Galette, No. 30 (γ‚¬γƒ¬γƒƒγƒˆ)

April 27th, 2025

Pale blue background with yellow, white and green ribbons, pixelated letters in orange read "Ribbon of Fate". Art by pen. Still working my way through the backlog of Galette magazines, which brings me to Galette, No. 30 (γ‚¬γƒ¬γƒƒγƒˆ).

Aneido’s “Watashi ha Kimi no Kami dayo”, which has the best English tagline of “Oh my God! Yes, I am your god” continues the delightful story of a grifter who is working on seducing the apparently innocent accountant for a religious cult, by pretending to be her god. Everything about this is wonderfully ridiculous.

Morinaga Milk’s Yuna mopes around because Reina will not handle her issues in “Watashi no Kawaii Neko-chan.” I need to spoil a bit here. Because I am now several issues ahead of this, I can say it gets better, but this was really a last straw for me. IF the story just kept going down this road, I was going to drop it. I wasn’t having fun watching Reina be oblivious to Yuna’s suffering while simultaneously ignoring her own health.

Yorita Miyuki’s “Houkenshitsu na Ano Onna” has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Those of you who are getting the English-language edition of Galette magazine are encountering a drab teacher and the glamorous women in the infirmary who obsesses her. It is becoming clearer than Tsukino-sensei and Yukino-sensei might actually be okay together.

I love Yamada Torico’s “That girl day in the life” for a number of reasons. The protagonist name is Seoyun, it’s nice to see a Korean name and it’s a refreshing change of pace from fourteen million ‘Hana”s and the like. ^_^ Her best friend who is making her question her feelings is a carefree and fun girl, but not reckless or dangerous. It’s just…sweet.

Momono Moto offers us a new work, since Kitta Izumi has backed off of writing Liberty. I’m sorry about that, but glad to see her sticking around.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

More manga, 140-character stories, Yuri discussion and illustration fill out a nice 216 page volume of Galette. I’ve already read No. 31, and hope to review that soon, as I am still trying to catch up. ^_^

This week, backers of Galette Special English Edition #2 were informed that May will see the next Kickstarter for Issue #3 (of an initial 7 planned.) We’ll be sure to let you know when that launches!



Yuri Network News – (η™Ύεˆγƒγƒƒγƒˆγƒ―γƒΌγ‚―γƒ‹γƒ₯γƒΌγ‚Ή) – April 26, 2025

April 26th, 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.Last post of April already! Time is moving fast this year!

Yuricon News

Two quick items. We have committed to a collaboration with Hand Design Co. to give a new look and functionality to the Yuricon site. This is the first new site we’ll have there in a decade. I coded the first three Yuricon sites myself, then had rebuilds in 2006, 2012ish and now. This will be a big undertaking, so if you love our weekly news roundups, event reports, interviews and reviews, now would be a GREAT time to become an Okazu Patron or Ko-Fi Supporter!We’re starting by getting updates on the Yuricon Store done, we’re on the last few sections now, and I am hopeful that this look will last us another decade. ^_^

Thank you to all our Patrons and Supporters for helping us to get to this point.

 

Help us build a new Yuricon!
Become an Patron today!

 

Secondly, here is my speaking schedule thus far this year:

    • CitrusCon – June 20-22 online
    • Flamecon – August 16-17, New York
    • BlymeCon – Aug 31-Sept 1 online
    • University talk (TBD end of October)
    • Y/CON  – November 14-15, Paris

Of course I would love to speak to your organization, class or at your convention! Contact me and we’ll work something out. ^_^

 

Yuri Manga

Galette No. 33 (γ‚¬γƒ¬γƒƒγƒˆ)  is up on the Yuricon Store and so is Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 14 (δ»˜γεˆγ£γ¦γ‚γ’γ¦γ‚‚γ„γ„γ‹γͺ ) the final volume of Tamifull’s series.

To backers of Volume 2, Galette WORKS has announced the upcoming Kickstarter for Galette Special English Edition, No. 3. This will launch in May and will have a shortened campaign. I’m reading No. 2 right now and honestly think it looks even better than 1.  I have to find some time to review some of the stuff sitting here that I have already read first!

