Archive for the Artists Category


Ayaka Is in Love with Hiroko, 2nd Stage

August 10th, 2025

The promotional poster for season 2 of Ayaka Is in Love with Hiroko. On the left the actresses embrace, wearing Hawaiian patterns and a lei on the right Hiroko holds a blowdryer over Ayaka's hair. by Frank Hecker, Okazu Staff Writer 

The live-action adaptation of Sal Jiang’s manga Ayaka Is in Love with Hiroko! ended with Hiroko agreeing to accept Ayaka as her girlfriend. Although the live-action series covered all three volumes of the manga, its producers decided to create a sequel going beyond the original story. Thus we have Ayaka Is in Love with Hiroko, 2nd Stage, now streaming on GagaOOLala (along with season 1).

Any sequel faces the problem of matching the appeal of the original while creating a new story that doesn’t retread old ground. Ayaka Is in Love with Hiroko, 2nd Stage attempts this by moving almost completely away from the office setting of season 1 and focusing on Ayaka’s relationship with Hiroko and (to a lesser degree) Hiroko’s relationship with her family.

As 2nd Stage begins, Ayaka has been living with Hiroko for half a year. Hiroko caters to Ayaka’s every need, including making her breakfast and cleaning up after her, but (as Ayaka’s friend Risa implies) Hiroko treats her more like a pet than a lover. Ayaka wants them to be a “real couple” (i.e., to have sex), Hiroko is reluctant to do so, and Ayaka doesn’t understand why. And, quite frankly, neither do we: Hiroko offers excuses to Ayaka (she needs more time to sort out her feelings) and to herself (she’s worried about her “selfish desires”), but this part of the plot requires a major suspension of disbelief, especially now that Hiroko knows that Ayaka’s feelings toward her are genuine.

As in season 1, Hiroko’s ongoing misunderstandings and miscommunications provide the springboard for multiple comedic moments. But comedy isn’t as funny when someone’s getting hurt, and it becomes clear through the course of the series that Ayaka is more and more distressed and confused about Hiroko’s behavior. It’s almost a relief when the show turns to the secondary plot concerning Hiroko and her family (she’s still not out to them) and to the goings-on at Bar Kiyoko (where Risa’s new girlfriend Kyoko informs everyone that Risa has gone from a “clueless puppy” in bed to “a wolf who’ll bare her fangs”). But these digressions can’t compensate for the fact that the show drags on for too long. The plot threads finally resolve in episode 6, thanks to Ayaka’s actions and the innocent intervention of Hiroko’s young niece, a sweet ending that I can’t help thinking could have come one or even two episodes earlier.

As Hiroko, Kanna Mori once again excels at wide-eyed reactions, mixed in with more subtle acting in the final episodes. But the real star of 2nd Stage is Shiho Katō, whose performance as Ayaka is the beating emotional heart of this sequel: We feel her pain, echo her confusion, and cheer her on as she forthrightly declares her love for Hiroko to Hiroko’s sister and mother: “This is how I truly feel. There’s not a single bit of pretense.” Riria Kojima joins the cast as Hiroko’s sister Keiko, who offers some cringey (meta)commentary in response to Ayaka’s outing herself (“I’ve been really into Thai dramas, so I know a bit about this kind of thing”), while former otokoyaku Hiroki Nanami brings sultry sex appeal (along with advice for Ayaka) to Bar Kiyoko as lady-killer Jun.

Ratings:

Story — 5
Characters — 8 (+1 for Ayaka, -1 for Hiroko)
Production — 7 (the subtitles are occasionally clunky)
Service — 4
LGBTQ — 10
Overall — 7

Ayaka Is in Love with Hiroko, 2nd Stage provides a satisfying ending to the story of Ayaka and Hiroko, but it takes its sweet time getting there. Fans of season 1 should expect less comedy, more angst, and increased frustration at Hiroko’s cluelessness and self-delusion.





There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… Light Novel, Volume 2

August 8th, 2025

Two girls stand back to back, saluting the viewer with V signs. One girl has very long black hair, the other has collar-length pink hair. They both smile at us.by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

Volume 2 of There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… opens with Mai announcing that Renako is her fiancée at a fancy dinner party, much to Renako’s surprise and horror. Despite this, after that prologue, Mai is almost a side character in most of this volume, as we get to know another member of the friend group/harem. This volume focuses almost entirely on Koto Satsuki, who is featured on the cover alongside Renako, and is called Satsuki-san at this point in the story. In Volume 1 we find out that Satsuki has a crush on Renako, but also that her relationship with Mai is more complicated than it first appears. Satsuki describes their relationship as “toxic friends” and also says that “The number one reason why I stay with her (Mai) is that it gives me the opportunity to see her in distress.” Hopefully, this volume will dive into this in more detail.

