Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Ayaka Is In Love With Hiroko, Volume 1

January 1st, 2026

A woman in a business suit on the phone looking off to her right, is watched by a blushing woman in a pink off the shoulder dress who crouches down to look up at the other woman.Right off the bat, I need to point out this excellent cover design by Aracelli Ejarque Villegas for Ayaka in in Love with Hiroko, Volume 1.  I honestly think it improves upon the original, which had the word “love” spattered about. This echo effect is outstanding.  We’re off to a good start with this edition from the LoveLove imprint of Tokyopop.

This is this first of three volumes that follows the comedic inability to communicate between life-long lesbian and hyper-competent workplace sempai, Hiroko and her junior in the department Ayaka, who is crushing on Hiroko so hard – and dressing provocatively to that end – that she’s throwing the entire department into chaos.

At the heart of the mix-up is Hiroko’s assumption that Ayaka is straight. Ayaka is full on in gay-for-you mode, with little understanding of her (or any) sexuality. it’s going to take a lot to get this cluelessly infatuated woman and her desperately attracted but unwilling to deal with a straight girl love interest together. As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese here on Okazu, “Hiroko is put out greatly by Ayaka’s flirting. The problem isn’t that Hiroko isn’t interested…the problem is that she is. Very interested. And this apparently straight girl is driving her out of her mind. Poor Hiroko drinks away her pain every night at a lesbian bar, screaming at how vexing this all is!”

Volume 1 comes to a climax when Hiroko goes to her secret and safe lesbian bar…only to find Ayaka and another department junior already there. Quelle shock!

So, the one question that underpins this whole volume is why is Hiroko *so* deeply closeted at work? Japan currently has workplace protections for LGBTQ employees , but if you’re paying attention, you’ll understand that that is not really meaningful if an employer, manager, or coworkers are hostile. As the series goes on we’ll also delve a bit more into the specific personal reasons Hiroko has for remaining closeted.  I hope that this is a comedy which will one day simply make no sense to a young audience because this bullshittery around sexuality and gender will be a non-issue. I look forward to that day. ^_^

Sal Jiang does great faces reacting to situations in which they have lost control. Hiroko will constantly be losing control of both Ayaka and her own feelings, while Ayaka is a force of nature, indiscriminately affecting everything. 

As a workplace comedy, the story needs a lot of misreading the situation and missed opportunities for communication. It is still rather amusing.  It’s also very nice to have a Yuri manga about a lesbian to start off our new year. ^_^

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 10
Service – 5 
Yuri – 7
Lesbian – 9

It’s always good to see another Sal Jiang in English, but even more interesting is the way her work is being published by different publishers here. Seven Seas put out Tough Love at the Office: The Complete Yuri Collection last year, Tokyopop is has this series and Kodansha will be publishing Wicked Spot, Volume 1 in spring! 

Thanks to LoveLove for the review copy, provided to me through ANN, for which I reviewed this book as part of the winter Preview Guide. Volume 1 is hitting EN shelves in February, pre-orders are open now. 





The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All, Volume 3

December 26th, 2025

On a vivid green background, drawn in black and white, guitar picks flying around as in a high wind, two girls look at us. One, in t-shirt and jeans, holds a guitar, the other in blouse and skirt, their hair and clothes flying wildly.We left Mitsuki and Aya at the end of Volume 2 (which I apparently never reviewed in English, sorry!), becoming closer, in a charmingly awkward way. Because of Mitsuki’s rescue of Aya’s previous relationships, her fashionable friends Mau and Chizuru have not dumped Aya. As a result, Mitsuki has found herself adopted by a bunch of fashionable girls, and Narita, who is the nicest narcissist we’ve ever met. It’s all good, but exhausting for an introvert.

Volume 3 of The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All, will encompass the school trip, a music festival, the school festival, exams, and a surprise prom. More importantly, bolstered by Aya and her friends, Volume 3 will give us Mitsuki coming out as the butch she is, in one of the finest comic chapters of the year. ^_^

Sumiko Arai’s manga about two girls bonding over “Dad rock” is absolutely grin-making for this Gen Xer. I don’t have the least bit of nostalgia for the music of the 90’s and 00’s, but I’m enjoying the ongoing soundtrack of this series, and the quiet ways it’s stomping on tropes of coming out in school. 

