Anime and manga with a prominent focus on LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual and/or aromantic) characters and people. The subject/theme of these works may or may not be about LGBTQIA+ culture and identities and can be highly varied. To be listed here, the work must contain either a main or recurring LGBTQIA+ character, or there must be a high frequency of LGBTQIA+ figures appearing rather than limiting it to one or two offhanded/one-off appearances. Word of Gay examples do not go here: the character's identity must be established within the work itself. See LGBT Fanbase for works that do not have unambiguous LGBTQIA+ subject matter, but attract a significant LGBTQIA+ fandom.
Some of these works have characters coming out or being shown to be LGBTQIA+ as reveals, beware of spoilers.
See LGBT Representation in Media for a list of works in other mediums with prominent LGBTQIA+ representation.
See also Queer Media for works with a primary focus on LGBT people, queer subjects and themes and Queer Romance for works that focus on romantic relationships between queer characters as the main plot. See also LGBT+ Creators for a list of artists/media creators who are LGBTQIA+.
- Akame ga Kill!: Bulat is a gay man.
- Anima Yell!: Kon Akitsune is a lesbian who is revealed to have a crush on her female tutor (who she later ends up dating) in the third episode.
- Asteroid in Love: Moe "Suzu" Suzuya is a lesbian. The series has a side storyline of her crush towards Misa, her Childhood Friend's older sister Misa, which cumulated in am Love Confession. Her love confession also effectively makes her openly lesbian from the eleventh-grade on.
- Attack on Titan: Ymir is a lesbian, and is in a relationship with Christa Lenz, who is bisexual. Additionally, Hange Zoe is non-binary in the manga and is referred to with gender-neutral pronouns, despite being retconned into being unambiguously a woman in the anime.
- Attack on Titan: Junior High: As in the original work it parodies, Ymir is a lesbian and Christa is bisexual.
- Azumanga Daioh: One of the series' recurring characters, Kaorin, is a girl constantly crushing on Sakaki, a fellow female classmate. The Supplementary Lessons chapters written for the manga's tenth anniversary additionally depict her as being in a Transparent Closet.
- Black Butler: Grell Sutcliff, a Grim Reaper who's in love with Sebastian Michaelis, is a transgender woman. One of her personal gripes is that, being transfem in Victorian England, where sex change surgery is not commonplace, she's unable to become fertile.
- Black★★Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall: Supporting characters Monica and Isana are two lesbians in a relationship, with Monica having sexual interest in Empress before reuniting with Isana. Major character Dead Master also expresses sexual and romantic interest in Empress, though it's not reciprocated and later toned down after her Heel–Face Turn.
- Bloom Into You: Touko, Sayaka, Yuu, and Haru are all lesbian characters. Maki is Asexual.
- Blue Period: Ryuuji is a bisexual cross-dressing boy.
- Bocchi the Rock!: Ikuyo Kita, one of the main characters, is a lesbian with a crush on her bandmate, Ryō Yamada.
- Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight!: The Official Couple of the manga consists of a bisexual woman, protagonist Haebaru Misora, and her lesbian girlfriend Hara Akira. Several other significant characters are also bi or lesbian, and Nekomiya Miya, introduced as part of the second generation of gravure idol trio Japan KGB, is a trans woman.
- Cardcaptor Sakura has plenty of LGBTQIA+ characters, including the title character. While the series focuses on love in general, one of the most important romance plots of the series is that of Touya and Yukito's, which is achillean.
- Carole & Tuesday: The anime has several transgender supporting and minor characters, ranging from binary to non-binary, and a recurring subplot/theme of gender dysphoria/gender-fluidity due to a fantastic plot element.
- Chainsaw Man: Quanxi is a lesbian who is in a Polyamorous relationship with four fiend girls.
- Day Break Illusion: Major character Luna Tsukuyomi is stated to have a crush on another girl, Akari Taiyou; much of Luna's subplot revolves around her insecurity and jealousy towards Akari's strengthening friendship with other girls. Supporting character Hanayume is a transgender woman, confirmed in old photographs that show her with a visibly masculine presentation.
- Doki Doki School Hours has Rio Kitagawa, the statuesque girl of the class, who is openly and unashamedly Hot for Teacher, to the consternation of Mika-sensei, the diminutive teacher in question. In addition, there is the openly gay Kudo, who is crushing on Dumb Jock Suitake, who is utterly oblivious of Kudo's crush.
- Dr. STONE: Ryusui Nanami, one of the main characters, is bi or pan, as he says that he is attracted to all women and men and has had multiple girlfriends and boyfriends in the past.
- Fairy Ranmaru: The anime leans hard on man on man fanservice for the Female Gaze. The main character, the titular Ranmaru is revealed in the final episode to be in love with Big Bad Sirius. Meanwhile, the ending also implies that Uruu and Homura end the story in a relationship with each other after heavy Ship Tease during the last part of the anime.
- Fire Punch: Primary character Togata is a closested trans man.
