Hybrid Heart

September 7th, 2025

I came across Iori Kusano’s Hybrid Heart at Flamecon 2025 in New York City. The man at the table pitched it to me, but I was already sold after looking at the cover. This is a story about an idol, Rei, who is the remaining half of a duo, Venus Versus. When her partner Ririko left, she stayed…and is regretting the decision more every day.

The setting is a recognizable near-future in which implants and intelligent software create more effects than just a Vtuber skin. Think of Hololive if the people themselves and their environments are modded on the fly for virtual performances. 

Rei is stuck in what anyone will immediately understand to be an abusive relationship with her manager, who controls literally everything about her, from the calories she consumes to the way she sings the words. And every day, she thinks more and more about the partner she’s lost.

When her manager brings in a new talent, immediately grooming the younger woman with the same tactics he used on her, Rei has a decision to make – does she save someone else, or herself?

I’ve referenced this before, but there are some stories that are reminiscent of the “women in peril” genre favored by Lifetime TV, which of the 2 hour movie included 1 hour and 45 minutes of threats to women and 15 minutes of retribution. If this story has a major failing, it is this. We learn in detail how Rei is manipulated, controlled, gaslighted, threatened and her decision, when it comes, is late in the book, the denouement is rushed. If I were to have edited this, I would have suggested bringing the climax a bit sooner and spent more time with the consequences.

Despite this, Hybrid Heart is not a bad read, and if you are interested in/convinced of the dark side of the idol industry and it’s similarity to human trafficking, this is a smart and devastating look at it from the inside. Not as extreme as Last and First Idol, (oddly, also by a Kusano, although there is no apparent relationship between them), but dark in its own human way. 

And there is Yuri, in the sense that Rei has a growing understanding of her feelings of intimacy with and affection for her former partner Ririko, which drive her to make her choices.  

Ratings: 

Overall – 7

As a small press published book, this is a pretty slick volume, with cover art by the author. It’s not perfect, but it kept me reading until the end.

Posted in Novel, Yuri Doujinshi | 1 Comment »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 6, 2025

September 6th, 2025

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 Yuri Anime

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Patricia Baxter, we have a release date for A Mangaka’s Weirdly Wonderful Workplace based on a manga by Kuzushiro. Joana Cayanan has the news at ANN. I’m waiting on tenterhooks for announcement of the spring debut of The Moon On A Rainy Night anime. ^_^

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Sean Gaffney, Manga Mogura says that Futari Escape will be getting an anime in autumn 2025. The protagonists will be voiced by Nogizaka46 members Iwamoto Renka and Tomisato Nao.

The folks at Empty Movement have posted the first post-series official Revolutionary Girl Utena art by Chiho Saito on Bluesky.

 

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Yuri Manga

Galette WORKS is delaying the Galette Volume 4 Kickstarter because of the tariffs imposed on all items from overseas, by the idiocracy that current runs our country. Call your representatives and let them know that importing manga and supporting small businesses are both important and these tariffs are absurd.

Via YNN Correspondent Burkely Hermann, Yen is offering a Rock Is A Lady’s Modesty Calendar page for this month! 

Ichijinsa’s Comic Yuri Hime is partnering with the Eizan Electric Train for a collaboration, in two parts, each celebrating different Comic Yuri Hime series.

Yodogawa’s newest manga Neko ni hakuchō, hotaru ni koban (猫に白鳥、蛍に小判) is on Comic Walker.

Via Okazu Staffer and YNN Correspondent Matt Marcus, Bookwalker is hosting a one-shot set in Tikkili’s Drifting Into Summer universe, Sky Full Of Stars.

 

LGBTQ Comics

Sr. YNN Correspondent (and as of this week, official Okazu Staff Writer! Wooo~~~!!) Ashley, wants you to know about
Good Morning, Salwa (BUUZA!! Volume 1), an original graphic novel by Shazleen Khan from Abrams. This is a collection of their Ignatz Award–winning  YA webcomic. ” Zach, a down-on-his-luck phone operator, receives a misdialed call from a distressed man named Zhen which sparks an undeniable connection. Zach is thrown into a search for his mystery man that stretches across multiple cities and a tangled web of exes, missed connections, and frenemies.”

The Harvey Awards Nominees have been announced and Navigating with You by Jeremy Whitley, Cassio Ribeiro & Nikki Foxrobot (Maverick/Mad Cave) is a cute little F/F story that i picked up at Anime NYC to read. And The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All  was nominated for the Best Manga category! The awards will be held at the  Small Press Expo on September 13-14 in Bethesday, MD.

 

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Yuri VNs

This month is a Fall in Love Visual Novel Festival on Steam and we have a couple of groups that have written in to tell you about their titles: 

Red Bean Taiyaki Studios wants you to take a look at the demo for Distant Oceanic Getaway. They say “Play as a heartbroken soul determined to move on from a cheating ex. There are only seven other single sapphics on board the cruise ship—could one possibly be your soulmate? You’ll have 10 days aboard the ship to explore, interact with characters, and have fun. Get drunk at the bar and pass out after having three drinks! Contemplate the meaning of life with a stranger you just met! There are endless choices for you to make and infinite opportunities for you to explore! And… perhaps even a secret hidden storyline for you to uncover?

