Archive for the Staff Writer Category


An Office Thing

June 2nd, 2025

Promotional image from the Korean yuri show An Office Thing, showing the main characters Hanna and Yu-bin.In recent years fans have seen a veritable flood of new yuri live-action series from Thailand and the rest of East and Southeast Asia, most of which are free to watch on YouTube or other streaming video platforms. However, in the midst of this plenty it’s easy to forget that all of these series cost money to make, and that  funding can be difficult to come by, especially in countries with governments and societies hostile to LGBTQ people and their stories. Such it is with the series An Office Thing from Soo Not Sue Studio: the first three episodes are free to watch, but the rest require joining the Soo Not Sue YouTube channel as a paid member, as pseudonymous director Soo Not Sue works to pay off the loan she took out to fund the production.

Enough about money, what about the show? An Office Thing is a sequel of sorts to Soo Not Sue’s previous series Out of Breath and She Makes My Heart Flutter (the latter reviewed here on Okazu). Its main character Yu-bin was a side character in both series, nursing an unexpressed love in Out of Breath and being left out in the cold as everyone else paired off in She Makes My Heart Flutter. In An Office Thing she finally gets her turn in the spotlight. The story is simple, and begins by reusing three well-worn tropes: a blind date montage, a drunken one-night stand, and a next-day’s reckoning when Yu-bin discovers that last night’s date is Han-na, her team leader at her new job. The rest of the plot unfolds pretty much as you’d expect, with only a couple of bumps along the way.

But the plot is not the reason to watch An Office Thing. That reason is Ha Eun-oh’s winning performance as Yu-bin, a forlorn puppy so adorable that one can’t resist taking her home—but even better than a puppy because Yu-bin can clean up her own messes (as we see later in the series). Kim Jin-ah as Han-na is the calm counterweight to Yu-bin’s changing moods, in an understated performance that nonetheless makes crystal clear the depth of Han-na’s feelings toward Yu-bin. The main cast is rounded out by Han Jaei as Han-na’s and Yu-bin’s coworker Eun-woo, who might find herself suffering the same fate that the younger Yu-bin did..

The most notable thing about the production is the portrait aspect ratio, designed for watching on smartphones and tablets. The second most notable aspect is the subtitles; they are readable (albeit small) on a phone but are difficult to read on a tablet, especially since their white letters often appear against You-bin’s light-colored outfits. Incidentally, if you’ve gotten the impression that all Korean women are stylish and impeccably put together, this series will only reinforce that notion. But it’s fitting here, since (in a clever bit of product placement) the series features the real-life fashion company Plain Plenty, whose underwear is also pitched on Soo Not Sue’s YouTube page.

Ratings:

Story — 6 (there’s not much to it)
Characters — 8
Production — 7
Service — 2
LGBTQ — 10
Overall — 7

As someone else remarked online, An Office Thing is fluff, but it’s entertaining fluff elevated by an excellent cast. Fans looking for more sweet sapphic stories from South Korea should check out An Office Thing and Soo Not Sue’s previous series, and consider becoming a member of her channel to help her make more of them.





X-Gender, Volumes 1 & 2 (complete)

May 30th, 2025

A cartoon of an ungendered human with short dark hair close to their scalp, wearing white shirt, grey pants and brown boots, their arms crossed in front of them in an 'x' mirroring the white 'x' on a yellow background they are in front of.by Eleanor Walker, Staff Writer

Content warning: this series discusses topics including human euthanasia and suicide.

Perhaps inspired by the success of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness and its sequels, Seven Seas has also published some other queer autobiographical manga, including The Bride Was a Boy and the subject of today’s review, X-Gender (性別X) by Asuka Miyazaki. X-gender is an umbrella term used in Japan to describe various non-binary and genderqueer identities.

