Archive for the Takeshima Eku Category


There’s No Freaking I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… ~Next Shine~

January 21st, 2026

There's No Freaking I'll Be Your Lover! Unless… ~Next Shine~ promo art. The 5 faces of the main characters, all wearing different, characteristic, expressions, above some information in Japanese giving the airing information

by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

**SPOILERS BELOW**

This sequel was announced at the end of season 1 in September 2025, and originally premiered in Japanese cinemas in November 2025, then on Japanese TV at the very beginning of 2026. REMOW has also brought the series to Western fans on Youtube, as they did for the first series.

 

All 5 main cast of No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover, Unless...members in their school uniforms, with Renako standing slightly forward of the others, a maid cosplay outfit over her arm. Kaho is immediately behind her, jumping and punching her fist into the air

This series is basically an almost exact adaption of volume 4 of the novel series, which I reviewed here on Okazu. As such, if you didn’t enjoy the first season, there is absolutely nothing for you here. This is solely for the fans who wanted more. The animation, art, music, and voice acting haven’t changed at all in style from the original 12 episodes. Picking up where season 1 left off, we can now properly meet the final member of the harem, Koyanagi Kaho, an extroverted cosplayer with a few secrets of her own, and a jealous streak as well.  There is however one very important difference between this adaption and the original novel, which ends with Renako confessing to both Mai and Ajisai and asking to date them both, but the anime ends with a screen showing a text message from Satsuki saying “Hey, you’re already dating two at once, so one more wouldn’t hurt, right?” Obvious sequel bait aside, I do respect that the show didn’t make Renako pick just one of the girls, and actually committed to the harem premise.

It’s nice to see a yuri anime get a sequel, especially when it was announced pretty much at the end of season 1. I hope the bait which was dangled in front of us is taken and we get “Season 2” of the series animated some day.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 7





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





Whisper Me A Love Song, Volume 9

October 21st, 2025

Two girls, one with shoulder-length blonde hair and the other with long black hair, wearing Japanese school uniform hold hands and look deeply into one another's eyes.In Volume 8, Shiho finally admits to the “other” reason she split from Aki’s band. Yes, she does want to be a pro and is driven to excel beyond just having fun, and yes, she lives with the memory of a dead friend and rival she can never surpass haunting her…but mostly, it’s because she’s in love with Aki. It is this last that proved the impassable barrier, until Himari forced Shiho and Aki to have it out. 

Here in Whisper Me A Love Song, Volume 9 Himari isn’t done. In her role as cupid, she knows that it’s Aki’s turn to say something, so she forces Shiho to be there to listen. Aki take the opportunity of the finale of their Battle of the Bands set to talk intimately to Shiho…in front of the entire school. 

The school festival comes to an end. Unsurprisingly, Laurelei wins the battle. It would make no sense for it to be otherwise. (This was something that the anime did very well. SS Girls had cute music, but Laurelei’s song were amazing. ) Shiho, having had every one of the many wounds she let fester finally lanced, has no choice now except to try and be the person she was avoiding being. She must embrace joy and love…and everyone is watching over her to make sure she doesn’t fuck it up this time. ^_^ This arc took a long time to come to this point, but I think Shiho and Aki are perfect idiots and will be just fine together. Now we can all move on.

This volume reminds us that Hajime and Momoko are a story we have yet to address, but they are not where the next arc will take us.  The fantasy element of this story means that it isn’t going to drag these characters through the next morning angst of having to go to school where everyone knows your business. For the moment, we’re all free to just be a bunch of happy teens in and around a band.

Ratings:

Art – 8  The art is good, but the closeups are getting so close at this point, it is sometimes hard to see what we are looking at.
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 8

Overall – 9

Who will be paired up next? IYKYK!

9 Volumes in, and with only a very few scenes as exceptions – and those, only mild exceptions – I still think this story is one you can give to just about anyone to read. It’s sweet and earnest and occasionally intense. Kodansha’s team continues to do amazing work on it. As schoolgirl Yuri goes, I consider this one of the best series I have read. 





There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… Light Novel, Volume 3

August 29th, 2025

A girl with long, pale hair in a Japanese school uniform of a white blouse with red trim and tie and grey plaid skirt holds a finger up to her lip as if to shush us with a smile.

by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

Volume 3 of  There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… changes things up a bit with the cover design. Unlike the Volume 1 and Volume 2 where the covers feature Renako and whoever is the the main character of that volume, volume 3 omits Renako and is purely the next member of the harem, Ajisai Sena.

We know from the previous volumes that Renako already has something of a crush on Ajisai and that Ajisai is often responsible for caring for her two younger brothers, so it seems inevitable that we’ll find out more about both now. This volume is also the “summer vacation” volume, so we can expect traditional hijinks like hot spring trips, beach trips and and festivals, as alluded to on the back cover.

But maybe Ajisai isn’t as angelic as she appears. Perhaps she’s just a normal teenage girl who’s been looking forward to her summer vacation and hanging out with her friends/crushes but instead, she’s stuck staying at home and looking after her brothers. Parentification is a word which has gained traction in recent years and refers to older siblings being thrust into a caregiving role because the actual parents are either absent or negligent. Ajisai’s parents both work long hours, so she is inevitably forced into this position, and in this volume things finally come to a head. Ajisai has had enough and runs away from home, compelling Renako to go with her to, ostensibly, look after her.

This is where Ajisai feels like a normal teenage girl, much more so than either Mai or Satsuki. “Supadari” Mai is obviously meant to be over the top and unreal, whereas Satsuki is her opposite, being quiet, cynical and almost disinterested in romance unless she can use it to get at Mai. Ajisai, by contrast, feels much more grounded in reality. Renako arranges to come over to her house one day during summer vacation so they can play video games together, and this is when she snaps. Her brothers are hogging the game console, and she’s barely had a chance to speak to Renako. She’s had enough of having to put everyone else first and whilst running away is a bit of an extreme reaction, it is believable in this context. One thing I have particularly enjoyed about this volume is the little sections at the end of each chapter retelling the story from Ajisai’s point of view.

The rest of the volume is mostly devoted to the usual summer harem adventures. Renako and Ajisai inevitably end up staying at an onsen with a private hot spring attached, taking the number of members of the group Renako has seen naked and bathed with up to 3. It’s also a good excuse for an illustration of Ajisai in a yukata and a ping pong battle to determine who pays for this whole adventure.

And then enter Mai like the tornado she is, and yet another person to disrupt Ajisai’s time with a friend. She arrives at the inn having used Renako’s sister to find out where they are, so we now have a high school girls’ sleepover party or something like that, and now we’re all off to the local festival together (and bathing together).

We end with everyone back home and the rest of summer vacation passing relatively normally, apart from Ajisai asking Renako out (in front of Mai!)  just in time for school to start again in the next volume, when Renako must also answer Ajisai’s question and figure out where her feelings lie.

This series is ultimately about exploring the difference between friends and lovers, where the line between them lies, how blurry that line is and what it all means to different people. With one more group member to properly introduce in the next volume, my main question is where do we go from there?

If the anime continues at its current pace and it is a 12 episode season, this will be the last volume adapted for now. At the time of writing, there is no news of a season 2.

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 8 Ajisai is definitely the most realistic teenage girl of the group so far.
Service – 6. Some of the illustrations are definitely on the more servicey side in this volume.
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7





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.