Baiheverse announced the release of Submission Time: Yes or Yes? manhua with  a series PV on Youtube. Chapter 1 is free to read in English.

Via Okazu Staff Matt Marcus, Battan (Run Away With Me Girl) has a new manga debuting next month in KISS magazine.

Matt also wants you to know about Blue Proustian Moment which is available right now on Shueisha’s MangaPlus app, and at leas Chapter 1 on desktop. He says this feels as if it has a lot of potential.

Not Yuri, but of note:

Seven Seas has announced an EN edition of Kabi Nagata’s My Twisted Eating Disorder.

Via YNN Correspondent Patricia B and ANN’s Rafael Antonio Pineda, Bloom Into You creator Nio Nakatani has a new manga series beginning in Dengeki Daioh magazine in the fall.

Star Fruit Books has licensed classic shoujo sports manga The Final Strike by Chikae Ide. ANN’s Crystalynn Hodgkins and Anita Tai have that news item.

 

Yuri Light Novels

Homunculus Tears: Alchemy for the Brokenhearted is here! inori-sensei’s first self-published work is out today. I hope we can all agree that supporting her is a good thing. ^_^ inori-sensei announced on Bluesky that this series is being adapted into a manga by Kadokawa, with art by Nata Ookura, so cool for her!

Via Sr. YNN Corespondent Sean Gaffney, Volume 11 of Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei will be hitting JP shelves in June.

 

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Yuri Live Action

Matt Marcus points us to X where, Shimura Takako says that episodes 1 and 2 of the live-action adaptation for Otona ni Nattemo is now streaming on Hulu Japan. Check out the trailer on the official Hulu JP site.

 

Yuri Anime

“Ambivalence” does not cover my feelings about the news that Roll Over And Die: I Will Fight For My Life With My Love And My Cursed Sword, is getting an anime. I expect that the grossness will have to be ratcheted back for time, if nothing else. Maybe it’ll be like The Executioner and Her Way of Life and be better as an anime that it was a novel. Crystalynn Hodgkins has the news on ANN. I reviewed Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 of the LNs, but could not bring myself to read Volume 4 after Sean Gaffney’s obvious distress at having read it.

Not Yuri, but we’ll let it in the club as a friend, the Zombieland Saga movie has cast, staff news and a teaser. Alex Mateo on on ANN has the news.

Look Back anime has won the Japan Movie Critics Award. I keep telling you about this movie, because I really, really  want you all to watch it. ^_^ Rafael Antonio Pineda has this news on ANN.

 

Yuri Games/VNs

Via YNN Corespondent KatGrrrl, Love Curse: Find Your Soulmate, a Yuri VN by Xso, is on sale for 20% off on Steam.

 

Yuri Doujinshi

YNN Correspondent Patricia B. wants you to know that aneido’s newest doujinshi in English Kickstarter features two different books: The Soul-Selling Corporate Drone & Other Fanciful Tales and The Snared Siren & Supernatural Stories. Positing this reminded me to back these. ^_^ With 22 days to go, this has already made almost 500% of the initial goal, and the first two stretch goals are unlocked.

Lastly, my very sincere congratulations to our friends at Manga Mavericks for entering the publishing world with a number of new titles including Yuri works Now No One Lurks Beneath the Snow  and The Murderer and Her Runaway Desire by aneido and Senpai no Kohai by Hanakage Alt, all translated by Red String. Great news for all of us!

 

Bit of a story here. You know that I absolutely love Hayashiya Shizuru‘s work, yes? Creator of Hayate x Blade, Strawberry Shake Sweet, Utimate MAMA and a bunch of other great series, is someone whose doujinshi I also collect obsessively. I am confident that I have most of her books, from back in her earliest years. She had a new doujinshi out at Comiket last winter and I planned on getting it through Melonbooks, but they are no longer able to accept American credit cards for online purchase. This is not their fault. This is part of an endless, ongoing battle by regressive asshats here in the US and Japan to increase censorship using Visa and Mastercard.

