Archive for the English Manga Category


This Monster Wants To Eat Me, Volume 4

March 23rd, 2026

A smiling girl with very long black hair, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and light green summer dress is watched by a serious girl with medium-length hair wearing a dark green dress and lighter green blouse, as they walk down from a train platform.We finished up Volume 3 with a distinctly uncomfortable feeling although why, exactly would be hard to pin down. Shiori’s smile is ingenuous and Miko is ingratiating. Hinako, the subject of their constant attention, apparently longs for the grave, but just can’t quite bring herself to end it. In This Monster Wants To Eat Me, Volume 4 Hinako’s resolve will be put to the test. Miko asks Hinako to help her at the basketball  team summer retreat, and Shiori tags along to Miko’s chagrin.

Both Miko and Shiori spend their time  running interference for Hinako, who still takes them both very much for granted and maybe even resents them a little. Until we meet yet another yokai, one that will bring with it a lot of emotional baggage for Hinako.  Faced with the chance to die, Hinako flinches. Like Sir Gawain before her, that flinch causes her to questions everything she believes about herself. Then the yokai asks her something that will make Hinako question everything she believes about Shiori. 

This was one of my favorite volumes in Japanese where I called it “was one of the skin-crawlingest creepy manga I have ever read.” In English it still hits hard.It is also, at this point, impossible to name almost any of the emotions felt by Hinako, because words like disappointment or desire are not complex enough. What will become of Hinako now that she has had to face her own fear and discovered that she doesn’t even know what she wants anymore? Well, if you’ve read the Japanese manga, you know that that answer is still far off in the future. 

Reading this series of a gloomy, rainy night, surrounded by the sound of water, is the perfect accompaniment to Hinako who is kept from drowning in the depths of her grief only by the collateral kindness of two monsters who want her alive.

I love this story.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 8 Excellently creepy and ominous
Characters – 8 We’re walking through a world of hungry spirits
Service – Blood. Violence. Monsters. Secrets. More Monsters.
Yuri – Shiori’s interest in Hinako is feeling less like protecting one’s food this time. Miko’s love is honest, to an extent.

Volume 5 is already out and Volume 6 is on the way this spring from Yen Press! And that reminds me to go read Watashi o Tabetai, Hito de Nashi, Volume 11 (私を喰べたい、ひとでなし) . ^_^





Threads of Me and You

March 18th, 2026

Two women wearing kimonos and holding flowers that complement the other's outer coat look at each other.One with short black hair wears a blue and white kimono an golden outer jacket, holds a purple flower. The other women with longer light brown hair pulled u into a bun at the neck wears a sunflower pattern kimono, and purple outer coat while holding sunflowers.by Patricia Baxter,  Guest Reviewer

Threads of Me and You is the newest yuri manga series from Ayu Inui, the author of If We Leave on the Dot. Like her previous series, this is a manga focused on the lives of two women who are already well established in their respective careers, meeting, growing closer, learning more about themselves, and falling in love along the way. One of the major differences between the two series is that Threads of Me and You focuses on women meeting and connecting through fashion and self-expression, centered around wearing kimonos.

Yui Nanjou is a twenty-eight year old office worker who dislikes being seen as “cute” by others, and wishes that she could look more mature. At a local restaurant she meets Mizuho Shiiba, a woman her own age who is typically seen wearing a kimono while working, with a mature and refined air about her that Yui can’t help but admire. After an impromptu conversation, Mizuho agrees to teach Yui how to wear a kimono, which marks the beginning of their friendship.

One of this series’ greatest strengths is how it showcases Yui’s character arc, as she slowly but surely begins to undergo a journey of self-reflection, which helps her learn about herself and how she wants to be perceived. This also includes unlearning heteronormative assumptions about romance and relationships that she had internalized. Her journey of learning to love herself, Mizuho, and kimonos, are all entwined together and feel natural, and seeing everything come together in the end was a joy to read.

Unfortunately, Mizuho does not get the same amount of depth and character development as Yui, which is a shame because she was clearly shown throughout the series as having her own struggles and insecurities. Unlike Yui, who is undermined because she looks cute, Mizuho finds people have high expectations of her since she appears “mature”, when in reality she has trouble with directions, even to familiar places, and gets easily distracted by her interests. This could have been an interesting setup for a sapphic romance with an implied neurodivergent love interest, but the series, and Mizuho’s struggles, are wrapped up very quickly for the sake of a satisfying conclusion.

Despite these snags, the positives of the series, such as Yui’s character growth and seeing various women pursuing their passions, make it a worthwhile read.

Ratings: 

Art – 7.5
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 4

Overall – 8 

Threads of Me and You is available to buy or rent as twelve individual chapters exclusively on Renta! and each chapter costs $1 USD each.

 




Not So Shoujo Love Story, Volume 3

March 13th, 2026

In front of a page made from panels, showing valentine chocolates piled high on a desk, with an extremely pointy-chinned boy holding a rose, with a hold in his head where the background is ripped and an SD character of a blonde, making a silly face breaking through, a girl with short hair wearing a red knit scarf falls through the air, dropping boxes of chocolates and flowers, as that same background rips while she tries to grab it for support. Once again we are given a brilliantly fourth-wall breaking cover for Not So Shoujo Love Story, Volume 3 by Curryuku. Hanna literally rips through an image of alien, but inexplicably charismatic, Hansum, while Rei trips as the stereotypical background of a shoujo manga Valentine’s Day rips beneath her hands. The fact that such a gag-filled manga takes time to layer in symbolism in the cover is 10 out of 10

In Volume 2, Rei and Hanna both began to understand a very little bit about each other’s lives. Here in Volume 3 the powder keg of Valentine’s Day in high school sets them both on an inexorable path towards one another. 