There are a number of laugh out loud moments as well. “Narita Geographic” make me giggle in Japanese and I was looking forward to reading it again in English. I also just loved the retrospective of Chizuru giving relationship advice without really caring what she said. ^_^

Quick shout out to Brandon Bovia for fantastic lettering.

I imagine that many of use are also following the manga online, so I don’t need to tell you what happens, but I will tell you that Volume 4 will be released in Japan in February and I am ready. In the meantime, it was wonderful that this volume made it in before the end of the year.  This manga is definitely a bright spot in this dark winter. ^_^

Ratings: 

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Yes, Mitsuki in the lesbian uniform of slacks and vest is 100% service
Yuri – 7…8…9…

Overall – 9

We are about to embark on our Okazu Top Yuri list journey and this and a few other titles have been so extraordinary, they will get their own list! Keep your eyes peeled for both lists. ^_^





The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, Volume 2

December 24th, 2025

Cover of The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, Volume 2. Pink-haired girl with a sword and blue uniform, holds a girl in a red dress close as it to protect her.In Volume 1 – reviewed here on Okazu by Luce – we met Natori Midori an over-zealous office worker who, in her desire to be needed and appreciated worked herself out of a job. When she finds herself inside the world of her favorite otome game, she ends up working for, and against, the villainess, Lapis. She becomes Lapis’ competent assistant, passing her knowledge of the game off as psychic abilities. Hoever, Natori knows that this will end badly for Lapis, so seeks to work against the story, so Lapis doesn’t die after betraying the game protagonist Diana.

In The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, Volume 2, by Nekotarou, the plot thickens. Natori, called Natalie in the game, is definitely becoming deeply attached to Lapis, even if she’s ignoring the why. but more concerning than the return affection from Lapis, is the growing jealousy from Diana…and the new attention the Prince is paying Natalie and Lapis. The Prince, it turns out, is rooting for Lapis and her new secretary to figure it all out. 

In a nutshell, this is also the problem. Natori is not very self-aware. We know that because she worked herself to the bone for a company that didn’t value her, and blamed herself for it. We can easily see that Natori and Lapis are developing feelings that are very decidedly romantic…and so can Diana, but Natori is wholly clueless to all of the dynamic within their group. The plot requires this, so we’ll just allow it. But we do have to look forward to a bunch more volumes as Natori convinces herself that it’s not anything real.

Nonetheless! This is actually a cute story. I particularly enjoy Diana’s “anything you can do I can do better” magic. How useful!

Of course, Natori will save Lapis, we know that immediately and it’s never really in question. The story will be a matter of how and when. So far this is a 5-volume series, so we’ll just have to get comfortable with Natori’s low self-esteem and misunderstood emotions and I think I’m okay with just letting it ride. And, somehow I am not tired of villainess stories.  ^_^

Ratings: 

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – not really. A little light skinship is all we’re getting now
Yuri – .05 because everyone in this story is going to be dumb for a while , but it is definitely there and definitely the point.^_^ 

Overall – 8 

As villainesses go, Lapis is nowhere near as villainessy as others I have recently enjoyed. But I’ll be happy to see these two figure it all out.





Comic Yuri Hime, December 2025 (コミック百合姫2025年12月号)

December 21st, 2025

In front of a bright blue sky on a summer day, two young women wear wedding dresses, holding hands and smiling brightly.Woops! I hadn’t had a chance to pick up my books in a while and fell behind two months on my Yuri. ^_^ Comic Yuri Hime, December 2025 (コミック百合姫2025年12月号)  is the final issue with hechima’s cover story….our two young women having a June wedding. ^_^ The cover text tells us that they are 25 years old, and the writing, I think was well chosen for this magazine in it’s 20th year: “Thank you for every shared moment.”

The color pages at the beginning advertise the live-action Futari Escape, the manga reprint and new chapter of the Taguchi’s manga, the upcoming anime shorts for Does It Count If You Lose Your Virginity to an Android? and the Comic Yuri Hime 20th Anniversary Cover Art Collection.

