Archive for 2025


I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 2

November 14th, 2025

Cover of I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 2, Two young women in sweaters, one red, one pink over Japanese style school uniforms sit in a classroom. Curtains blow from open windows,By Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

Volume 2 of I Wanna Be Your Girl picks up right where the end of Volume 1 leaves off, with Akira declaring that she wants to be the soccer club manager. Compared to volume 1, this volume focuses more on the individual characters rather than their relationships with each other, and it’s nice to learn a bit more about both of them and how they ended up where they are now.

Hime meanwhile, confides in another girl called Yukka about her feelings for Akira and the confusion they’re causing her. Yukka, as it turns out, has her own past trauma around queer love and that’s why she’s able to advise Hime so well. This section was actually my favourite bit of the entire volume because it’s pretty much how I felt about my friend back then too. To quote myself from my volume 1 review:

“When I was in high school, I had a crush on someone who I thought was a boy, but she told me she was actually a girl. My reaction at that point was “huh, that’s a bit weird but ok” and still kept kissing her.”

We then return to Akira and her new job as manager of the soccer team, and reality bites hard when some of the other members start misgendering her and someone makes a comment along the lines of “why isn’t she growing her hair out if she’s really a girl?” One person however, Hasegawa-senpai is utterly supportive, has nicknamed Akira “juice girl” and when others on the team misgender her he gently corrects them. And it turns out Akira might just have a bit of a crush on him. Just normal teenage girl things.

The other thing I liked about this volume is that it shows Hime going through her own kind of identity crisis as well. She’s wearing the boys’ uniform to support Akira, but she is ultimately still cis, and she can go back to wearing the girls’ uniform at the drop of a hat. She talks to her parents, who are thankfully supportive, and ultimately decides she will go back to wearing her uniform and shows up the next day in it.

Where would we be without a bit of teenage angst though? Hime and Akira run into Hasegawa-senpai, who at first doesn’t recognise Hime because she’s in the girls’ uniform, but then he calls her cute and that rips through Akira like a knife to the heart. Hime runs away crying to the rooftop stairs, a mysterious boy appears and invites her to the roof. Turns out, he has a secret of his own as well. He works at Hime and her friends’ favourite cafe, but cross dresses as a girl while he does so, also to support someone he cares about.

Ultimately, the volume ends with Akira resolving to talk to Hime and apologise for lashing out at her, thanks to the support of their friends, and I’m sure we’ll see that in the next volume.

Overall, this is a good continuation from volume 1 which dives more into the individual main characters, and they do still feel like realistic teenagers. However, I hope we get the teacher’s backstory at some point as well though which was hinted at in volume 1. With 2 volumes to go, I’m excited to see where Hime, Akira and everyone else ends up.

Story – 7
Art – 6.
Characters – 8
Service – n/a
LGBTQ — 10

Overall – 8 but again, probably a 9 if you’re a confused/closeted queer teenager.





A Mangaka’s Weirdly Wonderful Workplace, Streaming on Crunchyroll

November 13th, 2025

A voice bubble of aqua and pink, with the title A Mangaka’s Weirdly Wonderful Workplace, , next to an drawing of the ensemble of characters, led by a woman in a red and white track suite with purple hair, holding a computer stylus.Manga artists work hard. Like so many people in creative jobs, their hours are frequently full of nothing to do or deadline chaos. Even now, manga artists work on tight deadlines. The traditional meal for manga artists and their assistants was ramen, cigarettes and beer. But why, you might ask?  Because, also traditionally, manga artists pay their assistants out of their own pockets, as they work on the serialized chapters of their story, until a volume is made, then the artists would  get royalties from the sale of the collected volume.  For more established artists, they might have studios where assistants apply to learn from them, as well as do background work. Probably some young artists trade assists, each helping the other out.  If you are really interested in a relatively recent experience, I recommend Jamie Lyn Lano’s The Princess of Tennis: My year working in Japan as an assistant manga artist. The book is out of print, but you might find it through Interlibrary Loan or check out this interview with them on Youtube.  Jamie worked as an assistant to Takeshi Konomi, creator of A Prince of Tennis. As manga artists gain success sometimes their editors can find them help, and I imagine most know a few freelancers who can do some gig work these days.

