Archive for the Staff Writer Category


ClaireBell

December 22nd, 2025

Promotion poster for the Thai series ClaireBell. It shows Claire and Bell in bed in their prison cell. Claire is in the upper bed and is handing a red rose to Bell, in the lower bed.by Frank Hecker, Staff Writer

Content warning: This series includes multiple scenes featuring blood, violence, and sexual assault.

Many of the key developments in Thai live-action yuri have been sparked by first-timers taking big chances on new productions. Idol Factory could not find sponsors for GAP: The Series, self-funded it, and then saw it become wildly successful, make stars of Freen Sarocha Chankimha and Rebecca Patricia Armstrong, and kick off a still-growing wave of Thai yuri series. Fan-created Nine Star Studios took a chance on thirty-something Faye Peraya Malisorn and saw her become a star in the age-gap romance Blank. Now actors and first-time producers Mai Davika Hoorne and her husband Ter Chantavit Dhanasevi have taken Thai yuri into new territory with the prison drama ClaireBell, airing uncut on the OneD streaming service and with significant edits on YouTube.

The Bell of ClaireBell is a naïve young woman who celebrates her university graduation at a nightclub with her boyfriend and their friends, has someone stash their drugs in her purse unbeknownst to her, is caught in a police raid, tried for drug dealing, and sent to prison. There she languishes, abandoned by her boyfriend, too ashamed to reach out to her terminally-ill father, and brutalized by the reigning prison gang. She then slowly falls into the orbit of “rabid dog” Claire, a seemingly-psychopathic inmate convicted of the savage murder of a schoolteacher, and finds protection and (ultimately) love in her arms. Meanwhile around them others live out their own lives in prison: Claire’s elderly cellmate sliding into dementia, a corrupt warden and his upright son whom he hires as a guard at his wife’s urging, the “3D” gang of two sisters and a cousin who control the prison’s black market, and Bell’s cellmate, who offers friendship but may want something more.

The first thing to be said about ClaireBell is that it looks and sounds fantastic: Made on a relative shoestring budget of 30-40 million baht (about $1 million US), it has set design, cinematography, and music and sound design comparable to those of “prestige TV” from services like Netflix, HBO Max, or Apple TV. It also has a high level of acting. Newcomers Pangjie Paphavarin Sawasdiwech as Bell and Mable Siriwalee Siriwibool as Claire are joined by a company of veteran Thai actors, some of whom (including Davika and Ter themselves) have been stars and award-winners or nominees in other productions. I’d especially single out Noon Siraphan Wattanajinda as “3D” leader Dao and Belle Kemisara Paladesh as Bell’s cellmate Kae; their struggles for dominance over the inmate hierarchy amid their own personal troubles drive some of the most compelling subplots in the series.

Those who go looking will find various things to critique in ClaireBell: A few of the plot elements, most notably the circumstances behind Claire’s imprisonment, strain credulity. The 8-episode runtime somewhat rushes the development of Claire and Bell’s relationship. Yuri purists may object to the inclusion of heterosexual couplings (including one scene jarringly intercut with a love scene between Claire and Bell.) And, most amusingly, the product placements that helped fund the series cause the action to occasionally pause as Claire and Bell feed each other slices of bread out of a prominently-displayed loaf, enthusiastically consume yogurt or instant ramen, or comment on the softness of each other’s bras.

But quibbles aside, ClaireBell is top-tier television. Among Thai series I’ve watched I would put it next to The Loyal Pin in terms of overall quality, and I think it almost as significant for the continued development of Thai yuri as was the original GAP. Idol Factory has now imploded in an orgy of financial mismanagement and executive and cast resignations, with Freen and Becky leaving to pursue their own paths. Nine Star is struggling for relevance after Faye’s departure under controversial circumstances (did she jump or was she pushed?). In contrast, Davika and Ter seem to be as competent producers as they were actors. I hope their Mine Media production company builds on the success of ClaireBell to create further yuri series whose quality convinces other Thai production houses to up their game.

Ratings:

Story – 8
Characters – 9
Production – 9
Service – 6
Yuri – 10
Overall – 9

ClaireBell offers a touching romance, compelling performances, and interesting stories, all combined in a high-quality production. It‘s strongly recommended for anyone looking for alternatives to the all-too-common fluff or melodrama of many Thai yuri series.

