynamic between the two main characters, I just really like their power dynamic. Thanks for this suggestion.

I also enjoyed Nishida Higashi and didn't mind the art; the art seemed overall fine to me, though I think it's because I've grown to dislike the sort of art found in Junjou Romantica and Yume Musubi Koi Musubi so much that I can do any other kind of art. Anyway I particularly liked the stories of her that focused on the middle aged men, I loved how they had a certain respect for themselves, a certain maturity that highlighted when they were foolish or childish, and definitely that they basically were on equal grounds with their partners.

Amano Shuninta was really good too, I loved the mixture of inexperience but open admittance of wanting sex of one or the other partner where the other has some experience.

And I guess for Yuri what I want are ones that aren't just innocent or cute or in other words pure, I want more passion and desire or at least admitting to wanting that, but no tragedy or some messed up excuse as to why they are sensual beings, why they are homo- or bi- sexual. Though I do have to admit that I haven't delved much into Yuri so maybe I'm just not finding the right ones.

I still haven't read Ishihara Satoru or Husky and Medley, but I'll get to them soon, just thought I'd get this up here.

Anyway I guess some additions/clarifications and exclusions to the OP:

+ Yuri should focus on sensuality (too much of what I've read is just innocent/sweet/cute/adorable.)
+ I would like it if characters, especially the submissive one, openly enjoys the physical parts of a relationship or if the submissive one is embarrassed so is the dominant one or if it's the dominant one who's embarrassed.
- No tragic past that makes characters really messed up
- No extended denial of homo- or bi- sexuality
- No dark obsessive love



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Just yesterday I read Doutei Hitsuji to Abazure Ookami. The title story (chapters 1-2 and the end-of-volume extra) fits your request nicely.

Hmm, now I get a bit of what you want. But I still do recommend you read the tags on each manga, because for me a uke could be considered "strong" in a different sense, so sorry in advance... haha I tried to list angst-free mangas with mostly cute but well developed ukes.

From Jaryuu Dokuro, I was thinking about Sugar Milk with some ukes that are good at teasing... I forgot she has some dark themes.
Maybe Aishiteru (FUJITANI Youko) because both of them are very clear about what they want, almost like a married couple. But not really on the teasing uke side of the coin.
Rutta to Kodama maybe, because, after chapter 1, Kodama seems he knows what he wants etc.
Monte Carlo no Ame is on the teasing side, but involves crossdressing (also the first chapter on Dame BL has a lot of teasing and Itoshi no Nekokke has some teasing, but it goes a bit on the drama side...)
Junketsu Drop because of the innocence you mentioned... and both being embarrassed...
Starlike Words maybe...? Like, the uke is the lewd one...
Koisuru Bitch-kun maybe?
Yachin Hanbun no Ibasho desu uke is openly gay
Double Hound this one is a bit of a stretch. You could say it has dark themes, but I like the uke in it... like he knows what he is doing etc. But it doesn't really just focuses on the romance... in this one I think you should read the tags, see if you are comfortable with it.

Again, if I have made you read anything you don't feel good about it, I'm very sorry! I know how shitty that is... I, for a reason I don't know, still find it hard to pin point exactly what you want because the main idea about the ukes can be a bit different for both of us.


Last edited by dalek at 7:36 am, Dec 11 2016

I saw that most of Ishihara Satoru of her work had drama or were not scanlated so I'm going to put her off a bit until I'm in the mood for drama.

Kinda sad about how difficult it is to Yuri, had to go to extra effort to read most of Amano Shuninta's works and Husky and Medley.

I didn't like Doutei Hitsuji to Abazure Ookami, the seme annoyed me by being too wimpy, I would have preferred him to maybe have walked a different route if he didn't want to be molested/sexually harassed after the first time. That whole first scene just felt too close to rape to me and so the manga fell into the rape -> love trope for me, which I tend to avoid.

Sugar Milk was really good, I loved the first story. And yeah I think I was just unlucky since I was lazy and just went to Batoto to look so I didn't read tags. Though most of her works seem to have dark themes aside from Sugar Milk.

I wasn't quite sure of Aishiteru (FUJITANI Youko) at first, but I ended up enjoying it as well. It was definitely because they were open and clear to each other and it was kinda awesome how strong their relationship was that they could do long distance.

Rutta to Kodama was a bit dull, it was nice, but I couldn't really bring myself to keep reading it myabe because it was high school life and there really wasn't any conflict to the plot or romance or just anything to keep it interesting after they got together. Like with Honto Yajuu there's always the police and yakuza conflict that really helps it stay interesting, and the characters themselves where always interesting too because of their personalities.

OMG I love the first chapter of Dame BL, I read it a long time ago and it was definitely one of the manga that really got me into yaoi. I have Itoshi no Nekokke on my wish list because no one's scanlating it right now and I don't want to start it and then wait forever or never finish. I also watched the anime adaption of [Shouwa Genroku Rakugou Shinjuu] and it was so amazingly good. I am so happy you suggested Monte Carlo no Ame because yes! (I like reading crossdressing, I'm basically fine with most kinks.) I didn't know the mangaka had come out with a newish work. (I also really enjoy her art. Kinda wish there was a notification for mangaka when they come out with new work.)

Junketsu Drop was adorable! Their fumblings and their lust really hit the spot. Also, I think because the seme was inexperienced, and maybe because it was in his pov, I was really able to enjoy the fact that he teased and got the uke hot under the collar.

Yes Starlike Words, I loved it. I enjoyed that the seme basically had to win him over and also that the seme had emotional depth. The flirting was really cute, and the respect the seme had for himself and the uke impressed me.

I wasn't really able to get into Koisuru Bitch-kun the characters annoyed me, the uke for being so flat and babyish and the seme for his wishy washiness.

I also couldn't really get into Yachin Hanbun no Ibasho desu, it just felt bland to me and the ukes felt very complacent.

I really enjoyed Double Hound, the story was cool and I liked how the two of them got together.

As for dark themes in general like I said, it was kinda my fault for not reading tags and not being specific about it, though I'm okay with reading them, it's really how Jaryuu Dokuro approached them that put me off. I felt like she addressed the issues in problematic ways like It's stuff like that that I don't like reading. And yeah, it's kinda hard to pinpoint myself what I want to read in yaoi and yuri. Recently I've been looking at the older uke, younger seme and the seme like uke tags, so those have helped. I've also noticed that I really like yaoi with guys in their mid twenties and older. (Still really unsure about the Yuri though lol.)

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