Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – December 20, 2025

December 20th, 2025

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

Thank you everyone who bought a copy of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga during my special clean-up sale. 

Of course you can still get a copy in print or digital online, or at a bookstore near you. It makes a great present for a friend…or for yourself! ^_^

Speaking of gifts, don’t miss our Okazu Gift Guide for this year, with more people contributing, the selection is sure to have something for everyone on your Yuri gift list. ^_^

 

Yuri Manga

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Matt Marcus, Sweet Heat (スウィートヒート！) is a manga looking at the junction of pro wrestling and Yuri. ^_^ Read a sample in Japanese online at Big Comi, or grab Volume 1 by Kosame Biyori.

YNN Correspondent gqll notes that Tokyopop’s LoveLove imprint has pre-orders up for Unnie, I Like You!, Volume 1, a collected Korean manhwa and Yuri Espoir, Volume 5.

Tokyopop has been busy this season. Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Sean Gaffney, we have this announcement of a new license from them on X: The Villainess’ Bride by Kawano Akiko.

And via Sr. YNN Correspondent Patricia B, we have the wonderful news that Yuri Hub and Bookwalker are formalizing their collaboration. Grab your faves from Inui Ayu, Namaniku and others on Global Bookwalker. Bookwalker has a new CEO, J Novel Club’s Sam Pinansky is taking over, and we are told to expect a new look soon.

Continuing the 20th anniversary celebration, Yuri Hime Cover Art Collection (百合姫表紙集 2011-2025) focuses on the third phase of the magazine’s art, in the years since it started doing cover stories.

 

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Other News

YNN Correspondent KaTsu pointed out this article, Baited: A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow and the Anglophone Reception of Japanese Yuri Romance Manga by J Crawford from the University of Exeter.

Burkely Hermann has posted Part 1 of his Top Twenty  Yuri Webomics on Pop Culture Maniacs.

My article on the Manga. Tout un Art! exhibit at Le musée national des Arts asiatiques – Guimet is live on ANN. It was a fantastic exhibit, really worth visiting!

Gundam: Witch From Mercury Mechagurumi Figures Inspire Web Manga says ANN Joana Cayanan. Fun!

 

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Live Action 

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Frank Hecker, GagaOOLala has done a look at the Top 25 Lesbian Series streaming on the platform. 

You can watch the live-action adaptation of Taguchi Shouichi’s Futari Escape on TVer, with a VPN. This a a do-nothing story that should be fun brain candy. I’ll try and watch it shortly and get back to you. ^_^

 

Your support for Yuri journalism and research has never been more important. 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 | 3 Comments »


Belladonna no Koibito (ベラドンナの恋人）

December 18th, 2025

On a stark pink cover, in black and white, a young woman's face, covered in and surrounded by poisonous flowers.I had a very fun thing happen recently! I walked in to Kinokuniya and was browsing on their Japanese Yuri manga shelves, tucked away in the Josei section along with BL titles. A book I had never seen by an author I had never heard of was hanging out with KiniOto and other Yuri titles. So, I bought it. Of course I did. ^_^

Back in the dawn of Okazu, I used to frequent Book-Off in New York City, where I often found odd little collections that contained some random Yuri stories. It was in this way I found stories like “Jukkai Me no  Jukka” in the collection Odamari!. It has been a long time since then, and Book-Off in NYC mostly sells English language books now with a small JP manga section, that gets a little smaller every time I am there. So it’s not very common for me to find a new collection, new author, new story the way I used to. Imagine my joy when I found Belladonna no Koibito (ベラドンナの恋人）by Ruu1mm. 

This three-story collected volume begins with the title story a shadowy little tale of two girls, Anna and Bella. Anna is an artist, but she likes to drawn poisonous things. She is discovered in the deep woods by a beautiful dark-haired girl named Belladonna, who says the she is cursed to poison anyone she touches. 

One day Anna shares some wonderful news, that one of her drawings has been sold, but when she learns that it is she who has been sold, Anna runs away to the forest to live with Bella. Their love grows, but a Prince sees Anna’s portrait of Bella and invites her to marry him. I won’t spoil the ending except to say that even in stories like this unhappy endind are less common than they used to be. 

The second story is about a boy and a girl, but the third story is another tale told darkly about two girls, swimming and things not being what they seem at all.

The art is nicely rough – I particularly liked the way Bella was drawn in  different, more sketchy and loose bur dark style from everyone else in the story. Overall a great introduction to a new artist who does seem to move back and forth between BL and Yuri in their work.  

Ratings: 

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 2
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

It was also really cool to find myself experiencing the joy of  random discovery of a Yuri manga on the shelf here in the US once again. It had been a while and with all the Yuri we’re getting these days in English,  I hardly have a chance to find fun new-to-me stuff in Japanese. ^_^

Posted in Yuri Manga | No Comments »


By Your Side Holiday Sale

December 15th, 2025

Two girls in old-fashioned Japanese-style school uniforms hold hands, looking longingly at one another, surrounded by lilies. Art by Rica TakashimaThe great cleanup continues. ^_^

Give or get a gift of Yuri with By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga, the untold story of lesbian love in Japanese animation and comics!

Free shipping in continental US states (no AK, HI, PR, APO/FPO which is enraging), includes a signed original bookplate, with art by cover artist Rica Takashima.

This offer is while supplies last! If you’d like your books shipped overseas, or rush or anything else, visit the By Your Side page on the Yuricon Store for digital and other purchase options. 

 

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »


Winter 2025 Lucky Boxes – All Claimed!

December 14th, 2025

4 large usps flate rate boxes stacked.It has been a while and I have *so much* (great!) stuff in my office that it was long past time for a new round of Lucky Boxes!

All four premium boxes with media, manga, candy, toys and goods from Japan, and goods from The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All or Love Bullet pop-up shops at Kinokuniya. They also include other flat fun things like artbooks, stickers, bookmarks or postcards which are equally random and frequently bizarre (and often not at all Yuri.) As always, there are random pieces of paper like memo pad sheets and individual flake stickers of random things. This time you might get a fancy little travel pouch full of cards, stickers and candy as well, also cute shit I picked up at Y/Con special to stick in these. ^_^

My promise to you is that you’ll get random things, sometimes in other in random things. ^_^ I assure you that this is all 100%, unadulterated stuff. I have shoved as much as I can into these boxes in hopes that I can walk into my office once again. ^_^

This round we have: 4 Large USPS Flat Rate boxes. They are all the same size, the image is imperfect and makes them look different.

Large Box 1 – $60 – Claimed
Large Box 2 – $60 – Claimed
Large Box 3 – $60 – Claimed
Large Box 4 – $60 – Claimed

***

To be eligible to buy a Lucky Box, follow these instructions carefully. 
Please. Thank you. Failure to follow all of these instructions will disqualify you. It’s not personal, they are all usually claimed pretty quickly and I don’t have time to track you down for a piece of information.

1. You must live in the Continental USA (contiguous 48) only, no APO/FPOs. This is disappointing for me too, so I apologize.

2. You must be over 18, I am not policing books or recipients.

3. Email me with the Yuricon Contact Form with the subject “Lucky Box.” Use an email you check regularly, because I will reply asap. The first person who responds to my email gets the box.

4. *****Please include your name, age, mailing address. ***** Tell me which box you want. Even if you’ve given me your address previously, please include it, I am very lazy.

5. I will contact you at that point and give you details about payment by Paypal. Please be prepared to check your email and get payment out so this post doesn’t linger. Thanks in advance. These will be shipped out asap, as well; the whole point of this is to get these out of my house. ^_^

Thank you and enjoy!

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

December 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

YNN Correspondent Aleril wants you to know that Viz Media is simulpubbing Gal x Gal Yuri by Inoue. Chapter 1-3 are free, more  will require a subscription. I just read the first chapter, it’s absolutely adorable. The translation is 10/10.

Sr. YNN Correspondent Sean Gaffney wants to let you  know that Yen Press has few announcements. We’ll be getting Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury—Vanadis Heart  and See You There, Beyond the Ocean. Our very own Sr. YNN Correspondent Patricia Baxter has this to say on the Bluesky announcement. “This was drawn by Taiwanese artist Monday Recovery, who also did the art for Yáng Shuāngzǐ’s (Taiwan Travelogue) “Fantastic Tales of Splendid Blossoms” novel and graphic novel”.

The folks at Manga Mavericks have listed Butch x Butch Yuri Anthology on their store! Quick disclaimer – I work with MM now as an editor, but this piece has nothing to do with me. ^_^

Via Comic Natalie, Keyang, creator of Throw The Suit Away Together has a short story collection, Don’t Call Me Sempai, (センパイって言うな きぃやん百合作品集) being released by Ichijinsha. Keyyang and other Yuri artists are releasing Osake no Sei ni wa Shimasenkara Yuri × Inshu Anthology  from Comic Newtype  (お酒のせいにはしませんから 百合×飲酒アンソロジー).

Via Yuri Navi, Afternoon Tea ha Ikagadesuka? Watashi to Sempai no, Fujunde Ichizuna Futarikurashi (アフタヌーンティーはいかがですか？ 私と先輩の、不純で一途なふたり暮らし) is being serialized on Comic Walker, drawn by Fumio Fumi and original story by Momota Ro . This is a classic “adult” story of college roommates.

Lastly, via Sr. YNN Correspondent Matt Marcus, Sweet Heat  (スウィートヒート！) is a new manga by Kosame Hiyori combining Yuri and wrestling. ^_^

 

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Yuri Pop-up Store

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Ashley, kashomon on TikTok gives us a look at the Shibuya pop-up store for The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All.

 

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Other News

ICYMI we posted our first Okazu Staff Gift Guide for your holiday gift giving and getting needs! It was super fun to do that with the whole team. ^_^

 

Your support for Yuri journalism and research has never been more important. 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 | No Comments »