Our game is choice-heavy, with lots of different options and branches for sailors to explore! You can also customize Maeve’s personality, which affects the choice options. We recommend it for players 16+ who are looking for something light and funny. “

And Cross Couloir is excited to introduce you to the demo of Comet Angel, “a sci-fi yuri visual novel with puzzle elements that tells the story of two teenage girls going through an emotional journey of self-discovery after they make the world’s first alien encounter.” Full game is coming October 28.

Studio Élan wants you to know that Lock & Key: A Magical Girl Mystery releases September 30.

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Patricia Baxter, Crunchyroll is making Black Lily’s Tale available to Premium members. This coming-of-age story is by Fukahire.

 

Other News

For those of us at Anime NYC, Seven Seas reports on the results of the Best Girl Character Poll they did for There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover, Unless….! The winner is Koto Satsuki! I voted on behalf of the Staff for Ajisai. ^_^

On ANN’s This Week in Manga, Coop and Chris think the best comic in Kodansha’s English-language Young Magazine was Gaku Keito’s sequel, Boys Run the Riot – IN TRANSITION. As a reminder you can read this whole issue *for free* on Azuki. Or drop in to a local Kinokuniya and grab a physical copy if there are any left.

I still haven’t had a chance to write my Anime NYC report for Okazu, but here is a look at this year’s festivities by me for The Comics Beat in Anime NYC 2025 Is The Room Where Everything Happens, For Manga and Anime.

 

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!

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Posted in Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


Whale Store xoxo

September 4th, 2025

Official poster for Whale Store xoxo, with Milk and Love in the foreground as Wan and Maewnam respectively, and View and Mewnich in the right background as Tonnam and Chompoo respectively.by Frank Hecker, Okazu Staff Writer

When last we saw Milk Pansa Vosbein and Love Pattranite Limpatiyakorn, they were playing high-schoolers in the oddly-named GMMTV-produced romantic comedy 23.5: The Series. They’ve now graduated to playing adults, in the oddly-named GMMTV-produced romantic comedy Whale Store xoxo, based on the novel The Whale Store by Snow Leopard and available for streaming on YouTube.

Many Thai series open with shots of the modern skyline of Bangkok. Whale Store xoxo instead highlights the gleaming Golden Mount (Phu Khao Thong) of the Buddhist temple Wat Saket, which commands the heights above the historic neighborhood in which the main action of the series takes place. A key theme of Whale Store xoxo is the contrast between globalized corporations and local Thai small businesses: Wan (Milk) leaves her job at a branch office of a Japanese company to take over her father’s corner store after his sudden death, but soon finds it threatened by the nearby opening of Mouse Mart, a convenience store chain.

Meanwhile Maewnam (Love), who hides her family’s connection to Mouse Mart from Wan, spends her days as a a lecturer at a business school and her spare time picking up extra cash doing odd jobs in the neighborhood. As Wan and Maewnam meet and fall in love, they must each decide in which of these two worlds their destiny lies. It could be the plot of a Frank Capra film, and Milk and Love make for a very Capra-esque couple. In her endearing gawkiness Milk resembles a young James Stewart., while Love is an almost preternaturally adorable “girl next door.” They’re joined by a group of veteran Thai actors playing colorful neighborhood characters.

It should have been a wonderful series, but alas doesn’t quite live up to its considerable promise. Part of this is down to the direction: Not content to let Love work her natural charms and Milk to respond to them, the show early on is somewhat heavy-handed in throwing Maewnam and Wan together: not quite the “I fell on top of you and we almost kissed“ level of cringe, but annoying nonetheless. The more intimate scenes of them kissing also seem somewhat stiff and awkward. This may be on Milk and Love, or it too may be down to the director, a man whom just this week was fired by GMMTV for participating in crass sexual conversations about GL series and actors on social media.

Turning to the writing, much of the series run time is taken up by a subplot involving two other university lecturers, Tonnam (June Wanwimol Jaenasavamethee) and Chompoo (Mewnich Nannaphas Loetnamchoetsakun). The couple have been in a secret relationship for three years, as Tonnam waits forever for Chompoo to come out to her mother Som (Thansita Suwatcharathanakit), the owner of a neighborhood salon, and acknowledge Tonnam as her girlfriend. It’s not a bad subplot, and June and Mewnich acquit themselves well, but  the writers’ desire to postpone the subplot’s resolution until the final episode means that a large chunk of the middle episodes merely mark time. It also means that the last episode itself is stuffed to the gills with incidents, including last-minute plot twists, and the fulfillment of Wan’s and Maewnam’s journey doesn’t seem fully earned.

