Archive for the Series Category


Otherside Picnic, Volume 10

July 24th, 2026

In front of a door or gate of some kind, a woman with collar length dark hair is wrapped in a towel of sheet. A woman with long blonde hair has a towel on her head, as she looks up at the other woman. In front of them is is girl with very long, dark hair wearing a dark brown dress, holding a hose, as she stands in a puddle.Otherside Picnic, Volume 10 is, like Volume 9,  a volume primarily about communication. Like Volume 9 it feels more like a part of a whole than a whole in and of itself. 

Tsuji, DS Research’s resident “magician” (coughwitchcough), who continues to be written for me, personally, begins this novel with a theory. Not just any old theory but a brilliant if vaguely formed theory that the apparently random artifacts used by Satsuki Uruma against them are a kind of experiment. Or could be, although her motivation remains obscure. It is becoming clearer to me Satsuki was an amoral, manipulative reearcher who looked too closely into the palantir and was caught by it.  Tsuji identifies the mechanism for a new artifact and, with a simple grounding technique, brings everyone out of interstitial space. We have a counter, at last.

With this new knowledge, Sorawao and Toriko head into the Otherside once again. Even with their newfound identity and named relationship, Sorawo struggles with the idea of a relationship. And communicating about it. Worse, she now finds herself meeting and speaking with people outside their small circle, which compounds the problem for her. 

At this point, I would not at all be surprised if Sorawo was a child of the Otherside, but her continuing confusion about it, leads me to think it’s nothing as simple as that. Still it feels as if she and Toriko are a kind of “key” to the Otherside, opening up new pieces, taking it apart, bringing it back for analysis and re-entering once again. Archeologists of the Otherside, but with one foot (hand/eye) always there. It is, in that sense, a distorted mirror of normal university life. For most people they meet new folks, explore new interests, form relationships, move into another world as adults. Sorawo and Toriko are doing this…only the world they are moving inexorable towards is the Otherside. Kozakura’s new program which is generating ll permutations of ghost stories is fascinating and, based on our lived experience with AI, terrifying.

This was another short volume, and we’re clearly setting up for something big. Runa is free from her DS prison, Sorawo and Toriko are mapping the Otherside with near impunity (aside from the native(?) threats of the UBL). If you are a huge fan of the series, grab it right now, but for casual fans I actually suggest waiting until Volumes 9-whatever) are collected into an omnibus. This volume feels like something serialized that we now have to wait to find out what it all means. ^_^ 

I do love this series. It’s both so original and utterly, fascinatingly derivative of random urban legend and paranormal weirdness on the Internet, like a fanfic of elements from all over the place. I find this incredibly fun and shockingly personal as Sorawo litigates what it means to function in human society over and over at different levels as her life changes in complexity.  Together Toriko, Sorawao,  their charge Runa, and arguably Kozakura’s charge, Kasumi, all children of the Otherside are about to enter a new phase. The Fourth Kinds have taken their power back. 

I can’t wait to read what will happen.

Ratings: 

Art – 8 Shirakaba’s art is best when it leans into the shadows. 
Story – 7, we’re clearly setting up for something
Characters – 9
Service – I don’t think so? Am I just missing it? 
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

These short tastes are delectable, but I’m dying for a bigger chunk.

 





There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless…, Light Novel Volumes 5 & 6

July 13th, 2026

by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

The harem is assembled, Renako is officially dating both Mai and Ajisai, and Satsuki has also thrown her hat into the ring under the guise of “well if you’re already dating 2 people, why not add a third?” and Kaho is just sort of… there?
So begins Season 2 of the novel series “There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless…” the previous 4 volumes of which I’ve also reviewed here on Okazu. Like so many stories which continue after the main couple (or throuple in this case) gets together, these two volumes definitely suffer from the “what now?” problem. As cute as it is to read about happy people in love, stories without any conflict don’t tend to be very interesting.