Hayashiya-sensei announced her new work and I commented on her Pixiv that I was sad I would not be able to get it this time. The universe folded, as it sometimes does, and 1) Hayashiya-sensei released the entire doujinshi for free on her Fanbox and now on public-facing Pixiv and, 2) Roxie asked if I wanted anything from Japan. Today I have a  hard copy of and you can read a digital copy of original doujinshi Shake Rock Candies, by Hayashiya-Shizuru. It is an idol story…also not really. ^_^

 

Other News

Check out WONK|Deep Dive: online- GHOST IN THE SHELL concert on the official GiTS channel on Youtube. ANN’s Ken Iikura-Gross has details on the concert series.

Rebecca Silverman reviews A Sinner of the Deep Sea manga series on ANN, which she sums up as what if the Little Mermaid had a friend who would sacrifice everything to save her?

ANN’s Steve Jones gives us the Rock Is A Lady’s Modesty, Episode 1-3 review we deserve.^_^

Comic Natalie has an interview with Kitagata Sahoko, who is a Shueisha Deputy Editor-in-Chief for Cocohana magazine about how she shepherds manga into the world. Good insight from an experienced editor.

 

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 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.



Fragrance of the First Flower, Seasons 1 and 2

April 25th, 2025

A promotional poster for season 2 of Fragrance of the First Flower. The poster features the two main characters, Ting-Ting (foreground, with short brown hair), and Yi-Ming (background, with shoulder-length black hair). The two women are facing in opposite directions, with serious looks on their faces.Live-action yuri series from Asia often traffic in the fantastical even when they’re not explicitly fantasies: the implausible coincidence, the melodramatic plot twist, the deus ex machina that brings about an unlikely happy ending, the concluding wedding scene that’s not an actual wedding. It’s therefore refreshing to find a series like Fragrance of the First FlowerΒ (streaming on GagaOOLala and Netflix Asia) that eschews fantasy in favor of realism while still conveying a sense of optimism.

It’s no coincidence that Fragrance of the First Flower was produced in Taiwan, a country where the passing of marriage equality legislation means that one might attend a friend’s wedding and find that two women are getting married to each other in the next room over. Thus begins episode 1 of season 1, in which thirty-something Yi-Ming looks across her table at the reception and sees Ting-Ting, her former junior and ardent admirer.

It’s a plot not unknown in yuri works, in which a β€œpassionate friendship” between two high school girls (here told in flashback) ends with graduation but is rekindled in adulthood. But real life intrudes on the potential romance: Yi-Ming is now married, and is torn between her desire for Ting-Ting and her responsibilities as a wife and a mother caring for a young autistic son by herself. (Her husband works in another city and comes home only on weekends.) Ting-Ting slowly enters Yi-Ming’s life again, and her family’s life as well: taking her son to the doctor, picking him up after school, even being invited to dinner by Yi-Ming’s unsuspecting husband. But this state of affairs cannot last; the last episode of season 1 ends on a scene of tearful emotion and a note of ambiguity. Season 2 begins after a time-skip, as Yi-Ming and Ting-Ting each find their lives changed in various ways, and once again find their paths intersecting, this time perhaps for good.

The story of Fragrance of the First Flower is relatively simple and straightforward, with only minor detours along the way (the most important one being an introduction of a new potential love interest in season 2). It’s the characters that make it worth watching, as portrayed by ZaiZai Lin (Yi-Ming) and Lyan Chen (Ting-Ting). (Both women won acting awards for the seriesβ€”which also won an award for screenwriting for season 1 director Angel I-Han Teng.) Yi-Ming is a woman worn down by the twin burdens of being a wife and mother, guilt-ridden, emotionally closed off, and hesitant to say what she truly feels. Ting-Ting seems a free spirit in comparisonβ€”single, living with her mother, working a variety of part-time jobs, and (in season 2) playing in a bandβ€”but she has her own cross to bear: she’s desperately in love with Yi-Ming, more than perhaps is good for her, and agonizes over whether her love will ever be returned in full measure.

Fragrance of the First Flower is a β€œGagaOOLala original,” produced for the up and coming LGBTQ streaming service by its parent company Portico Media, with partial support from the Taiwan Ministry of Culture. (The Taiwanese government’s β€œtongzhi [gay] diplomacy” includes sponsoring media that promote Taiwan as an LGBTQ-friendly country.) The production values are generally high, and the English subtitles are idiomatic and almost error-free. The music is particularly noteworthy, with excellent songs for season 1 and season 2 by singer-songwriter Enno Cheng and another for season 2 written and sung by Ke Ching Li (a.k.a. Yao), who plays new love interest Xiao Ning. GagaOOLala has seen much success with the series (including being named one of the best international TV shows of 2021 by Variety); I hope it leads the service to produce more high-quality yuri shows in the future.

Ratings:

Story β€” 8 (painfully real at times)
Characters β€” 9 (no villains, no heroes, just flawed people trying to find each other)
Production β€” 8
Service β€” 4 (a few by-now-mandatory kissing scenes)
LGBTQ β€” 10
Overall β€” 9

Fragrance of the First Flower is an emotionally resonant and realistic drama with solid writing, production, and music, and excellent performances by the two leads. If you’re not already a GagaOOLala subscriber it’s worth trying out the service for this series alone.



Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 1

April 24th, 2025

A woman with long, dark hair stares out at us with her hands steepled, while a woman with short, dark hair on her right leans in to her, her mouth open.Viz Media is quietly carving out a little niche  for themselves, aren’t they? ^_^ Along with all the quiet little school  Yuri from Shogagukan, like Rainbows After Storms, they have complex adult Yuri in  How Do We Relationship from Shueisha, and now Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 1, by  Ami Uozumi.

Taka is coming off another breakup with a boyfriend. She just doesn’t seem to have that *feeling* of wanting to be with them and she doesn’t know why. (As an aside – this is perfectly normal! We should be dating to date, not to marry!) She meets up with an old school friend and is blown away at how much Ema has changed.

In her memories, Ema was quiet and needed protecting. They were so close…why did they stop keeping in touch? Taka can’t stop watching Ema, and is jealous that Ema’s husband Hario has had all these years to be with Ema. But, as Hario repeatedly says, he’s never seen Ema this happy, since Taka is back in her life.

Having set this up situation up, we run into the story’s biggest weakness – Taka’s denial setting is on 11. So for the rest of the volumes, she is torturing herself. “What am I feeling?” goes only so far to carry a story.When she finally remembers that she and Ema stopped speaking after Taka tried to kiss her friend, it feels almost like psychological horror that she never, ever, ever, ever thought this through. At last, at the end of Volume 1, Taka realizes that she loves Ema, although no one yet has noticed that Ema is also in love with her. It all feels all very old school “what is this feeling?”  The creator does mention that their wish is that people can love freely, which makes this feel more of a moral than a story. But, I get that many people really don’t understand themselves until later in life, so I am willing be convinced.

Having recently finished up Takako Shimura’s Even Though We’re Adults, Viz apparently felt that we needed another lesbian falls for a married woman story. ^_^ Only in this story, the marriage is not on the rocks. I could, almost, visualize a  relationship in which Ema had two partners but for one thing…Emma herself. She seems much too unaware, unless that is her method of self-preservation? ” I guess we’ll find out in future volumes. Tsumetakute Yawaraka ( ε†·γŸγγ¦ ζŸ”γ‚‰γ‹) is already up to 4 volumes in Japanese, so there is room for drama.

Ratings:

Art –  It’s a bit rough, but somehow very Josei-feeeling
Story – Reunions are nice as a premise, but the backstory/secret it a tad weak, hoping for more as it develops
Characters – I am wholly invested in Ema’s happiness. Taka better not hurt her. Grr.
Service – None
Yuri – All kinds, Ema’s feeelings for Taka, both implicit and explicit, Taka’s feeeling for Ema, bot overt and covert.