This series is most definitely aimed at people who have no knowledge of LGBTQ+ or women’s health, as it was originally serialised under Kodansha’s Young Magazine umbrella, a seinen (aimed at young men) magazine. There’s lots of explanation of basic queer terminology which may seem superfluous for many readers of this site, as well as a chapter explaining periods, but probably needed for the average reader of Young Magazine. I hesitate to compare this directly to My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, as I don’t really feel it’s fair to compare people’s real life experiences, but there are definitely some parallels to be drawn with the stories. Being queer can often be an incredibly isolating experience, and X-Gender tells the story of Asuka finding a community they can be a part of at local gay bar Poker Face, owned and run by a fantastic trans man known as “The General”, only to then have it ripped away from them by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whilst volume 1 mostly deals with Asuka’s finding themselves as a newly out X-gender person, there’s a noticeable change in tone in volume 2. Japan and the rest of the world is shutting down due to Covid, and Poker Face, Asuka’s favourite IRL hangout, is closed. I did find this volume rather unfocused compared to volume 1. This is acknowledged by the author though, as they were finding life very difficult during the pandemic and lockdown. The chapters are much shorter, and there’s very little story continuity between them, they’re more like a set of short stories with recurring characters. I don’t like to criticise someone’s real life experiences when used as the basis for a story, but I do think that Asuka is a good visual storyteller, the panels flow nicely and it’s an easy read visually.

Gender non-specific person with short dark hair, striped button down shirt, grey pants and brown boots in front of a large white 'x' on a light blue background. They hold their left arm up making a 'V is for victory" sign, smiling, while their right arm is help in a fist at their right hip.Overall, I’m happy this series exists and was released in English. It’s a good introduction to non binary identities for those who have absolutely no idea what they are. (I am a cis lesbian with many non-binary friends, and I acknowledge this is not a substitute for actual lived experience.)

Obviously this is only one person’s story and the non-binary experience is vast and variable, but I feel like a lot of readers of this site can relate to the feeling of not belonging in society or not being comfortable in our bodies, as well as the isolation many of us felt during 2020. For the cishet men this was aimed at, I hope it can be an insight into a life that’s very different to your own, but ultimately a reminder that we’re not so different after all.

 

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6. This one is definitely best read a chapter or two at a time, rather than all in one go, especially volume 2.
Character – 7. The General is by far my favourite.
Service – 7. There are some fairly graphic descriptions of the author’s porn and sex preferences but nothing explicitly illustrated..
LGBT+ – 8

Overall – 7





Yuri Is My Job!, Volume 13

May 14th, 2025

A blonde girl wearing glasses in a dark-green dirndl-style uniform is surrounded and embraced by flowering branches. She grips the tie at her collar as if to protect herself.

by Eleanor Walker, Staff Writer

After the shocking events of volume 12 and the Okazu Staff’s first ever group review, Yuri Is My Job! is back with volume 13 and the aftermath of those events. Content warning for discussion of sexual assault.

As I hoped, this volume focuses on Kanoko and her past and, to a lesser extent, future. We learn, via a conversation between Sumika and Kanoko, how Kanoko became friends with Hime, and how her feelings developed. The best way I can describe this is that it all feels very realistically teenagerish. The not wanting your only friend to start going out with someone because then you’ll be all alone is certainly something I remember experiencing, although my best friend wasn’t the popular girl, unlike Hime.

Frustratingly though, Kanoko doesn’t seem to have moved on or learnt anything from the whole ordeal. She’s still obsessively infatuated with Hime and a complete doormat to everyone else, and although she says in the last chapter she wants to face her head on, to me the only way she can do this is confess to her, which she steadfastly refuses to do. I just want to shake her and tell her you cannot put aside your own feelings to make others happy, it will all end in tears like it just did with Sumika!! Her fear of romance taking her friend away is beyond healthy at this point, and she really needs help. Whether she will get it remains to be seen.

One thing I did appreciate is this page though, where Mai, in a rare moment of actually acting like a manager, says to Kanoko that even though nothing physical happened, she was still threatened and hurt. It’s nice to see the story acknowledge that (sexual) violence doesn’t always have to simply be a physical act but also a mental one. I’m still in two minds as to whether it was even necessary to begin with, but I am glad the author is taking it seriously in the aftermath.

5 panels of Yuri is My Jon, Volume 13 in which Mai explains to Kanako that even though she was not hurt physically, she was traumatized. "Someone *hurt* you, Kanako-chan, I'd say that's violence."

I can’t honestly say I’m enjoying the series at the moment, but I am interested to see how we move on from this arc. In the afterword of the volume the author says this arc should conclude in the next volume, but unfortunately, the series has been on hiatus in Japan for about a year now due to the author’s health, and at the time of writing, there is no indication of when it may return. There are 3 chapters which have been released in the magazine which have not yet been published in graphic novel form.

