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Navigating With You Volume 2

October 7th, 2026

A second Navigating With You (which was reviewed here on Okazu in 2025) felt like it came out of left field for me. Gabrielle and Neesha’s whole wonderful journey had come to a narratively satisfying conclusion at the end of the first volume. But our two heroines are not even out of high school yet, they have a lot of life left and a lot of stories to tell.

This means stories from two locations and what the second volume of Navigating With You improves upon the first is with a greater emphasis on community. Very quickly we are introduced to two social circles: Gabby’s old friends back in Florida and all the other students at Neesha’s school who are interested in making their local life better.

The most outstanding part of the second volume of Navigating With You is the same as the first volume. Rich characters who communicate (to the reader) who they are and what they are about. So the addition in particular of Noli (from Neesha’s school) and Cary, Gabby’s ex who dumped her over text way back at surf camp. This makes sense as Jeremy Whitley is also writing this second volume and he continues to make sure every character get’s their moment. This volume it is Neesha’s mother is the MVP of parents who clearly know they are in a teen romance and what they need to do to help their child get through it.

But, you might ask, Gabrielle and Neesha found all of the manga last volume, what could they be reading in their book club now. Sadly I must confess to you that Gabby and Neesha are watching anime using a screen share video call. The anime in question is written by the same fictional author of ‘Super Navigator Nozomi’ and it mirrors the themes of Gabby and Neesha’s stories even better than the first volume. Although the change in art style is not at all as sharp as volume one, making it seem that our protagonists are reading a 2000’s image comic rather than watching an anime.

A change in art is to be expected, Cassio Ribeiro is handling just the cover art now. The comic has been A picture of four characters from Navigating With You. The center is taken up with Neesha and Gabby who are sitting in beds of complimentary flowers with their heads lightly touching. On the far left is Noli who is looking at Neesha and on the right is Cary who is carrying a surfboard and looking at Gabby. divided up between Falia Hanakata on the art, Linden Cahill & Juancho! handling the colours and Carlos M. Mangual on lettering. The new style is certainly cuter and very correct for the comic. There are so many new characters in this volume and they all stood out brilliantly with very little page time.

It is good that the comic is as lush as it is because, sadly, the central pillar of Gabby and Neesha’s feels underutilised. It is not right to spoil this but anyone, familiar with romance comics, who looks at the cover can probably guess what the two central characters have to deal with. Which is a bit of a shame that a rather boilerplate romantic arc was used after such a unique volume one.

It thus makes it hard to recommend this new volume to its main audience: fans of volume one. Navigating With You, volume two is a tremendous peace of work and genuinely beautiful. I just wish it had a better idea of what to do with the core relationship we all bought it for. It is sad that we get so little time of Gabby and Neesha being a cute couple when we have this brand new art team who know exactly how to put their own spin on them.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 5
Characters – 10
Service – YMMV, but in my opinion 0
LGBTQ+ – 10

Overall – 8

Black Lily’s Tale

April 8th, 2026

The title screen of Black Lily's Tale. Two girls in the same blue Japanese sailor-style uniform, with red ties, A girl with collar-length blonde hair is behind a girl with pale long hair. They hold hands over the pale-haired girl's head and to the side.

by Ashley Payne, Okazu Staff Writer.

Stop me if you have heard this before: Hana Sasamori has been friends with Itsuki Oomiya all through high school. A few days before graduation they discover they like each other… NOT the end, as it turns out. Despite a slow start Black Lily’s Tale (available on Steam and Crunchyroll) actually takes some time to address modern issues queer youth have to face, albeit with a vague science-fiction blanket over it.

Black Lily’s Tale has perhaps one of the more roundabout introductions for a game of it’s type. We are introduced to everything with a whole lot of point and click examinations and learning how choices work. In Black Lily’s Tale you have to type in your own choices at the right time rather than wait for the game to give you several possible answers to change the story.

A screenshot of the game Black Lily's Tale with the three central characters Hana Sasamori, Itsuki Oomiya & Aoi Nishiki in contemporary coats over their school uniforms. Hana's line is "He said it was because we made a bulk purchase..."

That said after this brief introduction on how the game will be played, we then have a nearly two hour introduction to the characters and setting where none of that will be relevant. While the actual core characters of Hana, Itsuki and their mutual friend Aoi are all fun people to be with, most of the introduction is bogged down with a lot of sci-fi baggage to what otherwise is a very contemporary story. It doesn’t take long for the Doylist reason for this to become apparent it never stops being odd that of all the names, ‘biophone’ was the name the writers settled on for their smartphone analogues.

A screen shot of Black Lily's Tale with several paragraphs describing Hana Sasamori having to deal with compulsory heterosexuality at her school. Hana wears a grey knit cable sweater jacket over her school uniform and has long, pale hair with a flower on a braid on the left side of her face.