Overall – 8

 



The Expression Amrilato

April 23rd, 2025
A game cover image shows a split screen of two girls back to back in frilly white dresses, holding hands, in two different worlds, one with a blue sky, one with a pink sky.Guest Review by KatGrrrl
 
The Expression Amrilato is the first visual novel by Yuri developer SukeraSparo, initially released in Japanese in 2017 and localised into English and Chinese by MangaGamer. The original Japanese-only version is available on Windows, Android and IOS whilst MangaGamer’s releaseβ€”which this review will be coveringβ€”is available on Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
 
The Expression Amrilato tells the story of Rin, a high school girl whose life is upended when she suddenly finds herself in a strange world only slightly different than her own, where the sky is pink and everyone around her speaks an unfamiliar language. Lost and confused, Rin is saved from despair by a girl named Ruka who knows a smattering of Japanese. Conversing with Ruka, Rin learns that in this world people speak a language called Juliamo (a fictionalised version of Esperanto), and with the help of Ruka and a woman named Rei, she sets about mastering this language in order to most effectively communicate with those around her.
 
I didn’t run into any major issues on the technical side. The game runs nicely in both windowed mode and fullscreen. All language options are available in the game’s settings menu and the store page on Steam even encourages playing the game in Japanese or Chinese to help learn those languages. The game does have full controller support, but there isn’t a button layout guide and the menus aren’t designed around it, so I found myself only using a controller for advancing text and used a mouse for menus and lessons. Also, the only way to exit the game when playing is to go to the settings menu first in order to go to the main menu so you can exit the game, which is slightly confusing.
 
The English translation reads excellently, which is doubly important in a game that teaches you an entire other language. Naturally, there are a lot of misunderstandings and puns involving Japanese and the translation cleverly approaches this by selectively rendering the Japanese word in romaji above the English translation, a bit like furigana. Gameplay is largely linear, with only minor choices until near the end where it diverges into the game’s three endings. There are also the Juliamo lessons which are optional and can be turned on or off in the settings, though I recommend keeping them on for the best experience. The soundtrack is sufficiently earwormy with the opening theme song being a particular standout, a pop rock tune sung by Sagara Kokoro (aka 556t of kairo) with composition and arrangement by RYU of BLOOD STAIN CHILD. A full instrumental version plays in the main menu, so you can enjoy RYU shredding a wicked guitar solo as you fumble around in the settings. The game has full voice acting, including spoken Juliamo which greatly adds to the worldbuilding. The voice acting is largely excellent all round, with my only gripe being some of the native Juliamo speakers sounding a bit too stilted for what you’d expect of a native of a language, but this a very minor complaint. The art is solid, with the perpetually pink sky giving off an almost exotic vibe to what is an otherwise equally mundane world as ours, which feels quite fitting for Rin’s perspective. I particularly liked the surprised reaction sprites for Rin and Ruka, they’re very goofy and cute.
 
Juliamo. What is Juliamo? Juliamo is a fictionalised version of the real constructed international auxiliary language Esperanto, created in 1897 by a guy named L. L. Zamenhof. Constructed means the language was consciously devised for a purpose instead of developing naturally, and for Esperanto that purpose is for communication between people who do not share a first language. So what’s the differences between the fictional Juliamo and real Esperanto? The main one is the script. Esperanto uses the familiar Latin alphabet whereas Juliamo uses its own fictional one, albeit heavily inspired by Latin with a side dish of Greek and Japanese. The other differences are Juliamo has some additional vocabulary and small changes to grammar as mentioned in a splash screen every time you boot up the game. As I am not an Esperanto speaker, I can’t pinpoint the exact differences here unfortunately, but the game was supervised by Japan’s National Esperanto Association so rest assured that the majority of what you learn is proper Esperanto. Sure enough, I checked out some Esperanto resources after finishing the game and a good chunk of early vocab and grammar I recognised from what I had learnt ingame. The game teaches you through both lessons and the narrative. The lessons are minigames where you memorise a bunch of vocab and match them with the translation and this is where you learn the majority of vocab. These lessons can be accessed at any time from the main menu for additional study, and you’ll need it if you want to do the optional quiz for the final lesson as the vocab list is simply way too long to memorise in a single sitting. Grammar is taught through the narrative where you effectively study alongside Rin, but unlike vocab you’ll never be quizzed on it. There’s a good chunk of Juliamo dialogue early on in the story that by design the reader likely won’t understand, so taking the time to study Esperanto independently can reward you with an interesting new experience on a second playthrough.
 
