Archive for the English Manga Category


Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, Volumes 7 and 8

May 15th, 2026

The cover for Volume 7 of Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games. It shows Aya, a teenager with long brown hair and a fringe, looking at the viewer with a small smile. by Luce, Okazu Staff Writter

I’m Luce , and I must apologise for the delay on the review for these volumes, 9 is nearly upon us! Onward!

The young ladies are back to prove that they do indeed play fighting games, and violent ones at that! Not only that, but they want to make their pugilistic simulations into a club activity?

In Volume 7, the tournament wraps up and the girls head back. After a few days rest from gaming to allow/force Mio to recover from her random nosebleed, they start their midnight training again. Aya is acting weirdly, but that’s the least of their concerns when they get caught by a disgusted member of the disciplinary committee! Can they fight their way out of this one – with words?

Volume 8, and the fighting is no longer contained to a screen. It’s Mio, fighting for her right to disobey her mother’s wishes and continue to play video games, versus her mother, fighting to get the idea into her daughters thick skull that video games are no good! The gloves are off, child services are probably gonna get called, who will win this showdown?

The cover for Volume 8 of Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games. It shows Mio, a teenage girl with pink hair and fringe, in a fighting pose. Honestly, this series is so much all of the time, and it’s great. We know Aya had a vicious jealousy that maybe she wasn’t Mio’s biggest rival after seeing her fight Arisa on stage in Volume 6. The way she tries to deal with that is kinda hilarious… and the way it ends is magnificent. Mio basically getting kidnapped by her mum for playing video games, and duking it out for the right? Crazy.

We discover that Arisa, the bratty kid that Mio fought, is the sister of the president of the student council. While she doesn’t play games herself, she likes seeing her sister happy like she was when fighting Mio, so she’s on board with them being allowed to play. Pulling a few strings, she manages to reduce their sentence to suspension for a few days, but… ‘Mama Mio’ as she’s referred to by the other characters is not having her daughter become a video game playing wastrel. Even if she has to fight her about it, literally.

The panelling, art and dialogue is always fun in this series. The assembly with the student body is no less dynamic than the actual fight scenes, and often the characters don’t react how you might expect. It is, if you’ll excuse the phrase, ‘batshit’. Aya, Tya-senpai and Inui all commentate on the Mio Vs Mama Mio match like they would a fighting game, but even commenting on things that are different from their normal fighting game, like the fact that it’s in 3D rather than 2D. It’s just glorious. Full of zany and deranged characters, I’m always looking forward to what they get up to next.

Volume 8 sets up a conflict for the next episode – the problem with an advisor for a club, and needing more members! Volume 9 is coming out shortly, and it won’t be long until the anime is airing too.

Art: 9
Story: 7
Characters: a wild 9
Yuri: 6 – more breathtaking declarations of rivalry and competition, but it sure could go there
Service: 2 – they had a panel that could have been a pantry shot and wasn’t, so that’s pretty good
Overall: 8

It’s stupid in many ways, but it’s also glorious.





Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko!, Volume 2

May 11th, 2026

A blonde woman in pink, whispers into the ear of a woman in a grey suits and white button down shirt, who is visibly cringing with embarrassment, under the words Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko (echoed)In Volume 1, we were thrown into a torrent of emotion as beloved and competent office sempai Hiroko, has a passionate, if awkward, junior, Ayaka, who is doing everything she can to catch Hiroko’s eye. 

When Ayaka finally just tells Hiroko how she feels…Hiroko rejects her. As Ayaka grieves, her best friend Risa asks if Ayaka couldn’t find a way to going out with her. But, no, Ayaka is not able to give Risa what she wants. Everyone is unhappy. 

And then something important happens. The ladies at the lesbian bar unpack Hiroko’s baggage.. They explain to Risa and Ayaka just how much different things were 15 years ago and how being out carries a lot of weight for an older generation of lesbians. This is a crucially important bit of storytelling. Hiroko has her own personal heartbreak and the consequences that she’s been carrying, but also a lifetime of society forcibly rejecting queer people. Not like the conservative extinction burst attacks we’re seeing now, but the full confidence of a majority of society being queerphobic. Hiroko’s beloved sempai, a woman she admired and loved, took the fall for her and she cannot let that go lightly.

I love that this has to be explained…how genuinely wonderful for younger queer folks who rightfully see transphobia and homophobia as the problem, rather than themselves. But it does have to be explained, because while that kind of queerphobia still does exist-  people are still regularly thrown out of homes, lose jobs, access to family, children, housing, – it is nowhere as common as it once was. So for folks who have not experienced it, here is an example.

And, having learned the whole truth, Ayaka, Risa, and Hiroko are ready to move on. No, wait, Risa and Hiroko are, but Ayaka has other ideas. She’s still convinced that Hiroko just need convincing. In Ayaka fashion, that means she’ll choose the wackiest way to go about it.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 10
Service – 6 When Ayaka stops dressing for attention, it’s actually pretty funny
Yuri – 7
Lesbian – 9

Overall – 8

This volume manages to be funny and poignant with Sal Jiang’s fabulous reaction expression art. A good read, a fun read, and a read that I hope in 15 years will make almost no sense at all to the next generation of queer youth, who will be befuddled by anyone who doesn’t just automatically acknowledge their right to exist.