A screenshot of the game Black Lily's Tale with the three central characters Hana Sasamori, Itsuki Oomiya & Aoi Nishiki in dark blue Japanese sailor-syle school unforms with a red tie.. Hana's line is: "Ahaha! No one loves sharks quite like Aoi, huh?"

That said, the real reason for all this exhausting world building is so that they can take what would have otherwise been a ‘story A’ style game and actually address issues like compulsory heterosexuality and conversion therapy. It’s almost elegant until you realise that everything worth talking about in Black Lily’s Tale is happening today, right now. Children are being pressured by compulsory heterosexuality right now. Children are being forced through conversion therapy right now.

A screenshot of the game Black Lily's Tale with Hana Sasamori, who had long pale hair, with a flower on the brain on the left side of her face, confronting Natsu Kakizaki, who has short, boyish cut red hair. Hana is saying: "It doesn't matter if we're both girls! There's nothing wrong with loving someone!"

A chart of the language of flowers. Focusing on flowers beginning with 'A'. Hana is thinking: It'd be nice if the language of flowers gave us some kind of clue towards the answer Ai's looking for...

While Black Lily’s Tale has it’s heart in the right place I can’t help but feel all this was just so they could turn escaping from one of the more traumatic things queer youth suffer from into a game.

A screenshot of the game Black Lily's Tale with Hana Sasamori coming to realise that her feelings have been pathologised. Hana is thinking: Understanding of heterosexuality? Stunted?

Once everything became clear it was nice to see a yuri story in this high school environment that actively takes deliberate effort to explore what current day youth are experiencing. That said it is precisely because this game deals with something that so many queer people have experienced first hand I’d recommend Black Lily’s Tale with a content warning of what it deals with so people can be prepared.

Ratings:

Art – 3 (I don’t like live 2D sorry, everyone is always bouncing.)
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Service – 2
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7

Star Sword Nemesis

February 13th, 2026

by Ashley Payne, Okazu Staff Writer

Star Sword Nemesis, a new novella from Christine Love, wears its robot anime influences on its supremely fashionable sleeves. You might think that a novel where on the ninth page someone puts up a slide that consists solely of the sentence: “GIANT ROBOTS MAKE YOU STUPID.” would be more of a subversion but no, this story is doing what I have been asking for: make a robot story for the lesbians.

Our heroine Eris is struck with a profoundly relatable problem. Her instructor Halley is so cool and competent Eris’s crush on her is making it hard to focus on their lessons on wielding Star Sword Nemesis. Having a crush on Halley is a profoundly foolish idea, not just because Halley is Eris’ instructor, as Halley was an enemy combatant until a few months ago.

This results in the irresistible force of “I can fix her” meeting the immovable object of “This is the real world kid”. What is truly impressive is that it chooses very different points of tension than you might be expecting if you were familiar with kissing books. It has great fun indulging in the expected peaks of confession and heartbreak and then pushing past them with a refreshing resolution that spins the story forward. The momentum really shifts up at the halfway point, becoming almost impossible to put down.

While the core of the story is Eris rushing headlong into what appears to be obvious betrayal, it is entwined with some of the most impressive sci-fi world building I have had the pleasure to read in a while. We learn about the semi-untopian society of the Trans-Neptunians both directly, with Eris talking with her friends and in the moments when Eris and Halley miss-communicate. It really reminded me of the brief moments in an Ian M. Banks Culture novel. Only here the Trans-Neptunians are not an idealised, post scarcity society, but a small collective holding on to their ideals in the face of direct hostility from the Earth Sphere.

Star Sword Nemesis is only one hundred and fifty-eight pages but it is broken up with wonderful art from Max Schwartz, who illiterates key events light novel style. Only we get more art per page in Star Sword Nemesis in delightful colour too. Frankly, comparing Star Sword Nemesis to a fun light novel is the ideal comparison. It is short, straightforward, has a powerful sense of its world and characters and has a denouement better than most novels.

Ratings:

Art: 10
Story: 7
Characters: 8
Service: 10
Yuri: 10
LGBTQ+: 10

Overall: 9

I know for most of the people who read this blog Star Sword Nemesis is barely an afternoon’s reading and it is well worth one afternoon.

Yuri Visual Novel Demo Mini-reviews: Comet Angel and Distant Oceanic Getaway

September 8th, 2025

Staff writers Eleanor and Ashley take a look at the demos for two upcoming visual novels that are participating in the Fall in Love Fest on Steam.

Eleanor takes a look at Comet Angel, described by the developer as “A sci-fi yuri visual novel with puzzle elements that tells the story of two teenage girls going through an emotional journey of self-discovery after they make the world’s first alien encounter.” while Ashley takes a look at Distant Oceanic Gateway, described as “The cruise ship’s horns blast. You’re going to be spending the next 10 days aboard the Distant Oceanic Cruise, a luxury vacation for sapphics only! Play as Maeve (customizable name), a heartbroken soul determined to move on from a cheating ex. There are only seven other single sapphics on board— could one possibly be your soulmate? Only time will tell!”

