Yuri News Network – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 9, 2026

May 9th, 2026

In blue silhouette, two women face each other. One wears a fedora and male-styled attire, one is in a dress and heels. Their body language is obscure - they may be dancing, or laughing or fighting. Art by Mari Kurisato for Okazu

This week’s news is looking mighty global!

English Yuri News

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Sean Gaffney, Tokyopop has licensed Hiraeth Remained by Nitamoto. “Sanayama Kazura, a girl who just wants to be loved, discovers that the girl she had been spending all of her money on to look her way has betrayed her. In her moment of despair, she is approached by Yoshibe Kinka, who asks if she would like to die with her.”

Chinese Baihe News

Baiheverse has two announcements this week!  Have No Fear, Shijie’s Here!, is”a xianxia transmigration story created by the independent manhua creator CantNameThings.” The first 10 chapters, along with all future extra chapters, will be completely free to read.  I’ll try to make time for this.

They also have announced the long-awaited collaborative work with nihaohaohaojun, Long as We Have Loved. The synopsis for this reads, “Years later, after another call from her mother about getting married, Zhou Ruoheng couldn’t help but think back on her school days—how, once upon a time, there had been someone she loved.”

Yuri novelist 九夏／Irene309 says on X that they were interviewed by Litmus  magazine about Idol Yuri and several of their novels. They go on to say that they are glad that there can be this kind of exchange across oceans. This interview is in Chinese, but hopefully I’ll be able to find and read it one day. 

 

Korean GL News

Via GirlsLoveInfo on X, Korean GL comic, The Wingless White Angel (하얀 천사에게 날개는 없다: 타락 소녀) “follows a bullied girl who meets someone who feels like an angel… but is she salvation or something darker?” This will premiere this month on Lezhin Snack. I’m guesssing that this is shorter form comics.

 

Thai GL News

Thai GL novel, 4 Elements: The Earth by Salmon, which was made into a live-action drama starring AppleMim, is getting a Japanese translation as 4 Elements: The Earth（フォーエレメンツ：アース）.

 

Japanese Yuri News

Urusekai Picnic (裏世界ピクニック) manga, Volume 16 is getting a May 12 release in Japan and Square Enix holding a release commemoration fair, with extras at every retailer.

Galette WORKS is releasing GALETTE ILLUSTRATION BOOK 06 on 6/6! Fun with numbers. ^_^ Check their website for purchasing links. 

Here’s a classic lesbian pulp-style Yuri novel on Bookwalker JP – Hannari Yuri-iro Onsenkyou (はんなり百合色温泉郷). Mio loses her job and home and ends up working at an onsen…where she and the landlady start a steamy affair. The description warns that there are “lesbian scenes between women.” I actually grinned reading this description.

Via Yuri Navi on X, we have  Koushaku Reijō No Rouraku Misshon ~ Maou To No Seiryaku Kekkon Ga , Jinrui Saigo No Kirifuda Desu ! … ~Tsu Te , Maou Ga Onnanoko No Baai Wa Dousureba Ii No Desu Ka ! ? (公爵令嬢籠絡ミッション～魔王との政略結婚が、人類最後の切り札です！…って、魔王が女の子の場合はどうすればいいのですか！？) is a ridiculously titled story about a young noble sent to seduce the Demon King to save humanity, only find her target to be is a Demon Queen. I’m definitely going to read that nonsense. ^_^

 

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Yuri Visual Novel News

Via YNN Correspondent Roxie, Dance of the Butterflies is “a WLW psychological thriller visual novel with 4 yurious love interests… and no choice that comes without a cost.” This was created by a Vietnamese studio, Parapuro. Wishlist it on Steam!

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Matt Marcus English and Japanese localization for Citrus Summer – A Visual Novel is being worked on! Follow developer team Lime Studio on X for updates.

