Yen Press Licenses Shakaijin Yuri Series 'Assorted Entanglements'
On Friday, Yen Press announced that it has licensed Mikanuji's opposites attract Shakaijin Yuri manga Assorted Entanglements (Fuzoroi no Renri). The manga was initially released on the author's Twitter and Pixiv before being picked up for publication.
Assorted Entanglements primarily follow Iori, a woman in her late twenties with a demanding job and troubled romantic history, and her romance with Minami, an 18-year-old delinquent who works at a local bar. Several other couples are introduced and featured heavily throughout the manga.
Yen Press describes the series:
Discover a variety of women’s love stories, starting with Iori who sets out to drown her love and job sorrows in booze. She's shocked when she wakes up next to Minami, a bar worker who doesn’t want to forget what they have!
The series is notable for featuring a romance story between adult women that balances both sweet and funny slice-of-life stories with light dramatic content. Also one of the characters, Minami, has multiple tattoos and piercings, an uncommon character design for romance manga.
Mikanuji began releasing the series online on her Pixiv and Twitter pages in 2017. Kadokawa picked the manga up for print publication, releasing six volumes since March 2019. The series moved serialization to Comic Newtype in November 2020.
Mikanuji is a Yuri mangaka known for her Idolm@ster doujinshi and her contribution to the Syrup, Yuri Drill, and Whenever I Eyes Meet Yuri anthologies. Her one-shot office romance, Now Loading…!, is published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.
Yen Press has not announced a release date for the English adaptation of Assorted Entanglements.
I wanted to share the art that I think might be good coming out in 2023. I am not including ongoing art that I am looking forward to not because it doesn't belong here but because I might make another post about those things. I don't want this too be too crowded. Each of this will be given an SPS - Sapphic Potential Score which says how likely I think it is that they will make my lesbian ass happy. These are mostly goofs on what I think is likely not to be taken seriously.
Fire Emblem Engage
This is probably the thing I am most excited about, it's like my whole personality right now, I am obsessed. I really love the wild art style and the gameplay looks really solid. The concept of fusing with old Fire Emblem characters is really cool. The flying base is really awesome and all the fashion and side content looks really cute. I think this could be at the top of Fire Emblem games gameplay wise.
I do have worries about this game, narratively it seems rather basic, fight an evil dragon, maybe your half evil dragon, collect the mugffins and kill the big dragon. The game's DLC and Amiibo stuff is frustrating in the amount of content being gated off. The roster size sounds potentially pretty small seemingly going to tie around the same roster size as the smaller casts. I am also worried how Rosardo will be treated and I really hope we avoid a Forrest situation.
That said, I am way more excited then I am worried and I am a dirty little consumer who already pre-ordered the DLC knowing I will play the game day one and I want Edelgard with me. I mostly use my Twitter account to tweet about Fire Emblem Engage nowadays, I am just so excited and if you DM me to talk about the game, I will just gush about it for however long you'll let me. I can't wait and am glad we're getting it near the start of the new year.
SPS: Player Sexual and Historians will say they were besties/10
Arcane Season 2
While Arcane was far from a perfect show for me, I really love the breath taking style of animation and Jinx and look forward to seeing what happens moving forward and if they'll give Vi her terrible canon fate of becoming a cop. I think the character designs are all stunning and seeing the animation in motion is just so captivating I can't help but be enraptured in the show and want to watch more.
Not to mention the actual character interactions are all really engaging with brilliant voice acting from everyone involved really capturing the world. It's never boring when things are on screen even when the politics are mid at best. Ekko also presents what appears to be a solar punk anarchist alterative in season 1 but we'll see how that is handled by the show.
This show is a blessing and a curse, with the curse being now I know all this League OF Legend lore cuz I got really curious after and started playing Legends Of Runeterra but Legends Of Runeterra is one of the most interesting card games out there, so not a total loss. I know I'll be going into season 2 very different now knowing about all the things from the games where as before I really didn't think of this little war between countries in a wider nerd universe context. I am really interested on how I'll enjoy.
