Yen Press Yuri Cafe in New York City

February 6th, 2026

Pink advertisement for Yen Press' Yuri cafe, with images of a green team latte and The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All coaster, red hibiscus tea and Love Bullet coaster, raspberry lemonade and I love Amy Coaster, assorted sweets and She Loves To Cook and She Loves To Eat coaster.In last week’s YNN Report, I mentioned that the one-day Yen Press cafe had sold out almost immediately, eve with extended hours. Well, in response, Yen has extended the days for the cafe!

The Yen Press Yuri Cafe now will be open through February 13, 2026. Saturday, February 7 is sold out, and they still want you to register with them for upcoming slots.

This is patterned on Japanese pop culture themed cafes, so the basic premise is that when you buy an item, you get a themed coaster. It’s pretty straightforward. There don’t seem to be multiple designs per purchase. Of course we plan on getting one of each. ^_^

Once again, for folks who are in the city tomorrow, we’ll be heading over to Kinokuniya at Bryant Park afterwards, just to hang and have a place to meet. They have a cafe too, and tons of Yuri merch and books. I have a Kinokuniya membership card, so let me know if you’re buying something you can borrow it for a discount. ^_^ I’ll be there roughly from 1:30-4.

Let’s all bundle up for a cold day in New York and warm ourselves with some friends and Yuri. Drop by the Okazu Discord and share your pictures!

Posted in Events | No Comments »


Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 11 ( 雨夜の月)

February 5th, 2026

Cover of The Moon on a Rainy Night, Volume 8. In a classroom, a young woman in a school uniform with collar-length blonde hair plays a piano while another girl with long, dark hair, leans on the piano and watches her.The sports festival has passed, the school festival is in the books. As the noise and activity dies down, Kanon and Saki are picking up their relationship, once again not entirely sure how to proceed in Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 11 ( 雨夜の月)

Photographer Hamaoka has a new idea – instead of thinking about costumes and scenery, she wants to capture Saki and Kanon at school, in their day-to-day activities. She watches them in the classroom, sitting behind the gym and, finally, in the music room. Kanon asks Saki to play her exhibition piece, while Kanon watches and feels the piano vibrations. The picture Hamaoka captures is magnificent and terrifying, as Kanon plainly sees her own emotions for the first time.

Kanon turns to Ayano for advice.who makes some extremely salient, and for Kanon, brutal points. Saki also has a run-in with a student from her former school, which makes her realize she’s been misinterpreting things for a long while, about herself and the people around her.

As the volume closes, they meet up once again. Will they find the bravery and honesty they need to speak to each other? Volume 12 won’t be out until spring, so we’ll just have to wait for that and the upcoming anime!

Ratings: 

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – 1
Yuri/queer – 6/5

Overall – 9 

The story is very much on the edge of Saki embracing (or rejecting) her identity as a woman who loves women, and Kanon as becoming open to romance at all.It’s an awkward moment, but so interesting and critical. This book continues to be one of my favorite reads. Every volume  is excellent. 

Volumes 1-8 of The Moon on A Rainy Night are available in English from Yen Press.

Posted in Kuzushiro, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


#Gal x Gal Yuri, Chapters 1-11.2 on VIZ Manga

February 4th, 2026

Five gal/gyaru-style high school girls pose together in front of a blackboard. From the left is a blonde-haired girl with red highlights wearing a pony tail, a blonde girl in a bob cut with purple highlights, a long-haired brunette with tan skin winking while showing a peace sign, a blonde long-haired girl, and a the tallest, a silly-looking girl with a very long black hime-cutby Matt Marcus, Staff Writer

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Why search for a new lover when I could be dating my bestie instead?” Well, do I have a yuri for you!

#Gal x Gal Yuri is exactly what it says on the tin. Blonde bubbly Yua and the cool tan beauty Reina are high school comrades in cosmetics who decide to spend a year dating each other, and I quote verbatim, “for the vibes.” We see them go on dates, celebrate birthdays and holidays, become the spring festival mascots of their class (and run a maid café, natch), and finish their year-long experiment very much still in love.