The first story is a new series, by Touma, “Kimi no Sei dakara,  Sekinin totte yo ne” about a “rental girlfriend” i.e., escort, who takes on her first femal client and finds love. There’s a move in there somewhere. ^_^

“Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.” by inori. and Aonoshimo is coming up on the climactic chapter, as Re and Claire face down Dole and lies to Rae about facing things together.

In “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau” Himari finally meets Yori-sempai’s parents and it turns out that her becoming a musician carries a lot of baggage for this family.

Nana has come to an important conclusion about her relationship with Princess Luriam in “Muryoku Seijo to Munou Oujo ~ Maryoku Zero de Shoukansareta Seijo no Isekai Kyuukokuki ” by Tamasaki Tama. 

“Chouuchyuu Yori Ai wo Komete,” by Ashidaka Woz is moving deeper into Ten’s school trauma, as Lulu is jut good and kind and helpful. A threat is on the horizon, though and it is not from this world.

The team’s music video is done in Kashikaze’s “Kimi ga Hoeru Tame no Uta o.” and now it is out in the world to be enjoyed and judged.

Time is running out in SheepD’s “Kanaria ha Kiraboshi no Yume o Miru” but the clothing design is being worked on for a customer and both protagonists are committed facing the future together. Clearly crisis awaits.

A gal agrees to turn into a magical girl as a part-time job in “Majyo’tte Baito-dai demasu?” by Pya. I really enjoyed this take on the genre.

Koharu and Minato play house, and columns look at movies, books behind the scenes of voice acting and more. 

Ratings: 

Overall – 9

A very strong, very fun issue to round out the year. Congratulations on 20 years, Comic Yuri Hime!

The January 2026 issue is already on shelves, with a new cover artists and more 20th anniversary fun.





Belladonna no Koibito (ベラドンナの恋人）

December 18th, 2025

On a stark pink cover, in black and white, a young woman's face, covered in and surrounded by poisonous flowers.I had a very fun thing happen recently! I walked in to Kinokuniya and was browsing on their Japanese Yuri manga shelves, tucked away in the Josei section along with BL titles. A book I had never seen by an author I had never heard of was hanging out with KiniOto and other Yuri titles. So, I bought it. Of course I did. ^_^

Back in the dawn of Okazu, I used to frequent Book-Off in New York City, where I often found odd little collections that contained some random Yuri stories. It was in this way I found stories like “Jukkai Me no  Jukka” in the collection Odamari!. It has been a long time since then, and Book-Off in NYC mostly sells English language books now with a small JP manga section, that gets a little smaller every time I am there. So it’s not very common for me to find a new collection, new author, new story the way I used to. Imagine my joy when I found Belladonna no Koibito (ベラドンナの恋人）by Ruu1mm. 

This three-story collected volume begins with the title story a shadowy little tale of two girls, Anna and Bella. Anna is an artist, but she likes to drawn poisonous things. She is discovered in the deep woods by a beautiful dark-haired girl named Belladonna, who says the she is cursed to poison anyone she touches. 

One day Anna shares some wonderful news, that one of her drawings has been sold, but when she learns that it is she who has been sold, Anna runs away to the forest to live with Bella. Their love grows, but a Prince sees Anna’s portrait of Bella and invites her to marry him. I won’t spoil the ending except to say that even in stories like this unhappy endind are less common than they used to be. 

The second story is about a boy and a girl, but the third story is another tale told darkly about two girls, swimming and things not being what they seem at all.

The art is nicely rough – I particularly liked the way Bella was drawn in  different, more sketchy and loose bur dark style from everyone else in the story. Overall a great introduction to a new artist who does seem to move back and forth between BL and Yuri in their work.  

Ratings: 

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 2
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

It was also really cool to find myself experiencing the joy of  random discovery of a Yuri manga on the shelf here in the US once again. It had been a while and with all the Yuri we’re getting these days in English,  I hardly have a chance to find fun new-to-me stuff in Japanese. ^_^