- The Gentlemen's Alliance features an early example of a trans girl, and the boy who loves her and despite being almost exclusively gay, even loves her as a girl. YMMV as to whether this feels uncomfortable.
- Great Pretender: Main character Laurent Thierry is a bisexual man.
- Gushing Over Magical Girls: Pretty much every character is a lesbian, including the protagonist Utena.
- Helter Skelter: The manga follows Lilico, a model obsessed with beauty and maintaining her fame. While Lilico's sexuality is a bit hazy, she does coerce into and maintains an abusive relationship with her female assistant, Michiko and Michiko's boyfriend. Michiko herself seems to be genuinely bisexual and attracted to Lilico sexually up until it turns out Lilico is a terrible person who forces her into doing terrible things.
- Homunculus: Manabu Itoh, the Deuteragonist, is eventually revealed to be a closet trans woman.
- Hunter × Hunter: Killua's younger sister, Alluka, is transgender.
- Interspecies Reviewers: Main character Crim is an intersex angel who usually presents as male.
- Is Love the Answer?: Protagonist Chika Hanai is aromantic asexual. Other major characters include Shinobu Ishii, a non-binary aromantic asexual, and Mitsuru Umezaki, who's asexual alloromantic. There's also Ito, a gay man.
- Kakegurui: The Big Bad, Student Council President Kirari Momobami and her assistant, Sayaka, are indicated to have mutual romantic feelings for each other.
- Kiznaiver: "The High-and-Mighty" Honoka is revealed to be bisexual in an arc focused on her, having been holding a candle for a woman in her past for years.
- Komi Can't Communicate: One of the supporting characters is Ren Yamai, a lesbian who's obsessed with the eponymous character. There's also Najimi Osana who has an Ambiguous Gender Identity and also uses they/them pronouns in translations.
- Kowloon Generic Romance: Two of the major characters, Miyuki Hebinuma and Guen, are a gay couple. Miyuki is also later revealed to be intersex and have both male and female genitalia.
- Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout: Supporting character Shen is gay with a crush on protagonist Jinguuji. The protagonists Jinguuji and Tachibana are involved in an Ambiguously Bi Gender Bender romcom in which Tachibana is stuck on the body of a girl, and they are falling for each other, despite still identifying as a man. Later on, Lightning, another summoned hero is introduced. In the real world, he was a girl who had a crush on her female classmate but was turned down, and asked to have her gender changed to pick up girls in another world. It's unclear what his gender indentity ends up being, as well as the sexuality of Nazuna, another girl who is interested in him, but knows he is a girl in the real world.
- Lovely★Complex: Supporting character Seiko Kotobuki is a transgender girl.
- Lycoris Recoil: Team Dad Mika is a gay man who was in some sort of relationship with the villainous Yoshimatsu.
- Magical Girl Site: Recurring character Kiyoharu Suirenji is a trans girl; the transphobic bullying she faces from her peers plays a major role in her character arc.
- MARRIAGETOXIN: Kinosuke, one half of the main duo, is a cross dressing marriage swindler that seduces both men and women. Protagonist Gero's sister is a lesbian and her almost being forced to marry a man kickstarts the plot.
- Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: The titular Dragon Maid, Tohru, is openly in love with Ms. Kobayashi, with their relationship forming the crux of the series. Additionally, the series' supporting cast includes Rika Saikawa, who's best friends with and has a huge crush on tritagonist Kanna Kamui.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury: The two main protagonists, Suletta and Miorine, are a lesbian couple who eventually get married to each other in the final episode.
- Moriarty the Patriot: The series features a trans man James Bond (originally Irene Adler and yes, they're based on that James Bond) as one of Professor Moriarty's core crew.
- Murciélago: The manga has a Cast Full of Gay, as almost every character is a lesbian.
- MW: Protagonist Michio Yuki is bisexual, other protagonist Father Garai is either gay or bisexual. Not Queer Romance because their relationship is far too fucked up to be considered genuine love.
- My Hero Academia: One of the main villains, Yandere Himiko Toga is openly bisexual. There are also Magne and Tiger, a trans woman and a trans man, respectively.
- My-HiME: Shizuru and Natsuki are lesbians. Other characters are more ambiguous.
- Nabari no Ou: Yoite is intersex.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: The manga version of Shinji Ikari is explicitly bisexual, as opposed to the heavily implied bisexuality of his anime version. Kaworu is also pansexual, as his romantic attachment to Shinji clearly transcends gender.
- Noir: Chloe has openly stated that she loves Kirika, and given that she kisses her while they're bathing together, it's not a platonic declaration. Kirika also left a letter for Mireille, telling her she loved her, with phrases like "my heart sang". Mireille and Kirika have also been shown sharing a bed, though both were fully clothed at the time.
- One Piece features a number of openly queer characters; a recurring ally of the Straw Hats, Bentham/Bon Clay, comes from a culture of people all assigned-male-at-birth but who unanimously adopt feminine traits. Their "Queen", Emporio Ivankov, can also freely change his and other people's sexes at will, and is accompanied by many trans or non-conforming allies. As for individual characters, the Wano Arc introduces Yamato, the son of Pirate Emperor Kaido who was assigned-female-at-birth, and Kiku, a transfeminine samurai (also introduced long before her was her brother Izo who's a male crossdresser).