Eleanor

Comet Angel is a childhood friends-to-lovers scifi story, which I enjoyed the demo of enough that I’m going to play the rest when it comes out.

The demo lets you play the first two chapters, and the puzzle element gives a little bit of interest to the standard visual novel gameplay. The voice acting is pleasant as well, as is the soundtrack. My one gripe is that the dialogue can be a bit corny in places, it feels like it was written by someone who’s just learned what a simile is and is now trying to cram them EVERYWHERE, but the story and the characters make up for it.

The teenage girls actually act like teenage girls, with all the overdramatic angst that brings and there’s definitely more to find out about all 3 of them, Faerie the alien included.

Recommended if you like a scifi story with a human touch.The Comet Angel demo is available on Steam or from developer Cross Couloir, and will be out in full on October 28.

Screenshot #1

Ashley

I would say that three games with the same setting makes a sub genre. Distant Oceanic Getaway is the third game that I have seen and the third game I have written about for Okazu that focuses on a lesbian’s fun adventures on a cruise ship. (Ashley has previously reviewed Ladykiller in a Bind and Sapphism Gensou for Okazu)

Distant Oceanic Getaway bucks tradition right away with a second person narration and for good reason. The main character Maeve is highly customisable. You can choose both a name and fully any pronoun you want for Maeve depending on what situation.

Not only that but Maeve also has six different personality variables that you can tweak at the start and across the game with your choices. Changing what decisions might be available to pick when the time comes.

But after playing the demo for Distant Oceanic Getaway I am not surprised that the developers, Red bean Taiyaki, are okay with tracking so many independent variables. Aside from Maeve’s own personal stats there are relationship values with all six heroines that are kindly visually noted when we make a decision. That’s something we all would expect from this game, but what really made me sit up are the traits you can give Maeve. By making relevant choices you can give Maeve really specific aspects that allow her to be as unique as the heroines you will be pursuing.

Said heroines are a delight however in the demo we only have three days to get to know everyone and things seem to be just starting. I will say that the sprites for everyone are fun for live 2D style sprites. They are not filled with unnecessary or frivolous movements that you might be expecting from sprites like these.

But with only three days it is hard to know what to make of all the heroines. But what is good is that following the sapphic cruse tradition you are mostly in full control of what scenes you see during the day and who you talk to. When you do talk to your chosen character even if you don’t have a big scene with them you have the time to try out all sorts of interactions branching into dating game territory as well.

Red bean Taiyaki has said they are aiming for ten days of events in the full version of Distant Oceanic Getaway. While that sounds like a delightful full vacation to take with such a wonderful cast with ten days of all these variables and stats, the programmer in me more wants to see how Red bean Taiyaki plans to organise everything so that the game can work.

Distant Oceanic Getaway demo is available on Steam or from developer Red bean Taiyaki with a 2025 projected date for the full VN.

Tied by your Red

August 15th, 2025

by Ashley P, Guest Reviewer

If there is one fabulous uniting factor for all fans of romance it is the fantasy of being swept away by a cold steely noble who eventually warms to your plucky sensible charms. We’re looking at a yuri visual novel Tied by your Red; but you can find this sort of setting everywhere.

Tied by your Red follows Erica (although sometimes it is Erika) who has been betrothed to the stoic Duke Louise. While Louise was thought by Erica to be a scary, cruel Duke who kills her brides without a second thought it turns out that in fact that Louise is just a slightly awkward romantic lead who is a perfect dashing partner to the more skittish Erica.

Other than our two romantic leads in Louise’s mansion there is only one other person staying with them, Maiden, who is the only member of domestic staff. Not only that but there are unusual rules about leaving the residence, and everyone must be in their own room before midnight. At midnight Erica is occasionally awakened by sounds of something outside her chamber door.

Putting all this together makes it very clear what kind of story we are getting and it is refreshing to see this genre in a visual novel. A visual novel with fantastic sprite direction. Characters pace around the screen and move and appear in ways that add to their character. The only downside is Erica’s actual sprites, she is never shown to be anything less than marginally terrified. Which makes sense for a majority of the game but once her and Louise’s relationship gets going and everything is revealed Erica still looks seconds from bolting from the room.

This becomes even more noticeable when you complete Erica’s story and have the ability to re-read the story from first Louise’s and then Maiden’s point of view. It is weird to see Louise’s internal narration talk so kindly about Erica but then her sprite looks close to tears. It makes Louise seem unusually detached from the women we are told she has fallen for.

The only downside is that there are some unusual word choices, line breaks and even untranslated lines in the English version. This is not really a deal-breaker for me but this is something anyone looking to buy this game should know. Examples below.

Tied by your Red is the fun pulpy romance that I can always have more of so I hope those few missing lines can be patched out because otherwise it is a quick fun time.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 7