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白い部屋のふたり
リボンマスコットコミックス
83 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
103 people want to read
About the author
Ryōko Yamagishi
76 books15 followersRyōko Yamagishi (山岸凉子) is a Japanese manga author.
Born in Hokkaido prefecture, she is part of the Year 24 Group together with Moto Hagio, Yumiko Ōshima and Keiko Takemiya.
She debuted in 1969 with Left and right (Jap: レフトアンドライト).
Starting from 1971 she gathered attention with the ballet manga Arabesque (Jap: アラベスク), and from 1980 with Hi izuru no tokoro no tenshi (Jap: 日出処の天子), that also won the 7th Kodansha manga award.
Her 1971 work Shiroi heya no futari is regarded as the first yuri manga.
Her 1977 work Yōsei-ō (Jap: 妖精王) was animated in 1988.
In 2000 she started the serialization of Maihime Terpsichora (Jap: 舞姫 テレプシコーラ) that in 2007 won the Gran Prize at the 11th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.
Born in Hokkaido prefecture, she is part of the Year 24 Group together with Moto Hagio, Yumiko Ōshima and Keiko Takemiya.
She debuted in 1969 with Left and right (Jap: レフトアンドライト).
Starting from 1971 she gathered attention with the ballet manga Arabesque (Jap: アラベスク), and from 1980 with Hi izuru no tokoro no tenshi (Jap: 日出処の天子), that also won the 7th Kodansha manga award.
Her 1971 work Shiroi heya no futari is regarded as the first yuri manga.
Her 1977 work Yōsei-ō (Jap: 妖精王) was animated in 1988.
In 2000 she started the serialization of Maihime Terpsichora (Jap: 舞姫 テレプシコーラ) that in 2007 won the Gran Prize at the 11th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 14, 2023
Read this curious short tale, Shiroi Heya no Futari ('The Couple in the White Room'), first published in 1971, due to its significance in establishing the Yuri (Girls' Love/lesbian) genre in Japanese manga. The '70s and '80s were regarded as quiet decades for Yuri, but the golden age of Shōjo manga (manga aimed at adolescent girls) wherein new generations of female authors and artists were writing increasingly complex narratives surrounding adolescence, sexuality (mostly heterosexual, but with decent amounts of male homosexuality), and political issues. Basically, it was the 1970s. A significant group of female manga creators are now regarded by scholars as being part of the Year 24 Group, who contributed to this transformation in Shōjo.
This stands as an outlier in Yamagishi's catalogue, as her manga frequently featured male homosexuality but very rarely lesbians (this is the only one I know of). Riyoko Ikeda, of The Rose of Versailles fame, was more radical in this regard, as both the latter title and her shorter work, Dear Brother, feature lesbian-related themes or else outright lesbians and homosexual attraction, respectively. Particularly amusing to me is Yamagishi's decision to focus on lesbians because she believed this would be more interesting to the teen girl readership of the magazine in which this story was published. I'd say very few female mangaka in the '70s felt similarly, judging by the disparity in male and female homosexual representation, but regardless, her potentially arbitrary choice contributed to one of the most important moments in Japanese lesbian literary history.
The story itself is rushed, bleak, and melodramatic. It is also frequently gorgeous, with panelling and visual storytelling decisions made that rival many contemporary manga. It is so, so '70s. It's also, for anyone who knows about Shōjo and classic Yuri stereotypes, the blueprint; it's an all-girls boarding school (in France!), the girls are roommates, one is fair and soft-featured, the other a dark-haired, mysterious beauty, they play opposite one another in the school play as Romeo and Juliet, thus fulfilling a tentative masculine/feminine aesthetic, etc. They fall in love not because they particularly know or care about each other, but because they are Doomed Lovers, and thus fated to develop the (unfortunate, unnatural) hots for each other within about 20 pages. One is innocent and resistant, the other a cigarette smoking bad girl (remember, she's French and troubled) who thinks this whole gay thing isn't too bad, really. Did I mention one is an orphan and the other the daughter of a successful, neglectful actress?
