Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Rainbows After Storms, Volume 3

June 26th, 2025

A tall girl with long blonde hair and a short girl with short dark hair that frames her face smile at one another. They wear matching white sailor-style school uniform blouse with blue collar.Exams, summer break, sleepovers, birthdays. High school life is both chaotic and relaxed for Chidori and Nanoha in Rainbows After Storms, Volume 3. 

This summer, they are both devoted to having fun and making memories, so their prioritize a group sleepover at Nanoha’s house with the requisite number of underwear discussions for a not-really-shoujo manga about girls. Despite the fantasies of those in charge of this manga fantasies, girls, who are mostly mortified that they have bodies at all, hardly ever discuss underwear. 

Chidori and Nanoha go on a date. They are impossibly adorable.

We are told, repeatedly that they are keeping their relationship secret, but in Volume 4 that faced is no longer really credible. In fact, I read this volume this time thinking that their friends are gently trolling them, because the lead-ins to Nanoha and Chidori stuffing their hands in their mouths, felt way too on the money to be accidental.

The art and story here are gentle, silly and just a little banal, presumably to create a soft nostalgic feel for the presumed readership. It makes for a very fast-reading volume, as nothing unusual or complicated is going on. This story is exactly what it appears to be, a high school love story between two nice girls. 

And then the final chapter shows up, throwing that whole last sentence out of the ring.

In an earlier volume Chidori has indicated that Nanoha is not her first love. And she looked clearly pained at the memory. In the final pages and older girl is seem arriving on a train, confidently, perhaps even arrogantly, wondering how her kouhai is doing…. and we know immediately that this woman is Chidori’s sempai. And…we already don’t like her. Something is about to happen.

What will the next volume bring? Well, Rainbows After Storms, Volume 4 is already out from Viz Media so don’t wait to find out. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 3
Service – 4 Underwear, bras, etc.

Overall – 6

 





Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 2

June 20th, 2025

A woman with long hair leans over the shoulder of a woman with short hair. They wear the same teal color and accessories and it looks as if they are looking into a mirror.Having now read two volumes of Pink Candy Kiss, I have come to the conclusion that I need more josei yuri in my life, but perhaps maybe on a different theme than “married woman falls for another woman.” Although the premise instantly reminded me of Even Though We’re Adults by Takako Shimura, this series is definitely different enough to be worth checking out as well. It somehow feels softer and more delicate, less obviously dramatic than Even Though We’re Adults.

As Erica said in their review of volume 1, ““What am I feeling?” goes only so far to carry a story.” Whilst Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 2 does also suffer from this to a certain extent, we do at least get a confession of feelings from Taka, and Ema thanks her for telling her. So they’ve both realised they’re in love, but what are they going to do about it? Hopefully we’ll find out sooner rather than later. Unlike in Even Though We’re Adults, Ema seems to enjoy her relationship with her husband, but I get the feeling she’s not in *love* with him. How the story figures this triangle out will make or break the series and I look forward to reading more.

The last chapter takes us somewhere rather different. Taka visits a lesbian bar and receives some wisdom from an elder butch lesbian that yes, her feelings are totally normal because she’s in love, and it’s OK to be in love with another woman. What she will do about these feelings, and Ema about hers, remains of course to be seen.

Ratings: 

Art – I really like it, particularly the colour palette and slightly sketchy feeling.
Story – Lots of feelings. But the lesbian bar chapter is excellent.
Characters – I’m rooting for no one to get hurt. And for them to just kiss dammit.
Service – None. It doesn’t need it. This is a story about feelings, written by a woman for other women.
Yuri – So much yuri.

With thanks to Viz for the review copy. I will definitely be buying my own when it’s released.

Overall – 8





Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 11 (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ)

June 19th, 2025

A group of six idols in different colors look at us. In salmon pink, Maina makes a heart with her hands. Reo has moved on. Basement idol group Cham Jam is now a group of six. This is an inescapable reality in Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu,Volume 11 (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ). 

