We might have forgotten about this last year, but thanks to a certain someone, this year we’re going all out in celebrating YuriReviews’ birthday, and it’s turning 5 even! That’s a pretty big number~

So to celebrate this big day, we’ve prepared a little interview with both Rock The Vogt and I, with questions all about the blog, plus a little giveaway at the end.

We hope you enjoy it, and if you want to ask anything, feel free to do so in the comments. With that said, cheers to some more great years!

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Hm, this is a tough question. Unlike Rock, thus far, I haven’t been able to put something that creative together, and frankly speaking, I don’t think I could. What I really enjoyed however, was our first Interactive post about how the yuri genre portrays lesbians. It was seriously one of the most challenging posts to write, but by the end of it, I was very proud of the outcome.

Other than that, I just really love writing these “Let’s Talk About” posts. There are no guidelines, and I can just write about whatever I want. It’s always fun, and I get really, really into certain things. So I guess in the end, what I like writing about most is the things I’m most into. That’s why there are so many posts about Citrus, for example.

I can’t really pinpoint which one was the most enjoyable to write, but I’d say even though this blog is called YuriReviews, it’s mostly not the reviews, but putting together a more random post about whatever anime, manga, or game I’m obsessing over at that moment. 😛

For me, it’s a pretty easy pick. The most out-of-left-field post I’ve written thus far has to be the Go! Go! 575 review that’s completely made up of a crown of sonnets.

It’s such a short show that I felt like, if I was going to write about it, it couldn’t be a “normal” review. So this resulted in a demonstration of my sick rhyming skillz that would surely make Shakespeare facepalm. It was fun for me. 😀

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There are a lot of good things about being part of YuriReviews. For one, I think I have the best blogging partner one could wish for – I enjoy doing this in a team rather then alone, and I’m very happy and thankful for James having joined all these years ago~

In addition to that, I love connecting with other yuri fans, talking about certain topics with each other, and especially seeing how some new friendships formed on the blog.

What I often struggle with are the responsibilities. One post for each of us a week doesn’t sound like much, but adding in the fact that you have to do your normal work and all the other responsibilities, it sometimes creates pressure to have to come up and put together a new post every week.

The best thing? Being able to do what I enjoy, alongside someone whose company I enjoy~

The worst thing? Just coming up with a new post week in and week out. Nothing unheard of, but it’s still challenging.

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In addition to James’ answer, I’d say that the quality of the posts improved a lot compared to how it was in the early days of the blog. Back then, it was just me, and I’m more or less known for certain typos, and in some cases, some bad English grammar. So, ever since James does a quick quality check before I publish something, it looks far better.

The design is another important factor. Just thinking how the blog looked before we moved over to our own domain… it’s quite weird. You can actually still find the old domain, in case you don’t remember anymore. Feel free to laugh at this. 😀

Compared to the early days, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of diversifying the types of posts that we publish. Not only reviews, but Yuri Tournaments, Let’s Talk About posts, First Impressions, Final Thoughts, fun stuff like yuri quizzes, Yuri News Updates, etc. The name’s not just YuriReviews, it’s YuriReviews and More. Now more than ever, I think we’re living up to that name.

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I think we’re often a little behind when it comes to reviewing recent anime or games. It always takes so long for me to finish something that by the time I do, whatever I did finish has been reviewed by so, so many other people already. I think I’m always last, and I’d like to be able to be a little faster and more up-to-date with our content at times.

I think there are still a lot of ways that we can improve. On my end, I’d like to be more consistent in my review scores, possibly branch out more and at least write another “Let’s Talk About” post, more frequently update major posts, edit some of the older posts, come up with some new post ideas, make more yuri quizzes, and even more stuff. 😀

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It’s weird thinking about the fact that I’ve been doing this for 5 years now. Honestly, I never thought I’d be doing it for that long. In the beginning, I was just looking for a way to get all the things out somewhere about all the anime and manga I enjoyed so much. I didn’t think that many people would be interested, and so I thought I’d simply do it for however long I felt the urge to put posts like that together. As you can see, I still am. 😛

I didn’t really think things through at all. When I first started, I was just kind of taking things one review at a time, but once L wanted me to do it full-time, I couldn’t say no. Thinking back on it, it’s pretty surreal, but I’ve had a great time, and I look forward to even more YR anniversaries~

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Blogging as a duo splits the responsibilities, and in my eyes, doesn’t only create more content, but also increases the quality of said content. I enjoy being able to work through ideas together, put posts together as a team, and come up with new things.

