Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – January 29, 2022

January 29th, 2022

Yuri Manga
Kodansha has announced the license of  Is Love the Answer? by Uta Isaki.This book, which is slated for a Autumn 2022 release is “A poignant coming-of-age story about a young woman coming into her own as she discovers her identity as aromantic asexual.” Isaki is the creator of Mine-kun is Asexual. 

Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, Volume 3 hit shelves this week, from Kodansha.

I’m in Love With the Villianess manga, Volume 2 has a digital release this week and will be out in print next week. 

Kase-san and Yamada, Volume 2 is headed our way in February! This is the 7th volume of the Kase-san and… series by Takashima Hiromi.

The American Library Association has released their 2021 Best Graphic Novels for Adults Reading List, and this year it includes Kabi Nagata’s My Alcoholic Escape From Reality.

Bookwalker Global is having a sale on gender-bending and cross-dressing titles. Up to 50% off through February 3rd on selected titles.

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Hayate x Blade creator Hayashiya Shizuru has put a number of Volume 1s of her other series up online to read for free in Japanese on Mangaz.

Via Yuri Navi on Twitter, the Horse Racing x Yuri manga we had no idea we were waiting for! Kimi to Mitai Race ga Aru (きみと観たいレースがある) is available in Japnese, free on Comip.jp.

 

Yuri Visual Novel News

Lilyka is running a Valentine’s Day sale on Yuri VNs purchased through their shop! You have a choice of 20%OFF for each with discount code: GAME20, or 33% OFF – buy 2 get 1 free – with discount code: GAME33 on The Curse of Kudan, OshiRabu, or OshiRabu Love・or・die.

 

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Other News

This week marked the birthday of the most popular Senshi! according to last year’s poll, Sailor Uranus, Tenoh Haruka. I had a lot of fun tracking the hashtag on Twitter for fanart. And OG Haruka voice actress Ogata Megumi drew a picture of Haruka and recorded a message about her upcoming anime and game song festival on her Instagram.

This past week, I had the incredible honor of moderating a panel  for Bonham’s Auction House on nime cel collecting, featuring Helen McCarthy, Susain Napier and Darren Ashmore as our panel of experts. I learned a lot and had a great time. You can watch the video, Inside the World of Anime, at your leisure on Bonham’s YouTube channel.

And it was again my sincere pleasure to speak with Thomas Maluk over at Secret Stacks about Yuri, being a librarian and doing the thing. Take a listen!

Ahhhh! Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir has a cover!

On a completely different tack, I’ve recently discovered a service for pan-Asian shopping that delivers, Weee!. We placed an order from their Japanese store and we’re really pleased with the service, the price and the condition of the food (which included perishables.) If you’d like to give them a try, here is my referrer code for Weee!, use it when you sign up and we both get discounts.

 

Thanks to our Okazu Patrons who make the YNN weekly report possible! Support us on Patreon and Pixiv Fanbox to help us give Guest Reviewers a raise and to help us support Yuri creators!

Become a YNN Correspondent: Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share and be part of the Yuri Network. ^_^

Posted in Yuri Network News | 2 Comments »


My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over! Volume 1

January 28th, 2022

Sakiko is a shy, introverted person. Unsure of herself, she never knows what to say. But secretly, she has a passion – she is obsessed with a pop idol singer, Chihiro, part of a upcoming group Spring Shine. When Sakiko sits down in her seat, she is shocked to find Chihiro sits right next to her! What she doesn’t know is that the creepy, stalkerish fan that haunts all of the Spring Shine boards is *also* in her classroom. Welcome to My Idols Sits the Next Desk Over, Volume 1.

I’m going to be honest here…this book starts out rough. The stalker, Maya, is obnoxious and toxic, bullying an already nervous Sakiko. Chihiro is friendly, but a bit clueless. About halfway through, I was starting to feel as if this book was going in a direction that was deeply uncomfortable to be understood as a comedy. But, then, surprisingly Sakiko makes a move. She includes stalker Maya in her just-forming relationship with Chihiro…and the three of them become, tentatively, a unit.

And that simple turn takes this whole series from zero to hero. In a later chapter, Sakiko decides to join photography club in order to, of course, take pictures of Spring Shine. Her new sempai takes amazing pictures, but disdains pictures of humans. So, Saikiko drags him along to a Spring Shine concert where he finds inspiration!

The art is typical, with a lot of scared, pained, anxious faces at the front end, and a lot of genuine delight towards the end.

If this is the tone this manga is going with, Sakiko becoming the person she can bem  I think I can be convinced to come back for more. The first chapter’s Sakiko was too nervous and victimizable, I suppose is what I’m trying to say, to be likeable. But once she takes the situation into her own hands, the whole story becomes palatable and, dare I say it, enjoyable.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – Starts at 6, but moves up to 7 by the end
Characters – 7
Service – Not really
Yuri – Is one-sided obsession Yuri? The jury is out on this.

Overall – 7

Would I recommend this? Sure, if you’re looking for a quick read that doesn’t ask too much of you… sure. 

Final note: Spring Shine is a great idol group name. ^_^

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 3 ( 私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

January 27th, 2022

In Volume 1, Oohashi Rei, found herself waking in the world of her favorite otome game and free to pursue the villainess of the game, the highborn noble, Claire François. In Volume 2, Rae begins to worm her way into Claire’s life, turns out to be overpowered and adopts a baby water slime that she names Relaire. (I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 2 manga in English hit shelves yesterday! So you can read that for yourselves.)

In Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 3 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。),by inori, with art by Aonishimo, character designs by hanagata, Rei and Claire, along with Rei’s roommate Misha, the princes of the game and other students compete to become members of the Academy Knights, the school’s student council.

The first half of this volume is filled with the battles for these positions…and they give us a better idea of the skills and styles of our main players. I will venture a small spoiler – they all get in to the Knights.  Having been made part of the Knights, Claire and Rae head out into their first task  – solving a late night mystery!

The final half of the book details the Knights’ preparation for the Founder’s Day event, the Royal Academy’s school festival.  The Knights settle on a gender-switch cafe and we get to enjoy the prices dressed as maids, and Claire, Rae and Misha dressed as butlers.

All of this is charming and wonderful, but I’m going to share my favorite panel of the volume:

Look at Thane playing with Relaire in the background! Isn’t that squee-worthy? ^_^

This kind of thing is why I genuinely love the manga. It’s the same story as the novels, but with little details thrown in that really just level it up. Aonoshimo-sensei’s art really adds points to what is already a fantastic story.

Because I bought this volume at Melonbooks again (in order to score an awesome acrylic standee) it came with this lovely insert. There is a comic on the other side in which they play dress down with Lene.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Service – 4 Dressing and undressing
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

 

I’m currently reading Ichijinsha’s brand new print version of the first novel, Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou ~Revolution ~, Volume 1 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。-Revolution-) and I’m not tired of this story yet!

 

Posted in I'm in Love With the Villainess, inori, LGBTQ, Manga, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


If You Could See Love, Volume 1, Guest Review by Day

January 26th, 2022

Hello and welcome to another Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu. I’m extremely pleased to welcome back one of our long-time reviewers, Day! Please give Day your kind attention and don;’t forget to show some love in the comments. Day will be looking at If You Could See Love, Volume 1, by Yeren Mikami, which is out now in Digital format from Yen Press. Day, the floor is yours!

Ever since she can remember, teenager Mei Haruno has been afflicted with a weird ability – she can tell who is in love with whom because that affection appears as a pink arrow to her. The distracting nature of this aside, it’s gotten her into trouble in the past because it’s led to her meddling in other people’s would-be relationships, leading to her own social isolation. Hoping to get away from having to see all these arrows and get a fresh start, she enrolls in a girls’ high school… only to realize that not only are there loads of girls into girls, but that two of them are into her. And they’re both her roommates. Shenanigans and bathtimes ensue.

When I originally planned to write this review, I sat down, opened a word processor… and stared blankly at the screen, as I realized that, despite having read this within the past month, beyond the broadest outlines, I’d completely forgotten what happened in this manga. I did remember that it was a bit bland and not very good, and that there was something to do with love arrows, but that was about it. So, I cracked it open again, and this time I took notes. All of which is a lengthy way to say – this is a really forgettable opening volume. And, wow, my brain sure blurred my recollection of just how wildly stupid the premise and its execution is.
 
Mei is a fairly standard issue manga heroine, her personality lining up with what one could guess from her hair color (energetic, cheerful, not very bright). But did I say cheerful? Oh, how could I forget her dark past (pissing people off by telling their crushes they have crushes on them) that’s made her swear off romance?! Her admirers, friend Sayo and Rinna, are likewise not particularly distinct. Sayo is the childhood friend Mei hasn’t seen in years, and, yes, of course the girl has spent the intervening time pining for Mei… as well as growing very large breasts. Rinna meanwhile is tsundere-ish, and has met Mei previously, although Mei doesn’t remember this; the manga doesn’t quite come right out and say it, but there’s an implication that she’s also been yearning away for our lead for some unknown amount of time before coming across her again.
 
Despite Mei’s repeated insistence that she’ll never pursue romance because of her very sad past, its crystal clear by volume’s end that this is going to resolve itself in a three-way relationship… which is one of the few things I’d give the manga points for. I don’t care much about these girls, but this actually seems the natural direction for the relationship to move in. The other item I’ll grant credit for is that the manga uses the color pink in its otherwise black and white visual scheme to make things like those love arrows, hearts, and cherry blossoms really pop off the page.
 
I’d be hard-pressed to recommend this one, even to the most diehard fans of schoolgirl yuri (goodness knows there’s plenty better series featuring that available in English). It’s aggressively bland, with a bone-deep stupidity to the premise that is never elevated by the writing, nor are the characters engaging enough to make it worth enduring. 
 
Oh, it may go without saying, but there really is NO sense of queer identity whatsoever in this one. Also, I loathe the cover.
 
Ratings:
Art – 6 (its polished while also completely not to my tastes; I smirked over fact that adult characters are indistinguishable design-wise from the teenagers)
Story – 5
Characters – 5  
Service – 4 (surprisingly not pervasive but there is a very extended bathing scene early on)
Yuri – 7 (well, it’s definitely yuri, even if it’s very silly yuri)
 

Overall – 5

Erica here: Thank you so much, for this review, as much for taking one for the team as for giving me a critically needed evening off. ^_^  I’ll be honest, I do not favor Teren Mikami’s work, so wasn’t feeling enthusiastic about this. Blob heads. So thank you for the honest review!

 
Posted in Day, English Manga, Guest Review, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Inside the World of Anime Panel Tomorrow on Zoom

January 24th, 2022

Bonham’s auction house has just begun the very first auction of anime cel art, The World of Anime.

Tomorrow morning at 8AM Eastern US time, on Zoom, I will be moderating a panel featuring Helen McCarthy, Darren Ashmore, Susan Napier and Bonham’s Helen Hall.

Please join us Inside the World of Anime for a discussion of anime cels as art and artifact!

Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »