The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All, Volume 1

September 22nd, 2024

Because Sumiko Arai’s school life rom-com is absolutely one of this year’s most-anticipated Yuri series in English, I’m going to give it straight to you right up front. You know I have never pulled punches when I review Yuri before and I will not now.

I have read this edition through twice now and Yen Press did a REALLY GOOD job.

I can say with absolute conviction that you should run right out and pre-order The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All, Volume 1, which will be headed your way one month from today. ^_^

Aya is a popular and fashionable young woman, who has a secret. She finds comfort in listening to western rock music of the 1990’s and 2000’s. When she’s by herself, lost in her music, she finds her own rhythm. She can’t share her musical tastes, they are too obscure and she kind of likes it that way. One day Aya walks into a grungy CD store and is blown away by the cool guy behind the counter. As days pass they share music and Aya realizes she’s got a full-on crush. But she’s not the only one with a secret. Sitting next to Aya at school is nerdy background-type Mitsuki….who is the “guy” in the CD store. It’ll take some intervention, but Mitsuki and Aya will start to open up to one another in the first volume of this popular online Yuri manga.

What most first-time readers will notice right away is the unique color scheme. As I noted in my review of this volume in Japanese, “With its uniquely visible color scheme of black, white and a vivid green, new pages of this comic were always super noticeable whenever they came across my feed. The art in this manga reflects the online sensibility too, I think. With unique perspectives on panel structure, body language and expression, this comic feels somehow grounded in street art and manga art at the same time.” You can see how the angles (what we in my house refer to as “Batman angles” after the kitschy 1960s television show) and the breaking of the panel walls, create a dynamic feel to a story in which, realistically, people are mostly not “doing” anything. It’s a great look that I’ve already seen adopted elsewhere.

The plot is not new, but the handling of it is gentle and kind-hearted. Nosy classmate Narita is rooting for these two just as we are – he pushes them into each other’s way in a fun way. Both the angst and the comedy notes hit just right. As the volume comes to a close, a classic plot complication is revealed, which is resolved in a not-classic way, thankfully.

Volume 1 is a fun read that leaves you wanting more. As I said, Yen did a terrific job reproducing the story. The color is vivid and so is the language. Ajani Oloye did a fantastic job on the translation, really nailing the core concepts in English. It felt natural and fun all the way through. I have no criticisms except Yen’s house style for lettering. Brandon Bovia does amazing work and should have been give the chance to retouch more. That’s an ongoing whinge though, nothing to do with this book, particularly.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9 Even the side characters are fun
Service – Admiring the cool onii-san that turns out to be a chick is always great service.  Oh, and page 49. ^_^
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

As highly-anticipated series go, this may well be Yen’s best effort to date. Fun, colorful, charming, you’ll definitely want this book.

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 21, 2024

September 21st, 2024

In black block letters, YNN Yuri Network News. On the left, in black silhouette, a woman with a broad brim hat and dress stands, a woman in a tight outfit sits against the Y. Art by Mari Kurisato for Okazu

This week’s Yuri Network News has been written by Okazu Staff Writer Luce. Thanks Luce for stepping in!

Welcome to Yuri News Network! I’m Luce, contributor to Okazu, and taking over for Erica this week on the news as she’s away in France. Apologies for anything missing – I’m not able to access or read many of the Japanese sites and accounts that Erica may follow, but I’ve done my best to bring you yuri-related news from around the web. Enjoy!

Yuri Manga

Via lexie on X, Sukeban to Tenkousei will end with its third volume. In a machine translated statement, the mangaka, Fujichika-sensei says that they were informed that low sales are the reason they’re not able to continue. Shame – it looks interesting!

Also from lexie on X , inee, the mangaka of yuri manga LOVE BULLET has stated that unless sales increase, the series may be cancelled at two volumes, despite her having a long story planned. Currently not licenced, they give us a buying guide for both the ebook and physical copies, albeit in Japanese. It appears to be a modern take on cupids – instead of bow and arrow, they’ve upgraded to firearms, but the mission remains the same – to get the right people to fall in love. Fingers crossed it can continue, and hopefully get licenced!

From Yuri Times, the complete collection of ‘Handsome Girl and Sheltered Girl’ by Mocchi-au-lait will be releasing in English this week. A college girl mistakes a female classmate for a handsome man, and asks her to a mixer! Unable to say no, and somewhat charmed, Mizuki agrees on the proviso that they go on a date – something she didn’t expect Satomi to agree to. How will she clear up this misunderstanding, and can they continue dating once the truth is out? Signs point to yes.

