Archive for the Staff Writer Category


Omai Series

July 22nd, 2024

Promotional image for the TikTok version of Omai Series, showing Omai (left) and Mina (right) hugging her.Thailand’s next-door neighbor Vietnam is poorer and more socially conservative, and has a government more resistant to addressing its LGBTQ population’s concerns. Thus it’s understandable that Vietnamese bách hợp (“lily”) films and series are still few and far-between. One of the most recent and most interesting ones is Omai Series (no “the”) from Fimbé, filmmakers associated with Brave Films & Entertainment, a Ho Chi Minh City production house. Omai Series was originally released in the form of very short TikTok videos, in Vietnamese only. These were then combined and released as longer YouTube videos with English subtitles for international fans, and then combined again into a movie-length season 1 (with a season 2 compilation perhaps to follow in future).

Born on the internet and unconstrained by the strictures of broadcast TV, Omai Series (literally) shows its colors in the first scene: First-year university student Mai (nicknamed Omai after the Hanoi dried fruit snack) arrives at her new apartment in Ho Chi Minh City to find a strange flag on the door. “Is my roommate a foreigner?” she wonders. No, that’s the lesbian flag, and her roommate is the sultry and sophisticated Mina, a third-year student. Mina directs Omai to sit with her on the only bed (“no chairs in this room”) and teases Omai about her nickname (“Sour? Sweet? Or spicy?!”) while reassuring her, “Don’t worry, I won’t eat you.”

Indeed she doesn’t, at least not literally, but as time goes on Omai gradually finds herself succumbing to Mina’s charms. She’s cheered on by her two classmates and friends Watermelon and the gay-coded Loa Phường, and opposed by her rebellious twin sister Lili, who’s resentful of Omai’s status as the “good child.” Lili’s machinations, Omai’s relationship with her parents, and Mina’s relationship with her mother (who’s trying to match her up with a handsome doctor) drive most of the plot.

Live-action romances live and die based on the sparks that fly between the main couple, and Omai Series does not disappoint in that regard. The actor Omai is especially good at portraying both Omai and her polar opposite Lili — on my first watch I didn’t realize they were played by the same person — although she doesn’t make a truly convincing drunk. The actor Mina is a worthy foil to her. (In a promotional livestream the actors expressed a preference to be identified by their nicknames – which are the same as their character names — rather than by their full real names, and the show credits reflect that.) The acting for Omai’s best friends is broader and less professional — not surprising since Watermelon and Loa Phường are portrayed by the director/screenwriter and Brave’s PR manager respectively.

Omai Series is a relatively low budget show, but it’s a reasonably professional production with adequate English subtitles. However the vertical format sometimes forces odd choices in the cinematography, and for a good part of the show the subtitles are in small yellow text that can be difficult to read at times, especially on a smartphone. To my knowledge it’s the first yuri entry from Fimbé and Brave. I hope it won’t be the last.

Story – 7 (the addition of Lili livens the action)
Characters – 7
Production – 6
Service – 3 (a chaste first kiss leads to something more intense later)
Yuri – 10
LGBTQ — 7
Overall – 7

Omai Series is a sweet and savory Vietnamese treat, whether you snack on individual episodes during the day or make a full meal of it binge-watching in the evening.





Assorted Entanglements, Volume 5

July 19th, 2024

Two young women wearing jerseys sit back to back. One with the side of her head braided, smokes a cigarette, the other with multiple ear piercings. They both look off to the right.by Matt Marcus, Staff Writer

Have you ever been on a bad first date? Like, a really bad one? Maybe you neglected to vet the content of the movie you bought tickets for (“I’ve heard good things about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!”). Perhaps you chose a restaurant that doesn’t take reservations and you arrive to find a two hour wait for the next table (“Who knew this place was this popular?”). Or you somehow left your driver’s license at home so you cannot order any adult beverages (“Curse this babyface of mine!”). Maybe you let it slip that you did a hair too much “research” on your date’s social media profiles. Or what if…the two of you just don’t have any chemistry. Worse, what if that were true and—*gasp*—they were also your boss?

OK, so things don’t get that dire in Assorted Entanglements, Volume 5, but it isn’t far off.

Last time on Assorted Entanglements, we got some real, true character growth from the majority of our Sapphic menagerie. Iori and Minami are still as committed to each other as  ever, Shizuku and Saori are bonding, Heke-sensei and her editor Shinohara are very close to admitting their mutual interest, and Kujou’s obliviousness continues to helpfully shield her from making a serious mistake with her student Sugimoto, for now. Progress!

