Plica



Plica is a (technically) Yonkoma (though it's frequently more than four panels) Slice of Life strip about lesbians in Japan which was serialized first in a lesbian magazine and then online. There is also a movie. While sometimes categorized as Girls Love, it's more of a mature and realistic take on things than Girls Love usually entails.

At first the strip focused solely on the eponymous Plica and her girlfriend Mari, but eventually the recurring cast expanded to include cool, snarky teacher Saki and her emotionally-distant on-again-off-again girlfriend Rui; Roku, who seems to only fall for women who are taken (usually by men), and hopelessly frumpy, perpetually single Machiko. Together they... live their daily lives while making observations about love, sex and brushing one's teeth in the bathtub.


 * A-Cup Angst (After learning that Mari is a D-cup, Plica is seen at a lingerie store asking the assistant to measure her again — she has to be at least a C!)
 * Aside Glance (Plica does this twice in the strip where she's wondering about the proper terminology for lesbian sex.)
 * Bifauxnen (Arguably Saki and her girlfriend, although the art style makes it a bit hard to tell.)
 * Butch Lesbian (Roku, as well as a number of nameless background characters. Also, Plica at one point asks the audience not to assume that all lesbians are like that.)
 * Butt Monkey (Machiko)
 * Cast Full of Gay
 * Distracted by the Sexy (Why Plica doesn't remember much of her piano lessons.)
 * Elevator Going Down (When Saki is alone with her girlfriend in an elevator, she always wants to kiss her, at least...)
 * Hot for Teacher (Saki seems to inspire this in many of her students.)
 * Hypocritical Humor (Plica asks people not to lump her, and other real lesbians, in with "the fantasy world of yuri"... while trying to get Mari to wear a school uniform.)
 * I Have This Friend (Plica claims this is why she's offended by women saying they should "try that lesbian thing sometime".)
 * Imagine Spot (Plica has many. Saki's got one as well.)
 * Incompatible Orientation (Plica and Misa; Roku and her nameless friend)
 * Girl-On-Girl Is Hot (Plica and Mari kiss to shut up a taxi driver who's needling them about getting boyfriends... but he might have enjoyed it.)
 * Lipstick Lesbian (Plica and Mari, although according to one strip Plica wasn't very girly until she started going out with Mari.)
 * Recursive Canon (Plica and Mari, and separately Rui, go to see the Plica movie.)
 * Sarcastic Confession (In one strip, Plica jokes that she'd rather have a wife than a husband and tells a friend that if she, Plica, were a man, she'd date her. Of course, everybody laughs it off.)
 * Schoolgirl Lesbians (Deconstructed by Saki in her first appearance.)
 * Seme (Plica says she feels like one when making love to Mari.)
 * Yaoi Fangirl (Plica mentions a gay and lesbian film festival to Misa, the woman on whom she has a crush, to see how Misa reacts. Misa is interested... but only in seeing the films that are about pretty boys.)