Rating:

Story – 7 (a refreshing change from the typical Thai melodrama)
Characters – 8
Production – 6
Service – 4
LGBTQ — 5 (the show takes note of Thailand’s new legislative landscape)
Overall – 7

Whale Store xoxo is sapphic comfort food, not as delicious as it might have been (due in large part to chefs who apparently didn’t quite know what to do with the ingredients), but still good enough to satisfy yuri fans hungry for down-home unpretentious fare.

Posted in Frank Hecker, Live Action, Staff Writer, Thai Drama | 3 Comments »


Aneido’s Anthology: The Soul-Selling Corporate Drone: A Queer Romance Fantasy and Other Fanciful Tales

September 1st, 2025

A devil-woman with golden eyes, pointy ears,and dainty black horns, looks at us as she holds another woman who looks mesmerized, gently by the cheek.Aneido is one of the most energetic Yuri manga artists we’ve seen recently, who has been making a name with her work in indies/doujinshi comics, and by running a recent Kickstarter for an independently produced anthology. Aneido’s Anthology: The Soul-Selling Corporate Drone: A Queer Romance Fantasy and Other Fanciful Tales is a delightful collection. 

A few of these stories had appeared in various Galette magazine issues, but it was a genuine pleasure to see them in English. I particularly liked the title story, about a depressed woman who find out who has been buying the bits of her soul she’s been selling, a fascinating story about two woman in a desert, and another fantasy fairy tale of a woman whose magic had been stolen. But all of the stories were fun. This collection comes in a hefty 11 stories. 

Translation by Red Strings felt very comfortable, except where the characters themselves were meant to sound a little not-quite-human, and letterer Victoria Esnard did very solid work on the s/fx. The art will be a personal opinion, as there are times, Aneido really nails it and other times that it looks like an indies comic. ^_^

As a KIcktarter backer I receieved extra art, PC wallpaper art and a behind the scenes look at the making of these comics, with some insight by the creator which were fun, as well. B ecause this was a Kickstarter, there is no way to purchase this volume, but as the creator is on social media, maybe if you ask nicely, a digital copy might be made available on Aneido-sensei’s online shop.  For those of us who backed it, this is a fun collection of Yuri stories!

Ratings: 

Overall – 8

Posted in Yuri Doujinshi, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – August 30, 2025

August 30th, 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

It’s once again time for a trans-Atlantic YNN, brought to you by Okazu Staff Member Eleanor Walker.

 

Yuri Manga

Anime NYC gave us a few Yuri licenses. First from Yen Press, Bad Girl manga and Lycoris Recoil: Recovery Days.

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Ashley: Fighting Girls manga from Viz, described “A lifelong rivalry inspires two girls to chase their dreams.” Not Yuri, but in our wheelhouse. ^_^

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Patricia B, we have news of Issue 4 of Datura magazine, “a josei-inspired comics anthology series featuring a range of speculative and realist stories for an queer adult audience.” Issues 1-3 are still available in digital and some in print.

Yuri Light Novel

Via Rafael Antonio Pineda on ANN we have news that author Hitoma Iruma’s newest series Hitozuma Kyoushi ga Oshiego no Joshi Kousei ni Dohamari Suru Hanashi (A Story of a Married Teacher Becoming Obsessed With Her Female Student) has received a manga adaption in Dengeki Daioh G magazine. Given the title and my opinion of his past work, I’m not expecting anything good from this at all.

LGBT+ Manga

Online manga platform Azuki have released a special 45th anniversary English issue of Young Magazine, including a sequel chapter to queer manga Boys Run The Riot. The platform is also offering readers to vote on their favourite series, with the 5 series which get the most votes being serialised in English as well.

Kodansha has announced trans manga My Journey To Her by Yuna Hirasawa. You can read the first chapter for free on their site.

 

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Yuri(ish) Anime

Some discussion of this series on the Okazu Discord was started by Steve Jones’ review of Episode 8 of Call of the Night which makes it sound quite provocative, especially considering the manga originally ran in Shonen Sunday magazine. On a personal note, Miyuki Sawashiro is one of my favourite voice actresses of all time, so my interest is piqued.

 

Yuri Visual Novels & Games

Studio Elan has announced Fall in Love Festival, a romance visual novel festival on Steam, beginning on the 24th September. More details to come.

 

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Other News 

Via Rubeon Baron on ANN, we have a panel report from Anime NYC on censorship in manga in America

Again, via Rafael Antonio Pineda on ANN, we have a title and launch date for Nakatani Nio’s new series, entitled Kimi Wa Shuumatsu (You are the End)

For my other UK based Miku fans, Anime Limited is bringing the COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing movie to cinemas beginning on the 31st August. Tickets are available here.

Via Okazu Thai GL correspondent Frank, we have 2 new series announced, both premiering on the 20th September. Poisonous Love has both a pilot and a teaser available.  Toxic yuri abounds here. More unusually for a Thai GL series, Love Overdose is based on a true story (of a woman dealing with her drug-addicted partner) and in featuring a “tom” (butch) as one of the two leads. As of writing, there are no official English subtitles, only auto generated ones. I hope this does receive a proper translation.

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.

Posted in Eleanor W, Yuri Network News | No Comments »