You may be wondering if this model is different now? Probably a little yes, but mostly no. Crowdfunding, comic markets and digital publishing still mean deadlines, even if a creator is no longer crushed in the crucible of weekly series as often. I know younger artists are keeping more control of their IP and even older artists change publishers now, which used to be absolutely not a thing that happened. 

In A Mangaka’s Weirdly Wonderful Workplace, streaming on Crunchyroll, details a fictitious current set-up, centered on Futami-sensei an artist with a current hit manga series, who is drowning under deadlines, but still isn’t sure enough of her success or status to ask for help.  Futami appears to be a hot mess, but we are instantly made aware that she had a terrible editor, who undermined her constantly, so her lack of confidence is wholly understandable. Just in case we forgot what a shitbox he was, we’re reminded later that it is very definitely his fault that she’s so fragile. This tracks with some recent stories in which artists like schwinn have posted how their editor belittled their work. The pain in Futami’s experience feels personal and while I hesitate to claim it’s “clearly” autobiographical, I’ll remind you that Kuzushiro’s first breakout hit was Kimi no Tamenara Shineru, a Heian comedy about Sei Shonagon that ultimately went 14 volumes. It feels awfully personal. Which makes it more powerful. 

Futami’s current editor Sato and she have a very cute, fauxmance relationship. Still not entirely comfortable just being honest, and often too excited to remember to be professional, they quietly crush across the table at each other. It’s very cute and played very gently. Sato is a safe space, not a lover. 

The rest of the cast builds up quickly, Futami’s competent assistant Ha-san, remote assistant Nekonote and Nashida, a woman who is now saddled with the terrible editor who has killed her series. Nashida’s day drinking. It’s not funny how much trauma she’s suffered. But in her pain she is really very funny. Her repeated “editors and men, they are all the same” is a line delivered with such absolute deadpan perfection by Kobayashi Yuu that I twice laughed out loud. 

My only objection to the anime is the same as it is in the manga, which I read, but did not review here. It is very shouty. It’s just part of Futami’s personality. 

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – It’s a sit-com more than a story 7
Characters – 8
Service – None thus far
Yuri – 1, maybe two, for Futami’s akogare of Sato.

Overall – 8

This is meant as a workplace comedy, so expect inside jokes and “mangaka writes about being a mangaka” stuff, but so far the ensemble is fun, the cast excellent. Itou Miku as Ha-san, her voice is filled with gravitas and competent calm. If you don’t mind occasional shoutiness, this is a fun, and warm-hearted look at the life of a mangaka.





Witches of the Orient: Les Sorcières de l’Orient

November 12th, 2025

On a white background, four young Japanese women are seen playing volleyball, while the protagonist of the volleyball anime Attack No. 1 is centered, making the shot. The title, Les Sorcières de l'Orient, is red letters, with the Japanese 東洋の魔女, Tōyō no Majo is lettered in blue across the net.Readers of Okazu, may have heard of Attack No. 1, the beloved sports manga and anime about a young woman who rises to become a volleyball star. Surely, you have seen the classic image of protagonist Kozue striking the ball with fierce determination.

There was a real volleyball team….and real “oni coach”. Their story is recounted in the documentary Witches of the Orient: Les Sorcières de l’Orient.  I was able to watch this for free on the Kanopy service with my library card. It is also available on the Hoopla service if your library has that. 

In this documentary, directed by Julien Faraut, who watched Attack No. 1 as child in France, discusses the rise of a factory team of volleyball players, who rose to become Olympic and world champions. It is a movie of triumph of the spirit, and a tribute to Kasai Masae, Miyamoto Emiko, Tanida Kinuko, Handa Yuriko, Matsumura Yoshiko, 
Issobe Sata, Matsumura Katsumi, Shinozaki Yoko, Sassaki Setsuko, Fujimoto Yuko, Kondo Massako and Shibuki Ayano. Through archival footage, first-person interviews and scenes of some of the women sharing a meal and talking about the old days, interspersed with footage from the Attack No. 1 anime, this story had me on the edge of my seat, and I not mean that figuratively. 

