Archive for the Staff Writer Category


Yuri Visual Novel Demo Mini-reviews: Comet Angel and Distant Oceanic Getaway

September 8th, 2025

Staff writers Eleanor and Ashley take a look at the demos for two upcoming visual novels that are participating in the Fall in Love Fest on Steam.

Eleanor takes a look at Comet Angel, described by the developer as “A sci-fi yuri visual novel with puzzle elements that tells the story of two teenage girls going through an emotional journey of self-discovery after they make the world’s first alien encounter.” while Ashley takes a look at Distant Oceanic Gateway, described as “The cruise ship’s horns blast. You’re going to be spending the next 10 days aboard the Distant Oceanic Cruise, a luxury vacation for sapphics only! Play as Maeve (customizable name), a heartbroken soul determined to move on from a cheating ex. There are only seven other single sapphics on board— could one possibly be your soulmate? Only time will tell!”

Eleanor

Key image for Comet Angel Yuri Visual Novel by Cross Couloir. Two women stand back to back looking longingly up at a night sky as a comet passes overhead.Comet Angel is a childhood friends-to-lovers scifi story, which I enjoyed the demo of enough that I’m going to play the rest when it comes out.

The demo lets you play the first two chapters, and the puzzle element gives a little bit of interest to the standard visual novel gameplay. The voice acting is pleasant as well, as is the soundtrack. My one gripe is that the dialogue can be a bit corny in places, it feels like it was written by someone who’s just learned what a simile is and is now trying to cram them EVERYWHERE, but the story and the characters make up for it.

The teenage girls actually act like teenage girls, with all the overdramatic angst that brings and there’s definitely more to find out about all 3 of them, Faerie the alien included.

Recommended if you like a scifi story with a human touch.The Comet Angel demo is available on Steam or from developer Cross Couloir, and will be out in full on October 28.

 

Screenshot #1

 

Ashley

A woman with hair cut below her ears, wearing a blue button-down blouse cuffs rolled up below her elbow, leans on a wooden railing, her cheek in one hand on a ship's deck. The wind plays through her hair.I would say that three games with the same setting makes a sub genre. Distant Oceanic Getaway is the third game that I have seen and the third game I have written about for Okazu that focuses on a lesbian’s fun adventures on a cruise ship. (Ashley has previously reviewed Ladykiller in a Bind and Sapphism Gensou for Okazu) 

Distant Oceanic Getaway bucks tradition right away with a second person narration and for good reason. The main character Maeve is highly customisable. You can choose both a name and fully any pronoun you want for Maeve depending on what situation.

 

Not only that but Maeve also has six different personality variables that you can tweak at the start and across the game with your choices. Changing what decisions might be available to pick when the time comes.

But after playing the demo for Distant Oceanic Getaway I am not surprised that the developers, Red bean Taiyaki, are okay with tracking so many independent variables. Aside from Maeve’s own personal stats there are relationship values with all six heroines that are kindly visually noted when we make a decision. That’s something we all would expect from this game, but what really made me sit up are the traits you can give Maeve. By making relevant choices you can give Maeve really specific aspects that allow her to be as unique as the heroines you will be pursuing.

Said heroines are a delight however in the demo we only have three days to get to know everyone and things seem to be just starting. I will say that the sprites for everyone are fun for live 2D style sprites. They are not filled with unnecessary or frivolous movements that you might be expecting from sprites like these.

But with only three days it is hard to know what to make of all the heroines. But what is good is that following the sapphic cruse tradition you are mostly in full control of what scenes you see during the day and who you talk to. When you do talk to your chosen character even if you don’t have a big scene with them you have the time to try out all sorts of interactions branching into dating game territory as well.

Red bean Taiyaki has said they are aiming for ten days of events in the full version of Distant Oceanic Getaway. While that sounds like a delightful full vacation to take with such a wonderful cast with ten days of all these variables and stats, the programmer in me more wants to see how Red bean Taiyaki plans to organise everything so that the game can work. 

Distant Oceanic Getaway demo is available on Steam or from developer Red bean Taiyaki with a 2025 projected date for the full VN.

 

 





Whale Store xoxo

September 4th, 2025

Official poster for Whale Store xoxo, with Milk and Love in the foreground as Wan and Maewnam respectively, and View and Mewnich in the right background as Tonnam and Chompoo respectively.by Frank Hecker, Okazu Staff Writer

When last we saw Milk Pansa Vosbein and Love Pattranite Limpatiyakorn, they were playing high-schoolers in the oddly-named GMMTV-produced romantic comedy 23.5: The Series. They’ve now graduated to playing adults, in the oddly-named GMMTV-produced romantic comedy Whale Store xoxo, based on the novel The Whale Store by Snow Leopard and available for streaming on YouTube.

