It has been my habit of the last few years to begin the year with an exceptional Yuri series. I immediately thought of Galette magazine, whose evolution I have been supporting since the first issue.
In 2017, in the years after the collapse of two Yuri manga magazines, several Yuri manga artists and writers built a new project – an independent, crowd-funded, quarterly Yuri manga magazine, which they named Galette.
As a publishing project, Galette has weathered a number of storms – more than one crowdfunding tool pulled out from underneath them because of credit card issues, a pandemic which impacted sales at events, and the usual kinds of obstacles magazines face of shifting readership and economic downturns. Galette has survived for seven years now and is still quarterly, which is pretty amazing for a magazine, for an independent project and for a crowdfunded work. The lineup has changed over the years, too, but the current roster includes some big Yuri names. Galette has even held a few events of its own and artists have partnered with ANCHOR rainbow port Tokyo for events at the world’s only Yuri cafe, as well. In recent issues, Galette has included its readership to provide short 140-character stories.
Last year the folks at Galette launched a Kickstarter for an English language edition. Of course I backed the project, as I have backed the Japanese edition since the beginning. I’ve reviewed Issues 1-26 here on Okazu so far, with No. 27 queued up for review soon.. Kickstartr rewards are shipping globally as we speak. Mine arrived in time to celebrate a new year and it looks even better than I expected! ^_^
My rewards package included the Galette Issue 01, an adapted edition for the English-reading audience, featuring work by Miyuki Yorita, Milk Morinaga, Haru Yatosaki, Nekohariko22, Ringo Hamano, and Izumi Kitta and Momono Moto. The cover art by pen – whose work has graced every cover since – is the same as the Japanese edition and the size is the typical B5 of a Japanese manga magazine, which provides a great reading size for the 242 surprisingly thick pages of this issue. This has always been a stylish magazine, with excellent design work by blankie and chipco design. I did not get the autograph level, but those folks who did got a page with the creators’ autographs. Because the kickstarter made it to the third stretch goal, our volumes include color pages from every creator and extra cover art by pen, as well as an under jacket color book cover by pen. pen’s cover art has been one of my favorite things about the magazine, so I’m delighted to get more. ^_^
My reward level also includes a “mini” version of the first issue of the magazine in Japanese, at about the size of a standard collected manga volume, B6 size. If you did not get this level of reward, you can still get Issue No. 1 as a digital release. This issue includes works by Amano Shuninta, Otomo Megane, Takemiya Jin, and Yotsuhara Furiko (and, as a result, you can kind of see how this magazine was a result of the demise of Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari and Tsubomi magazines.)
Also included in this reward level is a “Galette Special Booklet” which is doujinshi sized at B5, featuring a very prismatic cover of art by Milk Morinaga, with more stories by Nekohariko22, Mera Hakamada, Mono Momoto, Haru Yatosaki, Miyuki Yorita and Ringo Hamano. Like the Galette Meets supplements, these are a bit more adult than the main magazine. I also received an adorable little set of art cards from these artists. The production team went with Red Strings Manga for translation, after a number of backers recommended them. They have worked with other Yuri manga kickstarters and shown themselves to be very solid in their grasp of spoken English and character voice.
So, as backers, we have received the same stylish magazine we know and love from Japan, with contributions from Yuri manga artists we know and love, and an excellent translation, for an authentic reading experience.
As a perfect example of perseverance of the Yuri genre, Galette Magazine 01, Special English Edition is everything I hoped it would be – with extras!
Ratings:
Overall – 10
The Kickstarter for the second volume of Galette magazine in English has launched, so you too can be part of this project to bring independent Yuri manga to English-language bookshelves.
And….I was wrong. ^_^ Galette No. 28 was not the end of Hakamada Mera’s “Aikata System,” just of Kairo and Abiko-sempai’s story. In Galette No. 29 (ガレット) The next chapter takes the same seven years later to bring Nao and Ibuki-sempai back together. Nao is a beloved gym teacher at their old school, but when they sit down to talk, they’ve both left behind so much of what made them them in their school days, it feels like a goodbye at a reunion and not much more.
