Archive for 2023


Comic Yuri Hime July 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年7月号)

June 15th, 2023

A smiling girl in a summer Japanese school uniform of blue shirt and white blouse, balance a red umbrella on her palm. The sun is shining, casting shadows in the road.Well hahaha on me. I picked up Comic Yuri Hime July 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年7月号) from the bookstore and plowed through it, with every intention of reviewing it right away, so I’d be caught up. Yeah, well. But let me assure you this was another good volume. I say that, even when there are a number of stories I myself will not read, because I am fully aware that my tastes are not everyone’s tastes.

Once again, I am loving the cover story. Color fills the screen now; the text speaks of admiration and joy at the smiling girl’s smile. Nice work, Mebachi-sensei.

This issue gets off to a strong start as we meet Lily in “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.” Lily will, of course, become an important character, but also importantly, Rae stands up for gay people openly in the Church, chastizing some nuns about their intolerance. You go, Rae!

The SS Girls get their day on stage at last! Of course they slay their set, but they have a surprise left up their sleeves… “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau” is always fun to read.

In “Kiraware Majoureijo to Dansou no Ouji-yaku,” once again, a well-bred young lady is treated like crap by her royal fiance, but the actual heir to the kingdom takes a fancy to her. She may wear a uniform, but she’s all girl underneath!

Kurumi is practicing hugs in “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkonshitemita” but when it comes time to lay one on Ruriko, has she really considered the consequences?

Ohsawa Yayoi’s contribution to the Yuri is My Job! Official Comic Anthology ( 私の百合はお仕事です！公式コミックアンソロジー), “Uragaeshimai” is an amusing look at the change in dynamic when Hime suddenly grows up. Gosh I love her art.

There are other stores with manipulative high school students, aliens, android maids and lesbian brothels as usual. A wide variety of work for, hopefully, a wide variety of readers!

Ratings:

Overall – 8

The August issue hits shelves today in Japan! (So maybe I’m not so far behind after all.)





Run Away With Me Girl Volume 2, Guest Review by Matt Rolf

June 14th, 2023

Two adult woman sit up in bed, half dressed, gently touching.What happens when a woman gets to question the path she’s on in a supportive environment away from negative people and the weight of societal expectations? Battan gives their protagonist the space to do just that in Run Away With Me Girl, Volume 2, and the result is a book far more enjoyable to read than Volume 1.

Makimura still holds a torch for Midori, who is still pregnant and engaged to a man. At the beginning of the book the women are not speaking. But, as Midori contemplates the weight of her impending life changes, she breaks down and lets Maki back into her life. Maki takes the opportunity to invite Midori on a trip to see Maki’s friend Komari, a school girl with whom she chats online. Midori, wanting to escape her own life, takes Maki up on the offer, and the women immediately leave for Shōdoshima Island where Komari lives. 

The bulk of the book takes place on Shōdoshima, keeping the reality of Maki and Midori’s real world at bay. It is here that all three women connect with each other and take stock of their lives. The adults find awe in Komari’s fearlessness and honesty as she grapples with the challenges she faces in trying to live her identity. All three observe and encourage each other and use the information to consider what it is they really want from their lives and relationships.

I strongly support the plot choices made in this book. At least some of the characters in this volume are working toward healthier choices than Volume 1, and that’s to Battan’s credit. As with all vacations, there is a bill to be paid upon Midori and Maki’s return.  The bill does not come due in this volume, allowing the characters to bask in the possibilities of a hopeful future.

The artwork is improved in this volume. The dreamy quality of the series overall is accentuated on the island. The backgrounds are more interesting and help set the scene better than Volume 1. Battan wields frame-breaking character features with skill, and uses them more effectively here than Volume 1. My biggest critique is that at times Komari is drawn in a very elfin manner. This accentuates her youth and the un-reality of the island vacation, but at times she just looks weird.