Whilst nowhere near as viscerally intense as the previous volume, to finish I am going to quote Erica from our volume 12 review:

“The question I am left with is…is this what we needed or wanted from Yuri Is My Job!?” and after this volume I’m inclined to think not. I can’t work out what the end goal is or where the story is going to go from here and I can’t help but feel the author may have written themselves into a corner they can’t get out of.

To be continued.

Ratings:

Story: 5
Art: 7
Characters: 5
Yuri: 6
Service: 2. Thankfully nothing nearly as egregious as the colour spread in the previous volume. One brief scene of Sumika getting changed but no details visible.

Overall: 5





Motherlover

May 11th, 2025

Two women lie in the grass looking deeply into each other's eyes. One is a heavy-set white woman, with bright orange hair tied in a braid wearing glasses and a yellow-and-white striped tank top. The other woman is Asian with black hair, tied back in a high pony tail, wears a dark gray tank top, and has tattoos on her right arm.By Matt Marcus, Staff Writer

Where would we be without our mothers? As a parent myself, I’ve felt starved for stories about parenthood within the world of Yuri media. In fact, a large amount of Yuri centers on characters that explicitly reject the notion of having children and raising a family, and not without good reason. That’s valid and I support it. But it leaves out a few avenues for telling new stories, which is why I was excited to discover the topic of today’s review.

Motherlover is a spinoff comic (launched on Mother’s Day, of course) centered on two random characters from Lindsay Ishihiro’s long-running autobiographical comic How Baby. After creating them, she felt compelled to give them their own story. The first leading lady, Imogen, is a quintessential Midwestern homemaker, managing a household of four kids; her counterpart is Alex, a Cool Artsy Queer mom who has moved back into her parents’ house after their recent deaths.

Both leads are well-rounded characters. Imogen became a mother at 19 and flunked out of college before meeting her current husband. Her inexhaustible capacity to care for her children is only matched by her insecurity about her limited life experience. Alex, meanwhile, pushes away people who love her as a result of the emotional abuse she suffered from her extremely strict parents.

The core of the story is the dynamic between Imogen and Alex. Their friendship feels lived-in and believable, which further sells you on their compatibility as their feelings for each other deepen. You could even say that they are a bit too accepting at times; even when one is venting ugly honest feelings, the other never takes offense. It’s as if they are committed to each other before they are committed to each other. There is no moment of doubt that their connection will break, which makes for a breezy read even when the topics get heavy.

Putting my Serious Critic hat on, I would say I wish the children had more space to be characters. For instance, how did Alex’s daughter Nolan feel about her mother’s previous partner? How does her feelings parallel Imogen’s kids feelings about their parent’s divorce? The only one of the five children who is given any spotlight is Imogen’s oldest, but their arc is so siloed from the core of the story that it could have been cut without affecting the plot at all. I’ve read enough of How Baby to know that Ishihiro knows how to talk about motherhood in a raw, vulnerable, and hilarious way, but not much of that transferred over to this story.

I also find myself wishing that the issues around Imogen’s marriage didn’t boil down to cheating. I thought Ishihiro did a great job sketching Imogen’s husband as a man who is controlling and withholding, but not in a domineering manner. The way he perpetuates Imogen’s insecurity by shooting down her ideas of going back to school is compellingly insidious; it felt so strong to me that I found myself disappointed when the breaking point of their marriage turned out to be infidelity. It’s believable, but a bit expedient.

One thing that occurred to me is that this is a queer love story where very little of the challenges center on queerness: Imogen never struggles with her gay awakening, Alex doesn’t encounter hostility from the community for being loudly out, a young character comes out as trans and basically no one bats an eye. It represents a kinder world than the one we live in, and I’m sure many readers will love that part of it. (Yes, there is some queerphobia represented in the text, but it’s treated with a light touch.) My feeling is that, in a story where being a parent is the premise, I would have liked to see it tackle what it means to be a parent who is queer, AND what it means to be the parent of a queer child (though I felt the coming out scene was well-handled). To be clear, all of these critiques are quibbles for what is an easily enjoyable story.

While the comic is complete and free to read online, I was unaware of it until seeing an announcement of a physical release from Iron Circus Comics. It’s a lovely softcover book with glossy hearts embossed on top of the matte finish of the cover. The art and paneling is solid and translated well to the printed page. Also, I was pleased to see Abby Lehrke in the credits as a proofreader, given her involvement with A Certain Manga Series Set In College that I am fond of.