This would thus be the archetype of choice for many years to come, and can still be seen today in both lesbian couplings in Yuri (regardless of demographic) and ostensibly nonromantic female-female pairings in Shōjo manga (Ai Yazawa's NANA comes to mind; big emphasis on 'ostensibly'). The story is also what is called Class S, a very culturally specific literary phenomenon that basically refers to 'romantic friendships' between adolescent girls that are acceptable insofar as they act as a testing ground for future heterosexual partnerships, but must be grown out of as the girls reach adulthood. It's just a phase, effectively. Because of this, many novels, and later manga, that feature these kinds of relationships must end tragically, and this one is no exception to that rule. The similar phenomenon of what's called the Dead Lesbian trope can be seen in Western media.
Class S should not be dismissed too quickly as evidence of homophobic conditioning and a tendency to accommodate difference only so far as it agrees to return to normality later on, however. In many cases, I wonder how many authors felt they could only portray sexual and romantic feelings between women within the confines of this formula in order to deny culpability for indoctrinating the youth with the homosexual agenda, or something. And the tropes established in many Class S fictions live on and still have widespread popularity now—Maria-sama ga Miteru, a novel series based in a Catholic all-girls school, similarly features intense friendships between girls that walk the line between platonic and romantic (however, IIRC, there is one actual lesbian character to accommodate that experience explicitly), and was released from 1998-2012, achieving great success and popularity.
So, is Class S as a concept problematic and even homophobic? In its strictest sense, yes. But it also provided a space for girls and women to see people like themselves in fiction as they grew up, free from objectification and men's fetishism, even if that happiness was shown to be time-limited. Of course, they deserved better, but it was perhaps more positive than places whose media landscapes outright refused to feature this kind of experience at all, especially to an intended audience of adolescent girls. Dear Brother was made into an anime series that aired in the early '90s and featured multiple girls who loved other girls, including masculine women. Sailor Moon's Haruka and Michiru's lesbian romance was censored in the U.S. market, which amended their partnership to that of, erhm, vaguely incestuous cousins. God bless America.
Unlike other Class S titles, this at least ends with our fair haired protagonist declaring her love, even if it's too late. Her lesbianism doesn't die with her temptress, after which she returns to normal heterosexual partnerships (in fact, she tries this during the story itself and is dissatisfied), but rather she is haunted by her missed opportunity, her self-denial contrasted against the self-acceptance of her could-have-been lover. And that message is not too bad, for a '70s one-shot released in a magazine for teenage girls.
This stands as an outlier in Yamagishi's catalogue, as her manga frequently featured male homosexuality but very rarely lesbians (this is the only one I know of). Riyoko Ikeda, of The Rose of Versailles fame, was more radical in this regard, as both the latter title and her shorter work, Dear Brother, feature lesbian-related themes or else outright lesbians and homosexual attraction, respectively. Particularly amusing to me is Yamagishi's decision to focus on lesbians because she believed this would be more interesting to the teen girl readership of the magazine in which this story was published. I'd say very few female mangaka in the '70s felt similarly, judging by the disparity in male and female homosexual representation, but regardless, her potentially arbitrary choice contributed to one of the most important moments in Japanese lesbian literary history.
The story itself is rushed, bleak, and melodramatic. It is also frequently gorgeous, with panelling and visual storytelling decisions made that rival many contemporary manga. It is so, so '70s. It's also, for anyone who knows about Shōjo and classic Yuri stereotypes, the blueprint; it's an all-girls boarding school (in France!), the girls are roommates, one is fair and soft-featured, the other a dark-haired, mysterious beauty, they play opposite one another in the school play as Romeo and Juliet, thus fulfilling a tentative masculine/feminine aesthetic, etc. They fall in love not because they particularly know or care about each other, but because they are Doomed Lovers, and thus fated to develop the (unfortunate, unnatural) hots for each other within about 20 pages. One is innocent and resistant, the other a cigarette smoking bad girl (remember, she's French and troubled) who thinks this whole gay thing isn't too bad, really. Did I mention one is an orphan and the other the daughter of a successful, neglectful actress?
This would thus be the archetype of choice for many years to come, and can still be seen today in both lesbian couplings in Yuri (regardless of demographic) and ostensibly nonromantic female-female pairings in Shōjo manga (Ai Yazawa's NANA comes to mind; big emphasis on 'ostensibly'). The story is also what is called Class S, a very culturally specific literary phenomenon that basically refers to 'romantic friendships' between adolescent girls that are acceptable insofar as they act as a testing ground for future heterosexual partnerships, but must be grown out of as the girls reach adulthood. It's just a phase, effectively. Because of this, many novels, and later manga, that feature these kinds of relationships must end tragically, and this one is no exception to that rule. The similar phenomenon of what's called the Dead Lesbian trope can be seen in Western media.