Studio Lightbulb on X is working on Tsurugaoka no Nanafushigi (鶴ヶ丘の七不思議) “a science fiction x yuri feature-length free ADV”  about a beautiful girl who saves beautiful girls. This is in production, an we’ll keep an eye on it. ^_^

 

Yuri Events

The new permanent Yuri cafe space in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Atelier LILIUM is hosting an art exhibition on June 5-June 17, 平尾アウリの描く女の子展～Girls, by Auri Hirao.

Via Rica Takashima on Instagram, Yume, the pre-Pride Yuri market in Brooklyn, NYC is taking applications! This event is happening on May 31, 2026 in Flatbush. I am going to try to attend.

 

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Other News

Congrats to Anime Herald, for going into production on the second issue of Anime Herald Magazine! The first issue was fantastic (if I do say so myself, as I contributed an article.) ^_^

 

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Posted in Yuri Network News | 3 Comments »


The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, Volume 3

May 8th, 2026

On a background of fiery flowers, a woman in a blue uniform/dress with long pink hair is back to back with a woman in a blue dress, long pale hair and a tiara of dark crystals, weilding flame.In Volume 1 and Volume 2, we met former Office Lady Natori Midori, a woman whose genuine desire to be useful lead her to be fired by her employer. Reborn into the world of a otome game, Natori – called Natalie by the characters – find herself working as the familiar and assistant to the villainess, Lapis.

Natalie is in a bind. She likes the game protagonist, Diana, and wants to protect her from having to kill Lapis. She really likes Lapis, more than just wanting to save her. But the more she tries to protect them from their fates in the game, the more the game world pushes them all to the same end.

What’s a reincarnate to do? In The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, Volume 3, she gives up pretending. Having met the Prince’s confidant, Rubeus, who seems to be manipulating them all for his own (and, unwittingly, the Prince’s) sake, Natalie only sees one way to stop the worst possible things from occurring. She tells Lapis the truth. Then she tells Diana what she can. By trusting in people by whom she wishes to be trusted, Natalie believes she can protect everyone. She and Lapis share another confidence as well. They now know they their feelings are more than just assistant/employer, but there is much more to be said about that.

Rubeus is sending the country down a path towards commoner uprising and noble rebellion. will Natalie be able to stop it? Lapis and hopefully, Diana, are on her side. The relationship between these two is strained as well, so where all of this is headed, we can’t be sure. The story is actually getting a little fraught, but I’m hoping this game gets a well-deserved happily ever after.

Nekotarou’s art is great. While the magic is fairly standard, it’s fun to see Diana use people’s own spells against them.
And in the bonus story, one of Natori’s former coworkers learns that Natori was a decent person and she was the jerk all along. I wonder if that is going to play into the story at all.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – We’re up to intimate embraces
Yuri – 4…we’re getting there!

Overall – 8

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Watashi-tachi no Koi ga Hanahiraku Toki Isekai Renai Yuri Anthology (私たちの恋が花開くとき 異世界恋愛百合アンソロジー)

May 7th, 2026

In 2019 I reviewed the Isekai Tensei Yuri Anthology (異世界転生百合アンソロジー) from Ichijinsha. Instead of interesting and well-conceived shorts about Yuri in “another world,” I found a collection of vehicular deaths and very few original ideas. The cover art was the best thing about it. 

Here we are in 2026 and I was really hoping Watashi-tachi no Koi ga Hanahiraku Toki Isekai Renai Yuri Anthology (私たちの恋が花開くとき 異世界恋愛百合アンソロジー) from Takeshobo would hit the spot but here even the cover did not meet up to expectations.  

We all know that “Isekai” is most cases means being reincarnated into a feudal gaming-style society, with magic, perhaps. And yet, as we look at this cover, we see two women in Edwardian-esque school uniforms? Ah yes, that feudal early 20th century private school for girls.

To be clear, these stories are not terrible, they are just not-particularly isekai, not-originla – full of some of the dullest tropes – and IMHO some are not Yuri.  Hereafter, any story about a maid and her infantile mistress will never, ever count as “Yuri” to me. It’s a bad trope that stomps on several boundaries: Power harassment, classism, and inappropriate age gap at the very minimum. 

