Archive for the Artists Category


There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless…, Volume 4

January 7th, 2026

Cover of There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover Unless...! Two girls embrace, looking out at us. One has pink hair with a crossed barrettes as decoration on the front, the other has silver-blue hair tied up with a gold ribbon. They both wear Japanese style school uniforms of white blouses with red piping, and gray plaid skirts.by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

It’s been a while, but I’m back to volume 4 of the light novel There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… We’re back to the standard cover design of Renako x whoever is the focus of this volume. If you’re looking to start where the anime ends, this is the volume you need.The anime which aired earlier this year covered volumes 1-3 of the novel series and introduced our first 3 members of the harem who are Oduka Mai, Sena Ajisai and Koto Satsuki.  There is, however, this one more introductory volume to go, which focuses on the last member of the group, Koyanagi Kaho.

Like the other members of the group, there is more to Kaho than meets the eye, but it turns out Kaho and Renako have actually met before, at cram school when they were younger. Kaho, much like Renako has reinvented herself from nerd to popular girl, and due to changing her surname because her parents divorced, Renako doesn’t immediately recognise her. Hijinks of course ensue, including an amusement park trip with a ride on the Ferris wheel of course, and we learn that Kaho is actually jealous of Renako and her newfound popularity, partly because she likes Mai too.

By now, if the first 3 volumes or the anime didn’t grab you, then this one won’t either. The writing style is as it always has been, with lots of exaggerated freaking and internal monologues from Renako especially. Eku Takeshima’s art continues to be pleasant and I do enjoy Renako’s panic face. This volume, much like the previous 3 with the other characters, focuses mostly on Kaho and sets her place in the harem. As well as reinventing herself as an extrovert, Kaho is also now a pretty popular cosplayer, and she ropes Renako into dressing up with her and doing a photoshoot together. and then performing together at a cosplay event where Mai is a surprise judge/special guest. Nothing is ever simple for a harem protagonist is it?

In the afterword, the author describes this volume as the conclusion of season 1, and I am interested to see what happens in the next volume. The harem is assembled, Renako hasn’t been forced to choose just one person, so now we’ve been introduced to everyone, let’s see what happens next.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Service – 7 Renako has now bathed with every member of the group.
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7





Ayaka Is In Love With Hiroko, Volume 1

January 1st, 2026

A woman in a business suit on the phone looking off to her right, is watched by a blushing woman in a pink off the shoulder dress who crouches down to look up at the other woman.Right off the bat, I need to point out this excellent cover design by Aracelli Ejarque Villegas for Ayaka in in Love with Hiroko, Volume 1.  I honestly think it improves upon the original, which had the word “love” spattered about. This echo effect is outstanding.  We’re off to a good start with this edition from the LoveLove imprint of Tokyopop.

This is this first of three volumes that follows the comedic inability to communicate between life-long lesbian and hyper-competent workplace sempai, Hiroko and her junior in the department Ayaka, who is crushing on Hiroko so hard – and dressing provocatively to that end – that she’s throwing the entire department into chaos.

At the heart of the mix-up is Hiroko’s assumption that Ayaka is straight. Ayaka is full on in gay-for-you mode, with little understanding of her (or any) sexuality. it’s going to take a lot to get this cluelessly infatuated woman and her desperately attracted but unwilling to deal with a straight girl love interest together. As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese here on Okazu, “Hiroko is put out greatly by Ayaka’s flirting. The problem isn’t that Hiroko isn’t interested…the problem is that she is. Very interested. And this apparently straight girl is driving her out of her mind. Poor Hiroko drinks away her pain every night at a lesbian bar, screaming at how vexing this all is!”

Volume 1 comes to a climax when Hiroko goes to her secret and safe lesbian bar…only to find Ayaka and another department junior already there. Quelle shock!

So, the one question that underpins this whole volume is why is Hiroko *so* deeply closeted at work? Japan currently has workplace protections for LGBTQ employees , but if you’re paying attention, you’ll understand that that is not really meaningful if an employer, manager, or coworkers are hostile. As the series goes on we’ll also delve a bit more into the specific personal reasons Hiroko has for remaining closeted.  I hope that this is a comedy which will one day simply make no sense to a young audience because this bullshittery around sexuality and gender will be a non-issue. I look forward to that day. ^_^

Sal Jiang does great faces reacting to situations in which they have lost control. Hiroko will constantly be losing control of both Ayaka and her own feelings, while Ayaka is a force of nature, indiscriminately affecting everything. 

As a workplace comedy, the story needs a lot of misreading the situation and missed opportunities for communication. It is still rather amusing.  It’s also very nice to have a Yuri manga about a lesbian to start off our new year. ^_^

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 10
Service – 5 
Yuri – 7
Lesbian – 9

It’s always good to see another Sal Jiang in English, but even more interesting is the way her work is being published by different publishers here. Seven Seas put out Tough Love at the Office: The Complete Yuri Collection last year, Tokyopop is has this series and Kodansha will be publishing Wicked Spot, Volume 1 in spring! 