We also know that after Mai assaults Renako in volume 1, she confesses everything she’s done to Satsuki in an attempt to soothe her guilt. Satsuki is less than sympathetic, and we still don’t really understand her motivations or why she has a crush on Renako. Is it jealousy or does she simply want what Mai has? It turns out to be a little more complicated than that, she wants to date Renako as a way to get revenge on Mai. In classic harem protagonist style, Renako is manipulated into dating Satsuki for 2 weeks. Never mind the fact she’s still technically dating Mai.

Satsuki though, has a secret of her own. She has an after school job at a fancy doughnut shop which Renako and her sister end up discovering, and it turns out there’s more to Satsuki-san than meets the eye. Satsuki invites Renako back to her house after work, and we find that she’s an only child, raised by a single mother and works to try and support herself and her mother and the perfect facade is just that, a facade. She clearly still doesn’t trust Renako very much, but the fact she’s brought a friend home for the first time since starting high school shows that there’s maybe some cracks appearing in that defensive wall.

Harems of course live and die on the strength of their characters, and I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying this series. Renako is understandably utterly bewildered by this whole situation she finds herself in, and the way things are going so far I could genuinely see this ending up in a poly situation. And if it does, I respect that choice, because why have one girlfriend when you can have many? As long as everyone involved is happy and consenting, bring it on. I’m also looking forward to Volume 3 because Ajisai is on the cover and I hope this means we see more of her and her relationship with Renako as I enjoyed her section of volume 1.

Ratings: 

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 8 The side characters are still more interesting than Mai.
Service – 6
Yuri – 7
Harem – 8

Overall – 7.5 I found this volume more interesting than the first one because Satsuki is a genuinely interesting character and I still have no idea what her true motives are.





Tough Love At The Office: The Complete Yuri Collection

August 4th, 2025

A woman with ripped blouse and bloodies face and body, scowls at a pair of woman's legs in white heels and a pink skirt.CW: Extreme personal violence, rape, emotional and psychological abuse in a workplace setting.

Sal Jiang’s Black & White, the  3-volume series of violent and psychopathic competition at highly competitive Japanese financial firm is now available in English as Tough Love at the Office: The Complete Yuri Collection and it asks us to ask ourselves what is really important to us….but not until we grin through 400+ pages of two women who are trying to eat each other for lunch, in all the meanings of that phrase. 

Kuroda Kayo comes in to her new job brimming with confidence and acclaim and immediately runs into Shirakwa Junko, who has her eyes set on power. The two of them instantly dislike one another, but also cannot stop having violent, angry sex that is clearly meant as rape to destroy the others’ will. Both are equally matched in smarts, skills, popularity and desire to destroy the other. 

I loved the first volume of this in Japanese and I still think it is the strongest part of the story. To quote myself from my review of the JP Volume 1, “Jiang’s art is terrific – clean and stylish, cute and approachable, and nasty af, in turns as the narrative requires. The characters are terrible people, but they sometimes do good or kind things, which gives them nuance. Neither of them is a sadist to the pleasant office drones around them. They are, however, two dominant humans fighting for dominance in every way possible. Yeah, baby. I’ll take as much of this as I can get.”

When Kuroda and Shirakawa are teamed up by a scheming senior executive, he gets exactly what he hopes for – an unethical power-hungry machine to take down his enemies. But then they are turned on one another again. When Kuroda makes a misstep on an overseas trip, she causes a chain reaction that will ultimately lead to the end of the series…

…where we are asked to consider what is truly important to us. The answer to that question for both Kuroda and Shirakawa may surprise you. 

This is not a Baihe-style “in love with my cold, tough boss” story. This is a potentially/eventually disturbing exploration of deepest, darkest expressions of five of the seven deadly sins. But what this story also is is pitting two evenly matched competitors against each other in a evenly balanced match. And for that reason, I can enjoy the heck out of it (although I admit, I would have ended it differently. ^_^) 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – 7 Not a lot of nudity, but a lot of sex and violence
Yuri – 7 See above

Overall – 10

 

 

Alexa Frank’s translation and Asha Bardon’s adaptation does everything it can with the blurry “business” stuff . The Seven Seas team does a great job here as usual. 





There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… LN 1

July 28th, 2025

A girl with blonde hair embraces a girl with pink hair, who looks uncomfortable about it. They wear the same school uniform skirt of black plaid, white blouses and red ties. The blonde wears a black blazer, as well.by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

This series has been on my radar for a while, but with the anime now airing I took the chance to read the first novel, which is mostly covered by episodes 1-3 of the anime adaptation of the light novel There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless…, Volume 1

Content warning: sexual assault

Mai Oduka has it all. Money, good looks and brains. So when former loner Renako decides to reinvent herself for high school and go to a new school where no one knows her, she of course attracts the attention of Mai. Renako becomes part of Mai’s friend group, and is stunned when Mai confesses her feelings to her. Renako, however, just wants to be friends, so they set up a contest where some days they’ll try being lovers, and other days just friends. If Mai wears her hair up, it’s a friends day, if it’s down, it’s a lovers day.