And that’s chapter 1.

My instinct is that the first chapter was a one-shot doujinshi that was repurposed for the serialization, but it’s funny how much gets jammed in there before things slow way down for the remaining ten chapters of the volume.

The dynamic between the leads is simple but fun. Yua is so enthusiastic to the point where she is constantly gushing or gloating about her affection for Reina, in a way that disarms anyone who might have looked sideways at an openly queer relationship (notably, they encounter no trouble with anyone on that front). Reina, on the other hand, plays the “straight man” role mostly by rolling with or occasionally reining in Yua’s flights of fancy. But really, this is a comedy series and the jokes do mostly land. Occasionally Yua’s talk about sex makes me want to take a spray bottle to her, but I can’t say it seems out of character for a teenager.

There are other supporting cast members—a pair of twins Akane and Shion, and Yua’s childhood friend Yazawa (a “rocker” chick who is somehow the most head-empty of the cast)—to help round things out. Yazawa takes up most of the air when she is present, but for the most part this is the Yua and Reina show.

Inoue’s art helps carry this series. It’s cute without being too cutesy; the fashion is, of course, well represented; and I find the reoccurring off-brand Instagram posts charming. The one thing I would say I don’t have a firm perspective on is Reina’s skin tone and what it could or could not signify; my bet is that it’s simply an aesthetic choice.

If you like gals being more than pals, this one is worth smashing that follow button for.

Ratings: 

Art – 8 Appealing, reasonably detailed, used well to emphasize gags
Story – 7 Not a lot of plot but enjoyable nonetheless
Characters – 7 Characters are shallow but very charming
Service – 4 One panel of a bath scene, plenty of sexual jokes, lots of gyaru fanservice
Yuri – 9 Plenty of yuri “for the vibes”

Overall – 8 highly decorated nails out of 10

While the first tankobon is available in Japan, the current 11 chapters (plus two bonus stories) are currently only available in English on the VIZ app and website.

Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network. You can find him mostly reskeeting Yuri posts and sports takes on Bluesky @hyperartmarcussan.bsky.social

Posted in English Manga, Matt Marcus, Staff Writer, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Double the Yuri this Month with Okazu!

February 1st, 2026

February is Matching Gift Month and due to the generosity of one of our Okazu and Yuricon sponsors, all Patreon and Ko-fi sponsorships in the month of February will receive a matching donation all the way up to $1000!

This is an amazing opportunity – sponsor Yuri news and reviews, support Okazu writers and help Yuricon continue their promotion of the Yuri genre. Pre-pay on Patreon for a full year, and you’ll even get 10% off the subscription. Patreon also offers gift subscriptions, so you can buy one for the Yuri-loving fan in your life. 

To support Okazu and Yuricon during February, just set up a recurring or annual pre-paid sponsorship at Patreon or Ko-fi and our sponsor will match that up to $1000, automatically doubling your support!

Thank you to our sponsor for their generosity and to all of our Ko-fi supporters and Patreon patrons. You are all an important part of the Okazu family!

 

Posted in Okazu News, Yuricon | 1 Comment »


Yuri News Network – (百合ネットワークニュース) – January 31, 2026

January 31st, 2026

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 Events

Top news this week is that Yen Press is running a one-day Yuri Cafe in New York City on February 7. Seats have already filled, so I will not link to the announcement, BUT! Because the event is timed, due to so many people wanting to join, and some folks not getting a seat, I am taking this opportunity to run an impromptu Yuricon/Okazu get-together.

My wife and I will be at the Yuri Cafe from 12-1 PM, and after that, we will be heading over to Mid-town Kinokuniya. They have a small cafe on the second floor and a Yuri section you can browse, plus loads of Yuri merch.  We’ll be there from about 1:30-4PM.  This is open to anyone, but I am imposing a few ground rules for people who wish to join us: 

 -This is a place of business. Please do not be overly loud, rude, distracting or in people’s way. 

 – Buy *something*. A bottle of water at the cafe, ideally a piece of Yuri merch, a book…something. This is not a public space. We need to make sure that we do not invade their space and use their resources for no return. I know you just came to/ are going to a cafe. That is a different place of business.