The large majority of the page-time in this volume, as it were, is dedicated to Best Not-Yet-Couple Heke-sensei and Shinohara-san. Editor-san, hearing Iori’s warning of missed opportunities ringing repeatedly in her ears, invites Heke-sensei to a meatspace date during one of their online meetups. Even though the event on paper was a slam dunk (a live gaming exhibition), the experience is horribly awkward. Heke-sensei was too nervous to speak to her gaming “idol”…but after the two get home and hop onto another gaming session, she admits that she was such a fan of Lala’s that she figured out Shinohara’s day job and intentionally submitted her manga at her company in order to meet her. Instead of a restraining order, Shinohara instead offers that they date—if Heke-sensei can get on her gaming level.

There are more extended chapters of the two awkwardly navigating this “not yet dating” situation, but now that their feelings are out in the open the gags have shifted from Shinohara deflecting her feelings (to Heke-sensei’s chagrin) to the mangaka being an awkward nerd with bizarre priorities that mildly exasperates her cantankerous would-be paramour. It’s an improvement from the “Oh thank god I hid my true feelings at the last second” tropes we’ve seen so far. There is also a nice moment where Iori invites Shinohara over for dinner, with Minami of course doing the cooking. It’s the longest stretch that the manga has gone without a sour note.

The bulk of the remainder are expanded backstories: one about Minami and Shizuku’s time in the childhood delinquent facility and one fleshing out Kujou’s college best friend/crush Akemi. Both are well told and add nuance to the stories we’ve heard the characters tell each other. I found Akemi’s ambiguous feelings toward Kujou to be a tasty morsel of melancholy that was more emotionally nourishing than I typically expect from this series. I half-expect her to reappear near the climax of the Kujou/Sugimoto arc, but I actually wish Mikanuji-sensei shows restraint and leaves her in the past.

The volume wraps with a summer vacation bonus story that reiterates that Iori and Minami are happy together, and that Saori and Shizuku are both miserable about it. Same as it ever was.

All and all, this volume breezes by and avoids nearly all of the pitfalls from the previous volumes. Somehow, online gaming has led to less toxicity; I guess that’s why this is fiction.

Art – 7 At least this time there are no new characters
Story – 8 There’s some actual, non-gratuitous pathos here
Characters – 8 The character-based humor between Shinohara and Heke-sensei earns an extra point
Service – 2 For a drunken college hookup
Yuri – 8 / LGBTQ – 8 Iori effectively comes out to Shinohara

Overall – 8 Feels like the story has moved up in the rankings

Volume 6 of this ensemble story of Sapphic misfits is coming our way in October.

Matt Marcus is a serial enthusiast whose range of appreciations include guitars, watches, and a particular genre of Japanese popular media named after a flower. Outside of writing for Okazu, he cohosts various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, where he frequently bloviates about video games, anime, and manga. He also hosts a blog Oh My God, They Were Bandmates analyzing How Do We Relationship in greater depth.





Kiss the Scars of the Girls, Volume 2

July 18th, 2024

A cute, short-haired blonde girl and a taller long haired girl with black hair, in dark blue old-fashioned Japan school uniforms hold hands as they smile gently at one another.by Christian Le Blanc, Staff Writer

Feet are not something to lance,
And the soft palate’s no place for hands.
Though we’ve been through school combat,
We should leave it at comrade;
You and me could write a stab romance.

As a quick refresher: Kiss the Scars of the Girls is a futuristic vampire Yuri manga from Aya Haruhana and Yen Press where vampires hardly have any powers or protections, and Class S dominates how vampire girls are educated at their vampire boarding schools which are located next to medieval-looking cities full of prey (and vampire hunters). Emille Florence is our bright, cheerful blonde, while Eve, with her long black hair and unapproachable manner, is her older ‘sister’ designated to show her the ropes and watch out for her.   

When I reviewed Volume 1, I felt a bit let down by how dull everything felt, and lamented the absence of vampiral shenanigans, including violence. Reader, you can well imagine my surprise and delight when Kiss the Scars of the Girls, Volume 2 treated me to a flashback of a primary school knife fight where plucky and sunny-dispositioned Emille gets Stabbitha Christie’d by the awkward girl who likes her, Yucca Lotus. 

I will admit, where this story features Class S prim and proper vampire ladies, I was rather surprised at how nonchalantly the narrator of the flashback says this all went down “on an otherwise unremarkable day” where they “were doing mock close-quarters combat training.” 