The new front line is Sora and Maki, naturally, and less explicably, Maina. Maina, the least popular and talented of the group. And she really feels it, now, when out in the front. When she makes her debut at the front, even Eripyo is unable to say she is a “good” dancer. Maina struggles, but the rest of Cham Jam is with her and is committed to helping her be front-row worthy.

To celebrate Cham Jam’s new look and their anniversary as a group, they hold a big event, inviting all fans past and present to come. It’s been a few months, and Eripyo and Motoi have not seen or spoken to Kumasa, but they ask him to join them at what they understand would be a painful event, but they really want him to be there for Cham Jam.

As the show goes on, Maina does seem better. Not a leader, but also maybe not just a mascot. And when they see Kumasa, all the groups members do Reo’s signature bear-ear gesture for him, in a moment that was genuinely touching.  Reo sends a message of encouragement. Other idol groups show up to offer their support, and possibly check out the competition

Eripyo and Maina try to converse and fail only about half as much as usual. Maina is gaining confidence in everything, somehow, step by step.

And Cham Jam moves on into it’s next chapter.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 9
Character – 9 except Motoi, who is still awful
Service – 0
Yuri – Yes, but…

Overall – 9

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It To The Budokan, I Would Die, Volumes 1-8 are out now in English from Tokyopop and on the Yuricon Store. I will endeavor to catch up on 9-10 shortly. I apologize in advance, Volume 7 is good until the end where it is very bad. But it gets a lot better from there! ^_^; 





Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Volumes 3 and 4

June 18th, 2025

by Luce, Okazu Staff Writer

Well, I guess I need to get around to reviewing more of Young Ladies… Wait, I reviewed Volume 2 review back in 2022!? And now there are 7?! With an anime coming up soon!? Looks like I need a training montage! Over the next few reviews, I’ll try and bring us back up to speed with double bouts, back to back. Ding ding!

Volume 3 cover of Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games. It shows Aya, a girl with long brown hair and bright orange eyes, looking determined. In Volume 1 and Volume 2, we met Aya and Mio, or ‘Shirayuri-sama’, who love fighting games but attend a school where games are banned. Having found a group  with Yuu and Tamaki, they even have a little fighting games club going. What next, but a tournament?

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, Volume 3 has the girls realising that if they flunk their exams, the make up tests will be on the weekend of EX-Japan, the tournament they’re desperate to go to. Should be fine… But they’ve been spending all their time gaming, and Mio has a visceral reaction to studying – getting her up to speed in time is going to take some doing. At the tournament, the girls get into their first day of matches.

In Volume 4, they have another run in with the smart-mouthed kid who nearly tries to use physical violence, only stopped at the last second by Tamaki’s sister, who’s also in the tournament! Yet their sibling relationship isn’t exactly roses, when Hana is so damn terrifying. Finally, we follow Aya and Mio’s matches against two pro-gamers, Gekido and Café au Lait. Can they move on to the second day?

Volume 4 cover of Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games, showing Inui, a girl with brown hair in pig-tails and bright green eyes, looking cocky., cupping her chin with her thumb and finger in a 'v'

This manga takes a sports manga approach to e-sports, and within the tournament, you can see the plethora of people who live and breathe fighting games. It’s nice to see people making connections because of the things they love – everyone at EX-Japan loves fighting games, and I can’t even imagine the atmosphere. This manga does a pretty good job of conveying some of that, the energy and hubbub of not only a convention but a tournament too. Unlike a lot of sports manga though, we see lots of little matches. With individuals only needing to sign up to get in, we see everyone from pro-gamers to pretty new players, and plenty of styles of play.

I must applaud the mangaka, Eri Ejima, for the amount of thought and love of the genre put into both the manga and the fake fighting game for it, Iron Sempai 4. The shortening is great. π4. So simple! All the different characters, their moves and hit boxes… I honestly feel like this could be a real game, considering how much they talk about the hit boxes and weaknesses of each move. I’m not familiar with any fighting games, so maybe this is based heavily on another game (there are nods to Tekken, at least), but it acts very much like a sports manga in that way, too, where the sport, or the e-sport in this case, very much is the plot. The strategies, the players. It isn’t fantasy, just people playing a game really, really well. (Although what is fantasy is smacking your head that hard with a game controller and being mentally fine afterwards.) As per the trailer, the upcoming anime will instead have Street Fighter and the gaming animations look as though they will run in the game engine. I’m sure they’ll make it work, but I actually really liked the character designs of π4. That said, it’s a pretty big thing for a franchise like that to come on board for a Yuri anime, so I’m hoping this will translate to some good animation, both in the fighting games and out.