As with previous volumes, there are endless riff on the tropes of shoujo manga, and homages to other media. Hansum’s Tuxedo Kamen moment is on point. Within this, there is a touching story about two lonely girls and all the absolute weirdos around them.  I’d say for every eye-rolling gag, there is at least one that made me chuckle.

By the end of this volume Rei has softened up a bit and is trying to not only understand Hanna more, but has begun to make other friends, something she is still unused to. The fact that she and Susan now speak of something other than Hanna is a huge step forward. Hanna, still trying hard to communicate her feelings to Rei, is starting to get through Rei’s walls. 

Again, Viz Media Originals is doing a fantastic, full-color, job with this manga. Cutuku’s art and writing is great and of course, we’re all rooting for Rei and Hanna.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – Nope
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

As a paean to the stupidity of high school, the tropes of shoujo manga and the joy of Yuri romance, Not So Shoujo Love Story continues to be a very fun read.

 
 

 

 





I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 3

March 11th, 2026

Two people in Japanese style school uniforms, one in boy's uniform, one in girl's uniform, their head on their knees, sit on a school stairway.by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

We have now reached the penultimate volume of Umi Takase’s I Wanna Be Your Girl, and having also reviewed volumes 1 and 2 here on Okazu, this one is definitely the weakest of the three. One thing this series continues to excel at though, is portraying teenagers realistically. Hime is still headstrong in her convictions and her determination to protect Akira. Akira, meanwhile, just wants to be treated like one of the girls and be noticed by the senpai she has a crush on. At the end of volume 2, we start to delve into another character’s back story. Hamuro is another student who has a secret of his own. He cross dresses as a maid while working at a cafe near the school, and it’s revealed that he’s not trans like Akira but cross dresses to support his younger sister Momo who was bullied for being too cute.

I don’t really feel Hamuro adds very much to the story, and the whole starting cross dressing because your sister was bullied just seems a little too out there, especially for a seemingly cishet teenage boy. Fortunately, it’s not a big part of this volume. What we get after Hamuro though is something I’ve hoped would happen since volume 1, and that is Sasaki-sensei’s backstory. I mentioned in my review of that volume that “It seems though, that there is more to the teacher than first meets the eye. He sits Hime down for a talk one day, and it’s strongly suggested that he’s gone through something similar regarding identity in the past” He now reveals in a conversation with Akira that he is aromantic, and how he has suffered from not meeting society’s expectations too. I’m glad we got this segment, especially since in the afterword the author mentions that he was only supposed to appear briefly in chapter 2.

The rest of the volume is just more of what we’ve already seen before, Hime and Akira continue to misunderstand each other, side characters are used as sounding boards for the main characters to talk about their feelings and we’re not really any further forward with their relationship either.

I Wanna Be Your Girl is still an enjoyable series and I’m very glad it exists, but nothing new really happens in this volume, especially when compared to the previous two. I’m optimistic though that everyone will get their happy endings in the next and last volume, and I’ll be reading it to find out.

Ratings: 

Story – 6. This would be a point lower if we didn’t get Sasaki-sensei’s backstory.
Art – 6.
Characters – 7 Hamuro and his sister are unnecessary.
Service – n/a
LGBTQ — 10

Overall – 7 but again, probably an 8 if you’re a confused/closeted queer teenager looking for something to relate to.





The Lying Bride and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate, Volume 1

March 6th, 2026

Cover of The Lying Bride and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate by Kodama Naoko. On a pale-blue background with pale white letters spelling out the title, a tall short-haired woman wears a tuxedo, back to back with shorter woman with light brown wavy shoulder-length hair in a wedding dress.In The Lying Bride and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate, Volume 1, Naoko Kodama offers up a lesbian that is a little more than just a plot complication. 

I’ve noted in the past, that some of Kodama’s work gets very close to discussions of trauma and the way people react to it.  In some cases, she sets up a reaction that is so extreme, the originating event appears to be serious, only to back off into a troubling, but not damaging, situation. There are two exceptions (mostly) to this trend -notably, I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up and the topic of today’s review. I say “notably,” because these two books, of all of her work, directly address queer life in Japan. 

Shigisawa is not out at her workplace, but she is very aware of and unhappy with the inequality she faces as a woman who will(can)not get married and a woman without children. She is grumpy about this. When a popular former colleague shows up needing her help, Shigisawa is not happy about that at all, either. On the one had, she had a mild crush on Goto and is grumpy about that too, as Goto left to get socially-approved married to a man. On the other hand, Shigisawa Rei is actually a softy and doesn’t turn Goto Saya away. 

The main conflict for Rei is being in close proximity to a woman she finds attractive and who appears to be all but throwing herself at Rei in what she believe is a clueless straight-girl way. For Saya, the conflict is very different, as her marriage is…she doesn’t know what it is, but it’s not working. This is not a funny at all, though. By not understanding her own self, Saya spends the volume unintentionally putting Rei’s emotions at risk.  

Because Kodama’s work typically comes with a guarantee of a happy ending, there isn’t that much tension in these two conflicts. We have to assume Saya will – at the last possible moment – deal with her failed marriage, and Rei will get the girl. And whether you like them as a couple or not is up to you. But at least, here in Volume 1 we get some pointed griping about Japanese society and their government’s abject failure to legitimize same-sex marriages, something that more than 70% of Japanese people think ought to exist (and despite multiple court rulings that lack of SSM is unconstitutional.)

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Service – 4
Yuri – 8
LGBTQ – 10

Overall – 7

Kodama-sensei’s work often strikes me the same way Melissa Scott’s science fiction in the 1990s did. It comes so close to making a point, dealing with an issue, managing an emotion, but shies away from follow through. That said, Kodama has been edging closer and closer and I hope that one, day, she’ll write the thing that has to be written.