This Week in Yuri – May 3, 2008

May 3rd, 2008

Lots of yummy Yuri news this week!

Top story today is that Japanese women’s magazine Malika is running a manga about Yoshiya Nobuko, a lesbian writer of the early twentieth century – and someone that many people, including myself, consider the grandmother of Yuri. Here’s a preview of the manga. Nobuko was, in her time, the wealthiest woman in Japan, as out a lesbian as one could be in the early and mid-20th century and a writer who not only created many of the tropes of “Yuri” but much of what we think of when we thinking of “Shoujo,” as well. Her Hana Monogatari series was as well known to every Japanese woman for decades as Laura Ingall Wilders’ Little House series was known in America. If you love Yuri, you’ll want to know who Yoshiya Nobuko is.

Thanks Erin for pointing me to this piece of info – Logo TV’s Alien Boot Camp has made Talking About Amy, the animated documentary short about Yuri artist Rica Takashima, available for free online viewing. I cannot reccomend this enough. It’s a beautiful short film about a beautiful person. Go watch it.

From Sean, I have learned that SS Astro has been licensed and I am assured that there is Yuri in it.

For those of you who were waiting for this moment, the Season 1 pre-order for Maria Watches Over Us, the licensed Maria-sama ga Miteru is up on the Yuricon Shop Anime Page!

Chiisaki wrote in to say that a new manga Kaprekar has Yuri, but since the Yuri is likened to that in Venus Versus Virus I assume that it’s ambiguously presented with mostly the readers doing all the work to make them a couple. I’ll take a look and let you know, as usual. :-)

Ans speaking of series that really don’t have Yuri, but we insist it is anyway, the Aria license by Nozomi/Right Stuff was announced this week.

Jaime tells me that the creatively named “Youporn” includes some hentai anime Yuri scenes. I’m not linking – if you’re over 18 and you go there, it’s your business. :-) Let me remind you that some of the uploads are probably from anime that is licensed, so if you like it, it behooves you to not steal it, but buy, rent or borrow it properly. Thank you. (This is why I almost never link to YouTube or Nicovideo or any of those “services” here, in case you wondered. They violate copyright in a way I do not condone. You want to see something and don’t want to buy it – rent it, borrow it from your library. But if you download licensed material that is for sale, you are stealing it, plain and simple, and I will never support that.)

A couple of folks have emailed to tell me about the new movement to establish an International Day of Femslash on July 19th, 2008. Hey, why not? If you’re a f/f or Yuri fanfic writer, I think it sounds like a nice way to create a community out of whole cloth. Add the banner, proclaim the word, join the fun!

And last, while not Yuri, but speaking of community, let me remind you that today is Free Comic Book Day. Comic Book stores all over will be handing out free comic books and doing raffles and prizes, etc. I’ll be going down to Comic Fusion, to help Yuricon Staffer Stacy hand out books and welcome guests. Got to your local comic book store and say hi!

That’s it for this week – I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

4 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    This manga about Nobuko Yoshiya sounds really interesting. I wonder if they’ll cover some of her love life. I mean, what could be better than a Yuri manga with the grandmother of Yuri as protagonist? ^^

    On a side note, shouldn’t the recent streaming of the new Candy Boy ONA be mentioned in this entry? I’m sure it would be of great interest for many Yuri fans.

  2. It might have been, if it got on the list before I left this morning, but it didn’t.

    Consider it announced by you.

  3. Oh man, I loved that Amy documentary. I watched it yesterday and I’m going to watch it again right now. Thanks!

  4. Anonymous says:

    Do we know who’s writing the Nobuko Yoshiya manga? From the sample pages, it almost looks like Yayoi Ogawa’s work (Kimi wa Pet/Tramps Like Us), but not quite… I hope ALC or Lililicious will pick this one up!

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