Most brilliantly is that while the game is taken seriously, the characters are not. Mio will spout something ridiculous like ‘while studying for this school, I only vomited once a week’. Aya is often too lesbian to function. It handles the ridiculousness really well. There are little asides between the matches (and around them) that are comedic. But once the tournament restarts, it’s mostly matches – three official, and one not – between Tamaki and her sister. Here we see the root of Tamaki’s issues with fighting games that she’s been trying to work through, and why she is playing them. And dear lord her sister is intense. It does seem to be a complicated relationship, so I’m glad we’re getting some background on it, but the resolution of all the matches will have to wait for Volume 5.

Ratings:

Art: 9 (so many good facial expressions!)
Story: 7
Service: 0
Yuri: 6 (Aya is pretty gay and there are some yuri-esque moments, but nothing concrete. I’m not sure if there will be, but I live in hope)

Overall: 8

If you didn’t enjoy the first two volumes, this is more of the same. If you did, this is more of the same. Sit tight, though, since the next two volumes are still in the tournament. Can any one of our heroines win? Or even make it to the second day?





Galette, No. 33 (ガレット)

June 16th, 2025

A woman in a button down shirt with blunt cut ear-lobe length silver hair has a golden blonde woman asleep in her lap. The silver and white woman looks up at us through glasses.You know what this means, right? I am caught up! Volume 34 is in my to-read pile as a digital file and will eventually be on the way as a print volume. Phew.

The physical edition of Galette, No. 33 (ガレット) includes a small clearfile with art by Nekohariko22 of the characters in her new series, “Torokeru Heya no Naka.” A young woman is so unwilling to lose the presence of an emotionally distant classmate she admires, that when told the girl was leaving school, offers her a place to stay. Immediately her mind wanders to other things that might happen between them.

“Houkenshitsu no Ano Onna” by Yorita Miyuki, finally turns to relly look at that woman in the infirmary. Her life has not been idyllic. Tsukino-sensei lost her parents while in school. Rumors about her were comon. She’s always had her eye on Yukino-sensei, however…

In Yamada Toriko’s “That Girl – Day In the Life,” the secret thoughts of our protagonist Chidori are not sunshine and lolipops. She finds herself looking for someone everywhere she is. Like looking for just the right outfit, she knows, when she comes home to the woman she loves…this is the one.

Morinaga Milk’s “Watashi no Kawaii Neko-chan” Rena is once again sure that she is holding Yuna back, but wants to go home and tell her parents about them. Will Yuna come? (Of course she will, but not without agonizing…)

Miho’s story was the winner for me. A new teacher comes to school and Itsuki is sure that she won’t be remembered…but she is. This story was incredibly sweet, as short as it was.

Morinaga Milk’s “Himitsu no Recipe” come to the close of the summer camp arc, about 2/3 through Volume 2 of the series.

“Start no Soko e” by Miim follows the story of a woman who is surprised to learn that the woman she and her friend encountered on the street is actually her friend’s ex-girlfriend, and that her friend is in love with her.

Hituji offers an “odd couple” story of a good student who wishes to be more free, like Nakazato, who somehow doesn’t seem to care about what people thing.

“Mitsumeru Sakini” gives us a classic girl finding herself looking differently at another girl…but actually telling her that she’s cute is a good start. ^_^

This volume gives us the end of the short story, “Gomen ne, aisteru,” more 140 character stories, and one illustrated story. And of course color art by the creators.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

This was a particularly good volume. It feels like Galette has weathered a(nother) storm and is back into peaceful waters, growing their creator list again. If the world can just stop blowing up for a few issues, that would be great. I look forward to another great year of this creator-owned, crowdfunded Yuri manga magazine!