Class S should not be dismissed too quickly as evidence of homophobic conditioning and a tendency to accommodate difference only so far as it agrees to return to normality later on, however. In many cases, I wonder how many authors felt they could only portray sexual and romantic feelings between women within the confines of this formula in order to deny culpability for indoctrinating the youth with the homosexual agenda, or something. And the tropes established in many Class S fictions live on and still have widespread popularity now—Maria-sama ga Miteru, a novel series based in a Catholic all-girls school, similarly features intense friendships between girls that walk the line between platonic and romantic (however, IIRC, there is one actual lesbian character to accommodate that experience explicitly), and was released from 1998-2012, achieving great success and popularity.
So, is Class S as a concept problematic and even homophobic? In its strictest sense, yes. But it also provided a space for girls and women to see people like themselves in fiction as they grew up, free from objectification and men's fetishism, even if that happiness was shown to be time-limited. Of course, they deserved better, but it was perhaps more positive than places whose media landscapes outright refused to feature this kind of experience at all, especially to an intended audience of adolescent girls. Dear Brother was made into an anime series that aired in the early '90s and featured multiple girls who loved other girls, including masculine women. Sailor Moon's Haruka and Michiru's lesbian romance was censored in the U.S. market, which amended their partnership to that of, erhm, vaguely incestuous cousins. God bless America.
Unlike other Class S titles, this at least ends with our fair haired protagonist declaring her love, even if it's too late. Her lesbianism doesn't die with her temptress, after which she returns to normal heterosexual partnerships (in fact, she tries this during the story itself and is dissatisfied), but rather she is haunted by her missed opportunity, her self-denial contrasted against the self-acceptance of her could-have-been lover. And that message is not too bad, for a '70s one-shot released in a magazine for teenage girls.
May 25, 2023
i like pain
August 20, 2015
Not a bad read. A little rushed but the 70's were a rushed decade so I'll forgive it. The story, as rushed as it is was very well written and almost molded like a Shakespearean play. A very good story and a piece of history as this story was the first of its kind and it sparked a revolution of other lesbian themed works. I'd recommend it to any romance fan, as well as anyone interested in the parts homosexuality played in manga and other types of literature.
April 9, 2024
Oh goody! I guess i did end up finding this on here. So this is like supposed to be the "first yuri" ever? There was apparently something before it that could be described as such but its widely considered to not be the case, so yay for our yuri grandmothers. You can see that other lesbian content went on to reference themes in this, so for that it's pretty cool. Just a good quick story to read, honestly. Short and sad.
Edit: i change my mind. Idk. 5 stars. Its growing on me.
Edit: i change my mind. Idk. 5 stars. Its growing on me.
July 1, 2025
“Once I have known her, I must die. For that shining smile that is so difficult to describe, I must die. For those light, delicate hands, I must die. For her, I must…”
vabe le vintage doomed yuri sono proprio la mia merda ho davvero adorato questa oneshot!! Simone davvero un’icona e non avevo dubbi che sarebbe stata lei a tirare malamente le cuoia, lesbian queens are always the ones who die🥲🩷
vabe le vintage doomed yuri sono proprio la mia merda ho davvero adorato questa oneshot!! Simone davvero un’icona e non avevo dubbi che sarebbe stata lei a tirare malamente le cuoia, lesbian queens are always the ones who die🥲🩷
January 28, 2020
I confess this book is a bit of a guilty pleasure: it is highly melodramatic and the ending is sadly typical of how same-sex relationships ended up when they were portrayed at all during much of the twentieth century in popular media. But heck, the art is gorgeous and I am a sucker of weepy, overwrought romance.
December 26, 2018
The forbidden love the blossoms between Resine and Simone, is the first of its kind. The play of Romeo and Juliet inside the manga works well foreshadowing the final outcome.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 2, 2024
the first yuri manga and definitely worth the read. you can see so many of the influences this particular series has on many of the manga that follow it. i really enjoyed this and the art was just beautiful. that poem devastated me.
