The best GL manhwa to start with is Her Tale of Shim Chong: it's finished, it's on WEBTOON in English, and it turns a Korean folktale into a love story between two women who want out of a world built for men. GL (Girls' Love) is the Korean label for what manga readers call yuri, and the officially translated list is short, so here are the eight worth your time, including the new GL manhwa of 2026.
Pick if you want:
- The best place to start: Her Tale of Shim Chong.
- A new series to follow weekly in 2026: The Star Next Door.
- Something fun and light: Sora & Haena.
- A fantasy adventure with a GL thread: The Dark Lord's Confession.
- A short, strange school story: Dark Mermaid.
- Dark and obsessive, but not 18+: I Love Amy.
How we picked: every series has an official English release you can read today, and none is marked adult on AniList. This October we dropped What Does the Fox Say? and Bad Thinking Diary (both adult-rated, which this site doesn't list), and Blooming Sequence (we couldn't find an official English edition). We added three series that reached English readers from 2024 on.
Best GL manhwa at a glance
| Series | What it is | Where and status today |
|---|---|---|
| Her Tale of Shim Chong | Korean folktale romance | WEBTOON, completed |
| The Star Next Door | Fangirl falls for the celebrity upstairs | Manta, every Saturday |
| Sora & Haena | Top student and delinquent strike a deal | Tapas, Manta, Lezhin; completed |
| The Dark Lord's Confession | Would-be holy knight summons the Dark Lord | WEBTOON, between seasons |
| Dark Mermaid | Bullied girl meets a mermaid in the lake | WEBTOON, completed |
| I Love Amy | A scheme to win a boy turns obsessive | Tappytoon, completed |
| Getting to Know Grace | Sick heiress and the maid her family ruined | WEBTOON, completed |
| The Love Doctor | College romance with a "love doctor" | Lezhin, completed |
Best GL manhwa: the finished classics
Her Tale of Shim Chong
Her Tale of Shim Chong by seri and Biwan. Cover via AniList.
The best GL manhwa, and the one to start with.
WEBTOON, completed. 90 chapters; the English WEBTOON edition went up from March 2025.
Shim Chong is a young beggar keeping herself and her blind father alive. The other woman is the bride-to-be of old Chancellor Jang, sold to him for her family's sake. When Shim Chong pulls the bride out of the river, the two of them grow close in "a world that favors men." The folktale is scaffolding; the story is about what each woman will give up to leave. Readers on r/yuri_manga said "every chapter made me really uncomfortable on how people treat cheong just because she's a woman," and another called it "so good it Made me cry, laugh and smile, at the same time."
Read it if you want a serious historical romance with an ending. Skip it if you want something light: it doesn't soften the cruelty of its world.
The r/yuri_manga thread quoted above.
Sora & Haena
Sora & Haena by Jackbull. Cover via AniList.
The fun pick.
Completed. 87 episodes on Tapas, also on Manta and Lezhin.
Sora, the top student at prestigious Jaeil All-Girls High School, gets caught lying about having a boyfriend. Her fix is a deal with delinquent Haena Woo: Sora gets Haena into college, Haena finds Sora a boyfriend so the lie comes true. Sora's heart has other plans. It's fake dating dressed up as tutoring, played fast and light.
Read it if you want a GL comedy you can finish in a weekend. Skip it if you're reading on Tapas and won't finish before it shuts down on March 31, 2027: use Manta instead.
Getting to Know Grace
Getting to Know Grace by Seorim and Mokma. Cover via AniList.
The darkest premise here that still isn't adult-rated.
WEBTOON, completed. 46 chapters, the shortest pick on this list.
Andrew is the only daughter of the famous Grace family, and she has an incurable disease. Her one real relationship is with her maid, Herta, and she doesn't know her own family ruined Herta's life. The question is whether she can undo any of it in time, and the story doesn't pretend the answer is easy.
Read it if you want class and guilt with your romance. Skip it if you want the love story to be the uncomplicated part.
I Love Amy
I Love Amy by Eonni. Cover via AniList.
The obsession story.
Tappytoon, completed and rated 16+, with the first three episodes free. Yen Press publishes it in print.
