YRHM

September 18th, 2025

On a background of pale blue, with sparkling spot gloss on gems in their hair and clothes, two girls with silver hair touch each other. One looks directly at us, the other looks back over her shoulder at us.YRHM, the 20th anniversary Comic Yuri Hime Yuri manga anthology, features 9 original stories by creators that have found significant success with the magazine. It begins with a sparkling spot-glossed cover by current cover artist hechima, includes an illustration by Aononachi and then launches into stories by Aonoshimo, Iwami Kyouko, Kashikaze, Kodama Naoko, Saburouta, Takesmia Eku, Miman, Manio and Yuama. 

A few of the  stories really stood out, especially the initial story, “Seishun CONTINUE?”. This story of an energetic and outgoing girl who meets a (clearly) sheltered young lady, who she introduces to a game arcade, is goofy and very fun as their flirting takes the form of competition in games. This was particularly enjoyable as it is by Saburouta, best know for the glowering faces of Citrus.

A number of the stories felt very much like a “story by /artist/” with both recognizable art and themes, which is not to say they were not entertaining. Miman looks at two girls in school who learn how to communicate their feelings with puppets (a plot I initially felt would be cringe, but found much less awful than expected). Yuama’s story about a popular girl and a not-popular girl did something I appreciate, when the less popular girl fights back against attempted sabotage. I again struggled initially with Takeshim Eku’s story “Bunny Girl Hiroimashita” but it ended up being a rather touching little  treatise on grief.

As an emblematic celebration of twenty years of Yuri manga from a publisher that has set the standard thus far, this is a fine anniversary anthology. 

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Would I have liked to see some experimentation? Sure, but you go with what sells and, since this was selling the magazine’s anniversary, it makes sense to have names and themes that work. It was plenty entertaining.

If I have a single complaint it is that the cover acknowledges us. I don’t much care for poses where the couple are looking at us, the reader and much prefer when they are looking at one another.

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Magazines, Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, Volume 1

September 17th, 2025

Cover of The Fed Up Office Lady Wants to Serve The Villainess volume 1. A smug, statuesque blonde in a dark dress dances with a brunette in red, who looks confused.Hi all, I’m Luce, back with a look at this new Yuri isekai manga, The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, by Nekotarou.

Natori Midori works in an office, trying her best to help everyone out with their tasks… and ends up getting let go over it, as she accrues too much overtime. Feeling lost, she turns to her favourite mobile game, “A Fairytale of Jewels,” for comfort – only to find herself in the middle of a familiar summoning ritual, the summoner being Lapis Tenebrae, the commoner-hating antagonist of the mobile game! Is this where Natori can find a place to belong? And in the name of her own job security as a familiar, can she steer the story such that Lapis doesn’t die at the hands of her fiancé, the crown prince?

Natori is one of those relatable protagonists in a way that’s appealing to an adult audience. Stuck in a low paid job, trying her best so she might get promoted, although it ends up backfiring. Envious of friends who are doing better than her, feeling like she’s tried and tried and gotten nowhere at all. We’ve probably all been there at one point or another. However, she also succeeds as a protagonist because she has personality. She’s not meant as a cookie cutter human shaped character to put your wishes onto, she interacts with the story. Moreover, it’s relatively novel to have an adult isekai-er, rather than kids.

Which brings me neatly to Lapis. She starts the mobile game story as a friend, then betrays the main character Diana, as she is extremely classist and wants to wipe out all peasants. A motive I honestly don’t understand – if you wipe them all out, who’s going to work for the nobility? I’m pretty sure society would quickly collapse in a world with only nobility, but then again, she is a villainess in a mobile game, and clearly not meant to win. Just struck me as an odd thing to want. She is cold and aloof… in general. However, she’s also very prideful and observant, leading to a cute moment where she recognises the thoughtfulness behind Natori’s actions.

The elephant in the room, then, is that these two are clearly being paired up. And it’s really cute! I hope that Natori can mellow Lapis out and start to enjoy their time together (once she works it out…). Something that might turn people off is that Natori is 25 and Lapis is 15/16. It doesn’t really read as an age gap to me, mostly because Lapis acts in a very mature way befitting her station, and is also drawn as looking older, while Natori is a bag of nerves a lot of the time, but it is there, and I thought I’d warn people in case that’s a big nope for them.