What surprised me even more was how OMG WTF shocked her classmates are, and how their teacher is furious at Yucca for going all Stabbicus Finch on someone, but, really, when you arm schoolchildren with knives and tell them to fight each other, I don’t know how you can expect anything other than a Black Stabbath concert to break out. 

As it turns out, vampires heal quickly and easily and Emille just waves it off and asks everyone to forgive her assailant, who then sticks with Emille from that point on to avoid getting bullied…I’d say the other students’ fear of ending up as a letter to Dear Stabby is really what keeps them from picking on her, but it’s hard to say with these vampire kids. 

Yucca ends up having one of those friendships with Emille that you only read about in the occasional Yuri compilation of short stories, where that one short makes you feel all squicky because the creepy character loves seeing her girlfriend upset, so she keeps tormenting her in little ways. It’s off-putting, and Emille’s big sister Eve eventually has to step in and resolve things. Yucca leaves a letter saying she has to go now, her planet needs her, and a big part of me hopes that Eve herself wrote it to cover up any extracurricular “murdering Yucca” activities she felt she needed to do as Emille’s senpai. 

Moving on, we start getting into the reason why the vampires in this book seem so human and normal, with the introduction of Colette, a clumsy human girl who Emille befriends in town. Can Emille and Colette forge a friendship, in spite of the fact that all vampires hate humans and all humans hate vampires? Lucce, Emille’s friend who works at the school library, seems to think so. When we learn that Lucce’s parents are a vampire and a human, and combine that with Lucce’s darker skin tones, we are definitely meant to realize that the vampires in this book are a metaphor for discussing prejudice and race, in much the same way that Yurikuma Arashi used bears as a metaphor for discussing prejudice and homophobia (just without any wild Ikuhara symbolism in Scars, unfortunately). 

Ratings:

Characters – 5 (a slight bump up from last volume thanks to Lucce)
Story – 6 (no huge stakes, but I’m mildly curious to see what’s next)
Service – 1 (5 if you’re into seeing tonsils get fingered)
Yuri – 5

Overall – 6

When I read the first volume, I was puzzled over how similar humans and vampires seemed, and I now understand that this is being used to tackle racial prejudice (and for the shock humour value when we see things like combat training). This has made me enjoy this series a little more, and I’m curious as to whether Aya Haruhana will do anything more with the conceit, or if this is simply the current storyline before it gets abandoned for the inevitable return of Stabby McStabface. 

Erica here: Volume 3, The Stabbening, is out at the end the month from Yen Press.





My Idol Sits the Next Seat Over, Volume 7

July 15th, 2024

by Luce, Okazu Staff Writer

My Idol Sits the Next Seat Over, Volume 7 is the final volume, in which we get the fallout of Maaya coming clean about her pretending to Chihiro that she wasn’t already a fan when they met, and Sakiko feeling guilty about helping her hide it. Chihiro decides to remain an idol after a heart-to-heart with both Sakiko and Maaya, and is able to perform in Misaki’s graduation concert. The three of them have a sleepover at Chihiro’s house, attend Spring Shine’s summer concert, and ponder their futures.

This series doesn’t wallow in things – they fall out over something, but they manage to sort it out. This means that a lot happens each volume, as always, but despite that, it never feels too rushed to me. The characters do their best to sort things out, rather than endlessly mithering over whether they should or shouldn’t say something. Sakiko manages to get over – in class, in a foreign language at that – her guilt at not wanting Chihiro to quit. Chihiro, rightly so, points out that she herself has agency in her own friendships. It’s a two way thing, not something that should be decided for her. This is reiterated to Maaya as well, which clears the air between the three of them.

One thing I adore about this manga is the journey Maaya takes through it all. Becoming friends with Sakiko and Chihiro, and later Motoyama, has changed her for the better, but she’s still her. She is still a little obsessive, focused, and blunt… But it’s toned down, rather than a sharpened weapon at all times. She doesn’t make a complete 180 in personality, but she mellows, is able to be more honest with herself and others – a big moment here is her truly showing her ‘bare face’ (with no makeup, and I’ll commend the mangaka that there is a notable difference) to Chihiro. It’s a really nice scene, not because Maaya has anything to be ashamed of, but because she finally feels like she can do it.

Sakiko, too, has been on a journey. At the start, she was a shy fan who couldn’t stand up for herself, but through all this, she’s become confident enough to stand up to others as well, and to decide her own path. Often being a bridge between Maaya and Chihiro, with the end of this volume, she’s settled into a good place, with the three of them on more even footing. The last chapter is in the future, showing them all meeting up, and an ‘interview’ with Chihiro which delve a little more into Spring Sunshine after the series.