What’s always hard, however, is the fact that a certain someone literally always agrees with whatever ideas I come up with and never really tries to argue with me about anything. My ideas and opinions aren’t always the greatest, but James always just goes along with it, not trying to add his own opinion at all. 😛

The best thing? They say two heads are better than one, so just having someone around that can help you, and that you can help, is really nice. Brainstorming gets a lot easier, and we can kind of play off each other to get things done.

The worst thing? They say too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth, so having two of us might complicate some decisions. I always defer to her, but the need to go back and forth isn’t always super convenient.

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I’d say, simply go for it. You’ll see after a while if you like doing it and if you want to dedicate so much time into creating post after post. It can be very time-consuming, so if you’re already a busy person, it can be quite hard. On the other hand, it can also be a way for you to relax and concentrate on something that’s not your every day problems.

I’d say just take into account the time and effort that’s gonna need to go into it. In our case, each of us just doing one post a week is a challenge, so being even more active would require a lot of dedication. It’s definitely not easy, but it is rewarding~

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I have a hard time answering this question, since I don’t want to make it sound like we’re thinking that we’re better than any other yuri blog. Each of these blogs stand out in their own ways, and what I think people like about YuriReviews is the light and nice atmosphere.

I’ve heard it a few times already that people enjoy the fact that we take the time to answer to almost all comments we get and that they enjoy interacting with us and pretty much every one else here. It’s probably also nice that it’s two people working on the blog, so you can get different opinions and insights at times. Also, disregard James’ comment below, please. 😛

Visitors to YR get the opinions of the one and only Lena K.! 😛

I’m too busy trying to keep my own house in order, so I’m not very aware of what others are doing/have done, so I’ll just say that visitors can get two different unique points of view on some yuri topics~

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Seriously so many! As my personal favorites, I think I’d just love to interview artists like Saburouta, Nekomura, Tamamusi, and so, so many more. Just like James said below, Ikuhara would make an interesting pick, plus so many people who work on all these awesome visual novels that we have right now~

Since I don’t really read that much, it’s a tough question, but I’d probably say Ikuhara. He’s such an interesting character and has had a hand in some of the most notable yuri(ish) anime of recent times (Revolutionary Girl Utena, Yuri Kuma Arashi, and Sailor Moon), so getting the chance to pick his brain would be pretty cool.

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In contrast to what James said, I think YuriReviews wouldn’t work with either of us missing. We’ve only came as far as we have thanks to doing it as a team~

Plus, James doesn’t only deliver the needed motivation (and more often than I’d like to admit, the needed extra work to finish certain posts), but also such a positive attitude towards so many things, and that’s so much needed for a negative person like myself. I think this combination just works perfectly, and we help each other out in just the right ways~

She’s the heart and soul of YR, so you could say that Lena is YuriReviews~~~

She brings a lot to the table, but the thing that really sticks out to me is her passion. Yuri is simply a part of who she is, and I think that comes across in her posts. Her love for the genre is evident, and she’s such a likable person that I’d imagine that visitors would want to read more from her~

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James has a very unique taste in anime and games. Manga, I can’t even recommend, since I know he’s simply not that much into it. In case of anime, it would have to be something a little deeper, nothing superficial, but rather an intense story packed with mystery. Since I just watched it a few weeks ago for the first time and really enjoyed it, I’d recommend Howl’s Moving Castle.

It wasn’t that long ago that my dearest Lena mentioned that while she had dropped the show, she’d catch up on Kuzu no Honkai. Fast-forward eleven months later, and she has yet to make good on her word. I haven’t given up on her, but if I had my way, that’s one that she’d get back to~

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James nailed it with his answer, so I have nothing to add. 😀

Fresh off winning the internet and nabbing our third straight Webby Award, our genius is finally recognized, and we become the subject of our own manga. It sells like hotcakes, and a movie adaptation starring us wins multiple Oscars. That, or we just keep doing what we’re doing… 😛

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I like the idea of being able to make money doing what you enjoy, but I think taking this opportunity would turn the thing I like doing into a big responsibility, thus making it not so enjoyable anymore. This is a hobby I’m doing together with a friend, so I absolutely don’t see the need to change anything about it.

