#by: hanakage alt

[yuripoll]

REJECT: Shikou (2020)

NOTE: This was a rejected self-submission on the basis that it's too short to be tournament material.

Shikou (or, Preference) is a short oneshot by Hanakage Alt about a woman's number one kink.

No summary available

No official ENG; JP available on the artist's Pixiv.

Aside from sexual content, no major content warnings apply.

[diorvexyy]

OKAY I NEED HELP, LIKE REALLY.

I suddenly remembered this author who wrote a knyxreader fic, but when I opened their acc link on my notes it won't open anymore (I dont have tumblr that time when I was accessing their fics)

All I know is that the name of their tumblr is hanakages tumblr? YEAH THAT and they had Kyojuro's mother as their pfp if I'm not mistaken.

I know that the last time I've read their fics is in 2021 but, if you can, can you pls help this dear reader to find that user? I really want to check out if that fic of theirs is still up and ongoing or if their acc is still active cause I want to follow them+their works(I think they have an alt acc if I'm not mistaken, but idk what's the name) T-T

THANK YOU GUYS!!! LOTS OF LOVE 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩷🩷🩷🩷

P.s

Sadly, I can't remember its title since the last time I read their fic is in 2021 :(( but I could describe it. The reader is Tanjiro's big sister in the fic and uses a breathing technique that is kinda similar to Zenitsu's (I think it's thunder if I'm not mistaken)

P.s.s

If some of you are also trying to find this fic (along with its author), the updates are in the comments/notes :)) 🩵

P.s.s.s

The author has an ao3 acc, you guys can check it on the comments if you're interested 🩵

[read-alert]

Happy Lesbian Visibility Week! 📚📖🏳️‍🌈

Again, I'm not 100% certain these all feature characters who identify specifically as lesbians, especially given that I haven't read them yet, but they are all sapphic. Full titles under the cut!

Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

A Little Kissing Between Friends by Chencia C Higgins

Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier

Alice isn't Dead by Joseph Fink

How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow

The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag

How to Succeed in Witchcraft and Aislinn Brophy

D'Vaugh & Kris Plan a Wedding by Chencia C Higgins

Stud Like Her by Fiona Zedde

Second Night Stand by Karelia & Fay Stetz-Waters

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

The Art of Saving the World by Corrine Duyvis

The Final Strife by Saara el-Arifi

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

The Divines by Ellie Eaton

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

The Dyke & the Dybuk by Ellen Galford

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley

Boyish² Butch x Butch Yuri Anthology by Akizora Sawayaka, Hanakage Alt, Nekobungi Sumiro, et al

Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alisom Bechdel

A Masc for Purim by Roz Alexander

Chlorine by Jade Song

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

The Seafarer's Kiss by Julia Ember

The Little Homo Sapiens Scientist by SL Huang

The Siren, the Song, and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson

Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera

[spookyhoax]

@hanakage-alt

[cavechoir]

Ring On My Finger - Alt Hanakage

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Manga Review - Alt Hanakage Double Feature

I often proclaim that Yuri is for everyone and can be made by anyone; that the quality of the story and characters exists regardless of the creator's sexual, gender identity, origin, or any other status. Some of the greatest Yuri works, both in the general opinion of Yurijin worldwide and my own slightly divergent beliefs, have come from such diverse authorship. However, while "Yuri is for everyone" is both a hardened personal stance and a historical fact, the genre is about lesbian content (if not always lesbian identity) and thus dramatically benefits from the presence of lesbian creators. In my 2020 article Yuri is for Everyone, I wrote an equally true statement aside "Yuri is for everyone," that "it is still important to prioritize the voices of those with the experiences and identities depicted in a work." Alt Hanakage is one such voice.

There are a surprisingly high number of Alt Hanakage's creations available from English publishers, considering that the vast majority of her work is doujinshi, alongside a few short series from Funguild's Cherish label. While her manga focuses on adult characters, the individual content is quite diverse, spanning the gauntlet from a silly appreciation for abs in Boyish2 to the incredibly dramatic Sexual Liberation (a problematic favorite of mine). However, the feature that kindles my deep, enduring appreciation for this artist is just how queer everything she writes is. As Hanakage has openly admitted, her own experience as a lesbian informs her writing, inspiring her forthright presentation of LGBT identity and issues.

