Archive for the English Manga Category


Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 5

August 10th, 2026

Two women stand close to each other in an intimate way, both facing the camera. The one on the left has long hair, the one on the right has short hair.

by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer.

This review WILL contain spoilers.

It’s taken 5 volumes of Pink Candy Kiss, but we finally got the confession. It’s mutual, it’s as messy as everything which has come before and it’s all the better for it. The author says in the afterword “If it feels rough and ugly to you, then as the author, I’m pleased.” This is what I like so much about this series, it does feel rough and ugly sometimes, but it feels real because of that.

I worried in my review of volume 4 also here on Okazu that there was only so long the story could go without a confession, so I’m glad it’s finally happened. It happens at the end of the book and the rest of the volume leading up to it is mostly Ema and Takara talking to other people about their situation and feelings for each other. There are some other important moments though, like when Ema finally tells her mother she doesn’t want her in her life any more, which really shows how much she’s grown.

Hario comes to Takara’s office and they end up going for lunch together, when he voices his unease about Ema to her. We learn a little more about how he and Ema ended up getting together, and how he feels now. Whilst he is grateful for her new found confidence since Takara came back into her life, he also feels uneasy but can’t think why. He’s probably too naive to think his wife is in love with another (wo)man, but it’s going to have to come out eventually.

Pink Candy Kiss continues to be one of my favourite ongoing series. I will, of course, be picking up the next volume to find out what the fallout  is, but at this point, I have to wonder if anyone is going to get a happy ending.

Ratings: 

Art – 7. It’s still a shame there aren’t colour pages with the chapter art on.
Story – 7. Not a lot happened but at the same time an awful lot happened
Characters – 10 
Service – None. It still doesn’t need it. 
Yuri – 10

Overall – 8





Common-Sense Monster, Volume 2

July 29th, 2026

Surrounded by the gaping maw of a monster, two girls in dark blue Japanese school uniforms make the heart sign together. One girl, with long dark hair smiles gently, the other girl, with messy light brown hair, stares in abject horror.In Volume 1, we met Itou, an awkward high school student and the eldritch horror of a monster that is walking around in the skin of popular, attractive fellow student Takahashi.

In Common-Sense Monster, Volume 2, Itou is confronted by her incredibly creepy, shape-changing monster of a teacher Niehara-sensei, and accused of being a monster herself. Itou refuses to help Nie-sensei, but neither she nor Takahashi has the ability to kill him. No matter how many times Takahashi bites his head off, Nie-sen just pops up again, with his toothy grin and grabby hands.

Itou is then confronted by her next greatest fear – two classmates who want to be friends.  Itou’s personality is so cutely, weirdly awkward that these two classmates find her charming…and the next thing she knows, as the class trip looms, is that she’s part of a friend group for the first very time. Even if the fifth of their group is a…very…unknown quantity.

Itou’s still looking to Takahashi for guidance, and getting really solid, simple advice that she just cannot put into play. But more importantly, Niehara-sensei is getting more and more brazen with his taunting and attacks, until the end of the book which, while we were told it was coming, is still monstrous.

The underlying horror of this story is that monsters live among us. And we know it. Predators, abusers, “normal” people who destroy the people around them. Which is more horrific, really? A teacher who is a known sex offender that no one seems to be able to get rid of, or a monster that eats people? I argue that the former is far worse and causes more damage, but when both real and fantastic monsters are one and the same….it makes for difficult reading. 

This is not an easy book. Itou’s an anxious mess, but one sympathizes. Every quiet moment, every kindness, every moment of humanity is likely to be literally swallowed up. It’s hard to relax when the ordeals keep coming, piling on to one another, leaving no room for anything else.

Is this a Yuri story? Kind of. Itou admirse Takahashi, but also cares about her – even though she understands that it is foolish, she’s always clinging to any small kindness. In the bigger picture, Itou is simply without affection in her life, but her care and affection for Takahashi definitely feel a step beyond that.

What this absolutely is, is an uncomfortable mix of fears both real and phantasmagoric, without space between them for a horror manga that will keep you on edge. 

Ratings: 

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – Pervy teacher makes everything icky
Yuri  – 1

Overall – 8 

Common-Sense Monster, Volume 2 is out now from Yen Press.





Manga Mavericks Licenses Queer Manga Classic Sword of Paros

July 3rd, 2026

Last night at Anime Expo, Manga Mavericks Book announced the license for Sword of Paros, written by Kaoru Kurimoto with art by Yumiko Igarashi! /flailing hands/

This is being sold as a complete series in a deluxe print hardcover volume, with the most gorgeous design, including sprayed edges featuring the Sword of Paros itself. Dan Luffey is translator, I am editing, Jeanthrix Andres is doing the lettering and Darren Vogt is the designer. When I tell you that this will be *amazing* I am not using hyperbole. 

Here is the official synopsis:

The legends that speak of the Sword of Paros say that it can bestow either prosperity or ruin on its kingdom…depending on the heart of its wielder.

The kingdom’s current princess, the beautiful yet resentful Elminia, laments being treated as a soulless tool simply for being born in a woman’s body.

Accompanied by Count Yulias, Elminia rides as far away from the kingdom’s politics as possible. One day, Elminia meets a beautiful young girl named Fiona, and their lives and the kingdom are changed forever.

