This one is out late. Very late. I apologize for that. I’ve been rather sick since I came back home from a convention at the end of last month and have simply not been in writing form until recently. This month is a big important one too so here we go. Let’s go over the Girls Love of June!
Manga – New Releases (June 2017)
After Hours (Volume 1) by Nishio Yuhta
Release Date: June 13th in North America (July 13th in Europe)
Published by VIZ Media
An adult life drama between Emi, an unemployed girl in her mid 20s and Kei, a DJ at a club that takes an interest in Emi and that interest is mutual. This is definitely worth picking up if you’re the kind of GL fan who’ve gotten tired of everything being about high school girls. It’s been praised a lot in Japan and previous scanlation efforts showed promise for a western audience as well.
After a few months of silence, VIZ Media finally announced the European release date as well, which put my worries at ease since I want to grab this book myself once it comes out. The art is beautiful and the story sounds interesting.
Let’s hope it lives up to the praise from Japan!
Bloom Into You (Volume 2) by Nakatani Nio
Release Date: June 13th in Europe (Already out in North America)
Published by Seven Seas
A rather interesting thing about Bloom Into You by Naktanai Nio is how much it focuses on not falling in love. This becomes a key part of the story and is lifted forward more in the second volume. It’s not so much a story of unreciprocated love as it is about someone struggling with the risks and responsibilities that comes with love.
While I’m not going to spoil the events of the second volume, the story does take a serious turn around this point. It’s very well done and I’m sure anybody who enjoyed the first volume will love the second one as well. It was one of the most popular Girls Love books earlier this year and I hope that remains true.
Seven Seas is doing a great job picking up GL of different genres and have almost become the home for western GL as a result, titles like Bloom Into You is exactly why, if you ask me.
Kase-san and Bento (Volume 2) by Takashima Hiromi
Release Date: June 13th in Europe (Already out in North America)
Published by Seven Seas
I’ve already praised Takashima Hiromi‘s Kase-san series multiple times on here, but with the second volume releasing it’s time to once again talk about how wonderful this story of the growing love between Yamada and Kase-san is.
While being a direct sequel to Kase-san and Morning Glories, Kase-san and Bento contain chapters that can be enjoyed as self-contained stories as well due to how the series was initially published. The first few years of the manga ran in the former GL magazine Hirari, which focused on self-contained one-off stories. But Kase-san grew popular enough to become an ongoing series.
After Hirari closed its doors, Kase-san published what most of us thought would be the final chapters of the series as a web comic, with the story seemingly coming to a close earlier this year. However, last week it was announced that the book has been picked up as a regular series titled Yamada and Kase-san, following the two lovebirds’ lives together for hopefully many more years to come.
Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl (Volume 2) by Canno
Release Date: June 6th in Europe (Already out in North America)
Published by Yen Press
With what might be the most traditional GL title ever, Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl tells the story Ayaka and Yurine, who end up finding each other as they both enter high school. Ayaka, who always were at the top of her class, discovers that the lazy girl Yurine was a secret genius able to compete with Ayaka at school!
The two get closer and soon become friends, but it seems something more is growing out of that friendship as they get closer. They also meet two other girls, Mizuki and Moe, who are already a couple and take care of the gardening club. As Ayaka and Yurine get further pulled into the world of girls loving girls, the drama and seriousness between the two grow more and more.
Love to Lie Angle (Volume 1) by Merryhachi
Release Date: June 28th in Europe and North America
Published by Digital Manga Publishing
Well then… Remember this one way back in January? Well, it got delayed over and over and now it’s here! Originally serialized in Comic Yuri Hime, this is love triangle harboring on harem manga. Natsuno Hanabi is about to start high school and is accidentally assigned to a different dorm than planned, the Tachibana House. In the Tachibana House she runs into her childhood friend Fujiwara Konobi and the mysterious beauty Takamura Iori.
It’s a very funny, and very perverted, book and one I’ve been following since it first started serialization. Merryhachi knows how to make old harem manga tropes feel fresh again, something that’s clear just from the fact that it’s a GL manga.
While it won’t be for everyone, especially with its constant sex jokes and commonplace nudity, I do recommend checking it out. The art is superb and the characters are very entertaining.
My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi
Release Date: June 6th in North America (July 13th in Europe)
Published by Seven Seas
Quite possibly the most important book to be featured in this series. My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness is a autobiographical manga diary by author Nagata Kabi about how she discovered her sexuality in her late 20s while struggling with depression and pressure from the outside world on who and what to be. It’s a harsh read, reaching deep into the mind of someone struggling in their life and I more than once felt that creepy feeling of “that’s just like how I feel?” while reading it.
I picked up the Japanese book last year and I’m so happy it’s been localized finally. It’s a must for anyone to read, even if you’re not into lesbian stories normally, this is simply that good. I don’t think I’ll be recommending any manga this year as highly as My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and you absolutely need to pick up this book. You will not regret it.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid (Volume 3) by Coolkyoushinja
Release Date:June 13th in Europe (Already out in North America)
Published by Seven Seas
While the anime have ended, the manga is both ongoing in Japan and releasing in the west. In the third volume of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid we’re introduced to a new dragon, Elma, who makes Kobayashi’s life more abnormal than before.
If you’ve watched the anime there’s not really much you’ll have missed in this volume, but I still recommend picking up the book. The third had some of my favourite chapters and shows the series at its best.
While in the end I still prefer the anime adaptation to the manga, it’s still a fun comedy with a very unique and charming art style. And who can resist Kobayashi’s dead fish eyes?
Games – New Announcements (June 2017)
BLUE REFLECTION (RPG)
Release Date: September 26th in North America (September 29th in Europe) on PC and PS4
Localized by Tecmo Koei
I was so happy to wake up to this announcement this morning. BLUE REFLECTION is an RPG not too unlike the popular Persona series where you manage both a social life at school and a second life fighting monsters. The difference? It’s an all girls school and you’re magical girls. By building up your friendships and relationships with other girls at school they can power up your fight and become important allies as well.
So, how high does it go on the Girls Love scale? Well, based on my friends who played the Japanese game it mainly toes the subtext line with a few exceptions, there are gay girls at school and some of them with direct crushes on other girls. So while it’s not a lesbian dating sim, it does have content for those who find other games in the genre perhaps a little too heterocentric.
I’m so excited!!
Games – New Releases (June 2017)
Valkyrie Drive -Bhikkhuni- (RPG)
Release Date: June 20th in Europe and North America on PC (Already out on PS Vita)
Localized by Marvelous
There are a few things I like about Valkyrie Drive, but not many. I like that it’s a shameless girl-on-girl fest that doesn’t try shy away from being very very sexual, but I’m mainly familiar with the anime series.
So what is the game about? Well, it’s set in the same universe as the anime, where girls with a certain condition that makes them turn into weapons or weapon wielders when reaching orgasm (don’t ask) are sent to islands to be kept away from mankind. The anime took place on the island of Mermaid and this game takes place on the island of Bhikkhuni.
The game itself is an action-RPG where now and then you get to grope your girlfriend to power up your attacks and hopefully beat the clothes off your opponent, you know, the usual stuff. Think Senran Kagura but it takes itself much more seriously. The game is releasing on Steam in just under two weeks so if you’re interested, pick it up!
How’s that for a big bundle of manga and even some games! June had some cool stuff.
Andrea Ritsu 