Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Galette Magazine 02, Special English Edition

May 21st, 2025

On a dark background, a yellow light illuminates two women, one blonde whispering into the ear of a woman in a black off-the-shoulder dress, a choker around her neck, as she holds her hand out to touch someone else's hand.Since the third English language Galette magazine kickstarter has successfully launched and is working it’s way toward the 4th(!) stretch goal, I thought it a good idea to sit down with the very lovely Galette Magazine 02, Special English Edition.

To begin with, both the slipcover and the cover on the magazine are two of my favorite pieces by pen, whose art I find to be absolutely my aesthetic. Adult, atmospheric and intimate work on this cover art.

The book is, well, book-ended, by collected art works from the principle creators, illustrating their stories.

“Fluffy Fuzzy Dreamy” by Mera Hakamada is a school romance centered on a first year being noticed by her crush, and flailing cutely.

We get a full three chapters of “That Woman In The Infirmary,” Miyuki Yorita. I’d like to note this splendid translation in this story, from the title to “Drabzawa,” which probably no teen would actually say, but I think it a perfect choice.

Chapters of “Liberty” by Izumi Kitta x Moto Momono really get into how Maki is besotted and not at all really capable of coping with Liz’s personality. You gotta love Maki’s friend, hysterical at poor Maki, being played by a sexy singer. Boo fucking hoo. ^_^

Two chapters of “[Sky blue melancholic]” by Ringo Hamano, in which Bun turns out to be a very relatable character, Ichinose is clueless and annoying and the “annoying” Kiko-sempai turns out to be a decent person.

A majority of stories here are from the perspective of the less-cool, less-popular, less-powerful character, as they are swept up by the cool/popular character. I’d love to see the story from the other side, but I bet it seems super creepy. ^_^  Thinking about that, I guess that is exactly why I like aneido’s “Oh My God! Yes, I Am Your God.” so much. It is a perspective flip and, as the protagonist is not a child, but a grifter, we allow them to be a seducer with ill intent.

One chapter each from Nekohariko 22 and Haru Yatosaki, moving their stories forward a step.

The final pages, in classic manga magazine colored pages (a touch that is sure to delight anyone who reads shoujo manga magazines) Milk Morinaga presents a “GIRL FRIENDS” animal-ear alt universe story.

These seven artists kept Galette going through COVID, and they are still at it, pushing Galette forward into transational fandom. I am so very glad that you all have a chance to enjoy Galette as I have been and to help make it successful!

 

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Issue 3 Kickstarter is on now, and has blown past the third stretch goal with a bit more than a week to go!





Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord, Volume 4

May 16th, 2025

Two women stand in a kitchen in casual clothing drinking hot drinks. Monthly in the Garden With My Landlord, Volume 4 brings this series, finally, onto the path that it will continue down, until completion. Miyako is deeply, passionately concerned with picking out a good present for Asako…and it’s good for her to care that much about someone. We can see that she’s taking steps to maturing without loosing the qualities that make her her.

Asako notices this and it makes her…at last, feel like she’s not alone. She offers to take Miyako to visit her parents, something almost anyone understands is a big move. Miyako rises to the challenge. Asako’s father recognizes her and proceeds to conduct one of the most gentle, kind-hearted “what is my daughter to you?” interrogations, ever.

And then we turn once again to idol group Elm. I cannot help but smile and grimace at the weird-ass relationship building between new Elm leader Osamu and her #1 fan, Hato. It violates all the rules and makes Hato wildly uncomfortable at the outset, but when she buy a new guest chair for Osamu…you know she’s stopped struggling to keep distance between them.  It’s a nice, almost gentle contrast between them and the weird, uncomfortable and probably never-to-be-resolved-in-a-reasonable-manner relationship between Eripyo and Maina from If My Favorite Idol Made It To The Budokan I Would Die.

Yodokawa’s art and story remains chill and adult. It’s a breath of fresh air in the middle of all the high drama (even) in romance manga.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Character – 10
Service – 0
Yuri – 10

Overall – 10

Miyako is trying very hard to be less selfish, Asako is trying very hard to be a little more selfish and it’s working for both of them. Volume 5 will complete the story in September.





Spoil Me Plzzz, Hinamori-san! Volumes 2 and 3

May 9th, 2025

by Luce, Okazu Staff Writer

It’s Luce, back with a double review, which brings us to the end of this little series – were we spoiled, or was it more spoiled milk? 