Aside from that, Lapis’ in-game friend, Diana, is a good example of how the characters aren’t acting on the rails of the story, but reacting to the events happening. Natori is concerned to a degree that she’s changing the story, but to keep Lapis alive, she will need to. I’m very interested to see where this goes, whether Natori can change Lapis’ mind about commoners in time to save her, and how things will evolve between her, Lapis and Diana, who has latched onto Natori instead of the prince.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story- 7
Characters – 7
Service – 5, as Lapis has the typical ‘villainess style’ body, i.e., huge breasts and very flat stomach. The camera doesn’t leer too much, but it’s present
Yuri – 8

Overall –  8

Volume 2 will be hitting EN shelves in December, so we’ll se where this goes.

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Galette Magazine 03, Special English Edition

September 15th, 2025

In front of a night-time background of purple, dark blue and black, two women look at us, one embraces the other as she turns to look back over her shoulder. art by pen. After a tumultuous summer, I am finally catching up on some reviews that have been lingering, including the third and for now, final, Galette Special English Edition. Because of the tariffs on items coming from outside the United Stated and the uncertainty about shipping, Galette Works has postponed the 4th issue Kickstarter, but I am hopeful that we’ll hear something soon.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at Galette Magazine 03, Special English Edition from Galette Works, from the Kickstarter.

These English editions are not serialized the same as the quarterly Japanese magazine. With a number of chapters at a time from some of the longer running serials, it gives each story more permanence for me. I like it.

The book begins with cover sleeve and cover art by pen, with color illustrations by pen and the contributors to the magazine. Of course the bulk of the magazine is filled with contributions by Milk Milk, Mera Hakamada, Ringo Hamano, Haru Hatosaki, Miyuki Yorita, Izumi Kitta x Momono Moto and Nekohariko 22 for 226 pages of creator-owned Yuri manga!

My favorite moments in this issue are in Hakamada’s “Fluffy, Fuzzy, Dreamy” where playing Oscar and Andre leads a girl to begin to understand herself, but not her partner, and Hamano’s”Sky Blue Melancholic” – this is when Bun starts to really see the people around her and understand a bit more about herself.

My backing level for this issue gave me a cute little standee of Tsukino and Yukino from “That Woman In The Infirmary” – let me take a moment to once again offer kudos for that translation –  and postcards by the creators. Once again a very worthy project.

I know this has been a difficult time for everyone with a man with the business acumen of a 4 year old making everyone jump for the lolz, but hang in there and let’s show our support to Galette No. 4 when it does launch. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Posted in English Manga, Galette, Magazines | 1 Comment »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 13, 2025

September 13th, 2025

A blue silhouette of a girl with a white flower in her hair, embracing the earth. Blue block letters read YNN Yuri Network News. Art by Lissa P. For Okazu.

Yuri Manga

After 15 years, Otome no Teikoku (オトメの帝国) is ending. The 20th and final volume ships in December. Anita Tai has the news on ANN.

Ikuta Hana (creator of the reborn Bakumatsu souls as high school girls series Oni to Yoake,) has a new series, Niseai Honai, (ニセアイホンアイ) about a college student and a entertainment veteran who are paired as a “Yuri business” couple to avoid any scandal with men as they work, who fall in love.

Comic Natalie reports that Dr. Pepperco (Goodbye, My Rose Garden) has a new comic beginning in Comic Cune magazine – which is celebrating a 10th anniversary! In Aruiwa Watashi no Meitantei (或いは、私の名探偵) two girls team up to solve mysteries.

Chou Fuka Uchuu Yori Ai o Komete, Volume 1 (超深宇宙より愛をこめて)  has hit shelves in Japan. This story about a large-bodied alien princess and an outcast human high school girl is absurdly heartwarming. It’s being serialized in Comic Yuri Hime.

Miyazawa Iori’s novel U ha Uchuu Yabai no U! (ウは宇宙ヤバイのウ！) about a girl whose life is changed by an alien who arrives in a meteorite, is being adapted into a manga by Piyopiyomaru with illustrations by Imai Tetsuya.

Aidetai no Sensei (愛でたいセンセイ) is a personality gap/age gap comedy about a gym teacher and the new teacher at her school, by Takano Haru. 

