Archive for the English Manga Category


Rainbows After Storms, Volume 5

November 6th, 2025

Two girls in white school blouses with blue sailor style collars and blue shirts stand as if dancing, the tall blonde smiles at us, while the shorter dark haired girl looks at us startled. They are surrounded by sunflowers. In Rainbows After Storms, Volume 5, Chidori and Nanoha have kissed and nothing will ever be the same.

Having shared their first kiss as fireworks symbolically exploded above them, the kiss itself continues to reverberate inside them. They are reminded over and over that they have kissed and find themselves jumpy and unnerved when they have to return to normal quotidian activities and conversations.

Worse for them, after such a significant change in their relationship over the summer, they haven’t had a moment to talk about it and the school festival rushes in to take up the space they might have had to debrief.  So, 5 volumes in to this series, it is now moves from the realm of theoretical Yuri into romantic Yuri.

As much as they stress, of course they are going to be okay.They are nervous and more aware of one another, more in need of one another than previously. That’s to be expected. What isn’t expected is the appearance of one of Nanoha’s former basketball team kouhai, returning to school after a serious injury with a humongus crush on Nanoha, who happens up Nanoha and Chidori kissing. Mai is going to be a bit of a problem. But that’s for next volume. As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese, “We’ve dealt with Chidori’s past….now it’s time to set Nanoha’s past behind her, and move on to the future.”

I know this was and is a slow series, slow enough that it almost feels in real-time. We’re watching Nanoha and Chidori find each other and watching their relationship change. It can be a bit voyeuristic at times and will be mores so in upcoming volumes, but for now, we can be content watching these two just figuring it all out. I’m glad I gave this series a chance when I read it in Japanese and gladder to be able to read it in English now. But don’t think this is the end, we have a lot more volumes ahead of us!

Ratings:

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

Overall – 7

 





Love Bullet, Volume 1

November 4th, 2025

On a vivid blood-red background, a girl in pale blue and white, with white hair wings, and red eyes, runs holding a pistol, while shell casings and white petals scatter around her. White block letters down the left side read, "Love Bullet". A small heart near the top left has a red '1' and artist inee's name in white below.I have long stood by an axiom that human nature does not change, only technology does. inee’s Love Bullet, Volume 1, one of the most anticipated titles of the year, also follows this same principle.

Cupids are real. People who died before experiencing love are sometimes given the Goddess of Love’s gift and become cupids. As cupids, they can work their way back into life by pairing people up with their perfect partners. And, because technology indeed changes, cupids are now armed with guns, which really sort of puts an emphasis on how horrid the idea of a “cupid” is. We’re so used to Raphael and Caravaggio’s chubby cheeked mini-angels, that the idea of being SHOT THROUGH THE HEART with a hormonal imbalance that causes irrational behavior stopped being horrific. But, here it is, genuinely horrific once again, in the more modern form of being shot by a gun.

We join the story in the middle of a raging disagreement between a group of cupids, over which two member of three friends ought to be the perfect love for the third. Koharu, the newest of the group, feels that there ought to be a way to come to a compromise, but while one side might be willing, one of the cupids really wants a fight and so, a fight breaks out. There is collateral damage as unwitting humans get hit by love bullets, but Koharu’s team is able to manage to fend off the other until Koharu makes a risky shot to solve the dilemma. 

We then learn a bit about Koharu’s life and death and the girl who loved her. We, and Koharu, are appalled to find that her first mission is to pair her dear friend up with someone. It makes for a powerfully bittersweet story about love…and makes us question whther becoming a cupid is really a “gift.” inee’s art is cute, which makes scenes like Koharu shooting her first love through the head in order to set her up with someone both horrible and deeply  moving.  One can understand why Koharu is always looking for a happy compromise in her pairings. 

inee’s art is simple, often relying on no or limited backgrounds, and all but line art for the cupids, but the body language and movement in the gunfights is excellent, and her narrative tension is top notch.  I finished this very much hoping that the international campaign to save this series was fully successful and lo and behold!, Volume 2 is hitting JP bookstores this very month. I’m interested in the other cupids and would like to have my emotions flailed with their sad stories, but also hope to see some happy endings. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Bittersweet, with the emphasis on the bitter  – 9
Characters – 8
Service – Guns and other weapons
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

Yen is saying that they expect this volume to be one of their best selling titles of the year, even with a release date in December. Imagine that. It’s really good, honestly, so I am delighted we’re getting it in English. Thanks, Yen for a review copy for ANN, I used it for both reviews. 

 





A Curtain Call For You, Volume 1

October 28th, 2025

On a scarlet background, a girl with long black hair tied into a thin ponytail, makes a dramatic gesture and holds out her hand for us, as she smiles directly at us while a spotlight shines on her.Over the years here at Okazu, I have written about many nuances of relationships between women. Love, sexual desire, akogare and crushing, deep emotional connections and more. All of them fall under my personal interests and often well under the umbrella of “Yuri.” Today I’m going to talk about a kind of relationship which might be, or might become a “Yuri” relationship or might not, but that is wholly irrelevant to the magic of the story.

In A Curtain Call For You, Volume 1, Sakura Akutsu is a character we’ve come to recognize. She has difficulty speaking, and is overwhelmed by the fast-paced conversations of her peers. Prone to overthinking and missing her moment, Sakura’s anxiety keeps her from just being part of the flow of school life. Instead she confines herself to writing. When Tsubame comes in to the classroom, speaking in oddly formal, over-dramatic words, Sakura becomes swept up in the wake of Tsubame’s energy. And that is the relationship I want to talk about. There is a very specific kind of person who just *is.* They exist in full 3-D wherever they are and by doing so, they provide both a role model and a figure of authority for people around them who are merely going through the motions. I have been fortunate in having a few of these people in my life at key moments and I endeavor to be that kind of person for other people. Tsubame is exactly this kind of person and it gives Sakura the spark she was unable to give herself to become herself.

Tsubame is cringe. Boring people always see passion as cringe. Tsubame give Sakura permission to express herself. Society rewards conformity, not expressivity. Tsubame catalyzes action.  Fears keep people from acting. Tsubame is a wave of change and action in a world that rewards stagnation and inaction. Despite everyone labeling Tsubame as cringe, they come to see the play she and Sakura have created and, friends, it was magnificent. 

Is this “Yuri”? I don’t know. I don’t care.  Shiho Satou and Kiki Emoda have created a story that is exactly as captivating to me as Tsubame is to Sakura. 

A Curtain Call For You, Volume 1 is  available for pre-order now from Vertical Comics/Kodansha, with a November release date. I think you should read it and tell me what you think. I thought it was amazing. 

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 10
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – ?

Overall – 9

Thank you to Kodansha for the review copy, and thank you to ANN for giving me a chance to read it early. I already look forward to Volume 2.





The Moon On A Rainy Night, Volume 7

October 26th, 2025

Two young women in brown maid costumes with pink aprons and wearing cat ears walk arm in arm down a school hallway during a culture festival, smiling and laughing as they talk. Please allow me a moment of self-indulgence as I note that when I reviewed this volume in Japanese I re-read this volume 3 times, (and cried every time.) I  called this volume “absolute perfection” in my review. Now that I have read this volume once so far in English, I stand by my words.  The Moon On A Rainy Night, Volume 7 is absolute perfection. 

Every theme that this story has been building upon, every plot, every conversation, every moment leads us to a climactic school festival in which Kanon is about to face all of her fears all at once and find that with the help of the people around her, failure and success all have meaning. 

But first, we spend some time withKanon’s younger sister Rinne, whose new friend asks her what she wants to do. It takes a while before Rinne will admit she has some genuine desires, she’s so used to putting Kanon first. One of the repeated themes in this manga is how friendship works. Chiyama and Rinne are going to be good for one another, as each is there to help the other break out of their self-imposed boxes.

Then it’s time for Kanon to face her own limitations and fears. First, she fails and in failure learns a bit about her own pride. She’s reunited with Ayano, and now unexpectedly has yet another ally (and let’s spend a moment thinking how completely amazing that the old, broken relationship that festers for ages tropes is just…not. Good riddens to that!) Fortified by the support of the people around them, Kanon and Saki lead their class in the chorus competition. I want to address the choice of song here for a moment. It is true that Ebony and Ivory is a saccharine piece of music, but it was McCartney’s first-ever duet and the intention was, quite obviously to be a piece about racial equality. While this may seem simplistic, the South African apartheid government banned it, so even that simplistic a message terrified them.

When we consider that a high school class is meant to be singing this, we can understand that while we might not respect the music ourselves, it is an excellent choice for the story as a metaphor for diversity. And for this story, the song does it’s job. Kanon and Saki lead their class in a successful performance.

Kanon,  having achieved something so significant for herself with Saki’s help, for the first time realizes how little she knows about her friend. Not to beat up on a closet metaphor (because I don’t doubt we’ll be doing that with Saki soon,) but even Kanon understands that she’s able to step out of her little world into a bigger one now.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – Maid costumes with cat ears? Someone’s gonna be happy about that. 
Yuri – Holding at a muted 4, but it’s not not there.

Overall – 10

This series just keeps getting better and better. Every volume is fantastic. Volumes 1-10 of Amayo no Tsuki are out in Japan and I am just waiting with baited breath for Volume 11.





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.