2 girls, one with long blonde hair, the other with not quite as long light brown hair in school uniforms of white blouse and grey plaid, hugging each other and a small plushie of another girl.Volume 5 introduces a brand new rivalry with a group of 5 girls from Class B, who as far as I can remember have never even been mentioned in the previous 4 volumes. They stylise themselves as the 5-ddesses as opposed to our main characters the Quintet in Class A (for those who don’t speak Japanese, 5 is “go” so it should be read “go-ddesses”. I kept reading it as five-ddesses even after it was explained, but puns are hard to translate so…) Their leader is Takada Himiko and for reasons unbeknownst to the reader at this point, she’s declared a rivalry with the Quintet and challenges them in the upcoming inter class athletics competition. Most of the rest of this volume is dedicated to the training and competition, and I honestly found it so boring I don’t really have much to say about it.

It should hopefully be obvious at this point that I found volume 5 rather a slog to get through. It’s much thicker than any of the previous 4, and even the author in the afterword says it probably should have been split into two smaller volumes. I would agree, either that or cut a lot of it out, which they say was also an option but they couldn’t get rid of any of it. I personally disagree, and am of the opinion that there was a lot which could have been cut out. The whole book read to me like the author wasn’t expecting the series to continue past volume 4, and now suddenly had to come up with a new external complication to try and advance the plot and relationships. If we’d been introduced to this other group or at least Himiko right from the beginning, them challenging the Quintet wouldn’t now seem so sudden and out of place, especially as we later learn that Himiko was a model when she was a child and had lost out to Mai. It just seems odd that we are now several months into the school year and they’ve just appeared out of nowhere.

2 pink haired girls, one in the foreground one in the background, making a V with her fingers against her forehead, the one in the back looks put out.Volume 6 however was more enjoyable because unlike the 5-ddesses, we have encountered Renako’s younger sister Haruna since the beginning of the story. She’s always been the opposite of Renako; sporty, extroverted, popular and fashionable. She’s the one who helps Renako change her image for starting high school, and often seems more mature, despite being the younger sister. In volume 5 she does agree to help Renako practise basketball for the inter class competition, but in volume 6 she takes a larger role. She, much like Renako did in the past, decides to stop going to school one day and it’s up to Renako and the Quintet to try and figure out what’s going on between Haruna and her friends Minato and Seira. Because she’s actually been a part of the story right from the beginning, this arc is actually interesting enough that I do want to know why the sudden change in her behaviour and how this will force Renako to grow as an older sister and support her for a change. Another mystery character called Lucie randomly appears too, and it’s not until the very end of the volume that we are told she’s claiming to be Mai’s fiancee, which just feels like it was added in as a cliffhanger to end the volume on, rather than actually being an important part of the story. This volume is the first part of the Haruna story, which will conclude in volume 7, and Season 2 itself will conclude at the end of volume 8 according to the afterword of volume 7. Volume 9 doesn’t currently exist in Japan, there are 2 side story volumes which will be released in English later this year and summer next year according to Seven Seas’ website.

Overall, if you’re really desperate to see what happens beyond the anime, give this a go but I’m of the opinion you could comfortably skip volume 5 especially and not really miss much. I hope if this arc does get animated they cut out a lot of the padding, as there’s definitely some potential under the bloat. Either that or the editor does a better job for the next volumes.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 4
Characters – 4
Service – 8 The obligatory colour page bath illustration at the beginning of both volumes is a tradition at this point.
Yuri – 7

Overall – 5





Revolutionary Girl Utena Movie: The Adolescence of Utena Report

June 22nd, 2026

Title image for Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena, a brown-skinned woman with flowing dark hair in a flowing white dress floats diagonally upwards, a pale-skinned woman with flowing pink hair in a white school uniform jacket and shirts floats diagonally downward from the same center.