Many Thai series open with shots of the modern skyline of Bangkok. Whale Store xoxo instead highlights the gleaming Golden Mount (Phu Khao Thong) of the Buddhist temple Wat Saket, which commands the heights above the historic neighborhood in which the main action of the series takes place. A key theme of Whale Store xoxo is the contrast between globalized corporations and local Thai small businesses: Wan (Milk) leaves her job at a branch office of a Japanese company to take over her father’s corner store after his sudden death, but soon finds it threatened by the nearby opening of Mouse Mart, a convenience store chain.

Meanwhile Maewnam (Love), who hides her family’s connection to Mouse Mart from Wan, spends her days as a a lecturer at a business school and her spare time picking up extra cash doing odd jobs in the neighborhood. As Wan and Maewnam meet and fall in love, they must each decide in which of these two worlds their destiny lies. It could be the plot of a Frank Capra film, and Milk and Love make for a very Capra-esque couple. In her endearing gawkiness Milk resembles a young James Stewart., while Love is an almost preternaturally adorable “girl next door.” They’re joined by a group of veteran Thai actors playing colorful neighborhood characters.

It should have been a wonderful series, but alas doesn’t quite live up to its considerable promise. Part of this is down to the direction: Not content to let Love work her natural charms and Milk to respond to them, the show early on is somewhat heavy-handed in throwing Maewnam and Wan together: not quite the “I fell on top of you and we almost kissed“ level of cringe, but annoying nonetheless. The more intimate scenes of them kissing also seem somewhat stiff and awkward. This may be on Milk and Love, or it too may be down to the director, a man whom just this week was fired by GMMTV for participating in crass sexual conversations about GL series and actors on social media.

Turning to the writing, much of the series run time is taken up by a subplot involving two other university lecturers, Tonnam (June Wanwimol Jaenasavamethee) and Chompoo (Mewnich Nannaphas Loetnamchoetsakun). The couple have been in a secret relationship for three years, as Tonnam waits forever for Chompoo to come out to her mother Som (Thansita Suwatcharathanakit), the owner of a neighborhood salon, and acknowledge Tonnam as her girlfriend. It’s not a bad subplot, and June and Mewnich acquit themselves well, but  the writers’ desire to postpone the subplot’s resolution until the final episode means that a large chunk of the middle episodes merely mark time. It also means that the last episode itself is stuffed to the gills with incidents, including last-minute plot twists, and the fulfillment of Wan’s and Maewnam’s journey doesn’t seem fully earned.

Rating:

Story – 7 (a refreshing change from the typical Thai melodrama)
Characters – 8
Production – 6
Service – 4
LGBTQ — 5 (the show takes note of Thailand’s new legislative landscape)
Overall – 7

Whale Store xoxo is sapphic comfort food, not as delicious as it might have been (due in large part to chefs who apparently didn’t quite know what to do with the ingredients), but still good enough to satisfy yuri fans hungry for down-home unpretentious fare.





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – August 30, 2025

August 30th, 2025

In blue silhouette, two women face each other. One wears a fedora and male-styled attire, one is in a dress and heels. Their body language is obscure - they may be dancing, or laughing or fighting. Art by Mari Kurisato for Okazu

It’s once again time for a trans-Atlantic YNN, brought to you by Okazu Staff Member Eleanor Walker.

 

Yuri Manga

Anime NYC gave us a few Yuri licenses. First from Yen Press, Bad Girl manga and Lycoris Recoil: Recovery Days.

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Ashley: Fighting Girls manga from Viz, described “A lifelong rivalry inspires two girls to chase their dreams.” Not Yuri, but in our wheelhouse. ^_^

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Patricia B, we have news of Issue 4 of Datura magazine, “a josei-inspired comics anthology series featuring a range of speculative and realist stories for an queer adult audience.” Issues 1-3 are still available in digital and some in print.

Yuri Light Novel

Via Rafael Antonio Pineda on ANN we have news that author Hitoma Iruma’s newest series Hitozuma Kyoushi ga Oshiego no Joshi Kousei ni Dohamari Suru Hanashi (A Story of a Married Teacher Becoming Obsessed With Her Female Student) has received a manga adaption in Dengeki Daioh G magazine. Given the title and my opinion of his past work, I’m not expecting anything good from this at all.