My 2004 review of this series missed a key point: Elminia (I favored ‘r’ over ‘l’ in my initial review)  is a trans masc or nonbinary character. Despite being told they have “two hearts” like Sapphire, Elminia is clear about not belonging in a woman’s body. I interpreted this in 2004 as Elminia being a masculine lesbian (as I interpreted Elminia’s desires through a lens of my own.) This book was written in 1986, and so the issue of Elminia’s gender could be the topic of respectful discussion, as Kurimoto was drawing on the “Girl Prince” archetype and playing with the idea of expected gender role vs gender presentation/gender identity. In a world where women are tools and men are free, the options are clear.  In our world, there is more nuance. I look forward to your thoughts.

I’m delighted to introduce this amazing, emotional, action-packed and incredibly beautiful queer manga Sword of Paros to the world!  Pre-order it today on the Manga Mavericks Store!  Direct orders are only for North America and UK. If you live outside US/CA/UK, keep your eyes on your local Amazon or check with your usual bookstore when the book is released.





What Does The Fox Say?, Volume 1

June 29th, 2026

A woman partially draped in a white blouse, shows her tattooed shoulder and back, as she smokes in bed.When What Does The Fox Say? hit Lezhin, it was an instant hit. (Which made it just that much weirder that the service terminated it in a purge of LGBTQ+ works.)  In some ways, I credit this series for the “toxic Yuri” phenomenon of the last few years. 

After many series set in schools, with apparently saccharine, immature romances, it makes sense that a generation of Yuri fandom, itself having graduated school and moved into the workplace, was looking for something more “adult.”

And where there are adults, there is “adult” content. Fans want their terrible people having sex. Every generation wants this. ^_^ Team Gaji had their finger on the pulse at the right time and place. 

In What Does The Fox Say?, Volume 1, Sungji, a young and attractive new worker at a company, is caught up in a very pointy three-way relationship. More accurately, Sunji’s boss, Sumin, has her eyes on Sunji, while also being the plaything of Seju, the company president. 

 The problem here for me is that everyone is passively just letting the situation become intolerable. Sungji is attracted to Sumin, who absolutely should not be encouraging that, but is, as an escape tor her own miserable relationship with Seju. No one’s particularly happy and absolutely nothing good can come out of anything as long as the pecking order stays intact. The other issue is that I prefer evil women over toxic. All that passive misery was setting my teeth on edge. Like, lean into it, do bad things with gusto! 

In terms of the technicals, the pages are a bit hard to read as they were transferred to a book format from online without adapting the layout. That leaves a number of pages with slow-paced empty panels, or the visual equivalent of mumbling, as words are squished on to a too-small page. 

All of this would have been fine if I could find interest in any of the characters. They may all be adults, but none of them were grown up enough to keep my attention. 

Ratings: 

Art – At the time it debuted, a beacon of adult women in a sea of children
Story – Pure 1970s soap opera
Characters – A bit flat
Service – There is sex. Some of it is quite uncomfortable-making
Yuri – 10

Overall – 7

This isn’t a bad manhwa, it’s just not the kind of adult content I’m looking for. Whether it wears well over time, will be very interesting to see. 

Thanks to Yen Press for the review copy, via ANN, where I am also reviewing this for the Summer manga guide.





Bad Girl!, Volume 1

June 19th, 2026

A dark haired girl wearing a blazer and tie with her mouth open and a shocked expressionby Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

Your enjoyment of Nikumaru’s Bad Girl, Volume 1 will depend entirely on your tolerance of the combination of 4-koma manga and misunderstandings so obvious that they must be deliberate. Even now, Azumanga Daioh is still the master of the genre in my humble opinion, as well as being one of the first yuri-adjacent series I ever encountered, back in the early 2000s.

Bad Girl is the source material of the titular anime adaption, reviewed here on Okazu and available streaming on Hidive. Our protagonist Yuu Yuutani has a crush on the head of the school disciplinary committee, Atori Mizutori, who’s so popular she has her own fan club. Yuu therefore decides to become the titular “bad girl” to try and attract Atori’s attention. Unfortunately for her, she has good grades, perfect attendance and has never been in trouble ever and her idea of being bad is to write in the condensation on a window. Hijinks ensue.

This series is basically “Notice Me, Sempai” the manga. Yuu’s attempts to be bad are kind of adorable, like a little kid acting out to try and get the adults around them to pay attention to them. Like all 4-koma/gag series this is like popcorn, best consumed a few pages at a time, otherwise it gets tooth rottingly sweet and outstays its welcome very quickly. Don’t think too hard about it, otherwise it all falls apart. Just enjoy the silliness.

Ratings:

Art – It’s definitely cute. The colour pages at the beginning are nicely done.
Story – What story? It doesn’t need one though.
Characters – A lot of silliness
Service – n/a
Yuri – Mostly just an unrequited crush at this stage.

If you like your cute girls doing cute things with a yuri flavour you’ll probably enjoy this series. Volume 2 is scheduled to release in English later this summer, and the series is up to 5 volumes in Japan. I am curious as to how much story we’ll actually get out of this premise, so I will at least stick around for volume 2.