Archive for the Guest Review Category


No Love 1/2

April 1st, 2026

In a noir palette of dark, muted colors, a woman wearing a dark suit with a blunt collar cut dark hair leans in towards the chest of a dark-haired woman in a sleeveless dark blouse.by Burkely Hermann, Guest Reviewer

Since its release in late January, tens of thousands of people have watched the first episode of No Love 1/2 on Internet Archive and on YouTube where it is age restricted because it “may be inappropriate for some users.” No Love 1/2 is created by Anne Yue (also known as Atelier), with help from producer Matthew Nguyen, and crew members working on 3D animation, sound design, casting, and voice direction. In a YouTube comment, Atelier stated that due to disappointment over rarely animating women or working on any girls’ love projects as a professional gaming industry animator, she worked for nine months to complete episode one. She promised at least two more episodes and hoped the episode would inspire others.

No Love 1/2 is more than a “cocktail mix of yuri with neo-noir and girls-with-guns.” Although those elements are prominent in the only episode presently released, which is 20 minutes long, there is more going on.

The episode begins with Hannah (voiced by Hanako Watanabe) meeting Melissa “Mel”/”Lisa” (voiced by Tasch Ritter). Mel worries about the planned heist while blowing smoke at Hannah even though she says her girlfriend, Annabel, “hates” that smell. It quickly goes wrong. Mel is hanging out at her bar when Nicky (voiced by Amanda Hufford) beats her up. She tells Mel she needs to give her the amount that the platinum bars, which she stole, are worth. She gives Mel three days to get “her” money back. Some time later, Mel busts into Hannah’s office, confronting Hannah when she’s about to make sweet love to Annabel (voiced by Madeline Dorroh). Surprised to see this in front of her, she says they need to talk.

She threatens her with her gun, believing that Hannah sold her out. However, Hannah is a skilled one-armed fighter and she easily disarms Mel. Hannah learns about a woman she detests: Nicky. Mel says she throws “one hell of a haymaker,” referring to a powerful, wide-swinging punch “designed to deliver a heavy blow” to any opponent. It turns out that Nicky, a mid-level mob boss in the criminal organization, is working for a crony, Holland (voiced by Maia Harlap). The latter threatens her, demanding money equivalent to ten kilos of “her platinum” and claims that Nicky will be targeted after she gets the money.

The next day, Hannah admits to her girlfriend that she is responsible for Mel getting into this mess. Later, her boss, a Black woman named Velda (voiced by Maganda Marie), who saved her in the past, coldly implies that Mel’s death is an “acceptable loss.” Hannah worries that Mel might compromise them. Her boss tells her she is getting “soft.” In a poignant scene, Mel challenges Hannah, saying she is only worried if she will rat her out and not about if she lives or dies. They have a nice heart-to-heart afterward. All this makes the series stronger than Metallic Rouge, which also features girls with guns, but has an infuriating storyline.

The episode’s final part has a gun fight between herself, Hannah, and Nicky’s goons, mostly involving handguns, with Hannah expertly using a sniper rifle. Hannah and Mel escape while Nicky is terrified to learn about Hannah. Velda is disappointed. She says that because Hannah got too “sentimental,” they couldn’t off Nicky. This sets the stage for future episodes.

No Love 1/2 was animated with Blender/Goo Engine. The resulting smooth 3D animation used various sources for modelling and animation, without using any machine learning/A.I. tools/algorithms. The neo-noir style, with music by Damien Osborne and lo sé, reminded me of yurish anime centering on girls with guns like the ever-popular Lycoris Recoil and three classic Bee Train series: Noir, El Cazador de la Bruja, and Madlax. Even though I thought immediately of early seasons of RWBY, that series did not use Blender. Seasons 1-3 used Poser and Autodesk Maya. Blender was prominently used in films like Flow, I Lost My Body, and Next Gen.

The voice cast of No Love 1/2 includes VTubers/streamers, game developers, vocalists, and singers, and those who are LGBTQ+, neurodivergent, Cantonese, and bilingual. Some voice cast lent their voices to characters in indie animated series (The Amazing Digital Circus and Monkey Wrench) and assorted anime (Wadance, Yakuza Fiancé, and Reborn as a Vending Machine). Furthermore, Nguyen, producer of No Love 1/2, is Vietnamese-American. He previously created an arcade flight action video game, Project Wingman.

