mozart

First: an honorable mention

Your glass heart in my hands by ebi-hime

I can't rank this, because ebi is a friend of mine, and we here at the Yurikishi07 awards take conflicts of interests like this very seriously. You should still read it though, because its very good, and has great art.

Now, the actual Top 10. You probably shouldn't read any of these at work but I marked the ones with explicit scenes as nsfw

10. Most Sacred Priestess (nsfw)

I love Tombs of Atuan, and this vn asks, what if Tombs of Atuan was gay (and trans). It kind of would have to be actively bad for me to dislike it, and it is in fact, quite good. Do you like Tombs of Atuan? Read this. Haven't read Tombs of Atuan, read it, and then this. Do you dislike Tombs of Atuan...uhhh it was because it was not gay, wasn't it? Read this one.

9. Heavensent

Young vampire has to deal with her first feeding AND with going to a catholic boarding school against her will?? AND the person she is fixated to drink from claims to be an angel?? The young characters and really cute artwork makes you think it will all turn out well but this is the toxic yuri jam. And she is really hungry.

8. Connect The Dots

The first thing you'll notice about this one is the amazing visual style that looks like anime production materials. The 2nd thing you will notice is that most of the time you are not looking at those but at fullpages of handwritten font over yellow paper texture. If you preserve possibly the 10th thing or so you'll notice might be that wait a minute, this is a real show this story is repurposing to make a meta toxic yuri narrative, which actually ties back to the themes of the story. It is a work that really stuck with me the longer I kept away from it.

7. In Your Flesh

Many entries in this jam used very creative presentation. In this case: it is dolls! This is a really strange fucking story with really strange girls. It has a lot of little touches that makes it special. Messed up but kinda cute? There is doll gore. The ending song is permanently stuck in my mind.

6. The Romance of the Moth and the Flame

A one woman theater show playing 3 characters. The presentation of the stage, the effects used are *so* good, it would be worth playing for this alone. But it is good beyond that! The story itself is pretty short, and I went into it knowing nothing, I enjoyed the unraveling of what is actually going on. This is one of the 5 actual winners of the jam and it is well deserved! 5. Offsuit Pair

The jam didn't have many butch characters, and this one is butchxbutch, a rarity in any yuri. And you know what else the jam was lacking? Poker minigames complete with cheating mechanics. This is a game where a couple shit at communicating does so via cheating at eachother via card games instead. There are a couple of endings as well as an unlockable true end. Each ending shows you more about their relationship. Only issue I had with this one is that I really liked one of the characters and wanted more of her. Need more asshole manipulative butches that are also kinda moe..?

4. The Black Lily Theatre Company (nsfw)

This one was banned from itch, so I linked the devs bsky with a link. Another theater one! This is, essentially a short story collection with the framing device of watching theatre plays. The stories themselves are frankly themselves not that amazing, however the framing device tying them together works so well. The meta commentary made by one of the company sitting beside you, the audience reactions, seeing the same actors again on different roles it all works together so well to create something much greater than the sum of its parts. It made me ponder, why *do* we seek out stories like this? Why do we create them? I don't have answers, but I like it when art makes me think. 3. LONER_DOG://Snuff Puppy Carnage Society (nsfw/nsfl)

How do I talk about LONER_DOG://Snuff Puppy Carnage Society. Look at the title. Look at the content warnings. Imagine what it is. It might be worse. I tried multiple times to explain what works so well about it, but frankly when other people tried, I didn't believe them, so why should I expect anyone to believe me when I say : yes this is the nastiest shit ever but it also kinda rules. I avoided this one for a while because I didn't think I'd like it but I was hooked from the start. At first it's kind of a mess I couldn't tear my eyes away from, but gradually the characters and their relationships became very real and sympathetic. And then when I was just getting comfortable with sympathizing with these freaks the rug is pulled from under me again. The scene of the canyon is one of the best things I read, if you know, you know. This is a very uncomfortable read, take the cws seriously. There are no lines left uncrossed. Another one that really stayed with me, but for another person I think it could be just a sea of cruelty and shock factor. Should you read it? I don't know. But it's number 3 here. Only actual winner that made it to my top 3!

2. id & i (nsfw)

This is the first vn I read for the jam and it has preserved to be one of my favorites. It wrangles renpy to do shit I didn't know was possible. It is so impressive on a technical level! The art is gorgeous (the dev of Operation Eventide did the art, which is a favorite of mine). It is a super short one and it's written in a stream of consciousness style so it flows very quickly.

1. Zigzag Zealot