Last year, I could NOT escape Love Bullet. In fall 2024, it was everywhere on Yuri Twitter (and then Yuri Bluesky). Yuri, or girls’ love, is a term for manga and anime where women engage in deep intimacy with one another — usually romantic in nature, and sometimes sexual, too. The genre has a dedicated but niche following in Japan, yet remains vastly underrepresented among English language localization publishers. This remains the case despite a wide assortment of queer manga fans obsessed with the genre on social media.
So, when Love Bullet creator inee stressed that the series might not continue in Japan if sales dropped, yuri fans worldwide began purchasing the manga in droves, just to keep the manga afloat. Almost a year later, Yen Press has received the message: Love Bullet has an eager audience willing to vote with their wallets, regardless of whether they can read the manga they’re purchasing. So, localizing such a popular yuri only makes sense, right? Hence why Yen Press announced today that Love Bullet will be getting an official English language release.
“You’ve asked for it and we GOT IT!” Yen Press wrote. “The highly anticipated GL manga from inee that exploded with support last year is coming out in English print!”
Yuri fans, it’s time to vote with your gay little wallets
The storyline behind Love Bullet is pretty clever. In the manga’s world, humans who died without falling in love become Cupids. Armed with guns and grenades, Cupids play matchmaker with their weaponry, all on behalf of the Goddess of Love. The series follows Koharu, a once-teenage school girl who dies shortly after her best friend confesses her feelings for her, leading her to become one of the series’ Cupids. I won’t spoil the rest from there, just know that Love Bullet has swooned many queer girls’ hearts for a reason. It’s very yuri.
Love Bullet’s English language release is set to publish in November, according to Anime News Network. Noisy Pixel notes the initial volume will be available in both digital and physical editions. While English publishers have traditionally held back on filling their catalogs with yuri, Love Bullet could be a major turning point for North American lesbians interested in more girls’ love on their store shelves.
My advice? Vote with your wallet, and be prepared to show Yen Press that there’s an enormous market for girls being gay with each other in manga. Good things may come from there.
The post Remember That Yuri Manga Every Lesbian Fell in Love With? It’s Finally Getting an English Release appeared first on VICE.
