Archive for the LGBTQ Category


Tsukiatte Agetemo Ii Kana TV Drama, Episodes 1-3

October 2nd, 2026

Saeko, a girl with long dyed light brown hair that has exposed black roots, holds her arm in a playfully familiar fashion around the shoulders Miwa, who is sporting a black bob. Both girls are smilingby Matt Marcus, Staff Writer

Over a year after the end of the serialization of How Do We Relationship in Japan, I happened to stumble across a tweet for a casting call for a live action drama with a very familiar premise. A Girls Love story adapted from a popular manga series, set in a college, including members of a light music club. It was a no-brainer to me what series it was.

The Tsukiatte Agetemo ii Kana drama was announced in July, with J-Pop idol Riho Sayashi (originally a member of Morning Musume, more recently a solo artist) playing Saeko Sowatori and Sakurako Konishi (best known for her role in the crime thriller First Love) as Miwa Inazuki. I was equal parts delighted and trepidatious. How much of the story could they cover in one season? Would they be able to capture the essence of the characters? How would they depict The Content?

If you are unfamiliar with the story, the opening episode is a fairly accurate adaptation of the first three chapters of the manga. Miwa and Saeko, both first year college students, meet and join the light music club together. After a night out with their new club mates, Saeko admits to Miwa her interest in women and Miwa responds in kind. Saeko says they should take advantage of this rare opportunity of two lesbians organically finding each other and proposes that they date. Miwa reluctantly agrees, and the two awkwardly spend time together until they are caught kissing in the club room by their bandmate, Mikkun, and have to decide how to navigate being out (at least within the band).

I’ll admit that I have not watched too many live-action adaptations of manga or J-dramas in general, but the handful I’ve seen ranged from passably entertaining (the Death Note duology) to abysmally awkward (GAP the Series, sorry Frank). Sometimes the issue is that the source material reads very unnaturally when acted out with real people; often the issue is that the performances are rather middling. I find that in most cases these adaptations fail to match the impact of the source material, let alone elevate it.

I felt more optimistic when I read that the production was being handled by people who worked on Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko!, as that was one of the better of these adaptations that I’ve seen. So far, there are awkward moments and stiff performances, but I felt that it was at least intended to be so. Saeko and Miwa do not gel, and the one thing I would strongly credit the first episode for is making that awkwardness extremely palpable. 

That said, there are myriad concerns I have, the first and obvious one being the pacing. There are only 8 episodes of 23 minutes each. Of course episode 1 has a lot to establish, so there isn’t much you could reasonably cut, but knowing that the previews show scenes up through volume 6, there is a LOT of ground to cover. Tamifull-sensei mentioned on her Twitter that there are changes to the story, which leaves the door open for a very different (read: heavily truncated) path towards the ending.

The trimming down of the story has already become impactful in episode 3, which covers the summer club retreat arc. The arc is split between Saeko wrestling with jealousy and Miwa struggling to stand up for herself against pushy men who are either hitting on her or threatening to out her. The instigator of the latter scenario, Kan, has been completely cut, which robs Miwa of the opportunity to try, however feebly, to defend herself. This ends up doing a disservice to her, reducing her role in the arc as merely the object for Saeko’s jealousy. It’s focusing the story down to the most core part of the plot, which is understandable given the runtime, but I fear more key character development moments will be shaved down to focus narrowly on the will they/won’t they of the love story.

The other issue is that of, frankly, the sex. Sex and physical intimacy in general play major roles in plot, characterization, themes, you name it. I think if a lot of that content is cut or glossed over, it will rob the drama of one of the elements that made the manga so potent. At least as of this writing, the sex is…there, but it is just off screen. There have been a couple hints towards Saeko’s discomfort with being touched, but aside from that there has not been much “action” depicted, which unfortunately means one of the funniest page-turn surprises from volume 2 is completely absent. You know the one.

If you approach the drama with an open mind and try not to get hung up too much on adaptation changes (I’m trying, I swear), you will find that the show has done a solid job of bringing the manga to the small screen. And there are some fun production details, like how Miwa and Saeko’s guitars were the ones Tamifull bought as reference.

Having a pop idol as one of your lead actresses also has some benefits, like including live performances that feel actually performed live.

So, that leaves me with two questions: will the drama stay in tune, and will you tune in?

Overall – 7

The series is airing in Japan on several TV stations (MBS, TV Kanagawa, Chiba TV, TeleTama, Tochigi TV, Gunma Television) and online via TVer and FOD; it is also available overseas on GagaOoLaLa.

Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network. You can find him mostly reskeeting Yuri posts and sports takes on Bluesky @hyperartmarcussan.bsky.social





Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 6 (作りたい女と食べたい女)

September 18th, 2026

Four women stand around a tall, round table laughing and smiling. Three hold up chicken wings while the fourth takes a photo of them with her phone.In Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 6 (作りたい女と食べたい女), by Yuzaki Sakaome, the story shifts just a little bit. Up until now, it has been primarily about food (and, in Sena’s case, eating) with side quests into identity, consent, boundaries at work, in private and in public. Much as all of us in real life do, Nomoto and Kasuga have had to rethink and renegotiate with themselves who they say what to, and what the terms they might use are. 

Here in Volume 6, Nomoto comes out semi-publicly, online. I say “semi” because, while I 100% believe that parasocial relationship can be (or become) “real” relationships, and online friends are as real as school or work friends, there is still a gap between online life and in person life, for most people. If you come out online, people know that that nickname and avatar is out…but depending on how much you share online, there may not be a connection to the person who goes in to an office every day. I remember very clearly the day I began the Yuricon community, I discussed with my wife that I planned on being out from the beginning and, by association, she would be too.  We were out to our families and workplaces, so it was not much of a risk, but there is always a potential risk when people suddenly realize they were wrong about anything.

Nomoto comes out online and is met with both support and the incredible, yet predictable wave of “I only followed you for the food, wtf is this?” Dear friends, who the fuck care if you only followed for one reason or another? Fine, go away. Bye. /eyeroll/ Nomoto and Kasuga discuss the feelings this engenders, and Nomoto is convinced she did the right thing.

We then turn toward Nagumo, who has found a real friend and supporter in Yako. As Sena looks outside herself for the first time, she see that she is surrounded by women who are coming to know themselves better and she starts, maybe for the first time, to ask who, and what, she may be. Kaname patiently walks her through various ways of thinking about her gender and sexuality, until Sena discovers idea and words that work for her.

Finally, we turn towards Kasuga, who feel that she failed her own test on Valentine’s Day, when she was unable to admit that the chocolates were for her girlfriend. Of course Nomoto sympathized, but this is for her. Kasuga boldly goes into a florist, orders a simple flower and when asked if this is for a friend, takes the huge, terrifying step of saying “It’ for my girlfriend” out loud to someone. Of course we grin hugely and applaud!

Each one of our found family here is changing before our eyes. They are all growing out of the small selves they thought they needed to be, to embrace their truest selves. And, of course, they are eating delicious food while doing that!

Ratings:

Art – 7 There are moments that still feel rushed
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – YMMV, but in my opinion 0
LGBTQ+ – 10

Overall – 10

In a world that can feel dark if we let other people’s negativity drag us down, Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 6 is a reminder that we *can* and *should* make our own light.

Volume 6 is only recently out in Japan, there is no English edition release date yet, but I’ll put it on the Yuricon Store as soon as I see one. ^_^





Wandering Son: Volumes One & Two

August 23rd, 2026

Reading an older manga can be very edifying. Re-reading an older manga even moreso.

I have written at length in many places here on Okazu and elsewhere about my conflicting feelings about Shimura Takako’s work. But as I re–re-read Wandering Son, which I initially started in Japanese and of which I reviewed a number of volumes in English, before the series was discontinued. I was, and am convinced that bringing it out in hardcover was a terrific idea, but no grounded in good business sense.

Now Fantagraphics is taking a second stab at bringing out this series. With much more staid covers, these are two-volume omnibuses, something that helps the story flow a lot better. This will become important in later volumes, as the plot slows and change also slows.

But here in Wandering Son, Volume One and Two, we meet Shu, a trans kid who AMAB is very strongly contemplating the idea that they are a girl. We also meet Yoshino, AFAB, who wants to be a man. I say it that way, very carefully, because issues of gender and gender presentation in this book is complicated… and maybe not what you as a reader might be looking for.

In part, this is due to Shimura who, for many years has been writing queer stories. I don’t object to her doing so, but she has said that she is not herself queer. And to be clear I don’t mind that, either! If it’s working and people find joy in it, that’s great. I love her art, and I have enjoyed watching her story-telling grow and change. So what is my pain point? I am conflicted at Shimura mining queer trauma for content. It makes me feel… icky. In this older series, her story-telling is not so skilled and there will be pacing issues, but also some choices that will sit uncomfortably.

All this to say that, while I absolutely think Wandering Son is worth reading it, like Sweet Blue Flowers may not have aged well. The last twenty years we have seen tremendous change in the way we approach gender and sexuality. There is so much more nuance now, leading me to think that, if Yoshino and Shu had met genderfluid or nonbinary people as well as trans people, their choices might have been less along a binary and more somewhere in the middle. I know if someone had to me at 11 or 12 that non-binary was an option, I know I would have leapt for that.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 0

Overall – 8

Thanks so much to Fantagraphics for the review copy, and I really look forward to reading this series again!





With My Own Hand: The Secret Life of Marie Maitland

August 20th, 2026

by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer.

Erica is away, so the staff get to play and I’d like to introduce you all to the story of Marie Maitland, Scotland’s 16th century Sappho.

A woman in a 16th century dress holding a quill in one hand and a red notebook in the other

I first learned of Marie a few years ago when I discovered that the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh was displaying an imagined portrait of her, commisioned by historian and translator Ashley Douglas. Ashley discovered Marie’s lesbian love poetry hidden in the depths of a manuscript long attributed to her father, known as “The Maitland Quarto.” This manuscript is a collection of poetry published in the Scots language (N.B. Scots is a related but separate language from Scottish English, the dialect of English spoken here in Scotland. Both English and Scots are West Germanic languages, unlike Gaelic which is in a completely separate family and very different to both English and Scots. It’s most closely related to Irish and Manx, and then more distantly to Welsh, Cornish and Breton.) Scholars have debated over the years who actually authored the poems in the manuscript, with Marie generally considered to be the scribe for the majority of the manuscript. It wasn’t till much later that Marie’s potential authorship was examined, although one scholar who published many of the poems in 1786 suggested that Marie had at least some involvement in writing the poems, not just transcribing them. Naturally of course other male scholars disputed that a woman could possibly have actually written any of the poems.

Scotland in the 16th century was not a kind place for women of any social class. This is the time of the Protestant Reformation, spearheaded by John Knox, the author of the magnificently titled and utterly misogynistic, even for the era, screed “The First Blast of The Trumpet Against The Monstrous Regiment of Women.” If you were lucky enough to make it out of childhood alive, your best hope if you were middle to upper class was to be married off to a man who would treat you even a little kindly. After that, your job was to get pregnant and produce a male heir. This is the destiny which awaited Marie Maitland too, until fate intervened. The youngest of her sisters, she watched her sisters be married off one by one and no doubt had consigned herself to the same fate, until her father went blind and required a scribe. This afforded Marie a degree of independence and self sufficiency almost unheard of for women in this era, and allowed her to pen her remarkable poetry. Poem 49 in particular was almost certainly written by Marie, and reads as follows (Original Scots language followed by English translation):

And thoucht adversitie ws vex
Yit be our freindschip salbe sein
Thair is mair constancie in our sex
Than evir amang men hes bein

And though adversity us vex
Yet by our freindship shall be seen
There is more constancy in our sex
Than ever among men has been.

If that’s not written from a lesbian point of view, I don’t know what is.

A pair of hands holding a quill and a red book in front of a woman's chest. The woman is wearing a 16th century dress.

Fast forward to summer 2026, and Ashley’s book is finally available. It’s been one of my most anticipated books of the year and I’m delighted to say that it was as enjoyable as I hoped it would be. Ashley herself is a lesbian and in my opinion, the perfect person to bring this tale to a 21st century audience. Queer people and queer love have always existed, and Marie’s story is a remarkable one of resilience and trying to fit into a world which was not made for her in the slightest. Earlier in the 21st century, Scotland was the first country in the world to introduce an LGBT+ inclusive school curriculum, which includes Marie and other queer figures from Scotland’s history. Her life is an important part of our history, and I’m very pleased that I’m now able to share her story with Okazu readers all around the world. You can order your own copy of “With My Own Hand” from bookshop.org

The only known copy of the Maitland Quarto is in the Samuel Pepys collection at the University of Cambridge. I’d love to see it come home to Scotland one day.

Online sources:

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/features/marie-maitland-scotlands-16th-century-sappho

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Maitland





Manga Mavericks Licenses Queer Manga Classic Sword of Paros

July 3rd, 2026

Last night at Anime Expo, Manga Mavericks Book announced the license for Sword of Paros, written by Kaoru Kurimoto with art by Yumiko Igarashi! /flailing hands/

This is being sold as a complete series in a deluxe print hardcover volume, with the most gorgeous design, including sprayed edges featuring the Sword of Paros itself. Dan Luffey is translator, I am editing, Jeanthrix Andres is doing the lettering and Darren Vogt is the designer. When I tell you that this will be *amazing* I am not using hyperbole. 

Here is the official synopsis:

The legends that speak of the Sword of Paros say that it can bestow either prosperity or ruin on its kingdom…depending on the heart of its wielder.

The kingdom’s current princess, the beautiful yet resentful Elminia, laments being treated as a soulless tool simply for being born in a woman’s body.

Accompanied by Count Yulias, Elminia rides as far away from the kingdom’s politics as possible. One day, Elminia meets a beautiful young girl named Fiona, and their lives and the kingdom are changed forever.

My 2004 review of this series missed a key point: Elminia (I favored ‘r’ over ‘l’ in my initial review)  is a trans masc or nonbinary character. Despite being told they have “two hearts” like Sapphire, Elminia is clear about not belonging in a woman’s body. I interpreted this in 2004 as Elminia being a masculine lesbian (as I interpreted Elminia’s desires through a lens of my own.) This book was written in 1986, and so the issue of Elminia’s gender could be the topic of respectful discussion, as Kurimoto was drawing on the “Girl Prince” archetype and playing with the idea of expected gender role vs gender presentation/gender identity. In a world where women are tools and men are free, the options are clear.  In our world, there is more nuance. I look forward to your thoughts.

I’m delighted to introduce this amazing, emotional, action-packed and incredibly beautiful queer manga Sword of Paros to the world!  Pre-order it today on the Manga Mavericks Store!  Direct orders are only for North America and UK. If you live outside US/CA/UK, keep your eyes on your local Amazon or check with your usual bookstore when the book is released.