Lilyaka manga publishes two of Hanakage's Yuri doujin in English. The first, Senpai no Kohai, is a reunion between a young woman and the girl she used to admire, based on an event from the author's life, but with a more romantic turn. And the second, Put a Ring on My Finger, communicates the frustration of Japan's LGBTQ+ community, as they remain barred from marriage equality. Eager to check them both out, I put aside my admirative opinion of the author to examine each doujin.

Senpai no Kohai follows Sayuri, an office worker who glimpses her former college kouhai, Nakayama, walking down the street. Sayuri is shocked to discover that Nakayama is the newest employee at her company, making them Senpai and kouhai again and bringing the former's old feelings bubbling back to the surface.

The story is compact, given that there are only two short episodes. Each issue has a conflict and a revelation that comes with a resolution and advancement of the women's relationship. Hanakage creates depth for both characters, giving each a short, narrated flashback centered on a pivotal moment of their past together. By having them reflect on this shared period, we see how it affected them both individually and how it colored their bond and inevitable romance. It does not feel repetitive, as their stories contrast each other, with Sayuri explaining the events that led up to it and Nakayama revealing the metamorphosis she experienced in the aftermath. Lastly, both characters' experiences will be relatable to many queer people as they struggle with common issues like unrequited love and discovering one's own identity.

There are a few less satisfactory aspects of Senpai no Kohai. The central conflict of the second episode sees Sayuri pushing her junior away, apparently disgusted by her own queerness and wanting to protect Nakayama from it. It feels a bit too forceful and dramatic, jarring with the realism the rest of the doujin exhibits. The manga needed more time than the limited space of a single doujin episode to explore the self-devaluation because, as is, the rapid escalation amounts to little more than melodrama.

Furthermore, while the character designs were appropriate for the adult characters, there are occasional, uncanny discrepancies with their proportions. For example, in one panel, a character's legs appear excessively longer than her torso, and in another, her shoulders are awkwardly wider than her hips. Hanakage also employs excessive use of screentones with mixed results. While the shading occasionally makes panels pop, its prolific presence can crowd the page. In a few pages, it engulfs the linework, muddling expression and dialogues as overabundant smatterings of patterns override figures, backgrounds, and objects simultaneously. Lilyka's low-resolution "common" ePub definitely did not help the situation. Fortunately, the publisher allows you to download purchases in various formats, the rest of which were higher quality.

Ratings: Story – 6 Characters – 8 Art – 4 LGBTQ – 9 Sexual Content – 2 Final – 6

Ring On My Finger is, by comparison, a much shorter work, just about ten pages long. It has no little plot, and the characters do not even have names. This choice allows the two women in this manga to act as blank canvases for readers to attach themselves, empathetically or sympathetically onto. Amplifying the emotion experienced as they read, the women reflect on 30 loving years together by reading an old letter.

The short and touching speech, accompanied by simple flashbacks and a lack of details, elegantly describes the moments of extreme jubilation and sorrow of queer couples: Sharing a drink and an "I love you," holding hands to warm up in the winter, and laughing long into the night together, but at the same time, enduring the withering jeers of strangers, stand up against the careless comments of the ill-informed, and shedding tears into each other's shoulders as they cry themselves to sleep. It is a beautiful and emotionally resonating survey of queer romance.

A single central expression encapsulates these days, one which many consider the ultimate ceremony of love, marriage. And, as same-sex marriage remained outlawed in Japan, a ban recently held up by a district court in Osaka, it is with tears in her eyes that Ring On My Finger's character swears, "until the day I can marry you in this country, I will not give up." It is both a lamentation and a hopeful wish, a prayer that the injustice end.