There is so much Isekai in existence, and some of it is Yuri and so much of that is decent. I’m In Love With The Villainess, and The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants To Work For The Villainess, Muryoku Seijo to Munou Oujo ~ Maryoku Zero de Shoukansareta Seijo no Isekai Kyuukokuki (~無力聖女と無能王女～魔力ゼロで召喚された聖女の異世界救国記～)…all of these are interesting and create fully realized worlds out of games/fantasies. Unfortunately, this anthology makes little attempt to incorporate isekai, or depict relationships that offer any depth.

The “best” of the stories is the first, “Watashi no Koibito ha Tsuika Kakinsei no Keiyaku Kanojodesu! ~ Keiyaku Kanojo nanoni Mechamechasematte Kurunode Totemo Tsuraidesu ~”『私の恋人は追加課金制の契約彼女です! ～契約彼女なのにめちゃめちゃ迫ってくるのでとても辛いです～』, written by Karasu Piero, creator of MagiRevo, with very decent art by Mizuyu. In this tale a respected, powerful elite guard is swindled by a hustler into taking her as a lover. The thing is, they really do like each other, and share some personal stuff, and it would be, as the story says, happily ever after, if it weren’t just a contract. If there was isekai in this, I honestly missed it. The bittersweet ending was a nice change of pace.

Surely it is not *that* hard to write a short isekai Yuri story without focusing on the death part, as the 2019 anthology did, or just writing the same old maid, animal girl stories but calling it “isekai” on the cover as this one does. The art and stories here are fine, just, not isekai,sometimes not Yuri, and kind of just the same old, same old. 

Ratings:

Overall – 5

 It’s 2026 and I still don’t have a cool knight/princess Yuri story and I’m getting tetchy. ^_^;

Posted in Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Yuri Visual Novel Studio Élan: Creating Queer Arts for Years to Come

May 6th, 2026
Title image of “Our Home, My Keeper”, Studio Élan’s latest yuri visual novel, released on April 30, 2026. Image by Studio Élan. Two women stand in a library or study, one close to us with brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, another diminutive figure on a shelf a white blouse and long black skirt, with long dark hair pulled back by an Alice band

Title image of “Our Home, My Keeper”, Studio Élan’s latest yuri visual novel, released on April 30, 2026. Image by Studio Élan.

by Lena Tama, Guest Reviewer

In 2019, Erica had the pleasure of interviewing Studio Élan, one of the pioneers of western yuri fantasy visual novel (VN) developers in the industry, for Okazu. Seven years have passed since then and the studio continues to publish VNs by queer people for queer people, despite the ever-increasingly hostile internet environment for both the audiences and the studio.

Before the creation of Studio Élan, a studio called Alienworks released Highway Blossoms in 2016, which was well-received among fans and players worldwide. From there, a number of people from Alienworks, including Josh Kaplan, founded Studio Élan and marked its debut with the release of Heart of the Woods, a dark fantasy yuri VN. 

Since then, many more VNs have come out under Studio Élan’s name, which cover multiple subgenres and explore a wide range of gender & sexual identities. In addition, Highway Blossoms also became an official part of their catalog in 2019 and received a major story expansion titled Next Exit in 2020.

In 2026, Studio Élan is publishing three new and distinct VNs:

  1. Our Home, My Keeper. Released on April 30 in collaboration with another VN developer ebi-hime, it tells the story of a struggling novelist who purchases a new home in the English countryside, only to find it already inhabited by a fairy, who occupies a doll for her body.
  2. My VTuber Rival is Actually Cute? Planned for release in summer, this is a shorter and more experimental VN about a VTuber protagonist whose character design is customizable by players.
  3. Summer at the Edge of the Universe, a solarpunk adventure story planned for release by the end of 2026. A playable demo is available to download for free.