In volume one, we met Hinamori Ichigo, a girl who has looked up to the seemingly prefect Suo Yaya… Only to become Suo’s outlet for her crushing desire for validation and praise! Honestly, this girl is a mess, but what can she do? Ichigo is weak for a pretty girl… Even if they’re kind of pathetic at times.

In Spoil Me Plzzz, Hinamori-san! volume two, Ichigo and Suo go on a ‘date’ – to get some clothes for Suo, whose fashion sense is… non-existent. We meet Kujo Hitomi, the girl who is always second place in their year, angry that she’s always losing out to Suo. Turns out… she needs some praise, too. Finally, after some competition between her and Suo, all three girls end up starring in the film club’s movie – and it’s a romance!

I honestly started to wonder how Suo functions at all with how many things she’s shown to be useless at. It was just too over the top with Suo’s inability to do things. How has she done readings in class if she’s that bad? How is she top of the grade when she’s… like this? Have they never done swimming lessons in physical education? I guess she studies, and I know book smarts aren’t necessarily people smarts, but in the second volume, the gap felt too wide to be the same person. Ichigo makes a good point at the start that kindness gone too far is more like self-sacrifice, and I preferred the vignettes that focused on those kind of issues rather than ‘actually I’m terrible at reading things out loud’. I feel like a more interesting ending might have been that she was putting some of it on for an excuse to spend more time with Ichigo – which would have worked out, seeing as Suo is pretty awkward.

I guess that’s the issue with gag manga – you have to stick to the gag, more or less. Them walking home in the rain and Suo getting drenched protecting Ichigo, only to complain about it? Yeah, makes sense. Her being horrific at reading a text out loud? Too much. I’m probably taking it too seriously, but comedy only works when it toes the line to a degree. It has to be funny within the realms of the universe, not make you question it. Suo having zero fashion sense made sense for her character. I suppose my issue is that it didn’t grow up from the gag very much. I never felt much like there was anything much behind the characters, even towards the end, it felt quite superficial.

All in all, the second volume was easily the weakest. I really wondered where we were going with Kujo – namely, I’m not bothered about love triangles, especially when there is so little thought in them. And I’m really not fond on the uber competitive always-in-second character… Particularly when I can see no evidence that the character in first had done anything for it! You gotta do a bit more than just have a character say they’ll be studying for me to think they’re smart, especially to the point of being first in the year. Particularly when they shown to be pretty useless at a lot of things.

The third, and final, volume balances things out a bit more. We get what could potentially be considered a part of Suo’s inciting incident for her need for perfection, but it didn’t really hit enough for the level she’s at. The ending was pretty cute, and very true to the series, but it also just kind of fizzled out. I wonder that it might have been cancelled.

Overall, I enjoyed it to a degree, but it’s not really a recommendation – if you like silly Yuri, this might be for you, but there are probably better ones out there.

 

Story: 4

Art: 6

Yuri: 7

Service: 5, of course there’s a pool scene, and nobody ever wears anything other than a bikini (a personal gripe of mine, YMMV)

Overall: 5

 

A bit of a swing and a miss, for me. Or a hit, an out and a weak hit. I suppose. At least it was short!





Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 10, (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ)

May 8th, 2025

A girl with long reddish hair in two ponytails, wearing a a pink dirndl-style dress with petticoats and long black boots. She runs away from us, but looks back over her shoulder at us, sadly.Volume 9 left me weak with relief as Eripyo and Maina actually had a conversation. But as we look at the cover of Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 10, (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ), we can see that this volume will be different. All previous volumes portrayed Cham Jam or another idol group. This volume only has Reo. And we know why… Reo is retiring.

This whole volume focuses on the ripples in the water when the well-liked and talented lead of a small-time idol group retires. Reo is not the only one whose life will change. Of course the entire group now will be different with only 6 members – they no longer have a center position! Every member of Cham Jam has to reconcile their personal and professional feelings about Reo and decide if the group is strong enough to continue.

And then there are the fans. Kumasa has been very vocal about how his fandom for Reo changed his life for the better. If she retires, what will he have to look forward to? The volume gets very deep into this because for all three of our resident fans, the group is secondary to the passion they have for their favorite, specifically.

And then…Reo retires. I was kind of surprised, honestly. Right up to the very end, I was just sure something would bring her back. Once again, good opportunities were missed by the management company. Who better to add to the management team than the former lead? But, no. And then they miss the opportunity of centering Maki and Sorane as a lead *pair.* Gosh this management team is a bunch of dipshits. It would have enraged Aya for lulz, as an added benefit. But no one asks me. ^_^; When the management announces who will join the front row all hell breaks loose, not. It’s an insane choice for the business, but it’s brilliant for the story.