The relationship between Hannah and Annabel is a major part of No Love 1/2. Hannah demands that Mel leave while touching Annabel’s breast, and asking if Mel if they can talk later. This is shown openly and unabashedly. When Mel enters Hannah’s office, she is taken aback at her boss’s boldness but does not object to the fact that Hannah is in a romantic relationship with a woman. Later in the episode, Annabel and Hannah lie the same bed together.

In another scene, Hannah’s shirt is unbuttoned and Annabel’s neck has hickeys, implying they had sex the previous night. The romance between these two characters is healthy, rather than toxic or abusive. In addition, Annabel and Hannah softly look into each other’s eyes and, at certain points, it is almost like they are staring at the viewer.

When Hannah and Velda talk at an arcade, Annabel is happily playing a claw game. Velda doesn’t mind her being there. Again, in the world of No Love 1/2, characters don’t even bat an eye at lesbian relationships. Lastly, Hannah shows she is considerate by not smoking around her girlfriend because she dislikes the smell.

Ratings: 
Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 4 or 5 (There’s some partial nudity, implied sex, and an almost-sex scene)
Yuri – 5 or 6 (at the very least)
Music – 9

Overall- 9

Burkely Hermann is a writer, researcher, and former metadata librarian. His reviews can be read on Pop Culture Maniacs or his personal WordPress blog. He can be followed on Instagram, Bluesky, or on Mastadon communities such as library.love, glammr.us, genealysis.social, and historians.social.





Reverse 4 You, streaming on Netflix

March 25th, 2026

On a pink and blue background with a gold clockface design, two women in casual clothes sit not quite back to back. by Eric Potter, Guest Reviewer

In Reverse 4 You, 19-year-old Jattawa, or Wa for short, is studying to be a lawyer and working odd delivery jobs while living alone with her 15-year-old sister, Vivi. Rather than just being normal sisters supporting and looking out for each other, they also happen to have special powers. Wa can freeze time or even reverse it by as much as 10 minutes, which she often utilizes whenever an accident occurs or she made a mistake—but only once per day, and cannot use it to fix something major right after using it for something that was comparably minor. Vivi can see out-of-the-blue visions at out-of-the-blue times of the future, albeit mostly of Wa’s future—but has no personal control over the visions, with some being more vague than others. And she can never see her own future. This still comes in handy in its own way when it comes to knowing exactly when Wa will be home at the front door and what food she is bringing over.

Then one fateful day, Vivi declares to Wa that the Wa was going to meet her soulmate at the university. While Vivi only made out a silhouette of the mystery person, she otherwise relays a precise scenario that will take place so Wa could identify him. Both naturally assume they are talking about a guy at the start. Meanwhile, Wa misses a food delivery deadline by a couple minutes, and the receiving client—a delinquent-seeming, tough-talking no-nonsense type girl—rubs in her failure with zero empathy. Wa later finds out that this same girl, named Four, is known across campus for having an attitude and engaging in fights. And just when it started seeming to Wa that Vivi may have been wrong (despite it being established that she historically never is), all the pieces of her vision come together to the point where Wa finally realizes the only person it could be is, you’ve guessed it, Four.

Once revealed that the soulmate in question is another woman, both sisters interestingly skip past the usual routine of denial before coming around to the idea, and instead readily accept it and adjust their thinking accordingly. Vivi was driven to pair her sister with her destined boyfriend, but just as easily shifts her drive to pairing her with her destined girlfriend instead. And for Wa’s part, she is more awkward with Four being her soulmate given the non-best first impressions the two started with. But after Wa reverses time to save Four from an accident, they begin growing closer from that point forward. Four softens up, and Wa finds out how misunderstood Four is and that she is someone who just does not take crap from anyone, for herself as well as the people she cares about.