I did wonder how they were going to resolve the ‘triangle’, and the answer is, it doesn’t really get resolved, per se… But it’s clear that Maaya is in love with Chihiro, and that Sakiko knows that. I don’t mind that it doesn’t pair any of them off, to be honest (while I would have been happy for a poly ending, I’m glad it didn’t rush one) – it’s clear that they value each other immensely, and that’s just as valuable.

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed this manga, and I’ll be excited to see if the mangaka gets anything else licensed!

Ratings:

Story – 7, nothing particularly groundbreaking, but not totally predictable, and doesn’t drop into needless drama all the time
Art: 8 – really suits the vibe, and an extra point for actually having a difference between someone wearing makeup and no
Service – 0 (I don’t think there’s even a sleazy angle)
Yuri – 5

Overall – 8

For a cute idol Yuri manga, this is great!





Love Bully

July 10th, 2024

The promotional poster for the Thai yuri series Love Bully, showing Charlotte Austin (left) and Engfa Waraha leaning in for a kiss.By Frank Hecker, Staff Writer

Two of the most impactful scenes of season 2 of Blank: The Series featured a fictional version of the real-life Thai show Club Friday, in which people call in to tell the hosts and audience their relationship problems. Club Friday is so popular that it spawned a long-running live-action spinoff Club Friday The Series, with plots based on those calls. Its current season (titled Hot Love Issue) includes the four-episode yuri series Love Bully, now streaming on YouTube.

CW for this series: homophobia, transphobia, and sexual assault.

Love Bully stars Engfa Waraha and Charlotte Austin, both former beauty pageant contestants turned actors, who previously starred in the beauty pageant yuri series Show Me Love. The first thing to say about Love Bully is that it is literally a soap opera: one of its sponsors is a maker of detergent (featured in one of the most hilariously out-of-nowhere instances of product placement I’ve ever seen). Love Bully lives up to that description, its plot featuring family secrets and corporate intrigues, with characters dressed to the nines.

Charlotte plays rich party girl and lipstick lesbian Irene, who befriends Night (played by Engfa), the bartender at Club Joanne, a bar owned by “Auntie Jo” (Uan Return), a trans woman who has a hidden connection to Night. Irene is being groomed to assume the CEO role at the real estate firm headed by her imperious mother CJ (Meenay Jutai), who is most displeased at the possibility of her daughter having a lesbian relationship, especially with someone of Night’s class and family background.

Complicating matters further are Fey (Gift Sirinart Sugandharat), Irene’s conniving corporate rival, and her lover Thul (Namo Thanapat Phiukham), who also happens to be Irene’s executive assistant and Night’s ex-boyfriend. Fey is a delightful example of an evil mastermind whose plans for world (or at least corporate) domination are continually ruined by an incompetent minion. As played by Gift she’s the best thing about this series — I found myself counting the minutes impatiently waiting for Fey to have another scene.

But, wait, you say, wasn’t there supposed to be a hot lesbian romance? And what about the quest to make “Englot” a top-tier “love team” to rival “Milklove” of 23.5, “Fayeyoko” of Blank, or perhaps even “Freenbecky” of GAP? Well, about that . . . Charlotte and Engfa’s characters’ interactions in Show Me Love were brought down by Charlotte’s relatively flat acting opposite Engfa. She’s improved a great deal since then, and to her credit gives an expressive performance in Love Bully. However, I still found the central love story to be unconvincing.

That may be because the four-episode runtime leaves little space for Irene and Night’s relationship to develop naturally: from Irene’s point of view the first scene in episode 1 is almost literally “Hi, I just got off the plane from LA, I need a drink! I love the drink! I love you! Please be my girlfriend!” Or it may simply be that the actors lack that most elusive and hard-to-describe factor, on-screen chemistry. Charlotte and Engfa will no doubt get another chance to star in a Thai yuri series, and perhaps third time’s the charm. But at this point I’m not that motivated to find out.

Story – 6
Characters – 7 (Fey ups the score)
Production – 7
Service – 5 (short skirts, bunny suits, and for BL fans a shirtless Thul)
Yuri – 10
LGBTQ — 7
Overall – 5

Love Bully is a competently produced and acted high-gloss soap opera with some fun moments (especially those featuring Fey). However, it’s not a “must see” for anyone but diehard Englot fans.