From the OASG, pre-orders for ‘I Married my Female Friend Volume 4 by Shio Usui are up in various places – the final volume! I need to catch up, but I have been enjoying this tale of two friends who married and moved in together, from the same mangaka as Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon.

 

 

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Yuri Anime

Via Anime News Network, the newest film in the Puella Magi Madoka Magica universe, PMMM The Movie: Walpurgisnacht: Rising has had a teaser trailer released, and is currently slated for release in winter 2025, delayed from winter this year. Additionally, a new smartphone game, Puella Magi Madoka Magika: Magia Exedra is due for release this year. Time to catch up with the time-and-space-bending yuri couple!

Via Sugoi LITE and Manga Mogura, the horror drama ‘This Monster Wants to Eat Me’ by Sae Naekawa may have an anime releasing next year. No sources are stated, but Manga Mogura notes a domain taken of ‘wata tabe dot com’. I’ve yet to read the manga, but I’ve heard very good things from Erica and others about this manga, which came out recently, and the Japanese volumes (Watashi wo Tabetai, Hitodenashi Volume 1) have also been reviewed on Okazu. A depressed high-school girl is attacked by a monster one day, and is saved by another monster, who promises to protect her… to eat her when she’s more grown up. English review of the first volume is here.

Anime News Network has news that ‘Murder Mystery of the Dead’, a party game, will be receiving a TV anime starting in November this year. Teren Mikami, author of yuri light novel series ‘There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless…’ is writing the scripts. Not sure it will have intentional yuri, but there sure are a lot of girls involved. I can’t find any English description of the plot, but it’s safe to bet there will be murder. And screaming.

Possibly yuri adjacent, but via Yuri Anime News (amongst others), a film entitled ‘Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: The Lonely Dragon’ will be released in Japan in 2025. The poster depicts Kanna, so who knows. We await further information.

And via Yuri_SRL on X/Twitter, a yuri mermaid indie anime will be screening during FRENZ 2024! By Ishikawa Naoya, the linked tweet has a short clip, it looks very interesting, involving a mermaid who had been in hiding and a human girl who has now found out! The clip has English subtitles, I hope there will be a way to watch the whole thing. Great to see independent publishers getting recognised.

Yuri Games

From Christine Love on Bluesky, the game Get in the Car, Loser! is now out on Nintendo Switch eShop. From the description there: “Everyone knows the story of how the great hero of legend Agi of Roses fought the Machine Devil and used the Sword of Fate to seal him away for a thousand years. Now, hateful Machine Devil cultist edgelords are spreading terror in order to summon him again, and the Divine Order that rules over our world claims that fighting them before it’s too late would be “just as bad as them.”
Obviously that won’t stand, and that’s why three young attendees of the local Academy of Order and one renegade angel from the Divine Order are heading off on a road trip to take the fight to the Machine Devil and his cultists. Will Sam Anon succeed in her mission to seal away evil for another thousand years, hit every diner along the road on the way, AND make it through a single conversation without blushing over her beautiful companions? The toughest challenges she’s ever faced in her life lie ahead!
A lesbian road trip RPG by the co-creator of Ladykiller in a Bind about fighting for love and justice in the face of indifference, and “discovering yourself,” whatever that means.”

From Eniko on Bluesky, their ‘lesbian fox girl’ platformer Kitsune Tails is currently 15% off on Steam and Itch. The game is compared to Super Mario Bros 3, and the Steam write up reads: ‘Run, jump, and dash across a land inspired by Japanese mythology and untangle the love triangle between three young women on a journey of self discovery. Explore the complicated relationships between kitsune and humans through classic platforming action.’. Sounds cute! Shame I’m terrible at platformers. If anyone would like to play it and pitch a review, the guidelines can be found on the sidebar of the Okazu website.

 

 

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Events

From rero on X/Twitter, real name Kasumi Nakamura, they will be participating in two events.
Firstly, on October 12th-13th, is the ‘Waseda Workshop on Sexuality: Japanese and International Perspectives’, where they will be talking about “how the maids in maid cafes manage the intimacy between maids and customers”. From the program, later on the 12th after their talk is one entitled ‘Dating Preferences and Sexual Orientation’ from Raja Halwani and another entitled ‘Intimate Relationships between Adult Women in Japanese Yuri Comics’ from Reika Shinoda. The program is running from 10:00-17:20 in Japanese Standard Time, but the official language will be English. I hope I’ll be able to catch some of this, although the timing may not be very easy with time zones.