I like the premise, it’s silly and a little bit of wish fulfillment for those who want to imagine how the other side lives and date the most popular girl in school. I just wish the author understood consent. There is one particular chapter in this volume where Mai and Renako end up in a hotel room because of course they do, and of course they end up naked together as well. I would describe what Mai does to Renako at this point as sexual assault. If you (supposedly) love someone, you listen to them when they say no. Granted, Mai does apologise later and says she got carried away, but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

From this point, feelings start to get a little more messy. Mai tries to put Renako out of her mind, and hosts a private party to find a new partner. After a confrontation with Satsuki (another member of the group who has the potential to be very interesting), Renako dashes to find Mai and they quite literally kiss and make up. I must applaud whoever came up with the pun “friends with Rena-fits” at this point, as that’s how their relationship is going to proceed into volume 2. Not quite friends, not quite lovers. I do wonder if the reason Mai likes Renako so much is that she treats her relatively normally and actually says no to her, when she’s spent her entire life getting what she wants as soon as she wants it.

A potentially much more interesting development is Renako and Ajisai’s relationship. Ajisai is another member of the friend group, described as “the class archangel” but there seems to be more to her than just that. She has siblings who she has to care for and it turns out she’s also into video games, so while Mai is away working in France, Renako invites Ajisai over to play games with her. Renako has a little bit of a crush on Ajisai and does tell her that, so I’m interested to see where that goes, although I’d be very surprised if she ends up with anyone other than Mai.

Overall, this book is more complicated that it first seems. What seems to be a very shallow, over the top, harem-ish premise actually has some interesting characters in there. Renako’s reaction to being assaulted is also surprisingly realistic, she blames herself for not being firm enough with her boundaries and feels bad for slapping Mai. Girl, you are not the problem here. I was heartened to see that the most popular comment on episode 3 of the anime on YouTube at the time of writing was “The word of the day is consent”. Maybe there’s hope for the internet after all.

Ratings:

Art – 7 I do enjoy Eku Takeshima’s art
Story – 6 This would have been a lot higher if there was no sexual assault.
Characters – 7 So far the side characters are more interesting than the main couple.
Service – 6 A few illustrations but nothing too indecent.
Yuri – 7 It gets better as it goes on.

Overall – 7 I just hope there’s no more sexual assault in the next volumes.





The Girl Who Wants To Be A Hero And The Girl Who Ought To Be A Hero

July 14th, 2025

A girl in a school uniform that shows her abdomen, runs towards us smiling, small fangs visible in her mouth, her arms wide, and black hair blowing in a breeze. Behind her a girl in a similar, more conservative version of the same uniform with long silver hair, looks at the girl in the foreground.At the beginning of 2024, I reviewed inori.-sensei’s Yuusha ni Naritai Shoujo To, Yuusha Narubeki Kanojo (勇者になりたい少女と、勇者になるべき彼女). Of it, I said, “Everything I want in a Dengeki Bunko read – a “light” novel in the broadest sense. It’s small, quickly paced, not entirely predictable and ends just where you want it to.” Now it is my pleasure to review this same novel as The Girl Who Wants To Be A Hero And The Girl Who Ought To Be A Hero, by inori., illustrated by Akamoku and published by Yen Press under the YenOn imprint. 

Demon girl Ruchika has come to the Hero Institute in order to become stronger. Daughter of the world’s greatest hero, Leone has spent her entire life training to be a Hero. At the Institute they will face hardships in training, but also bullying by teachers and students…and a system that almost seems designed to destroy them.

This story is fast-paced. inori.-sensei includes a lot of familiar themes about society within the narrative. Systemic inequity is something we’ve seen in all her work, and this book takes a moment to make some very sharp points about both bias and societal inequity in ways that are very clear and cogent. Laws against marriage equality are addressed from the perspective that it is weird to limit who can be with whom…as it is, in truth.

Non-conformity and getting out from under the weight of expectations is the main plot driver, one that I welcomed. This is clearly stated by Ruchika, both to Leone and to us, that should and must are simply not as important as want to her, and she is strong enough as a character to carry it off right to the very end. There are a number of plot points that are left hanging in case we do see a Volume 2, as I hope we will. This would hardly be the first time countries outside Japan drove one of inori-sensei’s series, while a Japanese publisher dithered.

As I said in my original review, Akamoku’s art illustrates the scene, but as is so typical in light novels, everyone looks much younger than the ages we must assume based on the descriptions. I am pleased to see the scenes illustrated over the usual static pin-up.

Yen has done a nice job with this. The bonus book cover from Melonbooks has become a folded-out two-sided poster, a nice touch. Yen doesn’t list credits beyond author, illustrator and the very readable translation by Geneveive Hill-Kamanishi. It was an interesting not to me that she also went with Ruchika and Leone and with Hero Institute for her translation choices, as I had struggled with those for my initial review and also chosen Ruchika and Leone. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

Overall, a fun read and with enough untied ends to offer an opportunity for a sequel, perhaps more.