I just picked up Volume 11 (spoilers on the cover!) in Japanese and kinda want to see what’s going to happen and also want to bash something heavy into my head because reading this manga is my equivalent of a hair shirt. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Character – 9, except Motoi who is still awful. Thank heavens for his sister Rena, who, even in abstensia, is twice the man he is.
Service – 0
Yuri – Idol/fan lives are complicated.

Overall – 9

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die, Volumes 1-10 are available in English now from Tokyopop and Volume 11 is on the way this month, if you too want to marvel at the ineptitude of Cham Jam’s management in this dark comedy about provincial idols groups.





Galette, No. 31 (ガレット)

May 5th, 2025

On a background of pale blue, with light streaming from above, two women walk by. One with bluish hair walks away without a glance, the woman behind her, with light brown hair, in a black sleeveless blouse, glances back to look at us. Art by pen. We’ve made it to Galette, No. 31 (ガレット)!

Although I thought I was supporting Galette on Pixiv Fanbox, for some reason during the multiple kerfuffles with non-Japanese credit cards, I did not receive issues No. 31 and 32 by PDF. Luckily, Galette is also available on Bookwalker JP, so my current collection is now a higgeldy-piggely mismosh of this magazine in print, PDF and on Bookwalker. Luckily, all I want is to be able to read it and don’t really care what format I have! ^_^ I am a lousy collector and always forget to obsess about complete sets.

This issue does something very important. I was kind of waiting for this to happen, because the story as it existed was wearing on me. Honestly, in Morinaga Milk’s “Watashi no Kawaii Neko-chan,” Yuna has to change. She may well just have circadian rhythms that don’t work with Reina’s and that may be possible to work around, but not if she refuses to even admit there is a problem. In the final pages, after another chapter of watching Reina struggle alone, Yuna *finally* takes a step to figure out if there is a real problem. PHEW. I was really losing interesting in this story, as it just churned over and over the same unresolved issue every chapter.

Nakata Nui’s “Otome no Shinden” is, thus far, a creepy lesbian doll story in which the doll seems the most normal character.

Yukino-sensei is forced to deal with her complicated emotions about Tsukino-sensei in Yorita Miyuki’s “Hokenshitsu no Ano Onna”. Is it time that Yukino-sensei forgets the bias she’s carried all these years?

Once again, I adore the chapter of “Watashi ha Kimi no Kami da yo” by aneido, in which this apparently silly story of a grifter trying to scam a religious cult’s accountant, begins to take on more complexity. Our grifter is falling for her mark, and her partner can see it. Also, the mousy little mark is definitely not naive, and turns out to be quite gay. Will this be the end for our grifter or the beginning of something new?

A fun little one-shot from Hakamada Mera follows a cast of maids at a maid cafe, who end up picking character names from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, adding a maid cafe to the many reinterpretaions of the great heroes of ancient China. Do I love this? Of course I do. ^_^

The second half of this issue makes space for “repeats” of “Himitsu no Recipe” by Morinaga Milk and early chapters of  “Kanojo no Kuchizuke Kansensuru Libido” which Yorita Miyuki has recently published in English in two successful kickstarters. This followed by news of Yorita-sensei’s new kickstarter, which will bring the Kanojo no Kuchizuke Kansensuru Libido Short Movie (彼女のくちづけ感染するリビドー ショートムービー), reviewed here on Okazu in February, out with English subtitles. I’m looking forward to that, as I enjoyed the 3-part movie and would love for it to get a wider audience.

This is followed by the second part of an ongoing prose story in which a young woman meets an older one. Then 140-character tales, a report of the 4-creator exhibition, “Shoujo to Shoujo Yuri Sakka Yon-nin Ten” (link goes to the official account on X).  And of course the discussion pages., an add for Galette, No. 32, which I just finished up. Finally, we get an illustrated 140 character tale by Azuki Kuranbo, a very cute little story about two adults, one of whom likes melon cream sodas, illustrated by mina.

Overall – 9

A very chunky volume, even with the re-plays of earlier stories. No. 32 is next and, yes, to confirm that one says in the back that “Liberty” continues in No. 33, which I have here in print, once again, so I am doubly motivated to get caught up. ^_^

I am still amazed that I am able to enjoy both a major publisher-run monthly Yuri manga magazine and a creator-owned, crowd-funded quarterly Yuri manga magazine that will in a matter of days be launching a Kickstarter for a third English-issue, after two successful EN issue Kickstarters. That’s just amazing. ^_^