And one more about aliens! In Project Yuriforming! (プロジェクト・ユリフォーミング！) Lily, a Yuri-loving alien comes to Earth to create a better world for Yuri.

According to Takashima Hiromi-sensei on Bluesky, Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 5 is headed to JP shelves in December. (山田と加瀬さん。)

 

Yuri Doujinshi

Gomandoru has put their Strawberry Panic! doujinshi, Until Spring Comes up in English for purchase on Booth.pm. Take a look and throw them a few bucks for the fun look backwards.

Yamino is offering a physical edition of their popular Sailor Moon doujinshi Kissing Game.

And Laurz Drawz on Bluesky offers a sneak peek at their upcoming sapphic sports comic One on One. With real sports!

 

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Yuri Visual Novels

Autumn is Yuri season on Steam!

Right now on Steam is Citrus Season, presented by Winfield Games. The listing on these are “with Yuri undertones” which is pretty thin, but take a look and see what you find.

Hosted by Studio Élan is the Fall In Love Festival,  coming soon from September 24-October 1. The link is not live until the 24th, but we’ve already had a number of demos posted for this event including Comet Angel and Distant Oceanic Getaway reviewed here on Okazu. Studio Élan also recommends these public demos: 

Lock & Key: A Magical Girl Mystery is a modern fantasy yuri visual novel following a married pair of ex-magical girls on one last mission—to solve a string of crimes and catch a murderer.
 
Summer at the Edge of the Universe is a solarpunk LGBT+ romance of cosmic wonder, following a group of prior high school friends on one last vacation before they part for good.
 
Canvas Menagerie is a slice-of-life boys love romance about a trans TV actor getting a lead role in a major production and falling for his workaholic celebrity co-star.
 
Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon is a Victorian vampire otome game following a young woman who finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery—or two.

 

Yuri Anime

ANN’s Alex Mateo has the news that Kamiina Botan, Yoheru Sugata wa Yuri no Hana (上伊那ぼたん、酔へる姿は百合の花) anime will premiere in April 2026 and has announced some new cast.

 

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Yuri Live-Action

Comedy travelogue and slacker slic- of-life series Futari Escape by Taguchi Shoichi is being adapted into a live-action series, beginning in October and starring two Nogizaka 46 members Iwamoto Renka and Tomiri Nao.

Via Comic Natalie, Thai GL novel Cranium! is being adapted into a manga in Japanese and Thai simultaneously and is expected to get a live-action adaptation in 2026.The story follows doctoral classmates Pinya and Busaya, who fell out of touch. They meet again to identify the victims of a charter plane crash, but their discovery of a skull that does not match the body draws them into a complex mystery. This sounds good.

We’ve launched a new Yuri research project in three languages! If you like Yuri/GL Live-action series, please take our short survey in English, Spanish or Portugese!

 

 

Support Yuri journalism and research and help us celebrate our birthday! Patreon and Ko-Fi are where we currently accept subscriptions and tips.  Our goal now, into 2025, is to raise our guest writers’ wages to above industry standard, which are too low!

Your support goes straight to paying for Guest Reviews, folks helping with videos, site maintenance, managing the Yuricon Store and directly supporting other Yuri creators. Just $5/month makes a huge impact! Become part of the Okazu family!

Become a part of the Yuri Network, by being a YNN Correspondent: Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share with us.

Posted in Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


Yuri Research Project: Yuri/GL Live-action Series

September 12th, 2025

Exciting news here at Okazu! We are launching a brand new piece of Yuri research for 2025! Okazu Staffer Frank Hecker and I are taking a look at the way folks who watch Yuri/GL live-action series online. 

If you have watched a Yuri/GL series on Youtube or streaming service, please take one of our short surveys. You are invited to  give us an email if you are open to further interview.

We are conducting online surveys in three languages: 

In English

En Español
Translation by Sara Amaya-Revolo

Em Português
Translation by Alice Coelho

Thank you very much for assisting with our research!
¡Gracias por tu tiempo y tu ayuda con nuestra investigación!
Agradecemos o seu tempo e a sua ajuda com a nossa pesquisa!

Posted in History of Yuri, LGBTQ, Live Action, Okazu News, Yuricon | 1 Comment »