Extra fun fact: Mable Siriwalee Siriwibool, the “Ble” in “Blejie”, has a masters degree in cellular and molecular science for biomedical applications and is the co-author of several scientific papers.





Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 3

December 3rd, 2025

Two women, one with short hair and one with long hair. The long haired woman has her arms around the shoulders of the short haired one. by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

In Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 3, we start out with Ema looking for an apartment which she can live in separately from her husband so of course she enlists Takara the real estate agent’s help. This volume mostly deals with Takara’s internal conflicts as she finally realises the strength of her feelings for Ema, and also the fact that Ema is married to a lovely man who seems to absolutely adore her. It would definitely be much easier for her if Hario was an awful deadbeat husband but he’s quite the opposite, kind, caring and completely supportive of his wife. Cruicially though, we learn that she wasn’t interested in him at first, in his words he “wore her down but she chose me in the end” even though other guys were also interested in her.

What I especially like about this series is that it’s very nuanced. It’s very easy to come out with the blanket statement that “all cheaters are automatically irredeemably bad people and homewreckers” but often it’s a lot more complicated than that because people and feelings are messy and complicated. That’s what makes us human after all. Takara clearly loves Ema, she says as much but she’s also very aware that she could ruin Ema’s life. This is also fiction, so no real people are going to be hurt.

It seems that Ema is wanting to relive the summer of 20 years ago with Taka, and do all the things they never got to do back then, as well as using Taka’s blog for inspiration. Whether they’ll actually kiss this time remains to be seen. I of course, hope they do.

Overall, I’m still really enjoying this series. I still need more josei yuri in my life and I’m looking forward to volume 4.

Art – Still a fan. It’s a shame there aren’t colour pages with the chapter art on.
Story – My only quibble with the story is that I find it very hard to believe that Ema’s husband would just be so accepting that his wife suddenly wants to live by herself. Apart from that, still lots of complicated and messy feelings.
Characters – As before. I’m rooting for no one to get hurt. And for them to just kiss dammit.
Service – None. It still doesn’t need it. This is a story about women’s feelings, written by a woman for other women.
Yuri – So much yuri.

Volume 4 of Pink Candy Kiss by Ami Uozumi will hit English bookstore shelves from Viz Media in January 2026.





The Secret of Girls

November 19th, 2025

Promotional poster for the Chinese baihe drama The Secret of Girls, showing the four main characters.Baihe (Chinese yuri) is having a mini-moment. Seven Seas Entertainment just released its first baihe novel, the Baiheverse site is making steady progress on its project of licensing baihe manhua, novels, and other works (including the short film When We Met), and enough other works are being teased for licensing that what has been a mere trickle of official English translations promises to become a growing stream (albeit nowhere near a flood).

Unlike baihe novels, which (like their danmei/BL cousins) mostly seem to traffic in historical fantasy, The Secret of Girls (original title 如果有秘密) is a realistic contemporary baihe drama, now available on the GagaOoLala premium service. As it begins, young Xu Jingxi (He Lei) is laid off from her job, decides to go traveling (for a reason that the GagaOoLala synopsis spoils, but I will not), loses her wallet, ID, and phone while helping another woman, and ends up prevailing on older hotel employee Wen Shan (Sun Cailun) to let her have a room in exchange for working at the hotel.

At first glance the setup is reminiscent of many other yuri works: a free-spirited extrovert who’ll end up softening the frosty exterior of an introverted tsundere. However, Xu Jingxi’s outgoing persona is a cover for her suffering, the nature of which is slowly revealed as her romance with Wen Shan progresses. But the series is about more than the ills of one woman: the back stories of both Xu Jingxi and Wen Shan, and their relationships to their mothers in particular, form a sharp critique of a patriarchal society that demands that daughters show filial piety but offers them little or nothing in return.