The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, Volume 3

May 8th, 2026

On a background of fiery flowers, a woman in a blue uniform/dress with long pink hair is back to back with a woman in a blue dress, long pale hair and a tiara of dark crystals, weilding flame.In Volume 1 and Volume 2, we met former Office Lady Natori Midori, a woman whose genuine desire to be useful lead her to be fired by her employer. Reborn into the world of a otome game, Natori – called Natalie by the characters – find herself working as the familiar and assistant to the villainess, Lapis.

Natalie is in a bind. She likes the game protagonist, Diana, and wants to protect her from having to kill Lapis. She really likes Lapis, more than just wanting to save her. But the more she tries to protect them from their fates in the game, the more the game world pushes them all to the same end.

What’s a reincarnate to do? In The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, Volume 3, she gives up pretending. Having met the Prince’s confidant, Rubeus, who seems to be manipulating them all for his own (and, unwittingly, the Prince’s) sake, Natalie only sees one way to stop the worst possible things from occurring. She tells Lapis the truth. Then she tells Diana what she can. By trusting in people by whom she wishes to be trusted, Natalie believes she can protect everyone. She and Lapis share another confidence as well. They now know they their feelings are more than just assistant/employer, but there is much more to be said about that.

Rubeus is sending the country down a path towards commoner uprising and noble rebellion. will Natalie be able to stop it? Lapis and hopefully, Diana, are on her side. The relationship between these two is strained as well, so where all of this is headed, we can’t be sure. The story is actually getting a little fraught, but I’m hoping this game gets a well-deserved happily ever after.

Nekotarou’s art is great. While the magic is fairly standard, it’s fun to see Diana use people’s own spells against them.
And in the bonus story, one of Natori’s former coworkers learns that Natori was a decent person and she was the jerk all along. I wonder if that is going to play into the story at all.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – We’re up to intimate embraces
Yuri – 4…we’re getting there!

Overall – 8





Wicked Spot, Volume 1

April 30th, 2026

On a vivid yellow background, a woman with wild pink hair in hot pink and black, sits cross-legged, manicured long nails visible on her hand, smiling broadly with fangs showing and an intense look in her green eyes as looks a us.In my review of this book in Japanese I said, “Sal Jiang’s newest manga, Wicked Spot, Volume 1 is a classic case of a story beginning in one place and ending way far away from there in many different ways. I love it. ^_^.” 

Now that I have read it it English, I still love it. ^_^

Sada is a young with and the rules around staying hidden and away from people chafes. When a cell-phone opens up the world to Sada, she becomes a hit social media influencer (largely by walking into stores and just taking what she wants, courtesy of  bit of magic.)

Hanako has been tormented her whole life for being “a witch” because of her enormous strength. In the wake of Sada’s public confession that she is, in actual fact a witch, Hanako goes from fan to hater in a moment. When they meet, many worlds will collide!

If you like Sal Jiang’s work, you love this, if you are new to her work, hopefully, you’ll grow to love the wacky reaction faces and crazy muchness of both Sadako and Hanako’s situations. 

For me, it’s a fun read with just enough emotional buy-in to keep me reading what amounts to a action and magic filled comedy.

Ratings:

Art – 8 sometimes beautiful, other times messy
Characters – 8 Yes, this kind of off the wall, please
Story – 9 Awesome so far
Service – Cute clothes are about it
Yuri – Could go any way right now, but I trust

Overall – 8

Thanks to Vertical/Kodansha for a review copy through ANN for their up coming Spring Manga Guide! This volume is headed our way in a few weeks!





Rainbows After Storms, Volume 6

April 17th, 2026

Two girls in the same sailor-style school uniform of white blouse, dark blue skirt and red tie, in a church. One sits, as the other kneels in front of her, they hold hands looking deeply into one another's eyes.As Volume 6 of Rainbows After Storms opens, the school trip looms large. Or, it would do, if Chidori and Nanoha hadn’t had a fight that leaked into their public lives just before it. 

So, while planning group activities and buying cute underwear for the sleepover together with their friends, the two are conspicuously not speaking. Even when their friends point it out, they just patch it up a little. Until the final day of the trip, when their friends are very clear that they have ruined the trip for themselves, each other and for everyone. That, finally gets them to talk about the problem. 

The problem is, in a word, Mai. Nanoha’s former basketball team kouhai has managed to accidentally on purpose sow discord. This will have to be addressed, but first, Nanoha and Chidori are going to have to patch things up. Which they do. Spoilers, but the cover kind of gives it all away. ^_^

We are halfway through this series and Nanoha and Chidori have just expressed their feelings out loud. Are things are going to get hot and heavy from here on out? No, but that is not why you are reading this series. It’s a gentle, slow, coming together of two girls in love and that’s pretty much it. But it is cute. ^_^

As I said of the Japanese volume, sometimes it’s just nice to read something nice. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 2 

Overall – 7

Volume 7 is up already out and up on the Yuricon Store!