June 22, 2019
It's so so sad 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
August 1, 2025
I've read a few short Shoujo stories now and whilst the form feels inherently weak in some ways it's definitely growing on me. It's hard to put aside the desire I have for a relationship to truly develop before it ends tragically but there's also something compelling about throwing those ideas down and letting the visuals really form that connection, however briefly.
This story, such as it is, I'm sure feels cliched now but there's power in its yuri themed romance, steering as it does less towards "forbidden" and more towards self-loathing as encouraged by the high school community. It's only perhaps because since 2010s we've seen a surge in acceptance for this kind of relationship that these texts make less sense and feel repressive now, but given how culturally taboo it might have been to even allude to this stuff in the 70s this feels very ... bold. It's all too brief - if I genuinely decide that's a good thing then it could be 5* instead of 4.
This story, such as it is, I'm sure feels cliched now but there's power in its yuri themed romance, steering as it does less towards "forbidden" and more towards self-loathing as encouraged by the high school community. It's only perhaps because since 2010s we've seen a surge in acceptance for this kind of relationship that these texts make less sense and feel repressive now, but given how culturally taboo it might have been to even allude to this stuff in the 70s this feels very ... bold. It's all too brief - if I genuinely decide that's a good thing then it could be 5* instead of 4.
April 4, 2023
My decision to read this was because I saw on wikipedia that it was the first yuri manga ever published. If that is so, there is some merit to it.
My main problem is that this manga is too short and because of that the "romance" is very rushed. I could see a lot of the tropes used around the same time (it brought me so many memories of when I read Kaze to ki no Uta), but those were executed quite poorly.
As expected from this type of story, everyone is very dramatic and it ends in tragedy. I am fine with it because I like drama and tragedies, but I didn't feel anything here because I didn't have time to care about the characters in such a few pages.
Unfortunately, not great but I appreciate it for what it did for the genre.
My main problem is that this manga is too short and because of that the "romance" is very rushed. I could see a lot of the tropes used around the same time (it brought me so many memories of when I read Kaze to ki no Uta), but those were executed quite poorly.
As expected from this type of story, everyone is very dramatic and it ends in tragedy. I am fine with it because I like drama and tragedies, but I didn't feel anything here because I didn't have time to care about the characters in such a few pages.
Unfortunately, not great but I appreciate it for what it did for the genre.
May 9, 2020
I will say I did not hate this because I recognize this is old and was probably somewhat groundbreaking at the time.
But this both trudged on and escalated quickly. At no point did I believe in their feelings for each other, despite having learned to extrapolate a lot when reading manga. And as is usual with manga, I did not like how they started as one making fun of the other out of bitterness with her own circumstances, which turned into the other obsessing over the one, which we're supposed to believe turned into love for both of them.
And of course, at the time, it had to end with .
But this both trudged on and escalated quickly. At no point did I believe in their feelings for each other, despite having learned to extrapolate a lot when reading manga. And as is usual with manga, I did not like how they started as one making fun of the other out of bitterness with her own circumstances, which turned into the other obsessing over the one, which we're supposed to believe turned into love for both of them.
And of course, at the time, it had to end with .
August 18, 2025
Spoilers ahead:
Shiroi Heya No Futari is a melodramatic manga about lesbian star crossed lovers. Created in 1971, it’s said to be the first “Yuri” manga, it establishes notable themes and character archetypes in the Yuri genre and was influential for later yuri works to come.
Outside of its influence in yuri, it’s a psychological drama exploring homophobia, trauma and abusive parental figures. It shows how these issues affects the characters and their relationships with each other, even leading to one of the character’s untimely demise and overall tragic ending.
5/5, would recommend if you’re interested in Yuri history or a good psychological story.
Shiroi Heya No Futari is a melodramatic manga about lesbian star crossed lovers. Created in 1971, it’s said to be the first “Yuri” manga, it establishes notable themes and character archetypes in the Yuri genre and was influential for later yuri works to come.
Outside of its influence in yuri, it’s a psychological drama exploring homophobia, trauma and abusive parental figures. It shows how these issues affects the characters and their relationships with each other, even leading to one of the character’s untimely demise and overall tragic ending.
