Yuri News This Week – September 20, 2008

September 20th, 2008

A happy birthday to two of the most important men in my life, Ed. Ed and Dad. You all owe my father, btw. It’s from him that I get many of the interests that make me the reviewer that I am. He fostered my love of comics, action flicks, sports and soft-core crap. lol Thanks Dad, and happy birthday!

Yuri Anime

By now many of you will have heard the big news…The 4th anime season of Maria-sama ga Miteru has been announced. Last Monday was the Autumn Lillian Festival where it was announced that the new season will begin in *January*. I have already been asked if I’m anticipating it – of course the answer is yes, but probably not as much as the rest of you. I now have to contend with the issue I feared all along – I’ve read the novels. I know what’s going to happen and have my own ideas about things. But, provided we get Shouko, and you get to see some of Touko’s true self, I’ll be happy.

Fans of Lucky Star will be want to view the online streamed “promotional video” (in the real world we call that a “commercial”) for the upcoming OVA. This OVA is rumored to be Konata x Kagami friendly – I note that the promotional art accompanying the above article has whichever one of them it is holding leeks, a popular Japanese Yuri meme. Before you write and express that you were right and I was wrong, let me remind you that I have never watched the series and have no opinion about it whatsoever. I do not see an overt K x K pairing in the OVA as validation of your interests, but as a catering to it in order to separate you from your money. Just wanted to be clear on that. Should it be true that they are paired in the OVA, my opinion will be that I am pleased that the collective whim of fandom has once again triumphed to put another Yuri couple on the map. :-)

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Yuri Events

Next Saturday, September 27, I will be at *two* events. In the early afternoon, I will be attending the Morris County Author’s Day at the Morris County Library, one of the best county libraries evar. I invite you all to come, get your books signed by the authors, ask us for advice, get advice which will not be of help to you, and check out the really excellent graphic novels section in the library (which is rather heavy in Yuri, due to yours truly. Whenever I review an English-language manga that I do not need to keep by my side, I donate it to the library. Everything but the crap. I encourage you to do the same. Libraries need and want your help.)

Immediately after the library event, I will wing my way over to Manhattan and the New York Anime Festival. I and Sean Gaffney will be running the Yuri Panel at 8PM on Saturday. It says in the program book that it is an 18+ event, but that is wrong. I’ve asked for and gotten permission to make it more open. The bottom line is, I don’t want to talk about sex – and especially not with you people. Anime and manga, yes, absolutely. We’ll talk about that till we’re hoarse. :-) Sex? No.

Also Maiden’s Garden, the Yuri doujinshi event, is coming up in Kyoto. As always, you can find all the latest Yuri Events on…the Yuri Events page on Yuricon!

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Yuri Manga

Friend of Yuri Eric P wrote in to let us know that he’s seen a preview of Hayate x Blade in his newest issue of Anime Insider magazine. He says it looks pretty funny. It is funny – and I can promise you that the second volume is even funnier. ^_^ (Off-topic, Eric also wrote an Evangelion review that has recently been posted on Anime News Network, so congrats, Eric!)

Yuri Hime S is once again out, this time accompanied by two collections, Hanjuku Onna by Akiko Morishima, and Gokujou Drops, by Mitsukuni Hachime. (Late breaking news. Erin tells us that these collections have been delayed and are now slated for *next month*. Thanks for the heads up!)

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Snatches of Yuri

Ririi no Kago (Basket of Lily,) looks to be a collection of stories about Girls’ Love. It is not a “lesbian” collection, a reviewer tells us, but it’s a good collection. This is a book, not a manga, fyi.

And one more book for the pile of novels that I will never get to, Yoshiya Nobuko’s Kuro Shoubi (thanks for the correction, Komatsu-san,) (Black Rose) tells the story of a young woman who goes to teach at an all-girl’s school and a student who falls in love with her. For what it’s worth, I am once again tackling Yaneura no Nishoujo, but Akiko is such a mopey girl. In the last scene she actually sat there for like 20 pages whining to herself. Ugh.

Hakamada Mera’s manga series Akatsuki-iro Senpuku Majyo (The Hidden Witch of the Dawn, I guess I’d translated it as) is much like the more well-known Last Uniform series, only this series takes place at a school of magic. Stories of friendship, love and Yuri, so pretty much the same old-same old in a different series.

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That’s it for this week. More already on the horizon, so come back next week for more Yuri News!

7 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    Would you mind telling me more about this meme of leeks? I’ve seen leeks (by which I mean, not just IRL but in various fanart and such) before, but didn’t know they were connected to Yuri!

  2. I don’t have much to tell you. It seems to have originated with Japanese Shizuru x Natsuki fandom and has spread as an indicator of Yuri.

    I’m sure someone knows more than I do and will weigh in. :-)

  3. Anonymous says:

    wow!it’s the first time that i hear that there is going to be a fourth season to marimite.i can’t wait!the story of the girls in the novels has come to a conclusion?and why do you not translate the novels anymore?i’ve always expected your translations because i am a fan of the series but in my country there are not stores in wich they sale manga or japanese light novels and buying them on the net is too expensive for me,and besides i don’t know japanese.T_T

  4. The fourth season was mentioned some time last spring, I believe.

    I stopped translating the novels because many things happened and I don’t have as much time. However, I do have one more translation to post eventually and two other people are working on the next book after that.

    But please bear in mind that I do not translate for your convenience. I’m glad you enjoy them, but I have no intention of feeling bad because you cannot read the next novel.

  5. Caitlin says:

    So glad to hear about Maria! I found it on the jp.wiki page a few days back and almost exploded with joy. I knew it was coming..but I just wasn’t sure when, like the rest of us. I’ve read beyond “seasons 3” myself but I’m still extremely excited. I can finally stop refreshing gokigenyou.com every couple hours! :D Can’t wait for oops..better not say too much here -^_^-.

    Curious to see how some of it will be played out in animation though in contrast to how it played out in my mind while reading.

  6. Mandy says:

    The leeks part of the promo ad is because Kagami is cosplaying as Hatsune Miku, the Vocaloid character. There is a big internet fad thing of Miku twirling a leek and singing the Ievan Polkka song. Why, I have no idea, but meme things always boggle me.

    While leeks is also a big meme thing in the Yuri fandom, I’m not too sure they were going for that angle by having Kagami cosplay like that. You never know, though, I suppose. ^^

  7. jaymiemizuno says:

    Hey there. You know, Uranus/Neptune is still top in some places? i did a search over at Nico Nico Douga, using the kanji for Yuri, and the very first video was those two set to Agony by KOTOKO, AKA the Kannazuki no Miko Ending. Both surprising and not so surprising, since Nico Nico Douga is pretty well known for having newer stuff on it, and so far this is the oldest footage i have seen.

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