Suffice to say, The Secret of Girls is not a series with a “happily ever after” ending, but it’s far from being “tragedy porn.” This is in large part due to the performance of He Lei, who takes what could have been a simplistic character and makes her richer and more complex. (As it happens, He Lei also starred in When We Met, another tale of a younger woman winning the heart of an older one.) Sun Cailun is a worthy companion to her, portraying Wen Shan’s slow and subtle opening up to friendship and then love. I should also mention Li Keyi and Wang Miao, who play hotel owner Ling Yung and bar manager Qin Bei respectively. Their characters support Xu Jingxi and Wen Shan in their evolving relationship and contribute a more light-hearted tone and a very sapphic vibe: The two women live together and are clearly in a relationship of their own, and Qiu Bei’s bar “Her” is advertised as being “Where Ladies Meet.”

My main complaint with The Secret of Girls is with its packaging: It was originally released as 24 five-minute episodes on the WeChat app, and the amount of actual content is such that it could have been (and I think should have been) released as a feature film. However, GagaOoLala is presenting it as 16 episodes, with multiple minutes in each episode taken up by a lengthy OP (which spoils many of the scenes in the series and is untranslated to boot) and even more time taken up in several episodes by an equally lengthy credits sequence. Regarding other aspects, the GagaOoLala version has at least one scene that was almost certainly excised for the Chinese domestic audience; it makes explicit what was already very much implicit in the portrayal of Xu Jingxi and Wen Shan’s feelings for each other.

Rating:

Story – 7 (a potentially clichéd and maudlin plot redeemed by the writing and acting)
Characters – 9
Production – 6 (points deducted for chopping up the material)
Service – 3
Yuri – 10
LGBTQ — 5 (not explicit but very queer-coded)
Overall – 8

The Secret of Girls is not an easy watch at spots, but it’s definitely recommended for viewers who are tired of relatively superficial or melodramatic yuri series (looking at you, Thailand) and want to see a more realistically emotional human drama. It also marks a welcome second outing for He Lei, whom I hope to see more of in future baihe series.





I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 2

November 14th, 2025

Cover of I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 2, Two young women in sweaters, one red, one pink over Japanese style school uniforms sit in a classroom. Curtains blow from open windows,By Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

Volume 2 of I Wanna Be Your Girl picks up right where the end of Volume 1 leaves off, with Akira declaring that she wants to be the soccer club manager. Compared to volume 1, this volume focuses more on the individual characters rather than their relationships with each other, and it’s nice to learn a bit more about both of them and how they ended up where they are now.

Hime meanwhile, confides in another girl called Yukka about her feelings for Akira and the confusion they’re causing her. Yukka, as it turns out, has her own past trauma around queer love and that’s why she’s able to advise Hime so well. This section was actually my favourite bit of the entire volume because it’s pretty much how I felt about my friend back then too. To quote myself from my volume 1 review:

“When I was in high school, I had a crush on someone who I thought was a boy, but she told me she was actually a girl. My reaction at that point was “huh, that’s a bit weird but ok” and still kept kissing her.”

We then return to Akira and her new job as manager of the soccer team, and reality bites hard when some of the other members start misgendering her and someone makes a comment along the lines of “why isn’t she growing her hair out if she’s really a girl?” One person however, Hasegawa-senpai is utterly supportive, has nicknamed Akira “juice girl” and when others on the team misgender her he gently corrects them. And it turns out Akira might just have a bit of a crush on him. Just normal teenage girl things.

The other thing I liked about this volume is that it shows Hime going through her own kind of identity crisis as well. She’s wearing the boys’ uniform to support Akira, but she is ultimately still cis, and she can go back to wearing the girls’ uniform at the drop of a hat. She talks to her parents, who are thankfully supportive, and ultimately decides she will go back to wearing her uniform and shows up the next day in it.

Where would we be without a bit of teenage angst though? Hime and Akira run into Hasegawa-senpai, who at first doesn’t recognise Hime because she’s in the girls’ uniform, but then he calls her cute and that rips through Akira like a knife to the heart. Hime runs away crying to the rooftop stairs, a mysterious boy appears and invites her to the roof. Turns out, he has a secret of his own as well. He works at Hime and her friends’ favourite cafe, but cross dresses as a girl while he does so, also to support someone he cares about.

Ultimately, the volume ends with Akira resolving to talk to Hime and apologise for lashing out at her, thanks to the support of their friends, and I’m sure we’ll see that in the next volume.