In the postwar years in Japan, as the country sought to recover economic power, many companies provided jobs and housing to young people out of school and for women, before marriage. To keep employees happy and foster teamwork,  factories would encourage sports teams which, naturally led to competition. In 1953, the Dai Nippon Spinning Co., Ltd’s Kaizuka factory team, plus a few other factory team members, took the world by storm, ultimately winning 24 consecutive matches during a European tour in 1961, where they were nicknamed the Oriental Witches, by the press. They had mostly determined to quit volleyball after that, but the 1964 Olympics were being held in Tokyo and volleyball was making it’s Olympic debut. They stayed. And won a nailbiter of a match over Russia. I knew they had won and I was still holding my breath at the footage of the final minutes of the game.

Their story has a very sobering facet, as well. We all are aware of the demon coach from Shoujo sports manga and anime in series like Attack No. 1 and Aim for the Ace!. It makes for good drama in fiction, but there is no escaping the fact that these women had an abusive and horrific coach in Daimatsu Hirofumi. It is in part because of him, that bearing up against all odds, in all weathers, with injury or exhaustion was for decades paraded as the pinnacle of training in manga. We can clearly see that these women – who worked a full day and then trained into the late night – were not given what they needed to win, they were tortured and yet, they won anyway. Witches, indeed. 

This is a movie I had been wanting to see for ages and I am very glad I was able to make time for it. I hope you’ll fire that library card up and watch it. (And if you don’t have one, please do go get one! It’s free! It gives you access to books and magazines and ebooks, and movies and other media. My library lends things like sewing machines and telescopes and software. All for about 70 cents a year in taxes. So please, support your local library! 

Ratings: 

Overall – 10





Exordia, by Seth Dickinson

November 11th, 2025

Cover of Exordia, by Seth Dickinson, a yellow human eye stares from within yellow serpentine coils.With 15 pages to go in this novel I really had no idea how it would end. And not because it didn’t have a clear end, I just honestly had no idea what it was. Exordia by Seth Dickinson, was an amazing read. 

This is not the first book by Dickinson that I’ve reviewed here, you may remember I praised The Traitor Cormorant Baru in 2020, in which I also mentioned that I had no idea what was going to happen, which I consider to be one of the highest forms of praise I can give a book, to be honest. Originality is one thing, but keeping me guessing is something next order.

This story centers Anna Sinjari, a Kurdish war orphan, now a completely dysfunctional adult, as an alien arrives in her life. The alien, Ssrin, and Anna, and a cast of characters that span the globe, will engage in a battle that will stretch the boundaries of how much cruelty and pain you can imagine, much less call “entertainment.” CW: VERY, EXCESSIVE violence, including, but not limited to genocide and other heinous shit humans do and loads of just really gross stuff. And yet, it was entertaining. It was an extraordinary book that I can tell you absolutely nothing about. It took me 5 minutes to write the last two sentences and I edited them…a lot. An adjectival clause is missing that, while wholly relevant, had to go. Not because I don’t want to tell you what happened…because I really want to. So please, just go read it, so we can talk about it!

I will tell you that the book is wholly relevant for Okazu. Chaya Panaguiton a mathematician and a lesbian, survives the whole book. I can tell you nothing else. In part because to write this, Dickinson creates new words and concepts and delves way more deeply into mathematics and a number of sciences than I have an even passing familiarity with. Mind-bogglingly, Dickinson notes that this book was written as something “light” in between two of the Coromant Baru books. If this sis what he considers light (this is me fugueing for about 5 minutes thinking about that, given /everything that happens/) then one can hardly imagine what he considers heavy.

I’m too well aware that this review isn’t making this book sound good, but it is. It will stretch your brain and make new crinkles in it. It is also funny. Laugh out loud “hahah” funny in the most inappropriate of times as humans are wont to be. (Edited: another sentence that would have given anything away, even if vagueposting.)

As with the Cormorant Baru series, you initially stay for the characters, then when the shit goes down you need to stay to see who steps out of the smoke when…if…it clears. 

For top-notch writing, a “non-stop action” story that really doesn’t not stop from a brilliant mind…and somehow the lesbian survives, I’m adding Dickinson to my list of writers who put their characters through it, but love the lesbians along with Fukami Makoto. So far, that’s the list. Maybe also Tamsyn Muir. 

Ratings: 

Overall – 10

Many thanks to Editor Ed for this book! I loved it and hope that some of you will too.