I didn’t join YR to try and make a name for myself or to paint myself as someone important to the yuri community. I joined because I wanted to help and work alongside a friend, so money’s cool and all, but there are some things that are more important than money~

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Early last year, Ratana Satis reposted the link to our end-of-year awards post where we handed out quite a few awards to her work, Pulse. I absolutely love the fact that the artists behind the works we enjoy so much actually notice our blog and even visit us. The same thing happened with NSFW artist isya a few years back, and it’s just the same awesome feeling~

My most memorable moment had to have been when a frequent commenter—and occasional contributor—that I liked to call “Backpfeifengesicht” tried to be sneaky and left a critical comment on a post under another name.

He was quickly found out, and shortly after being confronted about it, he erased all traces of himself from the internet. And that, my friends, is what you call karma. 😛

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I rarely listen to music while working. It usually distracts me more than it would get me in the mood to write. If I had to name something, I think it would be a vocal free song and probably as always some EDM, techno, or whatever other electro music genres there are-kind-of-song, like this one, or this one. But really, I just listed my two favorite songs just now. 😛

I’m the kind of person that can write a post fairly quickly, but I usually take a while to actually watch an anime. Being ready to write means that I’m in the final stretch, so I usually go for some uptempo music. This is a song that I usually blast (and it’s accompanied by an awesome highlight video, btw), The Glitch Mob, Audiomachine, and this track (which is accompanied by an awesome AMV, btw) are ones that get a lot of play.

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Last year, we had a poll about possible interactive posts. The winning topic, namely how realistically the yuri genre portraits lesbians, has already been posted, but some other nice picks, however, are still missing. Suggestions were like “What would you prefer yuri anime to look like?” or “What makes for good (or bad) yuri anime/manga?” I’m eager to start writing, but I already know these will be huge posts, so I never find the time or energy to even start.

I’ve wanted to write a certain fanfic for some time. I started writing it over a year ago, but I just haven’t had the time or motivation to get back to it. I’m up over 3,000 words, but I have my sights on something more along the lines of 500,000 words, so I’m barely scratching the surface. Maybe someday…

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I seriously just started out with my own idea about how I think reviews and other posts should look like, and I think I only slightly drifted from these ideas, rather sticking to this style than changing much about it. I think this can improve quite a bit, but on the other hand, I feel very comfortable writing my posts this way, knowing that I’ve done it just the same way for years now.

I think the one thing that changed the most, however, is how I view blogging in general. From the very beginning, I was so eager to get more views and get the blog to a state where people who are into the genre would simply know YuriReviews as a reliable source for information and such. In the beginning, the progress was very much noticeable and the numbers were quickly rising, but now I think we hit a mark where even though there is still a lot of room for improvement numbers-wise, nothing is happening.

As sad as it might be, I think what first bothered me greatly is now something I accept. I guess I’m still eager to get our pageviews higher, you could say, but this is simply not one of my top priorities anymore.

When I wrote my very first review, I had no idea what I was doing. I had never written any kind of review before, so I was flying by the seat of my pants, if you will. Since then, I feel like I’ve grown more comfortable and have settled into a style that suits me well. I think I’m a lot more knowledgable than I used to be, and everything just comes a lot more naturally for me.

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In addition to how I replied to the last question, I think I see YuriReviews as a very important part of my everyday life. I come home knowing that the first thing I do is reply to comments. During the week, I try to come up with what to write next and write that post, and on the weekend, I finish it all up and get ready for the next steps.

You could say that managing this blog is something natural now. It’s still hard work, and I sometimes see it as a responsibility rather than a fun hobby, but I’m just very proud of how far we’ve gotten. I’m proud of the whole blog in general, I’m proud that we managed to be at least a little well-known in this community, and I’m proud that people enjoy spending time here. This combined with the awesome people who visit us day by day is all part of what keeps me going~

I don’t know. At this point, I just feel like blogging is a responsibility, so I want to make sure that I’m doing my part. A lot of the time, I don’t finish a post until Tuesday or Wednesday, but the soft deadline helps motivate me to get it done in time.

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Finally, in celebration of our anniversary, we’d like to do yet another giveaway with you guys. It’s quite a nice coincidence that the English version of yuri visual novel Lonely Yuri was released today. So since this makes perfect sense now, you can win a copy of Lonely Yuri by simply submitting your email-address and writing down something you want to tell us.

(If the poll is not visible on your phone, please switch to the desktop version)

The winner will receive his or her copy via email a week from now. Have fun, and let’s hope we’ll have many, many more great years on this blog~