This week was a veritable cornucopia of licenses and cover reveals, but before we get in to this week’s news, I want to say this – Okazu will not be reporting on, supporting, or listing on the Yuricon Store, any AI-created or localized anything. All AI in actual existence is “trained” on the work of humans, often without their consent, AI companies have been clear that without stealing content they are not profitable. Equally, the environmental cost of AI is devastating and this planet is already teetering on the edge of no return for climate change. Every AI prompt consumes 20 bottles of water on an already-warming Earth. Lastly, and most importantly – no one is guaranteed success in any creative endeavor, but one is especially undeserving of success when one cannot even be bothered to do the actual work. Okazu is about the celebration of human creation; the art, the stories, the media we make for each other so our stories are told.
That all said, let’s jump into things – there’s a lot of human creative effort to talk about today. ^_^
Yuri Manga
Viz Media took to X to announce the extremely fun license of webtoon Not So Shoujo Love Story, by Curryuku. I guess I haven’t managed to review this, but it is a fun little shoujo Yuri story that I still read when I have time to catch up. I’m pleased that it will be coming out as in collected volumes.
Also from Viz, we’re getting Girl Crush, by Midori Tayama, which Senior YNN Correspondent Sean Gaffney assures us has some non-binary and LGBT content, even if it isn’t a Yuri title.
Kodansha announced the cover reveal for Volume 1 of I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day, by Nachi Aono. This orphanage/school story is pretty violent. Look, I’m just gonna say it – CW: it’s about an immortal little girl who gets her body chewed up in battle, over and over. For Important Reasons. This manga ran in Comic Yuri Hime for a volume or two, then was moved over to their Pixiv Yuri Hime account, I presume because of the loli guro.
We’ll be getting I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 7 of the manga from Seven Seas this month. Fans of Cardinal Lily are in for a treat as we move into Lily-centric territory. Woops, it looks Like I never reviewed volume 7 in Japanese. It was fun with some filler that serves a purpose later.
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Baihe News
Seven Seas has licensed some Baihe!
We’re getting The Beauty’s Blade: Mei Ren Jian by Feng Ren Zuo Shu. According to my Baihe colleague, Douqi, this is an older title. I hope that this leads to a LOT more. And maybe some of the Thai GL novels. …I really want to really all of this stuff, okay? ^_^
Which brings me to my second editorial opinion of this report. Some folks online were crowing that they had “bullied” Seven Seas into licensing Baihe and when I pointed out that “bullying” is a shit idea to get anything, they claimed they were using the term as a joke.
The way to get companies to license stuff is to share it, support it, and ask nicely for it. Tell them you want it – don’t be a jerk about stuff you don’t want. “Companies” are made of individual people working very hard to get us what we want and to make money. Buy the stuff you like, ask politely for more. Fill out surveys. Be positively engaged and trust me – companies are doing everything they can to get what they can, if it will sell. I swear to you.
Also, seriously, my beloved Okazu readers, “jokes” that are mean are not jokes and we all know this. Please do not. As I said on X, “remember to support the Yuri love, suggest more to companies, be kind to other fans and don’t make “jokes.”” I would absolutely hate to see a small group of malcontents make Yuri toxic, when I have been working for decades to keep Yuri accessible, welcoming and kind. Yuri is for everyone, let’s keep it that way.
Also in exciting Baihe news, Taiwan Travelogue, the upcoming English translation by contemporary Baihe author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ (the same Yáng Shuāng-zǐ who wrote Girls’ Love: The Development History of Lily Fan Culture in Taiwan’s ACG Industry 2023 Revised Edition (少女之愛：台灣ACG界百合迷文化發展史 2023增修版), which I reviewed here on Okazu in May of this year,) is nominated for the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature! Translated by Lin King, this story sounds absolutely fantastic. I’ve already pre-ordered a copy, because this book hits every damned button I have and I cannot wait to read it!
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Light Novels
I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner, Volume 3 by inori-sensei is out now from Seven Seas. Review as soon as I have a moment, but once again, it was absolutely worth reading, as there is a ton of new material. It’s not just a reverse point of view of content you already know.
ANN’s Joanna Cayanan & Rafael Antonio Pineda team up to tell us that Gen Urobuchi’s Fate/Zero Novels are getting a musical stage play in 2025. Since that is the story that gave us suit-wearing Saber and Irisviel as a couple we’d like to see more of, I thought this was worth mentioning. Also because I have spent all day singing the Fate/Zero anime opening theme, To The Beginning, for Important Reasons, none of which have anything to do with the fact that Kalafina is getting back together for a January concert. (But it didn’t help to get the song out of my head, for sure.) Rafael Antonio Pineda has the details of that on ANN.
Other News
Animo on X has announced a new pop-up shop for Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau anime, which given the lack of completion of the anime, seems even more like a cash grab than usual. But the goods are pretty cute. If you find yourself in Akihabara from October 11-20, drop by.
ANN’s Alex Mateo has the very interesting news that Kadokawa is running a global “wordless” manga contest. Interesting idea and a chance to get your work out to a broader audience.
We’ll wrap up the week with this article from Comics Beat by Samantha Puc about MISMATCHED, by a graphic novel that “successfully queers” Jane Austen’s Emma. Written by Anne Camlin and art by Isadora Zeferino, Samantha calls this “a delightful rom-com that reads like a movie, with fast, quippy dialogue.”
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In autumn 2023, we got our very first look at the I’m In Love With The Villainess anime. Based on the first two novels of the same name by inori., the anime told an apparently scattered isekai story about Rae Taylor, the reincarnated former employee of an exploitative company, Oohashi Rei, into the world of her favorite game where she is free to woo the game’s villainess, Claire François. The end of the anime came at the climactic moment when Rae makes her love for Claire too clear to be ignored and Claire in turn finally admits that she has a vested interest in Rae. In other words, just as the story was getting good. As fans of the series know, the apparent “scattered” storytelling was always heading towards a very serious conclusion.