While yuri, this book still exists in a space where the relationships and commitments of the characters are left unstated at important places. A group bath scene with excellent artwork is the service highlight. The scene is tasteful and well-done, and anything more explicit is just not what this series is. The real relationship payoffs are emotional. Midori is moving toward making definitive statements about the sort of relationships she wants, and Volume 3 will give her an opportunity to make good on those movements.

Final Verdict: Leave your troubles behind and get yourself sorted in a steam bath with other women.

Published by Kodansha Comics, with translation by Kevin Steinbach and lettering by Jennifer Skarupa.

Ratings

Art – 8
Story 8 – Not as harsh as volume one, and that’s most welcome.
Characters – 7 We’re getting there.
Service – 5 We don’t have to take our clothes off to have a good time.
Yuri – 8
Overall – 8





My Future Starts Today ~Miku&Kyoko~, Volume 1

June 12th, 2023

On a background of blue hydrangeas, are two girls in tan sweater and red skirt school uniforms are back to back. Standing, one holds a camera. The other reaches back above her head to hold the other's ponytail and reaches behind her to hold the other girl's wrist.Do you remember Blue Drop? It began as a manga, then had a couple of Drama CDs. Some years later it was given an anime that was both very interesting and kind of forgettable at the same time.  Funimation licensed it, releasing a complete collection in 2010. That’s practically a human lifespan ago and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you didn’t remember it. But the point is, that the creator, Yoshitomi Akihito has gone on to make a number of stories and few series, most of which center on sexualizing schoolgirls. None of them have made it over here. I was very surprised to learn that My Future Starts Today ~Miku&Kyoko~, Volume 1 has been localized and released as a digital volume.

Kyoko and Miku have been friends since childhood, but Kyoko doesn’t really understand Miku. So when Miku tells Kyoko she’s in love with her, Kyoko has no idea how to feel about it. It doesn’t help at all, that Miku offers Kyoko her body to do whatever she wants with.

Miku sets about trying to appeal to Kyoko, to seduce her, but Kyoko…while not opposed, per se, really doesn’t know what Miku is thinking. Miku ramps up the seduction with every chapter until Kyoko pushes her away, causing a separate misunderstanding. As this volumes ends, Kyuko hears rumors in school that Miku is hanging with the predatory lesbian Nana-sempai! 

The major down side to this story is Miku’s behavior. She’s written and drawn like every pervy middle-aged dude who thinks high school girls are seductive, thinks girls are like. It’s frankly exhausting. But this has always been Yoshitomi’s oeuvre, so I can’t say I was surprised. That said, both girls stay mostly full dressed (Miku does undress a little) and while they do kiss, when Miku tries to touch Kyoko is when she is pushed away.

This series is complete at Volume 2 if you’d like to see what becomes of Kyoko and Miku. I think I can guess. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7 Very clean and understandable, lots of “sexy” poses
Story – 5 Miku wants Kyoko, there’s not that much subtlely
Characters  – 7 Other than the immediate circumstances, we don’t learn much about the as people
Service – 7
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7

I’ve encountered the publisher MediBang and Media Do Co., Ltd.once or twice, but I finally looked them up. MediBang seems to be a publishing and art platform, while Media Do describes themselves as “one of the largest eBook distribution companies in the world ” – and they own Netgalley, for those reviewers out there. On the translation side they seem to be doing a fine job, but this manga hardly had complicated ideas to communicate, either. They don’t credit humans for the production and I have a nagging feeling that some or all of this is automated. I hope I am wrong.





My Date Is A Total Ike Woman

June 11th, 2023

A short dark-haired woman in red and black carries a woman with short light-colored hair in a denim jacket and white pants, who gently strokes the dark-haired woman’s chin. The title “My Date Is A Total Ike Woman and a small image of a merry-go-round in lavender. Logo that says Tomboy in the upper right corner in blue. In the upper left, also in blue read “Butch x Butch” and “Presented by Natuo Mutsumi.”Mustumi Natsuo is a name with which we at Okazu are familiar. Mutsumi-sensei was the face of the Boyish² Butch x Butch Yuri Anthology project last year. This year, Mutsumi-sensei ran a Kickstarter for a new work, also a butch x butch comic. And, like the last project, this one blew past early goals. In fact, we’ll be getting a voiced reading of the comic at some point, since stretch goals were likewise met.