Much of the series just centers around Wa and Four’s relationship, with all the traditional high points, conflicts and your standard soapiness. Because Wa uses her power more sparingly by this point, it was almost easy to forget the story’s sci-fi angle, at least until it comes into major play in the third act. One of the real highlights of this series is Vivi herself, in which it simply cannot be denied what an adorable delight she is, which actress Natnicha Polsombat plays with such genuine naturalness. It succeeds in making viewers feel what they should once the story takes a dark turn toward the end, and Wa is forced to make a choice that will unearth eye-opening revelations that shed a whole new light on everything, and answer the riddle of whether or not love is a strong enough force to conquer fate.

There are really just two issues I have with this series, one far more major than the other. Starting with the bigger one, midway through Four drinks herself stupid due to a misunderstanding with Wa (of course), and Wa tries guiding her safely inside, and then Four engages getting intimate with Wa on the spot. To which Wa ultimately goes along with. All the way. I swear I remember a similar scene like this having happened in The Loyal Pin, and it makes me wonder a little—does Thailand have different standards on what constitutes a consensual state of mind, or is this considered “passable” due to it being a same-sex relationship and the assumption that viewers would give no thought to it? Either way, there was nothing “comfortable” about watching what was trying to pass off as a sweet moment, and it took me a while afterwards to get behind this series again as the story got back on track.

The more minor issue was the ending—not before the credits, where we receive a genuine payoff of a conclusion, but midway through said credits when we get a scene of an extra bit of character interaction (not between Wa and Four) that cemented bitterness. If that was supposed to be the final ending, it felt like capping the series off with an odd note from nowhere, which made me wonder if this was supposed to leave open for a season 2 that I find no information on.

Those problems aside, the eight-episode Reverse 4 You really turned out to be a pleasant surprise that made clever use of its sci-fi gimmicks in an otherwise traditional GL story that turned out more elaborate than one would have predicted. This was my first Thai live-action Yuri that did not star Freenbecky, and it really felt like a lucky find by chance on Netflix.

Ratings: 

Story—8 (would have been a 9 if not for that problematic middle, and your mileage may vary with the usual soapy drama)
Characters—9 (all the characters have their charm, but the score’s mostly for Vivi!
Service—2
Yuri—10

Overall—8 (same reason as the story grade)





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.

 




Cosmic Princess Kaguya!, Streaming on Netflix

March 4th, 2026

A girl in purple, wearing a keyboard guitar and a girl in pinks dance on a stage in a vaguely classical Japanese virtual world.Guest Review by Ambi Reine

If you found out that your life was based on a fairy tale, would you fight for a happily ever after?

From Studio Colorido and Studio Chromato comes Cosmic Princess Kaguya!, a retelling of the classic Japanese story The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter but with a near-future sci-fi twist.

The tale focuses on three main girls. The first, Iroha Sakayori, is an overworked high school student who is trying her best to make her own way in life, but doesn’t necessarily want more than she has. Second is Kaguya, an energetic girl who appeared as a baby inside a utility pole and claims to have run away from the moon. Ultimately she turns to being a content creator in the hopes of performing with Iroha alongside the virtual livestreamer Yachiyo. Third is Yachiyo Runami, who Iroha is a big fan of. At seemingly every opportunity, Iroha is either watching a Yachiyo video or listening to one of her songs. She even has a shrine to Yachiyo by her desk and is brought to tears by her songs. But it is made fairly apparent that Yachiyo seems to know more than she is letting on.

While Iroha initially names her Kaguya after the fairytale, it turns out that life really does imitate art in their case. From accidentally causing a myriad of people to want her hand in marriage, to the Lunarians wanting to retrieve Kaguya, the story’s events begin to play out in real time. But Kaguya wants only one thing: a new, happy ending and to spend more time with Iroha. And as Iroha grows closer to Kaguya, she begins to want to change the ending of the story as well.

Though she is annoyed with Kaguya’s antics initially, Iroha still finds herself doing things she thought would be out of character. And yet she still tries to convince herself that she would be fine with things going back to normal. It is only when it is seemingly too late that Iroha is able to fully step out of her comfort zone and confront the things that were holding her back.

Although some might find their relationship offputting since Kaguya is initially found as a baby, she grows up to be a similar age to Iroha within just a few days and we later discover that her infant state was just a physical body created by her ship. She’s even revealed to have held a job on the moon that she had ditched to come to Earth.

