Archive for the Series Category


Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 5

August 10th, 2026

Two women stand close to each other in an intimate way, both facing the camera. The one on the left has long hair, the one on the right has short hair.

by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer.

This review WILL contain spoilers.

It’s taken 5 volumes of Pink Candy Kiss, but we finally got the confession. It’s mutual, it’s as messy as everything which has come before and it’s all the better for it. The author says in the afterword “If it feels rough and ugly to you, then as the author, I’m pleased.” This is what I like so much about this series, it does feel rough and ugly sometimes, but it feels real because of that.

I worried in my review of volume 4 also here on Okazu that there was only so long the story could go without a confession, so I’m glad it’s finally happened. It happens at the end of the book and the rest of the volume leading up to it is mostly Ema and Takara talking to other people about their situation and feelings for each other. There are some other important moments though, like when Ema finally tells her mother she doesn’t want her in her life any more, which really shows how much she’s grown.

Hario comes to Takara’s office and they end up going for lunch together, when he voices his unease about Ema to her. We learn a little more about how he and Ema ended up getting together, and how he feels now. Whilst he is grateful for her new found confidence since Takara came back into her life, he also feels uneasy but can’t think why. He’s probably too naive to think his wife is in love with another (wo)man, but it’s going to have to come out eventually.

Pink Candy Kiss continues to be one of my favourite ongoing series. I will, of course, be picking up the next volume to find out what the fallout  is, but at this point, I have to wonder if anyone is going to get a happy ending.

Ratings: 

Art – 7. It’s still a shame there aren’t colour pages with the chapter art on.
Story – 7. Not a lot happened but at the same time an awful lot happened
Characters – 10 
Service – None. It still doesn’t need it. 
Yuri – 10

Overall – 8





Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Gun Blaze Vengeance, Episodes 1-4

July 30th, 2026

In a ruined landscape in front of a city, Fate and Nanoha stand in their barrier jackets, holding their sentient weapons, while a girl burns brightly behind them.It has been a long while since I reviewed a Nanoha franchise entry. In fact, it’s been more than 10 years! And truthfully, I love The Nanoha franchise very much for what I would like it to be, far more than for what it is. 

But here we are again, 22 years after my first post about Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, with a new entry and I once again both really like it and don’t in nearly equal portion. This time for exciting new reasons! Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Gun Blaze Vengeance, is streaming now on Crunchyroll and I had a chance to watch the first four episodes.

Let’s get the negatives done first, so we can focus on the positives. The story is…generic. It’s true that the fighting in earlier Nanoha entries were hardly works of literature, but ends of the world, and eternity-eating books are abstract enough that we don’t have to sit through grimdark blood and guts. In this new world, mutating gross monsters are the foe and there is a lot of blood and guts.

The other negative is the same as the original series in that the trauma, loneliness and misery of young girls is mined for entertainment. And in this, the misery has notched up. We’re not just watching them be emotionally and psychologically manipulated, but physically hurt as well.  We understand that this is to increase our empathy for the young women in question…but, eww. It’s just a nasty habit of anime’s that children’s suffering is regularly turned into motivation for revenge, i.e., everyone is fridged, all the time. 

So, Episode 1, a double-length episode, introduces us to Kuze Shiina and her sister Setsuna, an abandoned girl she took in. They live on a remote island. The entire world has been infested by ravenous monsters called Majin, cleverly translated here as Diaboli. Shiina is a very talented hunter, since the government and experts have abandoned them. Within seconds it becomes apparent that her and Setsuna’s happy life is not going to last, and so, we are treated to our first two of many tragic stories. But things are not what they seem and Shiina will lose something and gain it again all at once.

Shiina leaves the island and comes to the city, where we see an adult Yagate Hayate is in charge of the fight against the Diaboli. But it is 13-year old Takamachi Nanoha that saves Shiina, and asks her to be part of the new task force. C.P.. being abandoned by the government, Shiina refuses, but eventually becomes part of the EXCCEDS taskforce.

As of Episode 4, the typical nude transformation scenes have been left behind. In my book, that is a huge plus. Those made it hard to recommend Nanoha, because they wee so obviously pro-creeper.

And while we have not yet seen them except as a still, Hayate’s Knights got a mention. I cheered when Raising Heart and Bardiche had lines. Bardiche is my favorite character. I even have a lovely metal keychain replica of him. This is an approximately accurate size picture of it. This is the kind of shit I pick up when I’m in Japan, get home and think…okay, what am I gonna do with that?

Now that the story is lined up, the next few episodes proceed to introduce our frenemy squad. These are girls who have been abused and suffered and are doing good work fighting assassinating the people who profit off the Diaboli, but of course will be our enemies and then, ultimately part of the Nanoha extended family.

Immediately, Shiina meets Towa, and they become friends right away. They will be the Nanoha and Fate of this series. Towa’s mission is good, the way she and her friends go about is understandable…but we all know that they are going to be “befriended.” before the end.

And in this, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Gun Blaze Vengeance hits the sweet spot for me, even though the monsters and the people who profit off them are the most generic, unmagical, overdone plot ever. Because Nanoha is not about the fights, those some of those have been excellent. Nanoha is about family.  I talk about this in a 2012 essay The Concept of Family in the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha-verse, this idea of bringing people into one’s family, giving love and affection to the outcast and unwanted, is one of the key features that makes the Nanoha francise appealing, even despite a legacy of sexualization of young women. This progression of friend to enemy to family is a repeated theme in this series.  By the end of Episode 4, it is clear where we will find our newest family members.

For Yuri fans, since we’ve returned Nanoha and Fate to their tween years, they are once again in the time just after A‘s. We know this, because in this iteration, Fate introduces herself as Fate Testarrossa Harlaown. Fate, to our eyes, has more of an interest in Nanoha, and blushes when she is in proximity to the other girl, while Nanoha proudly declares Fate her “best friend.” Again, undoubtedly, we’ll see emotional intimacy, tears and reconciliation between Shiina and Towa, as we did with Nanoha and Fate.

To be very honest, I felt Episode 1 did not do the series justice at all. The banality of the “invasion of the mutating monsters” just left me feeling like it was a magic-less world. Nanoha has clarified that her “magic” is not an innate ability, but that it can be learned, as we know. In this world, science and magic are nearly the same. 

But as the story proceeds, I felt it move closer to the Nanoha-verse, and not just because more familiar characters arrived on screen. Whether they are fighting monsters, magical items running amok or megalomanics, when it comes down to Nanoha, it’s always about humans connecting.

Ratings: 

Art – 9 Actually really good! Gone are the days of cheaping out on this series
Story – 6, but I’m willing to give it a chance
Characters – 8 Nice to see old friends and make new ones
Service – 2 Much less than it used to be. I’m so glad.
Yuri – Who knows?

Overall – 7

It was a bit of a slow start, but we’ll see where it goes.





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.