 

The importance of women and LGBTQI+ people in VN development

The diverse subgenres and exploration of gender & sexual diversity among their VNs is supported by the involvement of women and LGBTQI+ people, both within Studio Élan as well as their partner collaborators. Josh Kaplan stated that the majority of people working on their projects fall into those categories and have some creative influences and opinions over those games.

“It is always rewarding when someone mentions how seen they felt or represented by one of our games or characters,” said Josh

As such, a number of their VNs also feature LGBTQI+ characters and plot points, whether canonically in the games or through supplementary materials, which resonate with a lot of queer people, including the community on Discord that the studio has built over the years. Some of those characters include Tara from Heart of the Woods who identifies herself as a trans woman in the game, Olive from Twofold who is canonically non-binary, and Aspen from Please Be Happy who is asexual based on supplementary materials.

Among those people involved with Studio Élan is adirosa, who initially joined the studio in late 2017 as a graphic designer. Since then, she became more involved in the majority of the studio’s works in multiple roles, with Please Be Happy being her first major project as its Director.

Reflecting on her works so far, adirosa said, “I have always felt valued and heard at Studio Élan.”

 

Working against the increasingly hostile internet environment

Despite the progress over the years, not everything is sugar and rainbows. In the current year of 2026, the internet has grown ever-increasingly hostile due to global politics, increasing misogyny and hatred towards LGBTQI+ people, particularly lesbians and trans/non-binary/other gender identities, and rampant usage of generative AI (genAI) technology.

As a result, Studio Élan has become exceptionally prone to receiving hate speech and review-bombing, whether on their social media or game store platforms such as Steam or GOG. In addition, genAI technology puts them at risk of getting their arts, such as the artwork and voices, stolen and abused.

Furthermore, the people working on the VNs are also facing an increasing risk of experiencing harassment both on the internet and in real life.

“I’m seeing my friends torn down in modern society and their works disrespected and undervalued. It’s incredibly difficult and heartbreaking, and there’s really no easy answer to this,” adirosa commented.

Key visual for “Please Be Happy”, from Studio Élan. Three woman at a hightop table. One woman with medium brown skin, black collar length hair in white , wearing black boots to the knee, a young-looking girl with animal ears and brown hair. Standing next to them a pale-skinned woman with blonde hair, wearing glasses and a teal apron (over her?) dress.

“Please Be Happy”, a yuri visual novel by Studio Élan. Characters from left to right: Aspen (left), Miho (middle), and Juliet (right). Image by Studio Élan.

In spite of those setbacks, Studio Élan remains optimistic. For starters, they are committed to upholding their integrity without utilizing genAI technology. Josh explained, “We are wholly against genAI for art, writing, voice-acting, or anything else. Our work process hasn’t changed, in that regard.”

“I’m confident that people will continue to seek out and value human-made art and stories, and that our games will continue to find an audience with whom they resonate,” he continued.

Even further, in the face of hatred and bigotry towards LGBTQI+ people in current times, Studio Élan also remains committed to creating more stories and games by queer people for queer people.

“Right now, it’s more important than ever for both creators and fans to support LGBTQI+ art, not just for us but also for all of the many creators who continue making and sharing things despite the pressure to stop. Even if we have to sell them off handmailed USB drives,” said Josh.

 

Moving forward alongside the community

Studio Élan continues to produce and publish yuri VNs and will continue to do so for many years to come, all while fostering a community which stands tall as a safe space for women and LGBTQI+ people. The people working behind the scenes are also hopeful that they’d be able to create more exciting VNs that resonate with a lot of people.

adirosa stated, “I plan to release more games in the future, and I hope that they will be able to make people a little bit happier and maybe make the world a bit of a better place.”

Meanwhile, Josh is optimistic that the studio will create new and exciting VNs in the future, all thanks to the support of the community.