SPS: Directors Says It's Canon but not on screen/10
Assorted Entanglements, Vol. 1
I love myself some Yuri manga and while I prefer a more action forward Yuri I do like a Slice of life from time to time and having an anthology of stories bout women loving women who are adults or at least one story features an adult is exciting.
This little collection of yuri manga sounds really cute. I don't have a lot to say about it, I don't even know what all is in it, I just like the sound of it.
SPS: No Queer ID But Very Gay/10
Super Lesbian Animal RPG
[Technically this is out very soon but ya know, end of the year lists are already up and I won't beat this till next year]
I've been looking forward to this game for a long time, I've been backing the creator for probably 2 years maybe 3 now on the dev journey. Whatever the number from the first time I played the demo I was hooked on this sweet little indie RPG. The character designs are adorable and colorful, the kissing mechanic is so cute, and really this is just what I want out of a game.
I really love when games just sell their queerness on the tin, I hate having to go and just randomly play a game and hope to the goddess queer coded or characters I just like are gay, here, I already know I am gonna get gay after gay after gay. Also having the protagonist be a trans woman is really cool and super rare to this day in the industry.
This game looks like it'll be one of my favorite games of all time not just next year and I can't wait to finally start playing it. Please check this game out, support indie queer art.
SPS: Ooops All Lesbians/10
The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady Season 1
This series has a delightful name but seems to be far from the typical isekai fair. The series is a yuri and it is far less focused on the girl being super awesome because her past life and instead kinda treat her knowing about her past life as a thing that causes her to have a disability in this world. The Genius Young Lady makes magical inventions because she can't use magic, so she learned how to make items that make magic happen.
The girl is super sweet and kind and it doesn't feel gross at all. It's more or less just a fantasy story with the Isekai seemingly thrown in for getting the book published. It's a really interesting series that I haven't gotten very far in but I think this is going to be a super special anime. I really think this year might end up giving me my favorite animes of all time.
SPS: Yuri/10
Asumi-chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels! Vol. 1
[Technically this is out now but I haven't read it and won't get to it till next year]
In terms of upcoming Yuri manga this isn't one I am sure I am gonna grab right away but it is one I am intended to grab whenever I can. Sometimes you want something a bit more horny then your chaste "do I like her" vibes. In particular what has me excited about this one because it actually is invoking Lesbian identity.
It is shockingly rare for sapphic manga in general but in particular yuri to talk about sexuality. We get homosexuality without sapphic identities, lives, problems, etc. I love when we are more zoomed into the real world way we use labels and we explore ourselves and communicate ourselves. While it's not "needed" to tell a sapphic story, I do think it adds a lot to bring in queerness.
Plus, I mean, a girl going to Lesbian Brothels, that's cool, i'm in.
SPS: Horny Lesbian's Wanted/10
Street Fighter 6
Of all the fighting game series, Street Fighter isn't my favorite but it might become my favorite thanks to this game. The massively in depth character creator seems to be beyond what any other game is providing in the whole industry. The utterly stunning range of possibilities is just so captivating that I am compelled to buy this game simply to dress up my character.
I really enjoy playing fighting games even if I am not particularly great at them. There was a time where I really strives to be a competitive level player and that did include playing SF4 a lot. While playing that game I fell in love with Juri and her returning here also really drew me in, plus following Chun-li's arc as a mother finally after so many years from SF3 where she adopted her child.
My only real worries for this is DLC prices and general business practices along with if I'll be able to use my OC creations in casual vs modes where I feel I should be able to use them. I hope the DLC isn't priced poorly and I really hope you can take your OCs to casuals even if they have to commit to one characters moveset instead of the custom ones from World Tour Mode.
SPS: Just say Juri is gay already/10
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Season 2
Technically this is an ongoing series but there will be a break between seasons so, it goes here, I make the rules. I love The Witch From Mercury so far, Sulleta is adorable, I think her and Mio are cute together, I think the cast is fun and the action is stunningly animated. I have loved season 1 so far, I only didn't include it in my list of art that touched me this year because season 1 isn't done yet and won't be done till next year too. Bad endings could for sure ruin this but ahhh I love this show.