Overall, this is a good continuation from volume 1 which dives more into the individual main characters, and they do still feel like realistic teenagers. However, I hope we get the teacher’s backstory at some point as well though which was hinted at in volume 1. With 2 volumes to go, I’m excited to see where Hime, Akira and everyone else ends up.

Story – 7
Art – 6.
Characters – 8
Service – n/a
LGBTQ — 10

Overall – 8 but again, probably a 9 if you’re a confused/closeted queer teenager.





Girl Crush, Volumes 1-2

October 15th, 2025

Cover of volume 1 of Girl Crush. On a hot pink background, a young woman with long blonde hair, wears a black and red halter top and skirt, and a white short jacket, smiling at us, her left hand curled at her lip.by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

Originally hailing from Shinchosha and released by Line Manga online, Midori Tayama’s Girl Crush has been released digitally in English by Comikey since 2021, but has now been picked up by Viz Media for a print release.

In Girl Crush, Volume 1,Tenka Momose protects herself by being better at everything than anyone else, standing atop her pedestal where she’s admired and idolised by everyone else at school. But one day, she learns of her seemingly very average classmate Sato Erian’s ambition to become a K-pop idol. Scornful at first, Erian’s determination to achieve her dreams soon draws Tenka in and now’s she’s auditioning in Korea as well…

“Girl Crush” – “K-pop slang for a cool girl that other girls idolise” (volume 1, p33)

I have to admit, the first thing which drew me to volume 1 when I saw it on the new releases shelf was the title, but I did find the premise interesting enough to buy it as well. There’s plenty of idol anime and manga out there, but K-pop centred stories are much rarer. I also stayed a night in Shin-Okubo (Tokyo’s Koreatown) when I was in Japan in 2018 and found the K-pop fandom there fascinating, especially given the political relations between Korea and Japan. These days as well, one of the most popular K-pop groups, BLACKPINK, has several international members so the idea of a Japanese person getting into a K-pop group isn’t so far fetched.

At first Tenka seems to be your typical perfect protagonist, but thankfully there is more to her than that. Right at the very beginning of the story we learn that as a small child she was actually rather shy and preferred to sit in the corner with a book. She also lives only with her father, it’s implied that her mother cheated on him when Tenka was a child, so there’s definitely more to learn about there. Fast forward to high school and Tenka still has a crush on her childhood friend Harumi, but when she asks him how he feels about Erian, he says he likes her, and Tenka’s world suddenly turns upside down. She knows she’s better than Erian in every way, so what does he see in her?

“She scares me. That sincerity of hers. A girl like that could steal everything.”

Cover of Girl Crush volume 2. On a bright blue background, a girl with brown hair in twin tails, holds her right hand coquettishly at her mouth. She poses, wearing a white t-shirt over a fishhnet long-sleeves, red short skirt.

As Girl Crush, Volume 2 opens, Erian and Tenka head to Korea together, and audition at one of the big agencies, not before an impromptu singing session on the street when a strange man approaches Tenka and gives her his business card, inviting her to audition at another agency. Volume 1 ends with Erian being called back for a second round of auditions at the original agency, while Tenka is not, and for the first time in her life she realises that it’s not just perfection which makes people like and respect you. Determined not to lose to Erian, Tenka visits the mysterious agency, meets the strange man again, is accepted as a trainee there and our rivalry is set up by the end of volume 2. Conveniently, her father is supportive because he trusts her to not do anything half hearted. Erian’s mother is briefly mentioned as being supportive, but unlike Tenka’s father, she doesn’t appear on the page, it’s just in a passing moment.

I enjoyed the moment when Tenka does Erian’s makeup for her and I hope their relationship continues to develop. I feel like these two volumes read together are a good introduction to the story and characters, and I am interested to see how the rivalry develops in future volumes as well as if Erina’s “girl crush” on Tenka becomes something more.

 

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6 Some cliched moments but not enough to ruin it.
Characters – 7
Service – 1 A bath scene but not detailed
Yuri – 1 It has potential but I think most of the yuri will be in the readers’ imaginations.

Overall – 6.5 . An interesting take on the rivals premise, and I’m rooting for both girls to succeed.