He said, “We are super grateful for the community and audience that we have, whether they’re newcomers or long-term fans on Discord whose name I see every day from before we even released our first game. I hope that we’ll continue to earn our support.”

“I also consider myself incredibly fortunate to be able to keep making games alongside some of my favorite people and to still have fun doing it. Here’s to many more years of that.”

=====

This article is written by Lena Tama, a contributor and queer journalist from Indonesia. She loves all things yuri and will bake cookies & sweets for you!

Posted in Guest Review, LGBTQ, Now This Is Only My Opinion, Yuri Visual Novel | 2 Comments »


Roll Over and Die: I Will Fight For an Ordinary Love With My Cursed Sword, Episodes 4-12

May 4th, 2026

Main visual for Roll Over and Die anime: 2 girls are in the foreground, the one on the left has apricot coloured hair, the one on the right has silver hair and is wearing a maid's uniform. Other characters appear in the background

By Eleanor W, Okazu Staff Writer.

This review contains spoilers.

When we left Flum and Milkit at the end of episodes 1-3, reviewed here on Okazu , a man called Leitch has asked them to retrieve some illicit herbs to turn into medicine for his sick wife. Remembering that the Church has outlawed such magic, they are joined by Sara, a nun who is willing to defy Church law. While searching for the herbs in a cave outside of the city, our main antagonist Dein, (the man who tried to trick Flum and kill her when she first came to the Adventurer’s Guild looking for work) collapses the entrance, leaving Flum and Sara trapped inside.

If you didn’t enjoy the first 3 episodes, then there’s nothing here for you. As I suspected in my previous review, there is more to the Church than meets the eye, but I was pleased to see it built up in such a way that we gradually learn more as the show goes on, rather than just a massive infodump all at once. An abandoned underground laboratory proves to belong to them, and Flum’s name appears in the papers left behind. Flum reunites with Eterna, a witch from the Hero’s party who quit after an argument with Jean, and is furious when she learns that Jean secretly sold Flum into slavery. Dein and his men continue to pursue Flum, and a new character, a blind girl named Ink, joins the group, as well as some other former members of the hero’s party.

Dein is not the greatest antagonist ever created. He is revealed to be a pawn of the Church and gets a disproportionate amount of screentime for how ultimately inconsequential he is as a character, before he is finally killed by Flum in episode 11. I feel the show would have been much more interesting if Flum and the group had gradually built up to fighting Origin as the final boss, but it may be that the anime just wasn’t able to do this in the 12 episodes available so I don’t want to judge too harshly on that basis.

Artwise, the same dark moody colour palette as in the first 3 episodes prevails. Some character designs are more interesting than others, and most of the budget seems to have gone on the gore, particularly (CW) the torture scene at the beginning of episode 12.

There’s lots of potential directions the story could have gone in, but ultimately I did enjoy this version of it, including Flum and Milkit’s relationship. I liked that the show isn’t shy about making their feelings for each other clear. This is about two girls who desperately need each other and desperately want to protect each other and that’s what they do.  Whilst it does lean on the ick and gore a little too much in places, the setting is still interesting enough that I’d watch a season 2 if it gets made (there were potential threads left dangling to set one up) and I’m curious to read more of the novels too.

Overall, if you’re looking for something in the “kicked out of the hero’s party and wants revenge” genre that’s a little different from the norm with some genuinely nice relationships between the characters, I’d recommend giving this one a go as long as you can deal with the gore.

Ratings: 

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 6
Service – 8 if you enjoy gore, 5 if you don’t care for it.
Yuri – 8

Overall – 7

Eleanor has been a fan of anime and manga for over 20 years, and has several thousand volumes to prove it. Since discovering the original Seven Seas translation of the first 2 Strawberry Panic! light novels back in the early 2000s, they fell down the Yuri rabbit hole and never looked back. They can be found around the Internet under the handle st_owly, and live in Scotland with their wife and 2 cats.

 

 

Posted in Eleanor W, English Anime, Roll Over And Die | No Comments »