Thanks to LoveLove for the review copy, provided to me through ANN, for which I reviewed this book as part of the winter Preview Guide. Volume 1 is hitting EN shelves in February, pre-orders are open now. 





Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 3

December 3rd, 2025

Two women, one with short hair and one with long hair. The long haired woman has her arms around the shoulders of the short haired one. by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

In Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 3, we start out with Ema looking for an apartment which she can live in separately from her husband so of course she enlists Takara the real estate agent’s help. This volume mostly deals with Takara’s internal conflicts as she finally realises the strength of her feelings for Ema, and also the fact that Ema is married to a lovely man who seems to absolutely adore her. It would definitely be much easier for her if Hario was an awful deadbeat husband but he’s quite the opposite, kind, caring and completely supportive of his wife. Cruicially though, we learn that she wasn’t interested in him at first, in his words he “wore her down but she chose me in the end” even though other guys were also interested in her.

What I especially like about this series is that it’s very nuanced. It’s very easy to come out with the blanket statement that “all cheaters are automatically irredeemably bad people and homewreckers” but often it’s a lot more complicated than that because people and feelings are messy and complicated. That’s what makes us human after all. Takara clearly loves Ema, she says as much but she’s also very aware that she could ruin Ema’s life. This is also fiction, so no real people are going to be hurt.

It seems that Ema is wanting to relive the summer of 20 years ago with Taka, and do all the things they never got to do back then, as well as using Taka’s blog for inspiration. Whether they’ll actually kiss this time remains to be seen. I of course, hope they do.

Overall, I’m still really enjoying this series. I still need more josei yuri in my life and I’m looking forward to volume 4.

Art – Still a fan. It’s a shame there aren’t colour pages with the chapter art on.
Story – My only quibble with the story is that I find it very hard to believe that Ema’s husband would just be so accepting that his wife suddenly wants to live by herself. Apart from that, still lots of complicated and messy feelings.
Characters – As before. I’m rooting for no one to get hurt. And for them to just kiss dammit.
Service – None. It still doesn’t need it. This is a story about women’s feelings, written by a woman for other women.
Yuri – So much yuri.

Volume 4 of Pink Candy Kiss by Ami Uozumi will hit English bookstore shelves from Viz Media in January 2026.





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.





The Moon On A Rainy Night, Volume 7

October 26th, 2025

Two young women in brown maid costumes with pink aprons and wearing cat ears walk arm in arm down a school hallway during a culture festival, smiling and laughing as they talk. Please allow me a moment of self-indulgence as I note that when I reviewed this volume in Japanese I re-read this volume 3 times, (and cried every time.) I  called this volume “absolute perfection” in my review. Now that I have read this volume once so far in English, I stand by my words.  The Moon On A Rainy Night, Volume 7 is absolute perfection. 

Every theme that this story has been building upon, every plot, every conversation, every moment leads us to a climactic school festival in which Kanon is about to face all of her fears all at once and find that with the help of the people around her, failure and success all have meaning. 

But first, we spend some time withKanon’s younger sister Rinne, whose new friend asks her what she wants to do. It takes a while before Rinne will admit she has some genuine desires, she’s so used to putting Kanon first. One of the repeated themes in this manga is how friendship works. Chiyama and Rinne are going to be good for one another, as each is there to help the other break out of their self-imposed boxes.

Then it’s time for Kanon to face her own limitations and fears. First, she fails and in failure learns a bit about her own pride. She’s reunited with Ayano, and now unexpectedly has yet another ally (and let’s spend a moment thinking how completely amazing that the old, broken relationship that festers for ages tropes is just…not. Good riddens to that!) Fortified by the support of the people around them, Kanon and Saki lead their class in the chorus competition. I want to address the choice of song here for a moment. It is true that Ebony and Ivory is a saccharine piece of music, but it was McCartney’s first-ever duet and the intention was, quite obviously to be a piece about racial equality. While this may seem simplistic, the South African apartheid government banned it, so even that simplistic a message terrified them.

When we consider that a high school class is meant to be singing this, we can understand that while we might not respect the music ourselves, it is an excellent choice for the story as a metaphor for diversity. And for this story, the song does it’s job. Kanon and Saki lead their class in a successful performance.

Kanon,  having achieved something so significant for herself with Saki’s help, for the first time realizes how little she knows about her friend. Not to beat up on a closet metaphor (because I don’t doubt we’ll be doing that with Saki soon,) but even Kanon understands that she’s able to step out of her little world into a bigger one now.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – Maid costumes with cat ears? Someone’s gonna be happy about that. 
Yuri – Holding at a muted 4, but it’s not not there.

Overall – 10

This series just keeps getting better and better. Every volume is fantastic. Volumes 1-10 of Amayo no Tsuki are out in Japan and I am just waiting with baited breath for Volume 11.