Visually the film is stunning. It uses a good mix of 2D and 3D visual effects to make the virtual world, Tsukuyomi, feel different to the real world. From the water made out of cubes to the flickering low polygon fire on the torches, the virtual world is full of charm. The game they play within Tsukuyomi called Kassan is a prime example of this, taking advantage of the game setting to craft expansive 3D environments. When it comes to the concerts, they go all out with visually impressive light shows and choreography. That isn’t to say that the real world in the film is uninteresting to watch. I especially enjoyed the use of exaggerated smear frames when Kaguya was doing pretty much anything.

The soundtrack is a mix of new songs and remixes by various vocaloid artists. The film’s main song, Ex-Otogibanashi, has been stuck in my head since I watched it the first time. As an added treat, the English dub track has English covers of all of the featured songs save for the ending credits. I always find it a bit jarring when English dubs of music shows suddenly switch back to Japanese for the songs, so it is quite nice to not have that immersion broken in this film.

The film is available as a Netflix exclusive worldwide. And as of the time of writing this, you still have a chance to see a “live” performance by Kaguya in VRChat as part of the 2026 Sanrio Festival. As well, there is a music video for the song Ray on the movie’s official Youtube channel, that also functions as a bit of an epilogue for the story. Unfortunately at the time of writing it is currently only available in Japanese with no option for English Subtitles.

I recommend watching the film as spoiler-free as possible for your first watch through, and as such have kept the spoilers to a minimum in this review. Later revelations help to recontextualize the dynamic between Kaguya, Iroha, and Sachiyo that make rewatching the film a delight.

The only real complaint I have is that the montages rush through a lot of character development. There is probably comfortably enough story here to fill out a full cour of episodes just by extending those montages. Still, the film knows the tale that it wants to tell, so those parts inevitably fell by the wayside. It also took me a few watches to fully understand how Kassan is played, but I think that someone more familiar with that type of game may have an easier time understanding it.

The film serves as an inspirational tale about overcoming destiny to be together with the one you love. It is also a love letter to Vocaloid and VTuber fans and communities who will have a lot to like with the film. It’s even inspired me to dust off my VR Headset to explore those virtual worlds once again.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 6 A lot of Iroha’s development is unfortunately only told through the montages, and characters other than her, Kaguya, and Yachiyo do not get much focus.
Music – 9
Service – 3 While there are Beach and Onsen scenes, the outfits are not too revealing.
Yuri – 8

Overall – 9





My Beloved Zako Streamer

February 18th, 2026
Two young women wearing different Japanese school uniforms, look into a cell phoneby Burkely Hermann, Guest Reviewer
Is the internet “forever”? A recent indie anime plays with that concept, following the story of a livestreamer and her best friend, who get romantically close to one another, and kiss twice on the livestream channel. The Japanese title for the series is Itoshi no Zako Haishinsha-chan 「愛しのザコ配信者ちゃん」streaming on YouTube. That title has many different translations into English, including My Beloved Underdog Streamer Girl, My Beloved Weak Streamer, My Beloved Low-Tier Streamer Girl (from the site of voice actor Mochimiyu), My Beloved Zako Deliverer (Melon Books and Niconi Commons), My Beloved Zako Streamer (Suruga-ya), My Beloved Zako Streamer-chan, or My beloved girlfriend is an unpopular youtuber (used in official subtitles).
This series director, Naoya Ishikawa, is well-known for his short series, Kuttsukiboshi. Five episodes and four promotional videos for Zako are available to watch on the company’s YouTube channel and there have been screenings in Tokyo. Firstly, this series shows the strength of indie anime, for which there are very few examples.  The series has official English subtitles, so users do not need to use the “auto-translate” feature. 
The reality of COVID-19, and importance of stopping viruses, is clear from the get-go. I liked that it showed, in a respectful way, characters wearing masks. In the first episode, some characters even compliment each other on their masks. This is something I have not seen in any animated clips or series, even though the COVID-19 pandemic began in December 2019. Many people sadly act like the pandemic is “over,” thinking they can go back to their “normal” behaviors. Others won’t even depict it at all. Beloved Zako Streamer reminds people that the virus is here to stay and that you can, and should, take precautions. 
The series contains some commentary on YouTubers / livestreamers. Mamiko (voiced by Koyori Nohana) is a very unsuccessful streamer. However, the person who inspired her to become a streamer is Mikittan (voiced by Popura Sawano), a young woman who lives in a messy, dirty, and disorganized apartment. She might be a hoarder. She claims she knows where everything is and gets lots of comments on her stream. In the fourth episode, Shii (voiced by Yui Otogura) is completely overwhelmed by the deluge of comments that Mamiko gets on her channel and wants them to stop. It reminds me of a recent episode of Oshi no Ko, where an adult-oriented cosplayer criticizes a series online, almost bringing it down.
The first episode begins with Shii dreaming that she is in a compromising position with her childhood friend Mamiko, then kissing her. As she wakes up for school, she realizes she had a wet dream. Later that day, she thinks that Mamiko doesn’t realize she is in love with her. She is caught off guard when Mamiko declares that she wants to do a livestream with her, making her believe that her dream will come true after all. This somewhat implies that Mamiko has feelings for her as well. It takes until the second episode of this ongoing series for things to heat up. Mamiko and Shii sit naked in the same bathroom, and then the same bathtub. Somehow, Shii still believes that she could never have a sexual relationship with Mamiko.

