Growing up in the ’90s, I didn’t have sapphic or yuri anime like Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games. Instead I grew up with the US broadcast of Sailor Moon that made Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune cousins. And I remember, in those early years of struggling with my queer identity, that I had always clocked that there was something different about those supposed “cousins” who continuously were having romantic moments as they were fighting the forces of evil.
So that’s why watching getting back into anime and watching Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games left me shook.
To set the stage, this anime is about young women and an elite boarding school for well-mannered young ladies. And there is this one famed girl in the school named the “White Lily.” Everybody watches her and is just wowed by her beauty and grace. And Mitsuki, the student at the school on a scholarship, is instantly dazzled by her. She wants to be like Yorue. This illusion of the “perfect girl” is shattered when Mitsuki finds Yorue absolutely going to town playing a video game. And Mitsuki? Oh, she’s a gamer too!
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When Yorue catches Mitsuki watching her, Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games did something that the US broadcast of Sailor Moon never did. They made it crystal clear that this tension between them isn’t admiration. It’s romantic. Because earlier on in the episode Mitsuki was enamored by Yorue’s beauty. And everything stopped, flowers came up on screen as time slowed down, and a blush came up on her cheeks. But it’s this moment in a hidden room that A) made the intention of this series very clear and B) had me blushing like a school girl.
First time anime watchers might complain about yuri anime because it’s not explicitly having them making out. But that’s not the only thing that sapphic couples do and it’s not the only thing queer people like seeing. We like seeing the soft moments where someone’s beauty leaves someone star struck. Or we like seeing tense moments where one has the other pinned against a wall, their bodies close. And Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games is giving us that and more like frames that show their lips close, Mitsuki blushing as Yorue ducks down to speak into her ear, or Mitsuki’s heart giving an audible ba-dum at Yorue being this close.
All of this matters.
This romance in Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games is balanced out by the sheer intensity of Yorue and Mitsuki throwing themselves completely into these fighting video games. There’s trash talking, epic gameplay, humor, and even a little blood. And it’s kind of refreshing because when you see a gamer girl in media she’s usually a tomboy or “not like other girls.” Then here comes this anime and presents us with young women who are studious, put together, from various walks of life, and also fiercely in love with something that makes them feel alive. And that thing that makes them feel alive just so happens to be gaming.
If you’re not a gamer, you would still appreciate Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games. And it’s because the anime symbolizes the intensity of finding someone who matches your freak. By that I mean when you find someone in the wilds of this world that shares the same love for something you like with the same intensity. There’s a rush to that. And Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games expresses that in a funny yet visceral way because we’ve either been this intense about our interests or we’ve wanted to share this interest with someone.
Now at this point, Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games is just beginning. It’s only on Season 1 on Crunchyroll. But there’s a lot of material to work with with the manga by Eri Ejima having 10 volumes so far and still not being done. For now, Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games is a refreshing sapphic anime about gaming and being freak for freak with someone unexpected about something you love. And with this summer being so dry when it comes to LGBTQ+ offerings on the live action side of TV, this is an anime worth checking out if you want to dabble in something new.
Watch the trailer for Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games below:
Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games is airing new episodes every Tuesday on Crunchyroll.