Secondly, on November 1st, Nakamura-san will be a commentator on a lecture by Thomas Baudinette, ‘Exploring Queer Fantasy Work in Idol Fandom Culture Across East and Southeast Asia’. This is a Zoom webinar running from 14:00-15:00 JST, but again will be in English. This looks to cover the positives aspects of idol fan culture in Japan, but also in Korea, the Phillipines and Thailand.

James Welker will be speaking at an event in Tokyo about his new book, ‘Transfiguring Women in Late Twentieth-century Japan’. The event will take place at 18:00-19:30 JST on Friday October 25th at Sophia University. In person only, but pre-registration is not required, so show up and support if you’re able!

Finally, Shortbox Comics Fair is coming back! For the entirety of October, there will be over 100 short comics by various artists for sale on the site. This normally includes many queer focused comics, although topics and ratings vary widely. Support some artists! Everything is digital, so no posting fees either, just good comics, delivered straight to your inbox.

 

If you’d like to support Yuri journalism and research, Patreon and Ko-Fi are where we currently accept subscriptions and tips.  Our goal now, into 2024, 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 »


Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Volume 5

September 20th, 2024

The end is nigh in Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Volume 5.

There were never many humans in Ashinano Hitoshi’s story, and now most of them have left. The grass has filled in even more of the space around Cafe Alpha, fewer and fewer people visit. Long days pass in which Alpha reads and thinks about the humans who used to occupy this space. Why are there lights that look like streetlights along the unused paths? She spend time with Maruko, who is working with Kokone now and Kokone whose love for Alpha is visible to even Makki-chan.

Takahiro is gone, Makki follows after him, they have a child. Alpha remains. And when she goes home, Kokone is there to welcome her.

In this final volume we learn nothing new at all. We’ll never know why humanity is dwindling. All we know is that there is a world out there and it’s our choice to see what there is of it. Perhaps we should stop at a local cafe, greet the woman behind the counter and think of Cafe Alpha, a place we can never visit, but which will life with us for the rest of our lives.

May the night of humankind be one of utmost peace.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

From the bottom of my heart, I thank the team at Seven Seas for this omnibus edition. I never imagined I’d be able to share my love of this series with you all.

Posted in English Manga, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


The Loyal Pin

September 18th, 2024

Promotional poster for the series The Loyal Pin, showing Freen as Pin and Becky as Anin.It’s been less than two years since Rebecca Patricia Armstrong and Freen Sarocha Chankimha put Thai live-action yuri on the map with their appearances in GAP: The Series. GAP racked up hundreds of millions of views and inspired a host of other Thai yuri series seeking to match its success. Becky and Freen have now returned to put to flight the pretenders to their throne, in their new series The Loyal Pin, based on the novel of the same name by Mon Maw. (The Loyal Pin is currently streaming on YouTube; this review covers the show through episode 7 of 16.)

The “throne” is almost literal in this case, as The Loyal Pin, a period piece set in the 1950s on, tells the story of Princess Anin (Becky), a member of the Thai royal family, and Lady Pin (Freen), her childhood friend and (as the series progresses) lover. Unlike GAP (for which its production company Idol Factory famously had no sponsor), The Loyal Pin is lavishly funded (by the Thai Ministry of Commerce, among others). Every baht of that shows up on the screen, from the beautiful sets to the top-notch cinematography to the lovingly-photographed Thai cuisine. As befits what is in many respects an advertisement for Thailand (part of the Thai government’s “soft power” strategy), The Loyal Pin also presents an idealized view of a (fictional) Thai royal family, depicted (at least thus far) as uniformly nice people.

To put it simply, The Loyal Pin is a romantic fantasy of a princess finding true love — except that in this case the princess is a lesbian. Princess Anin and Lady Pin have been extremely close since they were children, when Pin was adopted by her aunt (another princess) after the death of her parents. While Pin is attending university, Anin returns from studying abroad in England to express her “burning desire” for Pin. Pin, an introverted young woman (and outranked by Anin to boot) is initially reluctant to respond in kind, but eventually gives in to her own desires. But trouble is on the horizon: now that their studies are over, Anin and Pin will no doubt be expected to marry eligible suitors arranged for them. Anin has rejected a multitude of hopefuls thus far, and may escape that fate (there is real-life precedent for this), but it’s likely that Pin cannot. The remaining episodes of the series will presumably see this drama play out.