- Ouran High School Host Club: Main character Haruhi has an Ambiguous Gender Identity, and her dad is a bisexual Drag Queen.
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: Garterbelt is gay.
- Paradox Live: Anne Faulkner of BAE and Aoi Kureha of VISTY are non-binary.
- Princess Resurrection: Vampire Reiri Kamura is bisexual, stating that she likes virgin girls and cute boys. She is forever flirting with Hime and Hiro, has foe-mance out the yin-yang with half-werewolf Liza Wildman, and once sucked blood from Sawawa's finger after the latter cut herself in the kitchen, intimating that Sawawa was a virgin from the taste of her blood.
- Psycho-Pass: Enforcer Yayoi Kunizuka and Mission Control Shion Karanomori are two women who are in a casual sexual relationship with each other. A later movie implies they are in a genuine relationship, having moved in together.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: Protagonists Utena and Anthy are made unambiguously bisexual in Adolescence of Utena. Primary villain Akio Ohtori is also bisexual
- Sarazanmai: All of the three male protagonists have plenty of ship tease with each other, but their sexuality is mostly unclear. That said, Enta is confirmed to be in love with Kazuki. Other major character, Reo and Mabu were once in love with each other.
- Sailor Moon: The anime and manga have included several LGBT characters, both major and minor; the most prominent being Sailor Uranus (Haruka Tenoh) and Sailor Neptune (Michiru Kaioh) being a lesbian couple, though in the U.S. and other countries this was either completely obscured, hidden by making Hakura and Michiru cousins, or gender-bending Haruka into a man. Other characters to note are the villains Zoisite and Kunzite who are in a gay relationship which was obscured in the U.S. and some other countries by gender-bending Zoisite into a woman. Fish's Eye of the Amazon Trio is a gay man as well, but was also gender-bent into a woman in the U.S. dub/other countries’ dubs for the same reasons as Zoisite. And there are the Sailor Starlights, who were men who transformed into women for their super-powered forms for the anime adaptation.
- Samurai Flamenco: The series ends with protagonist Masayoshi proposing to his male best friend Goto and it's heavily implied that Goto accepts, leading to a Maybe Ever After. While Word of God claims the proposal wasn't romantic in nature, the text overtly treats it as such. Two of the supporting cast are a bisexual woman Mari who has a crush on Goto and her bandmate Moe who is a lesbian in love with Mari. Towards the end of the series Mari learns to drop her crush on Goto and gets back with Moe and is shown kissing her onscreen.
- Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: Like in the original source material, Wallace and Roxie are both gay. Also, due to Adaptational Sexuality, Ramona and Kim go from Experimented in College and Ambiguously Bi to just straight up bisexual. Todd Ingram is also now attracted to Wallace.
- Sensitive Boy: Kaede's friend Sahara comes out to him as asexual.
- Skip and Loafer: Protagonist Mitsumi is being looked after by her aunt Nao, who is indicated to be a trans woman.
- Squid Girl: Sanae Nagatsuki is obsessed with the eponymous Squid Girl, frequently asking her out on dates or trying to glom onto her.
- Super Crooks (2021): The Gladiator, one of the super heroes that the protagonists face against, is an out gay married man. He joins the heroes when Johnny blackmails him with the fact that he has been cheating on his husband.
- Tiger & Bunny: Nathan Seymour is a self-described "okama
" and is nonbinary. - Tokyo Godfathers: One of the three leads is Hana, a transgender woman.
- Trigun: In the manga, one of Knives' closest and most powerful servants is Elendira the Crimson-Nail, who is indicated to be a trans woman with the power to Mind Rape people and a gigantic crossbow that fires piercing nails.
- Wasteful Days of High School Girls: Lily Someya is introduced in episode 5, and features in most episodes after that. Lily is openly lesbian, and is literally allergic to men. She tries to flirt frequently with "Majime" and "Loli", though she makes a conscious effort not to do anything that would alienate her to the girls around her.
- Welcome Back, Alice: Several main characters struggle with their gender identity and Yo has to deal with his complicated feelings towards Kei, his childhood friend who has "abandoned being a guy".
- Wonder Egg Priority: Two of the "Captured Maidens" are queer. One of them is trans boy Kaoru Kurita, whom Momoe has to protect, the other is Haruka, who was in love with Momoe and whom she is trying to rescue.
- The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting: Protagonist Kirishima's childhood friend is Rei is a Camp Gay man who acted as his conscience in high school.
- You're Under Arrest!: Recurring character Aoi Futaba is a trans woman, with much of her role being focused on Trans Tribulations in Japanese society.
- Yuri!!! on Ice: The two main characters are gay and enter a relationship with each other.
- YuruYuri: All of the main characters are lesbians.
- Zombie Land Saga: Lily Hoshikawa, one of the main characters, is a trans girl.