Using a camera she borrowed from Ita, their school friend, Shii and Mamiko begin their livestream. Ita (voiced by Nadeshiko Komae) and Miseri (voiced by mochimiyu), are hinted as having feelings for each other. In one episode, one of them tickles the other with her feet. They are among the stream’s six viewers. In the third episode, everything goes off the rails. Shii pulls Mamiko to the floor. They lie together before Shii pulls Mamiko into the exact position she had dreamed about. She asks Mamiko if she would save her from a train, or five of her favorite YouTubers, in a classic description of the trolley problem. Consent should have been emphasized better. The consent should not have been dubious. Even so, when compared to other anime, including some yuri works, perhaps Beloved Zako Streamer is better.

Only seconds later, she kisses Shii. Mamiko encourages Shii to take the next step. As the calm music plays, they kiss one another again. Their kisses gain them lots of viewers. They are unaware their stream is ongoing. In the following episode, Miseri and Ita continue watching. One of them snaps a photo of Mamiko and Shii’s kiss. Eventually they get in contact with Mamiko and Shii, before they do anything racy and get banned. Both finally learn they were livestreaming this entire time!
In the last-available episode of Beloved Zako Streamer, Shii desperately tries to reverse everything by going back in time thirty minutes. She thinks that the fairy of time, Tokkie, will help her go back to when she pushed down Mamiko. Tokkie warns her that if she does so, her special relationship with Mamiko will be reset. She promises to confess to Mamiko in a better way. She soon awakens and realizes that meeting Tokkie was her imagination.
Apart from secondary coupling-of-sorts, Ita and Miseri, who spend time close to one another, in the last-available episode, Shii’s false assumptions are blasted apart. She truly thinks that no one really watched the stream. When she returns home, her aunt reveals to her what she feared: she has become a celebrity-of-sorts. Someone snapped a photo of her kissing Mamiko, effectively publicly outing her. As she scrolls through the social media feed, she is horrified. She is worried that her “normal” high school life is over, meaning that she can’t be with Mamiko in the way she originally envisioned.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 3 or 4 (there’s some nudity but it is covered up by lens flares)
Yuri – 6 or 7
Music – 8

Overall – 8

Hopefully more episodes air this year, continuing my list of series that are yuriish. A preview at the end of the most recent episode hints that Shii and Miseri will begin their relationship for real. It seems that Beloved Zako Streamer will depict a growing, healthy relationship by two people under a lot of pressure as sort-of online celebrities.

Burkely Hermann is a writer, researcher, and former metadata librarian. His reviews can be read on Pop Culture Maniacs or his personal WordPress blog. He can be followed on Instagram, Bluesky, or on Mastadon communities such as library.love, glammr.us, genealysis.social, and historians.social.