So today, I thought we’d take a look at My Date Is A Total Ike Woman, the English language edition of Date Aite Ga Ikemen Onna Datta Kudan (デート相手がイケメン♀だった件). Both Japanese and English language editions are available on the Tomboys Booth.pm page, where you can purchase them both as a physical book and as digital. When I backed the Kickstarter, I pledged for both the JP and EN editions as physical books. As soon as the PDFs became available, I scooped them up, so I could talk about them here!

The title of this comic is a pun on the Japanese word ikemen (イケメン) which means an attractive guy. We’ve seen that in some works here, like, Ikemen Onna to Hakoiri Musume and Ikemen Sugidesu Shiki-senpai! For anyone familiar with the term, this title would be expressive.

My Date Is A Total Ike Woman is a 37-page comic about Ushio and Asahi, two otaku butches on a blind date at an amusement park. In this short story, there are so many qualities that makes this comic worth owning and reading. When they meet for the first time, they are both blown away how cool each other is…and immediately become intimidated in rather cute and relatable ways. They spend their date negotiating boundaries both mental and physical. Both are otaku, with different interests, but both have had some negative experiences and don’t want to give up to much and get hurt. As the date goes on, they learn to open up and be honest with each other. This comic ends in a perfectly satisfying way that makes me hope for a sequel some day.

The translation is very good. In an early page Asahi sees Ushio for the first time and thinks, “Crap, their hotness level is clearly over 9000!” which of course made me laugh out loud, being a good otaku myself. The art is simple, with fantastic body language and facial expressions. When they should look cool, they look very cool indeed. For sample pages, check out Mutsumi-sensei’s Twitter page. 

If you’d like to read an engaging comic featuring two butch women on a date, definitely get yourself over to Tomboys and grab yourself a copy!

Ratings:

Art – 9 100% in wheelhouse
Story – 9 Covers a lot of ground in few pages
Characters – 9 So cute
Service – Well, ahem, cute butch women, so…10 for me
LGBTQ – 10

Overall – 9

The book ends with an interview of Mutsumi-sensei, about trying to create more queer comics in Japan. Obviously, I will always support that.
I hope we’ll get more of these two and their various otaku pursuits. ^_^

 

 
 

 

 





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – June 3, 2023

June 10th, 2023

In black block letters, YNN Yuri Network News. On the left, in black silhouette, a woman with a broad brim hat and dress stands, a woman in a tight outfit sits against the Y. Art by Mari Kurisato for Okazu.English Yuri Manga

Still doing some catch up on the Yuricon Store, but I’m mostly through the back log now and heading into the final stretch, at which point, I’ll be hustling to catch up to what’s coming out now. ^_^

Coming out this month, we have The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Vol. 4 of the manga. Annis, Euphie and Tilty embark on discovering the mysterious power of Lanie Cyan.

ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!, Volume 2 of the manga is up. Follow Flum and Milkit on their (kinda gross) adventures!

Futari Escape Volume 2 and Volume 3 are up, so let’s get goofy and kills some time learning about dinosaurs and eating food, while pretending it’s winter in the summer.

If I Could Reach You, Volume 7, the final volume of tMnR’s series, will land on shelves this month from Kodansha. In conversation on the Okazu Discord, Hyperart Marcus-san noted that there is a doujinshi that was available with th final volume in Japan that provides an epilogue. I did some digging and found that doujinshi as a digital read on Bookwalker JP! If you want to see what will become of Uta and Kaoru, check out Tatoe Todokanu Itoda to Shite mo “Tsumuida Ito no Sono-saki de” (たとえとどかぬ糸だとしても『紡いだ糸のその先で』). This is in Japanese. I always choose Bookwalker because it has global reach, in case you wonder. ^_^ Also, check out Luce’s overview of the series this week on Okazu!