I have written before that I am privileged enough to have been born at a time and in an area where those I was exposed to openly embraced queerness. Indeed, I never experienced discrimination firsthand and was not even in elementary school before my state legalized gay marriage. Before I graduated high school, this right was ubiquitous across the country. However, I still understand the tremendous effort getting to that momentous day and the indignity so many suffered through and continue to experience, particularly as the looming fear of that right getting insidiously snatched away looms for so many in my country. So, while I cannot speak on the emotions firsthand, I genuinely feel that Hanakage has masterfully conveyed them.

Ring On My Finger was another reminder of the cruel, tumultuous reality queer people experience every day, sent via a hopeful and impassioned plea, desperate to communicate the unbearable pain and overwhelming love. I dearly hope that it reaches the eyes and minds of an audience unaware of these feelings because it is the type of short, simple work that could help to spark compassion. And I sincerely recommend you get a copy of the doujin on Lilyka right now. It is available with a "name your own price" tag, so you have no reason to ignore it.

Final Rating – 9

Check out Senpai no Kohai and Ring On My Finger digitally on Lilyka today.

Reading official releases helps support creators and publishers. 

Special thanks to Ring On My Finger editors Leroy G. & J.F. and letterer Salina U.

I would love to thank the translator of Ring On My Finger, and the localization team for Senpai no Kohai, unfortunately, Lilyka made the unfortunate choice not to credit them.

This review is made possible by the support of Avery Riehl and the YuriMother patrons. Support YuriMother on Patreon today for exclusive articles, early access, and to help fund LGBTQ+ content.

[yuripoll]

REJECT: August 31 (2019)

NOTE: Preemptively rejected due to its brevity.

August 31 is a oneshot by Hanakage Alt about the end of summer.

The summer you really love is about to end. - Mangadex

No official ENG; JP available on Pixiv.

No major content warnings apply.

[yuripoll]

REJECT: Purple (2017)

NOTE: This was a rejected self-submission on the basis that it is a little too short to be tournament material.

Purple is a short oneshot by Hanakage Alt about girls at a festival.

A glimpse at the relationship between two girls. - BakaUpdates

No official ENG; original JP over on the artist's Pixiv.

No major content warnings apply.

[yurimother]

Butch×Butch Yuri Anthology 'Boyish²' English Version Funded on Kickstarter

Yuri doujinshi anthology Boyish² is now seeking funding on Kickstarter for an English release. The anthology was originally funded in Japanese on Campfire over the Summer.

Boyish² features 10 different stories by Japanese Yuri manga artists focusing on relationships between two butch women. It is approximately 220 pages long and made for audiences 15 and up. The manga has reached $14,000 of its $3,500 goal, reaching its single stretch goal, a printed release, to be released alongside the digital version in January, with general sales ending in March.

Boyish² features cover illustrations by Akizora Sawayaka and stories by:

Hanakage Alt - A Sports Gym RomCOm

Nekobungi Sumire - A post-apocalyptic sci-fi romance

Jackie - High School RomCom

Edakichi - Slice-of-life romance

Nerikomi Toukichirou - Slice-of-life comedy

Chiruda Shimako - Outlaw comedy

noe - comedy

Mirin - comedy and romance

Mint - Romance between a human and mermaid

and the organizer Mitsumi Natsu - Comedy about relatable lesbian experiences.

You can support the project on Kickstarter until December 3.

[yurimother]

Yuri Review Double Feature

I check out two Yuri doujinshi from lesbian mangaka Alt Hanakage.

Senpai no Kohai tells the story of a woman who sees her former crush from a distance, only to find out she is her newest coworker - A "what-if" retelling from the author's own experience.

Ring On My Finger is a short, impassioned letter about the love of two women and their longing for marriage even in a country where it is illegal.

Check out my review of both series early on the YuriMother Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/69148024

[yurimother]

Yuri Doujinshi Publisher Lilyka Holds Labor Day Sale - 25% Off Manga Titles

On Saturday, Lilyka Manga announced that it is holding a Labor Day weekend sale with 25% off all manga. Lilyka primarily publishes independent Yuri comics, working directly with their creators to translate and market them.

Readers can get the discount by using the code "Labor" at checkout.

