I’ve been meaning to write this review for almost a year now…I guess it’s well past time to let you all in on one of my little Yuri secrets.

There is no way on earth any one person has time to find all the yuri manga and anime out there, even if you comb news sites, mailing lists, etc, 24/7. And I miss stuff from time to time, like anyone else. But to try and keep on top of titles of potential interest, I often trawl Japanese Yuri-related weblogs and fan sites.

Before Yuricon 2003, I used to hit about three weblogs on a regular basis, including one cleverly titled Yomiyuri Shimbun ( a pun on the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun,) quite a bit. Sadly, it went out of production. Now my first choice for yuri news and reviews is a web blog called Yuri Kokoro. Yuri Kokoro has been around since December 2003, and I read it almost daily, just to see what the author has found of interest to Yuri fans.

Last week, Yuri Kokoro ran a short review of Okazu, and apparently, I’ve been writing the oldest yuri web log in existence. Neat, huh? In return, I thought I’d be fair and review Yuri Kokoro.

Let me begin by stating the obvious – Yuri Kokoro is written in Japanese only.

The author, much like myself, purchases many items of interest, manga, anime, toys, magazines, etc, and reviews them based on his own criteria, pretty much the same as I do. ^_^ I tend to agree with the author quite often, so I try to keep an eye out for the things he’s liked.

On the Yuri Kokoro site, you can also find links to other yuri websites and blogs, which are useful for keeping up on new stuff coming out. On the whole, though, I find Yuri Kokoro the easiest to read, the most interesting and the easiest to comment on. (I have sent in comments a few times and the author always responds…something I appreciate.) All in all, I think Yuri Kokoro to be one of the most useful sites I’ve found.

If you can read any Japanese at all – even if you can’t, because there are several excellent translation programs online which will help you get the gist, I recommend a visit to Yuri Kokoro.