LGBT+ Manga

Online manga platform Azuki have released a special 45th anniversary English issue of Young Magazine, including a sequel chapter to queer manga Boys Run The Riot. The platform is also offering readers to vote on their favourite series, with the 5 series which get the most votes being serialised in English as well.

Kodansha has announced trans manga My Journey To Her by Yuna Hirasawa. You can read the first chapter for free on their site.

 

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Yuri(ish) Anime

Some discussion of this series on the Okazu Discord was started by Steve Jones’ review of Episode 8 of Call of the Night which makes it sound quite provocative, especially considering the manga originally ran in Shonen Sunday magazine. On a personal note, Miyuki Sawashiro is one of my favourite voice actresses of all time, so my interest is piqued.

 

Yuri Visual Novels & Games

Studio Elan has announced Fall in Love Festival, a romance visual novel festival on Steam, beginning on the 24th September. More details to come.

 

Support Yuri News and Reviews on Ko-fi!

 

 

Other News 

Via Rubeon Baron on ANN, we have a panel report from Anime NYC on censorship in manga in America

Again, via Rafael Antonio Pineda on ANN, we have a title and launch date for Nakatani Nio’s new series, entitled Kimi Wa Shuumatsu (You are the End)

For my other UK based Miku fans, Anime Limited is bringing the COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing movie to cinemas beginning on the 31st August. Tickets are available here.

Via Okazu Thai GL correspondent Frank, we have 2 new series announced, both premiering on the 20th September. Poisonous Love has both a pilot and a teaser available.  Toxic yuri abounds here. More unusually for a Thai GL series, Love Overdose is based on a true story (of a woman dealing with her drug-addicted partner) and in featuring a “tom” (butch) as one of the two leads. As of writing, there are no official English subtitles, only auto generated ones. I hope this does receive a proper translation.

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There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… Light Novel, Volume 3

August 29th, 2025

A girl with long, pale hair in a Japanese school uniform of a white blouse with red trim and tie and grey plaid skirt holds a finger up to her lip as if to shush us with a smile.

by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

Volume 3 of  There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… changes things up a bit with the cover design. Unlike the Volume 1 and Volume 2 where the covers feature Renako and whoever is the the main character of that volume, volume 3 omits Renako and is purely the next member of the harem, Ajisai Sena.

We know from the previous volumes that Renako already has something of a crush on Ajisai and that Ajisai is often responsible for caring for her two younger brothers, so it seems inevitable that we’ll find out more about both now. This volume is also the “summer vacation” volume, so we can expect traditional hijinks like hot spring trips, beach trips and and festivals, as alluded to on the back cover.

But maybe Ajisai isn’t as angelic as she appears. Perhaps she’s just a normal teenage girl who’s been looking forward to her summer vacation and hanging out with her friends/crushes but instead, she’s stuck staying at home and looking after her brothers. Parentification is a word which has gained traction in recent years and refers to older siblings being thrust into a caregiving role because the actual parents are either absent or negligent. Ajisai’s parents both work long hours, so she is inevitably forced into this position, and in this volume things finally come to a head. Ajisai has had enough and runs away from home, compelling Renako to go with her to, ostensibly, look after her.

This is where Ajisai feels like a normal teenage girl, much more so than either Mai or Satsuki. “Supadari” Mai is obviously meant to be over the top and unreal, whereas Satsuki is her opposite, being quiet, cynical and almost disinterested in romance unless she can use it to get at Mai. Ajisai, by contrast, feels much more grounded in reality. Renako arranges to come over to her house one day during summer vacation so they can play video games together, and this is when she snaps. Her brothers are hogging the game console, and she’s barely had a chance to speak to Renako. She’s had enough of having to put everyone else first and whilst running away is a bit of an extreme reaction, it is believable in this context. One thing I have particularly enjoyed about this volume is the little sections at the end of each chapter retelling the story from Ajisai’s point of view.

The rest of the volume is mostly devoted to the usual summer harem adventures. Renako and Ajisai inevitably end up staying at an onsen with a private hot spring attached, taking the number of members of the group Renako has seen naked and bathed with up to 3. It’s also a good excuse for an illustration of Ajisai in a yukata and a ping pong battle to determine who pays for this whole adventure.

And then enter Mai like the tornado she is, and yet another person to disrupt Ajisai’s time with a friend. She arrives at the inn having used Renako’s sister to find out where they are, so we now have a high school girls’ sleepover party or something like that, and now we’re all off to the local festival together (and bathing together).