Lilyka Manga is an imprint of Digital Manga Inc. In addition to doujinshi Lilyka also sells Yuri visual novels and organizes special limited-run signed shikishi events.

The imprint holds interviews with Yuri mangaka and community members. YuriMother was interviewed by Lilyka in July and discussed some of the platform's top titles:

Mintaro's Lily Fairy Tale series is a must-read, in my opinion. It is a sort of anthology set at a school full of girls from classic fairy tales. Each issue focuses on a different odd pairing of classic characters like Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella and Little Red Cap. Such a creative concept blends these well-known characters and stories with a new Yuri twist and a faint eerie atmosphere, as each character has an inevitable fate. Plus, minatro-sensei's illustrations are adorable and have an enchanting air about them.

I also strongly advocate for Ruri Hazuki's work if you like a more chaotic read. I think I once described her series Saturday as "wild and sloppy." Yet, I find the series oddly charming and incredibly salacious! The idea of a company comprised of women who all constantly flirt and seduce each other with such vigor and frequency that there is a literal chart to keep track of it all is sheerly absurd!

SHWD by sono.N is one of my all-time favorite works, and considering I read Yuri for a living, that is pretty high praise. I love the darker tone and elements of horror in it, particularly in any scene with the Dynamis, which always sends a shudder down my spine. The action scenes with them are always thrilling and spectacularly illustrated. However, the character designs are easily the best part. In Yuri, we get a lot of cute, fluffy romances and slice-of-life series with moe schoolgirls, so it is a welcome change to see some larger, mature women with bludging muscles as they both kick butt and show off their more feminine, delicate side.

Lastly, no discussion of Lilyka's incredible offerings is complete without sincere praise of Alt Hanakage. Although much of the work I know her for is more sultry and, frankly, for that reason, not of much interest to me, her more dramatic and tender Shakaijin Yuri works are spectacular. Senpai no Kouhai, which, as she admitted to Lilyka, was based on her experiences as a lesbian, is so authentic. The reader gets a sense of both women's turmoil and regret, and the manga is so relatable to queer people.

Hanakage-sensei's other work on Lilyka, Ring On My Finger, is an exceptional short letter expressing both the profound love that two women can have for each other and the injustices LGBT people face every day, tailored through the lens of Japan's lack of marriage equality. The manga captures the voice of the queer community, their joys and their sorrows. It nearly brought me to tears. It is so beautiful.

Check out all the titles mentioned and more at a discount as part of Lilyka's Labor Day sale, and read the full interview here: https://www.lilykamanga.com/post/holy-yurimother-the-goddess-of-the-yuri-community

[yurimother]

Yuri Doujin 'Senpai no Kōhai: part 1' Released in English; Author Gives Interview About Her Lesbian Experience

On Friday, Lilyka manga released its English translation of Alt Hanakage's Yuri doujinshi Senpai no Kouhai: part 1. The manga, according to an interview with the author, is partially based on her experiences as a lesbian.

Lilyka describes the doujin:

“I knew who that person was at a glance.”

One day, on her way to work, Sayuri Terazono, suddenly spots an all too familiar back in the crowd of people before her. Though many years had passed since she last saw Lisa, there’s no way Sayuri would be able to forget her precious Kohai. After all, Lisa wasn’t just any Kohai for Sayuri, she was special.

But, there’s no way Lisa would remember her after all this time, right?

Or does she…

Alt Hanakage is best known for her series Sexual Liberation, The Shape of Each Love (Sei Kaihou Sorezore no Ainokatachi) which is published in English by FUNGUILD. Senpai no Kouhai: part 1 was initially translated into English by Satto and released on the author's Booth.

Hanakage recently did an interview with Liilyka, where she talked about her journey and how her experience as a lesbian informed Senpai no Kouhai. According to the interview, when she was a student, she would admire, but only after running into her years later did she realize, "Oh, I wis in love with her." The characters in Senapi no Kouhai, Sayuri and Lisa, have a similar interaction.

Read the full interview on Lilyak Manga's website.

Senpai no Kouhai: part 1 is available digitally on Lilyka Manga's online store.