Outside of the language difference and the pink sky, the world of The Expression Amrilato isn’t much different from ours. One of those similarities is social and systemic discrimination, which now extends to the vizitantojβ€”those who are isekai’d into this world like our protagonist Rin. Vizitantoj are essentially immigrants. The government provides a scheme for vizitantoj which includes a stipend and store discounts, but we are told these benefits have recently been the subject of major cuts (which very much made me think of the UK’s recent cuts to disability benefits.) We are also told of shop owners charging higher prices for vizitantoj andβ€”the most relevant of these to the storyβ€”school bullying.
 
 There are three main characters in The Expression Amrilato. The first is Rin, our protagonist and a vizitanto who frequently considers herself boyish, particularly in contrast to Ruka. She isn’t overly adept at learning languages, wishing she put more effort in learning English at school. This is most evident by how she often speaks in Japanese to people she knows won’t understand her, and for those who do understand to some degree, she rarely attempts to consciously speak slower so she can be understood easier and occasionally slurs her words without realising she is doing so. This can be both equally amusing and frustrating to watch and there definitely were a few facepalm worthy moments (how do you accidentally buy an apple instead of a potato? just use your eyes?), but most importantly it adds to the misunderstandings between Rin and Ruka which naturally results in a plentiful of Yuri situations. These misunderstandings all strike the right balance of being sufficiently amusing and cute without veering into downright uncomfortable territory. Speaking of cute, Ruka. Rin frequently gushes about how cute she is from the moment they first met. She speaks some Japanese, enough for basic communication with Rin but little enough that she is a mystery in a lot of ways for much of the story. One thing that isn’t a mystery is that she is very fond of Rin from very early on, but she struggles to effectively put her feelings into words, something that is difficult even when you speak the same native language. Rin too clearly develops feelings for Ruka early on. This ties into the central theme of the storyβ€”languageβ€”neatly, as we follow these two girls as they work to find their own expressions to convey their love. 
 
Our third character is the librarian Rei who mainly acts as a teacher to Rin. She is unfortunately the weakest part of the story. Initially she appears to not know any Japanese, however it slips during a heated argument with Rin and following this she starts teaching Rin. My problem with this is that at no point in the story is there a reason given for why she withheld her knowledge of Japanese from Rin. Especially given her job responsibility in working with vizitantoj, it comes across as extremely irresponsible. Maybe this is the intended reading of her character, but even so it doesn’t really fit the general atmosphere that the rest of the story goes for. I reckon this is all simply for narratives sake to force Rin to study with Ruka early on in the story, but have Rei later on for the more difficult stuff. And certainly, Rei does often act as a matchmaker between the two, not that this interpretation makes her actions any less irresponsible.
 
 The story is mostly paced well, though there is a bit of lull in the middle where Ruka isn’t present as much, and at times it feels less like you’re reading a Yuri story and more like you’re back at school (whether this a good or bad thing, you decide.) The story splits into three endings, one bad ending and two good endings. After I first reached one of the endings, I initially didn’t even realise that there were any other endings as there is no ending counter or similar in the menus. It was only when I saw CGs I didn’t remember getting in the now unlocked CG gallery did I look up an ending guide online to make sure I wasn’t suffering severe memory loss. The first of the good endings I got seems like the true ending as it results from making what seems like the best possible choices and I believe it’s where the sequel continues from, and while it was satisfying as far as the Yuri is concerned, it seemed a little underwhelming as a climax to story. The second good ending however was more of the climax I was expecting. I think one big singular ending which combines the best of both would’ve worked better.
 
Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 7 (8 for Rin and Ruka, 5 for Rei)
Service – 2 (one mildly revealing bathing CG)
Yuri – 8
Overall – 8
 
If you’re a language nerd, a Yuri fan or most importantly a language nerd Yuri fan, I thoroughly recommend this delightfully unique combination of Yuri and language learning.
KatGrrrl finds herself getting more addicted to Yuri by the day. Socials at linktr.ee/katgrrrl