Bibi is obsessed with Peter, the cutest boy at school, and invites a girl she saw talking to him to a sleepover with malicious intent. That girl is Amy, shy and sweet, who agrees to help Bibi win him. AniList tags it yandere and tragedy, and both tags earn their place: the cute setup keeps tipping darker.
Read it if you like romance that goes somewhere uncomfortable. Skip it if you want a gentle school story.
The Love Doctor
The Love Doctor by Chamsae Sparrow and Bansook. Cover via AniList.
The quiet college romance.
Lezhin, completed. 86 chapters.
Jung Erae has no clue about relationships, to the point where she drives every man away. Desperate, she contacts a "love doctor," Cha Yoon, and the story lives in the gap between the professional help Erae expects and what she ends up feeling.
Read it if you want contemporary romance with low stakes. Skip it if you need a hook in chapter one.
New GL manhwa 2026: the ones to follow weekly
The Star Next Door
The Star Next Door by Kkamji. Cover via AniList.
The best new GL manhwa of 2026.
Manta exclusive. Episode 1 went up in English on June 20, 2026; 28 episodes so far, every Saturday.
Soo-Jung hates romance and would rather spend her nights fangirling in her room. When a noisy upstairs neighbor tests her patience, she goes up ready to fight, and finds the scandalous celebrity she's supposed to hate. It's a love-hate rom-com with an idol twist, the lightest thing on this list besides Sora & Haena, and the one we'd add to a weekly queue first.
Read it if you want a new romance to follow week to week. Skip it if you'd rather wait for a finished series.
The Dark Lord's Confession
The Dark Lord's Confession by Tapseung. Cover via AniList.
The fantasy pick, if you're fine with a slow-burning GL thread.
WEBTOON. Season 2 ended in June 2026, and WEBTOON says it will return.
Lapis hides that she's a cursed magician and wants to become a holy knight. Then she accidentally summons the Dark Lord, the continent's greatest enemy, who opens with a puzzling confession. It's an adventure first; AniList tags it yuri and bisexual, and the romance grows inside a bigger story.
Read it if you want GL inside a full fantasy adventure. Skip it if you want romance up front from chapter one.
Dark Mermaid
Dark Mermaid by Ddogak. Cover via AniList.
The short, strange one.
WEBTOON, completed. 66 chapters including one extra; the English edition started in August 2024.
Seul-Bi wants to graduate in peace and leave behind her sleepwalking and the trauma of being bullied. The class president, Hae-On, won't leave her alone, and when Seul-Bi visits the lake Hae-On recommended, she finds a wild, dark mermaid. AniList tags bullying and blackmail along with yuri, so it's moodier than the cover suggests.
Read it if you want a finished, offbeat school story. Skip it if bullying is a hard no.
Our take
Start with Her Tale of Shim Chong. It's finished, it's the best-made series here, and it shows what GL manhwa can do with a story that isn't only about the romance. Then pick by mood: Sora & Haena for laughs, Getting to Know Grace or I Love Amy for something darker. For 2026, The Star Next Door is the one to follow weekly.
The BL counterpart to this list is Best BL Manhwa 2026, and if you're juggling platforms, our manhwa platform pricing guide covers what each one charges.
Related Reading
- Best Romance Manhwa 2026: romance picks across every pairing.
- Best Completed Manhwa: finished series in every genre.
- Tapas shutdown: what we know: what happens to your Tapas purchases.
How We Checked This
Statuses, episode counts and launch dates come from each series' official WEBTOON, Tappytoon, Manta, Tapas or Lezhin page, checked October 14, 2026, with chapter totals, credits, tags and adult flags from AniList. Reader quotes come from one r/yuri_manga thread. This pass added The Star Next Door, The Dark Lord's Confession and Dark Mermaid, and removed What Does the Fox Say?, Bad Thinking Diary and Blooming Sequence.
Last reviewed: October 14, 2026
References
- Her Tale of Shim Chong on WEBTOON and AniList
- The Star Next Door on Manta and AniList
- Sora & Haena on Tapas and AniList
- The Dark Lord's Confession on WEBTOON and AniList
- Dark Mermaid on WEBTOON and AniList
- I Love Amy on Tappytoon and AniList
- Getting to Know Grace on WEBTOON and AniList
- The Love Doctor on Lezhin and AniList
- Tapas End of Service FAQ