The climactic final volume of Superwomen in Love! Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit, Volume 5 will be out this month, from Seven Seas! What will become of our heroes and their quest to protect humanity from X’s Antinoids?

 

Japanese Yuri Manga

Sal Jiang’s violent tale of two women in an overly competitive battle for supremacy in the workplace wraps up with 白と黒~Black & White~, Volume 3. We’ll be getting Volume 2 of Black and White: Tough Love At The Office in February 2024.

YNN Correspondent Patricia B wrote in with the news of a new Yuri manga  Tsurugi by indie yuri mangaka Nerikomi Tōkichirō, who has self-published yuri manga in the past and contributed to the “Boyish2” anthology, that is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Patricia says “It looks like a fun fantasy story with political intrigue” and she hopes it’s successful.

Yuri is My Job! Official Comic Anthology (私の百合はお仕事です！公式コミックアンソロジー) has some amazing contributors! Ohsawa Yayoi, Hara Yuriko, Yuama, Yoshimurakana (!) and others.

Shimura Takako’s series Ottona ni Nattemo (おとなになっても) will be ending soon, but Volume 8 is up on the Store for you to enjoy! Akari and Ayano move in and have to face the reality of their relationship.

Mikanuji’s Fuzuroi no Renri (不揃いの連理 ), Volume 7 seems to focus on deliquent Shizuku and schoolgirl Saori’s relationship under pressure. You can find out who these two are in Assorted Entanglements, Volume 1  and Volume 2  – which is out this week from Yen Press!

Kuchibeta Shokudou (くちべた食堂) is another Yuri and food story that I’m looking forward to reading. It’s been 5 years since this customer has been here – will she find what she’s looking for?

The delightful Yuri Monogatari, (はなものがたり) about two older women bonding over makeup and building a new life, will be ending in July for a 3rd volume of the manga. ANN’s Rafael Antonio Pineda has the details. Volume 1 has been reviewed here on Okazu.

 

Yuri Light Novels

We’ve got Qualia the Purple up, for those of you who would like to read a popular science fiction LN about a girl who sees things differently.

Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta The Second is listed on the Store. Interestingly, while the first and third volumes are on Amazon, this one is not. Grab this poly story and let us know why.

 

Okazu News

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Yuri Animation

Via Manga Mogura on Twitter, they introduce The Summer, a Korean Yuri animation by Red Dog Culture House. Check their twitter link for the trailer. On the Okazu Discord, Frank turned up that The Summer is apparently an adaptation of a novella by Choi Eunyoung. It’s available in a Korean-English bilingual edition: The Summer. Frank also noted that according to a summary he found, The Summer is not just a high-school story but extends into adulthood. And he found an interview with the author on Pen.org. Thanks Frank, great work!

 

Yuri VNs and Games

It’s time to pre-order Birdie Wing for Nintendo Switch!  This game has a multiplayer mode and a story mode, with mini-games with “gimmicky putting.” It sounds like this really might be great.

Akaiito HD Remaster is a classic Yuri VN adventure. Kei sorts through her late mother’s things and learns of her inheritance deep in the mountains.

Aoishiro HD Remaster is a series set in the same timeline. Syouko goes to a temple with her kendo club for training and finds a girl washed up on the beach.

Noodletub Games’ GOOD LUCK BABY! is now up on the Store. This is a “heartwarming, comedic and emotionally-driven yuri visual novel about love, found family, and saving the world. “

Via Yuri Navi, Lycoris has released the key visual for their upcoming Yuri VN, Uso Kara Hajimaru Koi No Natsu (嘘から始まる恋の夏) on Twitter.

 

 

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Other News

Briana Lawrence at Crunchyroll News has put together a weekly list of manga suggestion in Pride Month Reads.

Our dear friends at Cheapmanga.com are retiring after 30 years of cons We’ll miss them, but you can help them clean out the store – go to Cheapmanga.com and get 20% off you order with the code Clearance20. 20% off a copy of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime And Manga is a great deal!

 

 

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