Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All, Volume 4

October 23rd, 2026

On a neon green background, a woman with messy black hair leans over a girl wearing wired earphones. They look deeply into each other's eyes.When my copy of The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All, Volume 4, arrived my wife whisked it out of my hands and read it before I did. In all our years together as I have read Yuri manga, this is the only series she’s really fired up about. 

This volume brings us to the moment at which Aya and Mitsuki have to navigate their feelings, the Prom,  Joe’s relationship with Kanna and a well-meaning younger student who put a lot on the line to make space for Mitsuki’s career…all colliding at once.

Resolutions come, thick and fast. Some are wonderful, some are fraught. Like real life, opportunities come and go. There is a phrase you may have heard of – “when one door closes, a window opens.” The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All reminds us that life isn’t always that neat. Sometimes windows and doors open and close in chaotic rhythm. 

Eventually graduation forces change…for everyone in the story. There is a time skip that bring us from tentative high school romance, to college life. Mitsuki and Aya have a whole new set of hurdles small and large, to deal with. For Aya, balancing life and school and keeping herself focused on the goal. For Mitsuki, finding a place to be herself and the shock when she realizes that she’s compromised on something essential. 

Paneling has become a little less intentionally disordered. I don’t know if that is meant to be symbolic or not, but it’s impossible to read otherwise. As we age, life becomes – out of necessity – more constrained. When a panel breaks free of its border, it feels like an act of rebellion. And we are reminded that a place where you belong may actually be a physical space…and it may simply be a community you share. 

Ratings: 

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Not really (unless you count punked out college Mitsuki…)
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

Volume 4 is hitting shelves this coming week.  My very sincere thanks to Yen Press for an advanced review copy with the Kinokuniya exclusive cover of Mitsuki and Aya at prom!  

Another fabulous volume of this emotionally involving contemporary F/F romance. Volume 5 is is hitting JP shelves the same week as the premier of the anime this January and will be streamed on Crunchyroll. OMG, we’re getting an anime and it is going to…rock. (Yes, I said it. I’m officially a old dork.)





Not So Shoujo Love Story, Volume 4

October 19th, 2026

In front of opposing black and white and color panels of fireworks, a girl with short reddish hair, leans into a startled girl with blonde hair.We have hit that moment in Curryuku’s story where the characters are going to have to figure some shit out. In Not So Shoujo Love Story, Volume 4, shit is beginning to be figured out.

Hana has long been saying that she likes Rei, but she’s smart enough to know that “like” and even love or desire are not enough to make a relationship happen, much less work. Rei’s a dumbass, but even she surely has to notice that she’s thinking about Hana all the time.

Even our resident alien, Hansum notices something is going down, although his understanding of it is imperfect.

The main part of the story is the tenuous, unevenly balanced relationship between Hana and Rei. Here all our existential cringe is balled up into one more horrific passage of time in high school, but real life is starting to peek in through the cracks, and other relationship begin to become more fleshed out. Rei thinks about her father as a person for the first time, and with that, the reality of life weighs on her. Hana’s father, likewise starts to see his daughter as a whole person for the first time. She isn’t who he assumed she’d be, but he’s working on understanding who she is. 

Of all the relationships in the story, Volume 4 let’s us see the unlikely friendship between Susan and Rei leave the realm of  snark and trash talk and actually become something that gives both of them strength. Of all the things I like about this volume, this friendship developing was my favorite.

And, lastly, there is a moment of reckoning for Hana and Rei. As creator Curryuku puts it at the end of this volume, “This not so shoujo love story has begun.”

I very much enjoy this series, even (maybe because of?) with so many extremely goofy gags. But once again…let’s look at that brilliant cover! OMG. The Black and white-manga-style contrasted with the all-color webtoon style panels, still functioning as a paper background. Every one of the covers thus far has been worth the price of the book for me.  Viz Media Originals have, thus far, been excellent.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – Nope
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8





Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 12 (雨夜の月)

October 8th, 2026

During a rainy night a tall girl with long, black hair wearing a baseball jacket in in red with white sleeves, meets a shorter girl with orange-brown collar-length hair, wear red sweat pants and jacket with white stripes on the arm and leg, under an umbrella.I just happened to notice the Amazon JP ratings when I was setting Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 12 (雨夜の月) up on the Yuricon Store and with several hundred ratings, it has 97% 5-star ratings.

It is really that good. 

This story has been about growth from the very beginning. Kanon was cocooned in a world of her own making, to protect herself from the outside world that did not care to understand her.  She let herself use her inability to hear to avoid things she did not want to deal with, and things she knew would hurt. Saki did not break those walls down, we learned from earlier volumes. Saki helped her want to break the walls on her own. Once she started to interact with people, and the people around her reached back for her, she stopped hiding in that world. Which meant, she faced feelings she had never had to feel before. 

Saki was hiding something from herself, as well.  She’s becoming more aware of her interest in other girls, but while an older gay women is able to see her right away, she’s still only taking tentative steps to acceptance. 

In many ways, adolescence is a kind of glass closet. Adults can see the people they may become, but it’s almost impossible to see it one’s self. In the case of Amayo no Tsuki, the closet is a one way mirror and both Saki and Kanon have not been able to see outside.

In Volume 12 all these things are about to change.

Saki will admit to herself who she is, and Kanon, will see herself from the outside for the first time and both will  come to the same conclusion.