We end with everyone back home and the rest of summer vacation passing relatively normally, apart from Ajisai asking Renako out (in front of Mai!)  just in time for school to start again in the next volume, when Renako must also answer Ajisai’s question and figure out where her feelings lie.

This series is ultimately about exploring the difference between friends and lovers, where the line between them lies, how blurry that line is and what it all means to different people. With one more group member to properly introduce in the next volume, my main question is where do we go from there?

If the anime continues at its current pace and it is a 12 episode season, this will be the last volume adapted for now. At the time of writing, there is no news of a season 2.

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 8 Ajisai is definitely the most realistic teenage girl of the group so far.
Service – 6. Some of the illustrations are definitely on the more servicey side in this volume.
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7





Otakon 2025 Field Report – Rock Is A Lady’s Modesty Panel

August 17th, 2025

Photo of Miyuri Shimabukuro, Shinya Watada, and Hidetake Nishigaya posing in front of the crowd from the second RockLady panel at Otakon 2025. Shimabukuro-san and Watada-san are holding chibi dolls of the main cast.by Matt Marcus, Staff Writer

The familiar barrage of guitar notes of “Ready to Rock”, BAND-MAID’s opening song for Rock Is a Lady’s Modesty, hyped up an expectant crowd. On stage, however, was not the band; present instead was RockLady’s Director, Shinya Watada, Otoha Kurogane’s voice actor, Miyuri Shimabukuro, and Producer Hidetake Nishigaya. The topic at hand: the staff’s favorite scenes and a peek behind the curtain on production.

The Saturday morning panel was the group’s second during this year’s Otakon, the first being held the day before in one of the larger conference rooms of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Having only the chance to visit the conference on Saturday, I was curious whether interest in the series was strong enough to carry a second session. I was pleasantly surprised; despite the smaller room, the attendees, roughly 120 in total, were as loud and raucous as a Fuji Rock crowd (or at least my imagination of such). I was pretty impressed by the number of fans who showed up to hear more about a niche title that aired on a small streaming platform.

The panel was MC’d by Nishigaya-san, with Watada-san and Shimabukuro-san as the guests of honor. Both shared two clips each that were their personal favorites and discussed why. Watada-san highlighted two post-jam ending scenes; Otoha’s first colorful outburst and immediate switch back to lady-like speech from the end of episode 1, and the battle of the bands scene with our full group panting, sweating, in front of a stunned crowd. Both moments were stressful to direct, and he was relieved that they managed to hit with the intended impact.

Shimabukuro-san’s choices were both spirited character moments. First was lead character/guitarist Lilisa and Otoha’s first exchange of vulgarities in episode 3. The second was Lilisa’s defense of the rock greenhorn Tina in episode 8. She would mention that her biggest challenge was keeping her speech intelligible during the not-infrequent torrents of screamed insults.

After the favorite scenes section, the panel moved on to Q&A. Shimabukuro-san mentioned taking drum lessons to get into the role, but given her novice status she did not end up drenched in sweat like her character. The staff were asked about their favorite Western rock bands (Watada: Bon Jovi; Nishigaya: Green Day).

The most interesting revelations came towards the end. Nishigaya-san touted one last surprise: a prerecorded segment with BAND-MAID, who provided both music and motion-capture for the musical performance scenes. Of their anecdotes, my favorite was from drummer Akane Hirose, who said that Otoha’s freestyle drumming in episode 1 was an unrehearsed jam that was requested at the end of a recording session. 

All in all, it was a fun panel. The only mildly disappointing part was that Akira Sekine, the seiyuu for Lilisa, was not there to trade stories with Shimabukuro-san, which could’ve brought out some more lively banter. Also, there was no season 2 tease or even a shoutout to the upcoming localization of the manga coming next month. Still, I was pleased to see that the show garnered enough love for there to be two panels dedicated to it.

After the panel I left the hall and grabbed myself a chili-smothered half-smoke at the Ben’s Chili Bowl stall located at the north end of the convention center’s skybridge that spans across L Street. Given the central location, I had a great vantage point to watch the throngs of anime fans passing by, many in cosplay. While I didn’t see anyone dressed up as Otoha or Lilisa, there was still plenty of RockLady-like rebellion put on display. Perhaps the next time I make it to a convention I will see more proper ladies saying “Gokigenyou~” with middle fingers up.

Rock Is A Lady’s Modesty is available for streaming on HIDIVE, and volume 1 of the manga will be coming out in English via Yen Press on September 23rd.

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.