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – November 8, 2025

November 8th, 2025

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

Yuri Manga

Yen has announced a license for Shino & Ren, which looks to be a pretty spicy Yuri manga by Minori Chigusa. Alex Mateo has the scoop on ANN.

Via YNN Correspondent Matt Marcus, ANN’s Rafael Anthony Pineda has news that Auri Hirao’s If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die, will end in Japan with the next chapter. Volume 12 will hit JP bookshelves in December. Volumes 1-9 are out in English from Tokyopop, with Volume 10 and 11 looking at releases in December and January. 

Late pledges are being accepted for Galette Special English Edition, Volume 4 until November 15!

Seven Seas has licensed Yuri Yuri Panic, about a girl who gets a marriage proposal from the prettiest girl in school. Anita Tai reports that Seven Seas has licensed a gender-switch love triangle comedy, Uesugi-kun wants to quit being a girl on ANN.

YNN Correspondent Patricia Baxter wants you to know there is a new chapter of Inui Ayu’s Threads of Me and You up on Renta! This is in English, on a JP digital “rental” manga site.

Kevin Cormack takes a look at Gunsmith Cats Omnibus Volumes 1 and 2 on ANN. You’ll have to trust me when I say that Rally is actually quite gay, but is more in love with guns and cars than anything. But we do get Misty and Goldie. And it is a classic. Take a look if you never read any of the first three editions of this.

Love Bullet, Volume 2 (ラブ・バレット) is up for pre-order in Japan, and will hit bookstores later this month. That’s up on the Yuricon Store for your pre-ordering convenience. 

Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 4 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった) pre-order is up on Amazon JP, but will go up on the Store when it can be ordered on other sites as well as Amazon JP. It’s the prom volume and I cannot wait! The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t A Guy At All, Volume 3 is headed our way next month.

Via Comic Natalie,  Dame Inu Kanojo, Volume 1 (ダメ犬彼女) by Kuwabara Tamotsu tells a story of a school playgirl who was rejected by her first love. When that other girl sees her, she does not recognize her and confesses to Yuhi, who decided to “take revenge” on her. It doesn’t sound “fun” but it does sound unique. This is being published by Kadokawa.

Yasaka Syu has a new series from Kadokawa, as well Baka ni Kokuhaku. Volume 1 (バカに告白), is a love-comedy about a girl who starts an astronomy club who falls for a gym sis. Yasaka-sensei’s name might be familiar to you from their series Monologue Woven For You and How Do I turn My Best friend Into My Girlfriend?.

Also from Comic Natalie, Ichijinsha is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a month of free manga on their online manga site Ichijin Plus! Different days feature different series from their magazines, but a number of Yuri hits are included.  These are all in Japanese.

Fujimoto Remochi’s Makoto- senpai no Mae de Hakakko Tsukerarenai! , Volume 1(真先輩の前ではかっこつけられない!) is about one cool, handsome girl being macked on by and even cooler handsome girl.

 

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Yuri Anime

OceanVeil added some of the Media Blasters catalog to their streaming service, including that Yuri oldy, Yamibo: The Darkness, The Hat and The Travelers of the Book. This adaptation of a proto-Yuri Visual Novel porn game thingy is variably good and terrible. The OP is great, though. ^_^ Alex Mateo has the details on ANN.

 

Baihe

Sean Gaffney takes a look at Seven Seas’ release of Baihe novel The Beauty’s Blade: Mei Ren Jian on his blog A Case Suitable For Treatment. 

 

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Yuri Visual Novel

Chill Planet from Aozorite, has an EN version up on Steam! This apocalyptic story follows  four young women as they travel towards Hokkaido, as a meteor large enough to destroy life heads towards Earth.

 

Other News

ANN’s Egan Loo has the story that my hero Go Nagai has received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, from the Japanese government to honor his contributions.

Two items from the Anime magazine world. Otaku USA is cutting back to 2 issues a year, says Alex Mateo. 

Where one door closes, another opens, as Anime Herald’s Samantha Ferreira has announced that pre-orders for the upcoming release of Anime Herald Magazine‘s first issue is just about at the point where she can plan for a Issue 2. I’ve spoken with her about this and the goal is to have this be an annual magazine, featuring writing by some of the best in anime and manga journalism! I’m proud to have an article in this upcoming issue and hope to have one in the next. Pre-order your copy today and enjoy this preview of one of the articles.

 

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