– Please be kind and friendly. Say hello to other people who join. Introduce yourself! We are all Yurijin.

– Clean up after yourself. This should be obvious, but just in case, if you unwrap something, or eat something, please make sure you throw away the refuse. 

Thank you.  I look forward to see people and hanging out for a little while. Hope to see you at the cafe and post-cafe meetup. If you are not in or near NYC, and would like to see Yen do this in a place near you, see if they attend a local convention and let them know you’d like something similar. 

Via Takashima-sensei’s X account, Animate Gratte is doing a Yamada and Kase-san cafe event on February 2, 2026 in 9 Animate locations in Japan!

Into the New Lily is a combined Baeghab/GL/Yuri festival happening in Seoul, Korea on May 3, 2026. From my understanding this is combining two events into one. This is a reservation-only event, for people 15 years or older.

Yuru Yuri anime is celebrating a 15th anniversary event, says Comic Natalie. The “Yuriyurararara Yuruyuri Broadcast Room 15th Anniversary Event” will be held at Science Hall in Tokyo on April 19th.

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Yuri Manga

Via Aoto Hibiki’s X account, she has a new manga being serialized in Comic Cune magazine, Kono Koi, Ittan Mochikaerasete Itadakimasu (この恋、一旦持ち帰らせていただきます). She says this is an office romance about a career-driven sempai and a warm and fuzzy kouhai. It appears that Cune is ramping up the Yuri once again.

The Princess Flower of Sylph (Volume 1 of which was reviewed here on Okazu by Patricia Baxter) has gone independent and is being serialized on a number of platforms, all of which are on the Yuricon Store. This fantasy story is a great indie work and can use your support!

Muromaki-sensei reminds you on X that Lilies Blooming in 100 Days is on sale now from Yen Press.

GlamBeat is teasing a new Yuri license – one of 12! – announcement coming soon, on their X account.

 

 

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Yuri Anime

Is it even a Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha anime if Mizuki Nana doesn’t sing the opening theme? Well, luckily the new series,  Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Gun Blaze Vengeance, will fit that bill. Joana Cayanan at ANN has details.

atelier on X has put their Yuri animation No Love 1/2 on archive.org so anyone, anywhere can watch it. This is described as “A cocktail mix of yuri with neo-noir and girls-with-guns.“

Anime Japan’s “Manga We Want To See Animated” Ranking is on and you can vote for a number of Yuri titles! Love Bullet is currently No. 44, Sukeban and Tenkousei (not Yuri, but friendship) is #24, Takane-san and Arashi-chan is #28, and Lonely Girl ni Sakaraenai (I Can’t Say No To The Lonely Girl) is #48!

 

Other News

Speaking of YNN Correspondent and guest reviewer, Patricia Baxter, check out her new article for Anime Herald! Unmasking Neurodivergence in the Manga World.

I am super excited to share the first three books I am editing for Manga Mavericks! All are up for pre-order now:

FISHGOD by Chlona is a completely wacky story about revenge and corruption and monster fish. Meet Jaytle Nish, a man who lost his parents to those fish as a child and a mysterious woman (?) Kasaco, who appears out of nowhere to help him fight them. This book is crazy fun.

Horon of the Closed Country is my truest love of this batch. This fairytale-like story of three people who have lost something important to them, and are traveling together to find it, is haunting and beautiful. Horon’s cast includes two non-binary characters. It’s outstanding.

Sinbad: This is classic shounen manga based on the Voyages of Sinbad. It’s full of Arabian Nights atmosphere and color, and adventure and Sinbad saving pretty girls. It’s rope-swinging fun. 

I’m working with fantastic translators, Trish Ledoux and Mari Morioito. You didn’t hear it from me, but keep your eyes pealed to Manga Mavericks, because Good. Things. Will. Be. Coming. ^_^

On ANN this week I reviewed Wash It All Away, Volumes 2-5. I liked and did not like this series in equal parts.

 

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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 | 2 Comments »