If you are looking for the perfect sapphic comic for Mothers’ Day, this would be one to pick up, but I’d say it can be enjoyed and celebrated on the other 364 days of the year as well, just like your mother. (And would it kill you to call every once in a while?)

Art – 8 Solid and clean
Story – 8 Tightly paced; could have been expanded but would have required a longer page count
Characters – 9 Everyone is well written, though some characters could have had more to do
Service – 1 Domestic snuggles is as spicy as as it gets
LGBTQ – 10 70% of the named characters are queer, so it gets high marks

Overall – 9 The best Mom-meets-Mom story on the market

Yes, Ishihiro is aware of the SNL skit of the same name; it’s mentioned on the comic’s About page.

Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, as well as the writer for the blog Oh My God, They Were Bandmates analyzing How Do We Relationship in greater depth.





Spoil Me Plzzz, Hinamori-san! Volumes 2 and 3

May 9th, 2025

by Luce, Okazu Staff Writer

It’s Luce, back with a double review, which brings us to the end of this little series – were we spoiled, or was it more spoiled milk? 

In volume one, we met Hinamori Ichigo, a girl who has looked up to the seemingly prefect Suo Yaya… Only to become Suo’s outlet for her crushing desire for validation and praise! Honestly, this girl is a mess, but what can she do? Ichigo is weak for a pretty girl… Even if they’re kind of pathetic at times.

In Spoil Me Plzzz, Hinamori-san! volume two, Ichigo and Suo go on a ‘date’ – to get some clothes for Suo, whose fashion sense is… non-existent. We meet Kujo Hitomi, the girl who is always second place in their year, angry that she’s always losing out to Suo. Turns out… she needs some praise, too. Finally, after some competition between her and Suo, all three girls end up starring in the film club’s movie – and it’s a romance!

I honestly started to wonder how Suo functions at all with how many things she’s shown to be useless at. It was just too over the top with Suo’s inability to do things. How has she done readings in class if she’s that bad? How is she top of the grade when she’s… like this? Have they never done swimming lessons in physical education? I guess she studies, and I know book smarts aren’t necessarily people smarts, but in the second volume, the gap felt too wide to be the same person. Ichigo makes a good point at the start that kindness gone too far is more like self-sacrifice, and I preferred the vignettes that focused on those kind of issues rather than ‘actually I’m terrible at reading things out loud’. I feel like a more interesting ending might have been that she was putting some of it on for an excuse to spend more time with Ichigo – which would have worked out, seeing as Suo is pretty awkward.

I guess that’s the issue with gag manga – you have to stick to the gag, more or less. Them walking home in the rain and Suo getting drenched protecting Ichigo, only to complain about it? Yeah, makes sense. Her being horrific at reading a text out loud? Too much. I’m probably taking it too seriously, but comedy only works when it toes the line to a degree. It has to be funny within the realms of the universe, not make you question it. Suo having zero fashion sense made sense for her character. I suppose my issue is that it didn’t grow up from the gag very much. I never felt much like there was anything much behind the characters, even towards the end, it felt quite superficial.

All in all, the second volume was easily the weakest. I really wondered where we were going with Kujo – namely, I’m not bothered about love triangles, especially when there is so little thought in them. And I’m really not fond on the uber competitive always-in-second character… Particularly when I can see no evidence that the character in first had done anything for it! You gotta do a bit more than just have a character say they’ll be studying for me to think they’re smart, especially to the point of being first in the year. Particularly when they shown to be pretty useless at a lot of things.

The third, and final, volume balances things out a bit more. We get what could potentially be considered a part of Suo’s inciting incident for her need for perfection, but it didn’t really hit enough for the level she’s at. The ending was pretty cute, and very true to the series, but it also just kind of fizzled out. I wonder that it might have been cancelled.

Overall, I enjoyed it to a degree, but it’s not really a recommendation – if you like silly Yuri, this might be for you, but there are probably better ones out there.

 

Story: 4

Art: 6

Yuri: 7

Service: 5, of course there’s a pool scene, and nobody ever wears anything other than a bikini (a personal gripe of mine, YMMV)

Overall: 5

 

A bit of a swing and a miss, for me. Or a hit, an out and a weak hit. I suppose. At least it was short!