Reiwa 8 is starting soon, and so will my Year of Yuri.
I like to make my New Year’s Resolutions start April 1st, since that’s the start of the school year in Japan and the “spiritual new year” in many other ways. As I’ve mentioned before, I really think trying to figure out new life goals in January, right after the sluggishness of the holidays and in the cold sad part of year, leads to less clarity, vaguer goals, and quick abandonment.
So that’s why I will embark on the Year of Yuri with my specific Reiwa 8 resolution. As you know, Yuri means a lot to me…
First, though, accountability.
Reiwa 7 Resolutions Accountability
I had three very big resolutions for a very big year of my life.
Although, while I say Reiwa 7 was a big year, it sure feels like I’m exactly in the same place I was twelve months ago. Or even a worse position in some ways. I sure accomplished a whole lot–I don’t even think I wrote a blog post here yet about getting featured in the national news multiple times–but if you just took a snapshot of me on April 15th each year, the main thing you’d see is that I lost my job.
As for the resolutions, though…
- Get healthier – Basically a massive failure. I didn’t lose any weight at all in the past year. I had to cancel my gym membership almost as soon as I wrote that post, and I never developed a routine on my own. I DID learn a lot of techniques to eating more cheaply, though, and saved a lot of money that way. My instant pot has saved my appetite… although I still don’t actually enjoy my own cooking very much…
- This will be a continuing fight into Reiwa 8! Not a resolution though!
- Pay off debt – My goal was to reduce my total debt by $6000 USD, and my result has been… uh, well, I forgot to actually write down what my debt was back in April 2025. Very bad financial planning huh!!!!!! At the moment, I have $13,000 in non-student debt. My best guess is, I reduced that by about $5000. So… Eh.
- It’d be a lot higher, except the interest rates on a couple of my accounts are well above 20%, and I simply can’t send enough back when my salary is in the ever-declining Japanese yen– 159 yen to the dollar at this moment, just horrific. Yuri Kissaten isn’t paying off fast enough to combat the interest rates.
- I told you my salary got cut by 30%, but I got all that salary back. Trust me, I made sure of that.
- Finish 60 things – I conquered this sorta!!!! I finished so many cool pieces of media like The Studio, Asbury Pines, 1000xRESIST, Revue Starlight, Schitt’s Creek, and… a metric boatload of Star Wars media, which ended up confusing my goal. In the past year, I’ve read nearly every single Star Wars comic, well over 75% of Legends and over half of the New Canon, plus a ton of books and short stories. But what actually counts as “a thing” to finish? One volume of a comic? A whole comic series? I doomed myself through ambiguity. But at least with a looser definition, I absolutely smashed through 60 things finished. It’s just that probably 45 of it was Star Wars.
- Also, I ended up not “liveblogging” the media like I said I wanted to, mostly because of the extreme pivot into Star Warsness.
So, one half-success, one ambiguous failure, and one unambiguous failure. A bad rate. But all three of these goals were ill-defined, very big, and punishing if I failed them. So, I feel like I brought it on myself to make such lofty goals.
That’s why, for Reiwa 8, I’m going to try something different with resolutions. I want any goal I have to be specific, clear, reachable with a plan, and with no crushing blowback if I fail–resolutions are supposed to be a bonus sidequest to the year, not a requirement just to survive.
So let’s make this fun and theme it all around Yuri!!!!
Thus Starts the Year of Yuri
Three goals all centered around Yuri!
#1 – Try 67 Yuri Stories.
Whether it’s manga, movies, games, or books–I want to try at least 67 stories that are verifiably Yuritastic. Mostly Japanese media, but not entirely.
Let’s define “story” here though – Reading one volume of a manga, in Japanese, counts as one story. 15 chapters of a manga, in English, counts as one story. One season of a TV show counts as one story. A music album listen-through counts as one story.
I don’t have to finish everything! Starting a 3-season anime doesn’t mean I have to finish it. It’s OK to get a few hours into a game and not finish it, either. I can always finish stuff later; I’m more about expanding my horizons and getting a taste of the broader genre. As long I spend over 67 minutes on it, I’ll count it.
I’ll focus on Japanese. I’m taking the JLPT N2 yet again in the summer, and I am absolutely going to pass it this time, so Japanese language media takes all precedence.
The definition of Yuri is loose. Some of the stuff I choose will be explicitly GL romances. Some will have prominent lesbian relationships in different genre work. Some will be historically significant subtextual works. Some will be queerbaiting works I try intentionally (or unintentionally!) despite the lack of “canon” content. As part of a broad taste, I won’t gatekeep myself.
Through all this, I hope to better absorb the essence of the Yuri genre, to improve my own craft, and to find new media to enjoy for years to come. I want to become an expert. Not a full-on scholar like Erica Friedman or anything like that, but a well-rounded artist seasoned in the main genre I write in.
#2 – Make or Translate a Yuri Manga
I had this one down for a while as “Make my own Yuri doujin!” but I realized that might be really difficult considering my schedule for the year–I’m already writing scripts for 4 (!!!) visual novels and most of my artists friends will be busy making those exact visual novels. So maybe I’ll translate something instead!
If I make a Yuri manga, I mean something small, like 8 or 16 pages, a fancomic based on a piece of media I like, and debuting it exclusively at a doujin event.
If I translate a Yuri manga, I mean a single doujin or one-shot comic, something made only with permission of the original creator.
Both are just improving my skills at project management, fast turnarounds, and trying something new. And both are stuff I really wanted to do circa 2020 and never got around to it because the world suddenly shifted massively and never let up. (I still curse the memory of getting accepted to Comitia in May 2020!!!!)
#3 – Attend In-Person Yuri Events
I need to get out of the house more. Yeah, I’m literally unemployed as I write this, but I should still leave the house sometimes, y’know?
So I want to attend at least 6 or 7 different events such as:
- Yuri-centric doujin events
- Yuri-centric pop-up events
- Pride month celebrations
- Queer zine festivals
- Non-alcohol-centric lesbian get-togethers
And that kind of thing. I’m really stretching the definition of “Yuri,” but it’s on purpose because I’m silly.
The Year of Yuri Begins
Starting in April, I’m flipping to a new chapter of my life. I’ll keep these three resolutions tight in my heart and make sure that 2026-2027 is the Year of Yuri indeed.
