Celebrate Pride Month With These Best Anime Picks: Watch

By Megan Peters

Pride Month is here, the LGBTQ community is using the platform to party and protest. After all, the group is making more strides now than ever before, and LGBTQ people aren't afraid to stand up for themselves when others call them into doubt. As the community grows, LGBTQ awareness is as well, and entertainment is embracing it including the anime industry.

Film, music, and television are embracing LGBTQ topics and characters in vibrant ways nowadays. Anime is doing the same, and over the decades, some of the industry's series paved the way for queer media as we know it today. So if you are looking for some modern and classic series to binge in honor of Pride Month, we've listed some of the best picks below:

Sweet Blue Flowers: "Fumi Manjoume enters Kamakura's accelerated high school – Matsuoka All-Girls High School. While waiting at the Kamakura station on the day of her entrance ceremony, she runs into an old childhood friend whom she had not seen in 10 years: Akira Okudaira. As their friendship is rekindled and they start falling back into the rhythm of friends again, it starts a delicate love story."

Yuri on Ice: "Yuri Katsuki carried the hope of all Japan on his shoulders in the Figure Skating Grand Prix, but suffered a crushing defeat in the finals. He returned to his hometown in Kyushu and hid away in his family's home, half wanting to continue skating and half wanting to retire. That was when the five-time consecutive world champion, Victor Nikiforov, suddenly showed up with his teammate, Yuri Plisetsky, a young skater starting to surpass his seniors. And so the two Yuris and the Russian champion Viktor set out to compete in a Grand Prix like none the world has ever seen!"

Citrus: "Yuzu, a high school gyaru who hasn't experienced her first love yet, transfers to an all-girls school after her mother remarries. She's beyond upset that she can't land a boyfriend at her new school. Then, on her first day, she meets the beautiful black-haired student council president Mei in the worst way possible. What's more, she later finds out that Mei is her new step-sister, and they'll be living under the same roof! And so the love affair between two polar opposite high school girls who find themselves drawn to one another begins!"

Princess Knight: "Set in a medieval fairy-tale backdrop, Princess Knight is the tale of a young princess named Sapphire who must pretend to be a male prince so she can inherit the throne. Women have long been prevented from taking the throne, but Sapphire is not discouraged and instead she fully accepts the role, becoming a dashing hero(ine) that the populous is proud of."

Love Stage: "Izumi was born in a family of celebrities. His father is a singer, his mother an artist, his older brother the lead vocalist for the popular band Crashers. Izumi himself, however, is just a nerdy college student. He loves the manga "Magical Girl Lala Lulu" and dreams of becoming a manga writer himself. One day he is roped into filming a commercial where he wears a dress. Another actor on the set, Ryoma Ichijo, mistakes him for a woman and falls in love at first sight. As it turns out, though, they met ten years in the past. And Ryoma feelings don't change when he finds out Izumi is a boy."

Sasaki and Miyano: "Miyano spends his days reading Boys' Love manga and worrying about the soft features of his face. His world of fiction becomes reality when a chance encounter leads him to high school senior Sasaki in the middle of a fight. Now, Sasaki wants to spend every opportunity he can to get to know Miyano. And what was once admiration quickly turns into affection."

Bloom Into You: "Yuu has always dreamt of receiving a love confession but feels nothing when a boy gives her one. Confused, she starts her first year of high school and meets Touko. Will Yuu's heart finally skip a beat?"

Wandering Son: "Nitori Shuichi is a boy who sees himself as a girl. He transfers to a new elementary school, and there, meets Takatsuki Yoshino, a tall and attractive young girl, who also dreams of being the opposite sex."

Banana Fish: "New York City, 1985. A dying man leaves gay gang leader Ash Lynx a strange drug, the key to something called "Banana Fish". The mysterious potion will lead Ash to a disturbed Vietnam vet who remembers a massacre -- and into brutal battle with the mafia over control of the drug."

Revolutionary Girl Utena: "When Utena was just a child and in the depths of sorrow, she found salvation in those words. They were the words of a prince, who bestowed upon her both a ring and the promise that it would lead her to him again. She never forgot the encounter. Now a teenager, Utena attends the prestigious Ohtori Academy; however, her strong sense of chivalry soon places her at odds with the student council and thrusts her into a series of mysterious and dangerous duels against its members."

Which anime series are you binging this Pride Month? Do you have any suggestions for other fans? Let us know in the comments down below!

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