5/5, would recommend if you’re interested in Yuri history or a good psychological story.
July 4, 2022
An interesting trek back into wlw history; the pacing and melodrama is typically break-neck, but the sheer emotionality of the panels and showcase of the medium is well worth the whiplash. Maybe the whiplash is even the point, really; the moments of period-specific yet still emotionally resonant queer struggles have the most evocative panel layouts.
June 13, 2023
Holy heck, Life is Strange: Before the Storm is just a retelling of the first yuri manga. Both share an unlikely femme duo with tragic family backgrounds who attend a private school together; both climax in a heated production of Shakespeare that operates as a stand-in for coming out and affirming mutual desires; both end in self-destruction and unfulfilled love.
December 12, 2025
me sorprendio que fuera tan corto, pero me gusto mucho. realmente mi unico problema es que senti que le faltaba un poco de espacio a los caps para terminar de desarrollarse, pero imagino que hubo limitaciones de espacio. me gusta el dolor.
December 21, 2018
why can't lesbians ever catch a break? *sigh*
January 1, 2022
That was so sad and short 😭
March 15, 2022
es el primero de mi lista interminable de mangas lésbicos, cómo que no sentí mucho la conexión entre ellas y tampoco entiendo porque siempre matan a alguna protagonista lesbiana, BASTA
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 2, 2023
less rate cause it's super tragic
April 13, 2024
SO GOOD; old mangas really know how to keep you interested. I wish it was longer, and although I found the ending a little disappointing, it's still really solid!
December 15, 2024
I'M NOT A LESBO I'M NOT A LESBOOOOO
January 29, 2025
IT HURST
June 28, 2025
Il primo yuri della storia, un po' deboluccio ma tutto sommato godibile
July 6, 2025
Beautiful and worth a read, but too short and rushed to become an eternal fave.
May 2, 2023
im calling the ambulance rn, resine you are suffering from a severe case of comphet
February 19, 2022
Widely considered to be the first yuri manga, The Couple in the White Room was a defining work that helped to usher in wider acceptance of lesbian romances in the 1970s and 1980s. This story can easily be surmised as a dramatic tragedy in the spirit of theater classics like Romeo and Juliet.
The story follows Resine, a soft and feminine girl dealing with the tragic loss of her parents, and Simone, a rebellious and cruel young woman who bullies Resine when they first meet. The characters clash and eventually come together over shared loneliness, their drastically different personalities make them a striking pair, though their romance was difficult to believe, there is no part of it that is healthy.
This manga was rough, the events in the story play out at a lightning-fast pace and barely have any development which isn’t unusual for the time in which it was written. The tragedy of the story is emblematic of the gay panic that unfortunately still plagues the LGBTQ community to this day. Resine feels anxious about her queer feelings toward the uncompromisingly honest Simone, and the way that the people around her view them.
While undoubtedly groundbreaking for its time, the issues with pacing make this manga pale in comparison to more contemporary works. Even with its flaws, however, I still feel that it is worth a read as a manga classic.
The story follows Resine, a soft and feminine girl dealing with the tragic loss of her parents, and Simone, a rebellious and cruel young woman who bullies Resine when they first meet. The characters clash and eventually come together over shared loneliness, their drastically different personalities make them a striking pair, though their romance was difficult to believe, there is no part of it that is healthy.
This manga was rough, the events in the story play out at a lightning-fast pace and barely have any development which isn’t unusual for the time in which it was written. The tragedy of the story is emblematic of the gay panic that unfortunately still plagues the LGBTQ community to this day. Resine feels anxious about her queer feelings toward the uncompromisingly honest Simone, and the way that the people around her view them.
While undoubtedly groundbreaking for its time, the issues with pacing make this manga pale in comparison to more contemporary works. Even with its flaws, however, I still feel that it is worth a read as a manga classic.
January 19, 2021
Second title on my trip through Hana To Yume's publishing history, and this was MUCH better than the first. We get lesbians! Or wlw at least. With a typical 20th century tragic death to boot, which... sucks, to be frank. Eventually things will start to get better for lesbians in manga but it's interesting seeing how this probably set the stage for tragic wlw stories to come.
This obviously looks pretty dated to us now, but I still find the art gorgeous.
This obviously looks pretty dated to us now, but I still find the art gorgeous.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews