Archive for the Miscellaneous Category


More Thankful Than Ever for Yuri in 2020

November 26th, 2020

It’s “Thanksgiving Day” here in the United States, a day rife with lies, colonization of the first people on this land, traffic, family trauma and now, a dose of COVID-19. It’s never been a favorite holiday of mine, but I wanted to take a moment and reflect on how immensely thankful I am right now.

First of all, I am most thankful to all of our Okazu patrons, and to thank them properly we’ll be hosting an online Holiday party once again!

This year, as travel and events were complicated by the pandemic, I’m extra-thankful for the manga companies who are bringing out more Yuri! I can no longer effectively keep up, which is a problem, but it’s an amazing problem to have. ^_^ As a result, I’m also super thankful for other folks in the manga news and analysis spaces, Yuri Mother, TomoChoco Podcast, Yuricast, and all the folks at ANN,  Crunchyroll News, Yuri Navi, our international friends, like the Yuri/GL Phillipines and all our global Yuri News Network Correspondents. I would not be able to function without you. The global Yuri Network grows every day and it’s an awe-inspiring thing. ^_^

I’m thankful to you, my Okazu readers and writers. I’m very thankful to everyone who has contributed to making Okazu a Yuri resource for almost 20 years. I’m especially thankful to Louise and Pattie, who have made it possible to do videos for Yuri Studio. I know I owe you a video. Which brings me to why you haven’t gotten one yet. ^_^

I’ve been working on cleaning up the office in my house. It fell out of use when we ceased to use desktop computers and became a giant closet. After having it painted and the floors refinished, we’re at the point of redecorating. I wanted to share a few pictures with you. This is still work in progress, as only the doujinshi are in there (and only in temporary situation), and all the books are yet to be dealt with and all the art is waiting to go up on the walls.

Before:

After:

Here is my small original art gallery to go up once the corner shelf is in place.

Today, as I sit, surrounded by a sea of Yuri manga that I will be sorting and re-arranging in order to find homes for all of it – and planning Lucky Boxes for all of the stuff that has been weeded from the boxes and cartons and closets – I am so very thankful for Yuri creators and and for the stories and characters that have given me a lifetime of joy.

I’m most thankful for my wife, Pattie, for everything. I could not do any of it without you.

Thank you all. I promise I’ll get working on that next video shortly! Happy Thanksgiving.





Yuri is My Job, Volume 6

November 9th, 2020

Depending on who you feel is the actual protagonist of the story – or whomever you are personally rooting for – Yuri is My Job, Volume 6 by Miman can be hard on the heart.

Let us say, for instance, that you feel Hime is the protagonist, as we’ve been following her since the first page of the series. In that case, Volume 6 is largely her struggling trying to not hurt her former best friend again, while also not hurting her newer best friend and preserving the even newer relationship she’s built with that former best friend.

If you’re rooting for Mitsuki, you’re about to watch her spill her heart and soul out in front of Hime without any guarantee of it being recoverable.

If you, like me, actually sympathize most with Sumika and Kanako, you’re going to be watching as things break and you cannot even help to catch the pieces this time.

It seems like something is going to have to give and Hime decides that that thing…is her. Or, is she just running away again? We don’t know yet. (Frankly, we *still* don’t know in the ongoing serialized chapters in Comic Yuri Hime, either. ^_^;)

Despite Miman’s protestations to the opposite in the author’s note, it seems like the story is very much under control. We, the readers can’t yet predict the outcome….but we can conjecture on the possible courses to lead to the outcomes we want, which is a wholly different thing.I know what I want – it isn’t Hime and Mitsuki as a couple. I expect that is what we’ll get, and that’s jut fine. But it’s not that I want.

Miman’s art is stronger than ever before, backgrounds are really being filled out and characters have more definition. So, when we get the next volume, pay close attention to the background people. They are getting people-ier. ^_^

When the Yuri in this volume lands, it lands hard. ^_^

Kodansha is doing  clean job of the reproduction. And we’re getting people to credit now for that work. Translation by Diana Taylor captures the emotion beautifully, Jennifer Skarupa’s lettering helps keep the story moving along. Logo design and cover design by Phil Balsman and My Truong respectively are terrific and editing by Haruko Hashimoto pulls it all together.

 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 4 Mitsuki’s cleavage is its own character
Yuri – 7

Overall – 8

Yuri is My Job, Volume 6 is a pivotal – and emotional – volume of a a series that is more than the sum of it’s Yuri trope parts.





Yuricon and Okazu Updates

November 8th, 2020

Although this has been a chaotic time, with pandemic and other uphrevals, we’ve accomplished a lot so far this year with your help. 

Take a look at the full list of what we’ve done, what we’re doing and what we plan on for next year – our 20th anniversary! – at Yuricon and here at Okazu.

https://www.yuricon.com/blog/2020/11/08/yuricon-okazu-updates/

 





My Darkest Secret, Revealed on Youtube for Okazu Patrons Only!

October 4th, 2020
Become a Patron and enter an exclusive world with me, to learn about the shockingly few things I have ever recommended without reservation here on Okazu!
I needed some video editing practice and this seemed like a great way to play around with the editing tool.Thanks to Okazu Patrons for making this possible! Become a patron today and help support our efforts in making entertaining and educational videos for Yuri Studio!

 
 




It’s Ooooohhhh~~~kazu on Twitter!

October 1st, 2020

Welcome to the official start of Ooooohhhh~~~kazu. Follow me on Twitter and every day I’ll be tweeting out a scary review from the last 20 years of reviews on Okazu through Halloween. (Or, at least that’s the plan. We’ll see how far I get. ^_^)

I’m starting with one of my all-time favorite “WTF did I just read?!?” creepy manga.