This show has really great characters, so many shitty people I hate but I hate in a great way. Then it has characters I fucking love like Sulleta, Chuchu, and Prospera who are just fucking amazing top level characters, best characters in the biz. Then there is the utterly stellar action, I mean take my breath away, I love this shit. It really is just really fucking good.
I can't help but worry that the show will fail to deliver actual queerness but it really doesn't seem like it will. Still, I can't help but worry about it. I also worry about the story kinda falling off in season 2 but I really don't know what is gonna happen, all I know is I am locked in right now and excited every Sulleta Sunday.
SPS: Two sad Keychains Falling Down in a dark room/10
Wake The Living 2
While I hadn't become instantly hooked on the original Wake The Living, the improvements to the game for the sequel is utterly thrilling. With the game already being very queer and having a fun more gothic edge to most SRPGs it really is setting up a familiar yet strange little world to enter.
What really sold me on this game was the developer talking about wanting to have canon polyamory as a major part of the story and about how canon queerness not just player choice mattered to them so it really pulled me in and I still really want to beat the original before I play Wake The living 2. The first game is out for free, right now, go get it, it costs nothing if you don't like it you can delete it from your steam.
SPS: Polycule Party/10
I'm In Love With The Villainess Season 1
[Warning, kinda spoilers except I don't say who does what]
I'm In Love With The Villainess has it all, I can only hope that the anime gets to go on long enough for us to see it. We got demons, trans women, lesbians who get married and adopt some kids, revolutions and so much more. The series is really good and gay and written with tons of passion by a queer woman.
This I suppose has long passed being an indie series but it was a little webnovel that good and made it's way all the way to being an anime thanks to fan support, which has also been a large amount of queer fans. This anime is really exciting and I honestly can't wait and hope this brings in way more fans to this amazing series.
SPS: A queer revolution/10
Granblue Fantasy Relink
I love the Granblue Fantasy's gacha game world, it's a totally unethical business' model and I hope it becomes Illegal but I love the game. Granblue Fantasy is one of the queerest games of it's scale around. Now most queer readings of characters are readings and they use the word friends but there is explicitly a few queer characters with stated queer desires, Vira Lillie is attracted to women, Katarina in particular but her bio says women generally, then Katarina as a level above. Cagliostro and Ladiva are both expressly trans women in their stories, they do not use the label of trans but both are explicitly trans, although only Cagliostro gets the "female" Gender marker from the game. Rosetta who is confirmed to be playable in this game is explicitly bisexual with her bio mentioning she is attracted to men and women. There is more and then a lot more subtexty characters.
This is to say that I really love queer characters in games and being able to play them in a really stunning action RPG is fucking exciting as hell. No gacha mechanics, no microtransactions [probably], and a full story that is playable start to finish. It also is gonna have online co-op! This game sounds fucking perfect honestly, like it's so cool and looks so good, I am frankly dazzled at the amount of work that went into this given it's a spin off RPG of a Gacha RPG.
I have worries about potential annoying DLC practices, in particular if in GBF awards will be locked to playstation buyers again leaving PC players in the dust. I also worry about the roster, right now we know all the Dragon Knights are in and the main crew of the Grand Cypher but that's like it. It isn't exactly an exciting cast. I'd like to see a lot more characters and hope a lot of popular ones aren't gated off to DLC like they were in Grandblue Fantasy Verus. Regardless, I am excited and look forward to giving this a stab.
SPS: Canon Queers Who Never Have It Mentioned In This Game/10
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That's everything for this one, if you know any lesbian/Sapphic/WlW/yuri stuff coming out next year please comment or DM or whatever, ultimately I want to engage all of it I can. If your excited for something I am excited for hit me up, we can chat about it. Otherwise, you can find me talking about my artistic work here or support me making it and nerdy shit like this at https://www.patreon.com/AlexisSara.