Yesterday was the big day!  Revolutionary Girl Utena Movie: The Adolescence of Utena was in North American theaters. Yes, the movie had gotten screenings at Film Festivals (sometimes accompanied by me doing an intro) and the Japan Society, and other orgs, but this was  a first – North America-wide screenings. 

So my wife and I and a friend, headed over to the mall at which I spent a lot of my youth and I went into the megaplex that the theater has become.  Our friend was going to be  a great test of what this movie looks like from the outside. She’s smart and well-read, curious and interested in ideas, so I expected her to be able to follow. 

We were disappointed that there wasn’t a movie poster for the movie. I was told that old movies don’t get posters, so boo. I would have loved to have one of those. 

Our theater never got the aspect ratio right, which meant that subtitles were cutoff on the bottom. It was just like  the old days, when they fucked up regularly. ^_^;

Yeah this image came out bad, oh well. But props for “Girls Like Girls” on the same screen. 

I have decided to take a page from K-pop fandom and show up to events with stuff to give away. In this case, I brought some of the By Your Side (still on sale thorugh June 30!) bookplates, with original art by Rica Takashima that are meant to be understood as Anthy and Utena’s hands reaching for one another. I also brought some Yuri Heart stickers and Okazu heart stickers based on the t-shirts designs. 

Giving folks stuff is a great way to make new friends. ^_^

Earlier that day, I had been chatting with RKasa on Bluesky, and learned about an amazing database of otaku goods and figures, and when we started to chat with the person sitting next to us, I was amazed to meet RKasa in person. ^_^ What a hoot, huh? We took a paired selfie of our Duelist rings. ^_^ 

Then I got to meet Mutti, who allowed me to take pictures of their awesome custom Anthy Funko and pins.

Muti holding a custom Funko to look like the Rose Bride from Revolutionary Girl Utena, with red dress and crown.Olive green canvas bag with pins and toy of Anthy and Akio from Revolutionary Girl Utena.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone in the theater was lovely. Thank you all for taking a moment to chat!

The movie is so great on a big screen. The school is vertiginous and surreal. The scenes that are always impactful are that much more so on a large scree. The dance on the dueling ground, the castle car…

As Utena says to Anthy, “Let’s go…to the outside world..” I turned to my friend and said, “Now it’s gonna get weird” and she laughed, “NOW?” Afterward, we listened to her ideas about what it all meant.

We had a great time seeing it in a theater. I hope you’ve all gotten your tickets and will tell us about your experience in the comments.





Bad Girl!, Volume 1

June 19th, 2026

A dark haired girl wearing a blazer and tie with her mouth open and a shocked expressionby Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

Your enjoyment of Nikumaru’s Bad Girl, Volume 1 will depend entirely on your tolerance of the combination of 4-koma manga and misunderstandings so obvious that they must be deliberate. Even now, Azumanga Daioh is still the master of the genre in my humble opinion, as well as being one of the first yuri-adjacent series I ever encountered, back in the early 2000s.

Bad Girl is the source material of the titular anime adaption, reviewed here on Okazu and available streaming on Hidive. Our protagonist Yuu Yuutani has a crush on the head of the school disciplinary committee, Atori Mizutori, who’s so popular she has her own fan club. Yuu therefore decides to become the titular “bad girl” to try and attract Atori’s attention. Unfortunately for her, she has good grades, perfect attendance and has never been in trouble ever and her idea of being bad is to write in the condensation on a window. Hijinks ensue.

This series is basically “Notice Me, Sempai” the manga. Yuu’s attempts to be bad are kind of adorable, like a little kid acting out to try and get the adults around them to pay attention to them. Like all 4-koma/gag series this is like popcorn, best consumed a few pages at a time, otherwise it gets tooth rottingly sweet and outstays its welcome very quickly. Don’t think too hard about it, otherwise it all falls apart. Just enjoy the silliness.