And it it so, so good.

As an extra bonus, the trailer for the Amayo no Tsuki anime is live on Youtube! (I have a unsubstantiated theory that the trailer was being held until Volume 12 came out…for reasons. ^_^)

Ratings: 

Art -9
Characters – 10
Story – 10
Service -0
Yuri/queer – 10/10

Overall – 10

Volumes 1-8 of The Moon on A Rainy Night are available in English from Kodansha. Volume 9 will be hitting shelves in January 2027.





Comic Yuri Hime, September 2026 (コミック百合姫2026年9月号)

September 20th, 2026

A neon green color scheme, turned 90 degrees, shows a girl with green glasses lenses, laying among glass vials, perfume bottles and vases. Running behind again from crazy summer, cons, illnesses and other fun things, but today we’ll take a brief look at Comic Yuri Hime, September 2026 (コミック百合姫2026年9月号). CD Japan was crashing out when I put this up, but I’ll add the link as soon as it’s back up.

This month’s tone poem of a cover is neon green a color we’ve been spending a lot of time with recently. ^_^ For once we do not see the second person in the scenario, with the implication that we are that person. Chiriko’s art remains evocative and obscure.

This issues contains a number of one-shots by new and returning artists. I believe the stories at the end of the volume are promoting a new anthology by Ichijinsha.

The standout piece for me this issue was “Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!” The team at Liebe cafe, having met and been vetted by Mitsuki’s father, we now turn our attention her mother who, it seems, is more protective and concerned, but in a way that stifles, rather than frees. While this is going on, Hime is, for the first time, really investigating how she feels about Yano.

I thought Chiruha Chinmi’s “Kami ha Watashi o Toritai’tte Ittemasu!” (神は私を撮りたいって言ってます！) about cosplayers being recruited to save the world was fun.

“Zangai Shoujo, Kirakirana Sekai no Soko” has hit it’s cruising speed as we can now see how much bias there is against avatars, when Ao and Ariadne are mugged…by some of Ao’s classmates.

“Chou Fuka Uchuu Yori Ai o Komete” is rising towards a climax. Ten has a meaningful conversation with an acquaintance, and lays out everything, hr uncomfortable past, her fears about the future and Lulu. She decides to have an honest talk with the alien.

There were a LOT of one-shots this volume, and many series continuing. I found myself reading all but a few of the works. 

Ratings: 

Overall – 9

As I keep saying, Comic Yuri Hime has something for mostly everyone. I’m really hoping to see more action one day soon.

The October issue is out now and waiting for me to read it. ^_^





Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 6 (作りたい女と食べたい女)

September 18th, 2026

Four women stand around a tall, round table laughing and smiling. Three hold up chicken wings while the fourth takes a photo of them with her phone.In Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 6 (作りたい女と食べたい女), by Yuzaki Sakaome, the story shifts just a little bit. Up until now, it has been primarily about food (and, in Sena’s case, eating) with side quests into identity, consent, boundaries at work, in private and in public. Much as all of us in real life do, Nomoto and Kasuga have had to rethink and renegotiate with themselves who they say what to, and what the terms they might use are. 

Here in Volume 6, Nomoto comes out semi-publicly, online. I say “semi” because, while I 100% believe that parasocial relationship can be (or become) “real” relationships, and online friends are as real as school or work friends, there is still a gap between online life and in person life, for most people. If you come out online, people know that that nickname and avatar is out…but depending on how much you share online, there may not be a connection to the person who goes in to an office every day. I remember very clearly the day I began the Yuricon community, I discussed with my wife that I planned on being out from the beginning and, by association, she would be too.  We were out to our families and workplaces, so it was not much of a risk, but there is always a potential risk when people suddenly realize they were wrong about anything.

Nomoto comes out online and is met with both support and the incredible, yet predictable wave of “I only followed you for the food, wtf is this?” Dear friends, who the fuck care if you only followed for one reason or another? Fine, go away. Bye. /eyeroll/ Nomoto and Kasuga discuss the feelings this engenders, and Nomoto is convinced she did the right thing.

We then turn toward Nagumo, who has found a real friend and supporter in Yako. As Sena looks outside herself for the first time, she see that she is surrounded by women who are coming to know themselves better and she starts, maybe for the first time, to ask who, and what, she may be. Kaname patiently walks her through various ways of thinking about her gender and sexuality, until Sena discovers idea and words that work for her.

Finally, we turn towards Kasuga, who feel that she failed her own test on Valentine’s Day, when she was unable to admit that the chocolates were for her girlfriend. Of course Nomoto sympathized, but this is for her. Kasuga boldly goes into a florist, orders a simple flower and when asked if this is for a friend, takes the huge, terrifying step of saying “It’ for my girlfriend” out loud to someone. Of course we grin hugely and applaud!

Each one of our found family here is changing before our eyes. They are all growing out of the small selves they thought they needed to be, to embrace their truest selves. And, of course, they are eating delicious food while doing that!

Ratings:

Art – 7 There are moments that still feel rushed
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – YMMV, but in my opinion 0
LGBTQ+ – 10

Overall – 10

In a world that can feel dark if we let other people’s negativity drag us down, Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 6 is a reminder that we *can* and *should* make our own light.

Volume 6 is only recently out in Japan, there is no English edition release date yet, but I’ll put it on the Yuricon Store as soon as I see one. ^_^