Yuri/shoujo-ai recommendations?

I've read Strawberry Panic, but I was curious if there are other mangas out there that are a little more realistic as far as relationships go? I'm not terribly fond of the "everyone is gay" worlds anymore than I am of the "everyone is straight" worlds.

Gonna have to recommend Girl Friends by Morinaga Milk. It deals more with the two main characters coming to terms with their sexuality and their relationship. though is never too heavy on the drama and there is very little angst.

Actually, I'd recommend anything by Morinaga Milk.

Octave is pretty good. Gotta warn for the fairly explicit sex though.

Ummm... that's actually all I can think of.

the manga series (which has been animated into an 11 episode series) called Aoi Hana is probably the best thing i can think of- then again i dont read or watch anime that often.

It's very realistic, in that nobody is gay or in love right off the bat, except for the main character. it follows the story of two girls falling in love - Fumi who is a lesbian and Akira (A-chan) who is as of yet portrayed as a naive asexual. on the way they make straight friends and a few gay ones too, and it explores themes such as 'coming out', 'tolerance', etc. its a good read, and an amazing watch.

read the manga here.

and watch the anime here.

Hmm subcontext... I do like the light novelisation for FFXIII and the game's undertone, but since we're talking about manga, I have a whole list to pick from. What's the preference?

Candy Boy - hands down.
It may be incest but overall it's one of the cutest daily life ONA's I've ever seen. The graphics are kick-ass and Yuki & kana are both too adorable ~

But thats a ONA series and not Manga - never read any good Shoujo-ai mangas *cough*

Girl Friends is a good Yuri.

If you don't mind 2 girls being in a relationship where NOTHING happens between them for more than 2 years then I would strongly recommend Manga no Tsukurikata. With that said I do very much enjoy the manga regardless of the fact that they've been dating for over 2 years and still have yet to kiss.
Manga No Tsukurikata

Hanjuku Joshi is a really cute story about 2 girls in high school. Drama is kept to a minimum between them. At least the whole "am I gay? I can't be gay" kind is. The story is actually about their relationship and not the build up to it which was nice. There's also another yuri relationship that gets fleshed out a little bit between a teacher and a student. Quite frankly, this is a must read for yuri fans I think. There are some(read as a lot of) relatively graphic sex scenes throughout the manga. This one is completed so you won't have to worry about waiting for the next chapter to release.
Hanjku Joshi volume 1
Hanjuku Joshi volume 2

Strawberry Shake Sweet is another that's one of my favorites and one of the first yuri mangas I read. It's a comedy with 2 lesbians as the main characters that both want the other but are afraid to let the other know for fear of being rejected and losing the weird friendship they've built. This one is about the build up to the relationship but it's a comedy and is pretty hilarious at times. This one is also completed.
Strawberry Shake Sweet

Mizuiro Cinema, also known as Aqua Blue Cinema, is about an actress who falls for this girl she meets while filming in a small town. Girl doesn't recognize her and thinks she's trying to kill herself one night, accidentally makes her fall into the ocean. Actress' phone gets destroyed and she loses her necklace she got from her previous girlfriend(secret girlfriend who left her because she was in love with someone else) and makes the girl work for her as her assistant for the summer. Completed.
Mizuiro Cinema

Sasameki Koto is a fun long running manga about a closeted lesbian who's in love with her best friend who's an out lesbian. Unfortunately for Sumi(the closeted lesbian and the reason she's still closeted), the out lesbian(Ushio) only has a thing for "cute" girls. Something the strong, athletic, master martial artist Sumi, is not. Ongoing.
Sasameki Koto

Ebisu-san and Hotei-san is different from the rest I've listed so far in that it follows a pair of working office lady's who are at least in their later 20's where as the others are school age or right after. Hotei lives at home with her parents and works just as a your run of the mill office lady. There's really nothing exceptional about her, she just gets by. Ebisu used to work at the main building of the company they both work for in Tokyo as a partner. She leaves her high paying job and comes to work the same job Hotei does at the same branch office as well for unknown reasons. Completed.
Ebisu-san and Hotei-san

Also if you enjoy Girlfriends, I strongly recommend reading Morinaga's(author of Girlfriends) oneshot series of Nana and Hitomi. It's only 4 chapters long and does everything Morinaga has tried to do in Girlfriends but better. I think Mari and Akko were basically supposed to be Nana and Hitomi at first but Morinaga got lost somewhere a long the way. The stories you want for Nana and Hitomi are "Even if We're Not Friends" "If I Kiss Her Ring Finger" "Chocolate Kiss Kiss" and "Wishing Upon The Moon"
NanaxHitomi

Now these are all longer than oneshots I've listed, if you want oneshots I'd recommend just visiting Dynasty Scans, lililicious, and solelo/wings of yuri. They are the three major scanlators of yuri stuff. Hope this helps you find stuff you like.

Totally forgot about this, but it's an absolute must read for yuri fans or just feel good romance fans really. "Husky and Medley" or "HasuxMedo" is the true story of a girl(Medley) who wants to find her "perfect" classmate's(Husky) weakness. She visits 2chan(Japanese site 4chan is based off of) looking for help on how to accomplish this. What follows is the story of two girls falling in love. Part of it is meant to resemble a text board so be aware of that if things aren't making sense, not all pieces of text are introspective, narrative or dialog but things that were actually posted in the topics Medley had made. The text that is based off the text board posts is as direct translations as they could be while still making sense. In other words they're ripped right from the actual topic. The story stays as true to the orginal topics(Medley's topics about her quest for Husky were popular so she had to make a few at least) as possible.
All 7 chapters can be found here.

Considering it's Japan I'm sure there aren't many, but are there any shoujo-ai/yuri that deal with real life issues like homophobia?

EDIT: Also I just started reading Husky and Medley. Thanks for the recommendation.

Shoujo Sect. Pretty decent plot, but don't read if you don't want the nudity... mmmm, nudity.

I give you half of my internets in belated thanks, Dr-Tom. I've become extremely hooked on Sasameki Koto as a lurker x-x