Freen and Becky’s previous appearances in GAP and other works and their history as an Idol Factory-promoted khu jin or “imagined couple” have given them a level of trust and comfort with each other that makes their characters’ on-screen romance completely convincing. Becky has improved her acting since GAP, and effectively portrays a princess who can be imperious with servants and would-be suitors, and dominant in her love scenes with Pin, but who is ultimately subject to the constraints of her position as a young woman in a patriarchal family.

Freen has less dialogue and the character of Pin is shy and retiring, but she compensates for it using her eyes, facial expressions, and gestures to convey Pin’s emotions. The camera focuses on her when Pin finally confesses to Anin, and rightly so — it’s an achingly romantic scene. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Nam Orntara Poolsak, who plays Anin’s maid and confidante Prik. Nam, who played Sam’s friend Jim in GAP, is truly hilarious as the wingman for Anin and Pin’s relationship; she deserves to have a lead role someday in her own show.

Ever since GAP, fans have been waiting for “FreenBecky” to appear on screen again. Another production company featured them in the science fiction film Uranus 2324, but that movie has not yet been widely released outside Thailand. Now with The Loyal Pin Idol Factory has created a more than worthy successor to GAP, one that further cements Freen and Becky’s position as Thai yuri royalty.

Story — 8
Characters — 9
Production — 9
Service — 5 (sensual without being explicit)
Yuri — 10
LGBTQ — ? (a final score must wait until the full plot plays out)
Overall — 9

Incredible production values, an affecting story, and solid performances by Freen and Becky make The Loyal Pin the best Thai live-action yuri series to date, a sapphic storybook romance that should delight their current fans and attract new ones.

Posted in Frank Hecker, Live Action, Staff Writer, Thai Drama | No Comments »


The Executioner and Her Way of Life Manga, Volume 5

September 16th, 2024

A girl with blonde hair tied up in a black bow, in blue and yellow, holds her hand up and out, palm facing us, as she powers up for a spell.As you know if you read Okazu regularly, I have been following the Light Novel series by Mato Sato, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, and the resulting anime. I haven’t, however, had a chance to read the manga at all and wanted to see how it holds up. Since I know the story, I felt it was perfectly acceptable to jump in at any volume. Thanks to the generosity of Yen Press, I have a review copy for just that purpose. So, here I am, beginning with The Executioner and Her Way of Life Manga, Volume 5, with character designs by nilitsu, illustrated by Ryo Mitsuya. 

Also, as you may remember, I have not been a fan of the art for the Light Novels, as they until recent volumes favored portraiture over illustration – a common enough issue in Light Novels and artist alleys alike. Overall, I find the manga artists for Light Novels have to do a great deal of work – especially in early arcs – to build up the look and feel of a world. I say especially, because in many cases, Light Novels that began as webnovels aren’t really fully featured in the writing, either. But now, having gotten to the 8th volume of this series in Light Novel and finding both story and character settling in to a fairly rich narrative, how would it feel to step backwards to those early days?

It wasn’t bad, honestly.

Mitsuya-sensei does a very solid job of conveying both the horror of the Human Error “Evil” and the action of the fight, in a way that the narrative did not fully communicate. The art still does not portray Menou as an unusual beauty, although Akari’s chest is portrayed as prominent. I do think that going forward the use of the word “boobs” is going to have to be a point off, though. Like “spicy” for a book with sex scenes, breasts, chest, decolletage even, but boobs will always feel infantile to me. As does the portrayal of said breast tissue moving in ways that they certainly do not naturally move. That said, due to the original character designs being followed pretty closely, it was easy to recognize everyone on sight.

A story like this, with a great deal of fighting, action and dramatic spellcasting really seems to do better with a more visual medium. I had enjoyed the anime, which did a decent job of paring down some of the early story building. Jumping into the manga at this point, might not be something a new reader could do, but I was able to skip a lot of the clumsiness of the early arcs.  This story still is an isekai, but it is not just a “game world” or a simple reflection of generic feudal life. The history and politics – and the magic use – in this world are worth delving in to.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7 (not my favorite arc, the story will get better from this point on)
Characters – 7 People’s motivations are still a bit muddy, something else that will become clearer as the story progresses
Service – Besides the aforementioned breasts, shockingly little in this volume
Yuri – 4 Momo’s feelings for Menou, toxic as they are, Menou’s feelings for Akati, as unfocused as they are

Overall – 7, but I hope to move quickly past this arc into the Mechanical Society arc, which I quite liked.

 

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | No Comments »