Ratings:

Art – It’s definitely cute. The colour pages at the beginning are nicely done.
Story – What story? It doesn’t need one though.
Characters – A lot of silliness
Service – n/a
Yuri – Mostly just an unrequited crush at this stage.

If you like your cute girls doing cute things with a yuri flavour you’ll probably enjoy this series. Volume 2 is scheduled to release in English later this summer, and the series is up to 5 volumes in Japan. I am curious as to how much story we’ll actually get out of this premise, so I will at least stick around for volume 2.





Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena in N. American Theaters June 21-22

May 29th, 2026

Title poster for Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena, a brown-skinned woman with flowing dark hair in a flowing white dress floats diagonally upwards, a pale-skinned woman with flowing pink hair in a white school uniform jacket and shirts floats diagonally downward from the same center.It is with joy that I heard that Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena is getting a theatrical release in the United States (and, apparently Canada!) Yesterday, GKIDS made their official announcement and I spent some hours tracking down every theater I could find that will be playing this movie, so before I rave about why you should go see it, here’s the most important information, about where and when.

 

Where To Watch Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena

The following movie chains are carrying the movie.  The chain in my town is running the movie in my old hometown, but not here, so check for the nearest location.

AMC Theaters

Cineplex

Regal Theaters

Cinemark Theaters

The GKIDS announcement only mentions AMC, so do take a look at local theater chains…and, if there is a chain that is showing it that I have not included, let me know in comments. You don’t have to mention that the chain theater near you has it, unless it’s a chain I don’t have here.

 

When To Watch Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena

June 21-22, 2026

These are the most common dates, but I have seen 21 and 23 for some theaters. Check your nearest theaters for time and dates. 

 

Why You Should Watch Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena

In 1990s, we had two anime series that were foundational for the growing Yuri fandom.  One of the directors for Sailor Moon was Ikuhara Kunihiko. Under his direction in the third and the beginning of the fifth seasons, we were introduced to Sailor Uranus/Tenoh Haruka and Sailor Neptune/Kaioh Michiru. This young lesbian couple changed the world, by making an anime one of the very first portrayals of a lesbian couple on Japanese TV.

Following that series, Ikuhara built a creative team, known as Be-Papas, and they created an anime and manga series, Shoujo Kakumei Utena (少女革命ウテナ) Revolutionary Girl Utena in English. (This link goes the category on Okazu, where you will see many, many posts about the series and its influence. One of those posts was included in my book: Retrospective of a Revolution – 20 Years of Shoujo Kakumei Utena.)

This movie is the one of four alternate versions of the Utena narrative. The TV animation is a 39-episode fantasy exploration of magical and school shoujo tropes, gender, abuse and redemption. It’s fantasy and funny as hell, with intense and fabulous background music.  At the moment it is out of print, but if you check your library system, you might find one of the many releases available. I know I donated at least one to my library. The manga from Viz Media, is another iteration of the narrative. It is much less queer.  The manga for the movie, the fourth iteration, is largely the major influence for me to discover the history of the references in the series, launching me on my trajectory of learning the artistic and literary history of Yuri.

And then there is the movie. This movie is visually one of the most astonishing experiences I have ever had. I first saw it on a shitty VHS copy from an illicit video rental place, then was able to see it on the big screen at the Japan Foundation in NYC.  It is my eternal pleasure to have introduced this film at the Frameline LGBTQ+ Film Festival in San Francisco. At that time I spoke to an audience of 1200 people (about 1000 of which had no idea what it was about)  at the Castro theater, with Ikuhara himself sitting in the front row. 

This movie is a magnificent work, often intentionally inexplicable, (sometimes unintentionally) with symbolism that may appear profound, and may not. The music is gorgeous and meaningful. The voice acting is memorable, even more so as  we have lost Kawakami Tomoko, Utena’s voice actress.

Please go and see this movie while you can…and if you find you cannot understand it, just let it wash over you, like the roses on the dueling ground. I promise it’ll be worth it.