Yuri Network News – April 2, 2011

April 2nd, 2011

Yuri Anime

The big news of the week is the announcement of the first anime from a Comic Yuri Hime series. Namori-sensei’s 4 girls sitting around goofing off, slice of life series, Yuru Yuri (ゆるゆり), which has been thus far collected in 4 volumes, with a 5th just around the corner, will become an anime. The official website has a cover page at the moment, and links to a Twitter feed following the hashtag #yurururi and staff info – with more details being added as they are released, presumably.

YNN Correspondent George R. wants you all to know that the (entirely mediocre) Sengoku Otome manga has finally become a (probably mediocre) anime, Sengoku Otome ~Momoiro Paradox~ . (Be warned, the website has music.) Fans of Koihime Musou are very likely to enjoy this, as it does to the great heroes of the Warring States period what KM did to the great heroes of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, turns them into buxom women and makes them take baths a lot. And, just to really make the point that this is for the he-men women-haters out there, the English title is…ugh….Battle Girls. Could ya just spit?I know, sengoku otome does mean battle grls, but there are ways of translating that less skankily. Crunchyroll is simulcasting this aberration.

***

Yuri Manga

I don’t have a link for it yet, but finally, May will see the blooming of Aoi Hana, Volume 6!

Tsubomi, Volume 11 (つぼみ) will hit the streets mid-month in April.

YNN Correspondent Komatsu-san reports that the worldwide revival of Sailor Moon continues with republication of the manga in Germany by EMA.

YNN Correspondent Megan D. also wants to share news with you – Josh Lesnick, creator of webcomic Girly has announced a special hardcover collection of the series, which includes color poster galleries and all sorts of goodies (including figurines of Winter and Otra kissing…which level do you think I bought? ^_^). He’s taking pre-orders through his Kickstarter page. There are only going to be 500 of these printed and they are running $100 for the collection – what you get for this amount is listed in detail on the site. You get more if you “donate” more. There’s just under a month to go. Good luck to Josh hitting that goal!

***

Yuri Drama CD

Zaou Taishi and Eiki Eiki’s Love DNA XX (恋愛遺伝子XX ) series from Comic Yuri Hime is being turned into a Drama CD! The cast has been announced:

Aoi: Taketatsu Ayana (Azusa in K-ON!)
Sakura: Hikasa Youko (Mio in K-ON!)
Mizuki: Satou Satomi (Ritsu in K-ON!)
Matsuri: Kotobuki Minako (Tsumigi in K-ON!)

Hmmm, seems to be a pattern here, if only we could see it…

Seriously, this is a business move of pure genius.  K-ON! fans in Japan are obsessive, the Yuri-service sells well there. By using these actresses, this gives what otherwise might be a relatively obscure Drama CD a very good chance of selling less like “obscure Drama CD” and more like hotcakes. The CD has a June release date.

***

Snatches of Yuri

Citrus (シトラス) is a coming of age story about Shiho, whose future as a pianist is thrown into disarray with the arrival of the beautiful Nanami into their quiet town.

Gekibuno (げきぶの) has a predatory lesbian character in it. Based on the title, I’m going to go out on a limb and say – it’s about the Drama Club. And it has a predatory lesbian character in it.

Predatory….what a perfect lead-in to Shudano no Aria AA (緋弾のアリアAA), a side story manga to an upcoming anime, Aria the Scarlet Ammo. This appears to be about a sempai/kouhai – oneesama/imouto team of moe assassins. Exactly the right formula for the Young Gangan magazine audience.

Transistor Tea Set ( トランジスタティーセット ) is still limping along with only hints of plot, character, Yuri and headless robot maid. Volume 4 is going to be available in May.

I don’t know much about this, but it’s on all the Japanese Yuri blogs – Hime no Tamenara Shineru (姫のためなら死ねる) . Based on the title alone, it sounds awfully dramatic.

Moshikashite Haitenai (もしかして:はいてない) may indeed be a Yuri anthology, but the cover skeeves me. If you buy it and want to review it, let me know.

YNN Correspondent Katherine H. wants to make sure you all know that the 6th volume of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun is out now in Japan. “It’s light on the yuri/appearances by Kuroko (as well as Saten and Uiharu)” she reports, “and heavier on the Touma cameos than I would prefer (as he’s rather dull), but still entertaining.”

***

Other News

The apparently tireless Nakamura Ching-sensei has a new manga running in Monthly Comic Bunch (月刊コミック@バンチ), called “Avare Senki.” (アヴァール戦記). This is on top of GUNJO, a new comedic series Chin-Come (ちんコメ) running in Monthly Manga Goraku (週刊漫画ゴラク) and taking on editorial duties with Earthstar magazine on a comic titled “Water Cube.” AND she has some work in Quick Japan 94 (“Bananaman.”) None of this is “Yuri” per se, but if you like her art, you might want to take a look at these.

And in case you missed it, I was part of a Anime3000 podcast on Sailor Moon last week, along with Jordan D. White and Deb Aoki.

***

That’s a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

10 Responses

  1. Mara says:

    I thought Sengoku Otome was not going to worth mentioning as it was not very Yuri. Ginga Sengoku Gunyuden Rai seems like it would be more Yuri and that is just a weird space opera show. For clarification there was something about Rogina and that she was the first to pursue the female version of Date (Massina) that could have been the making of many a thin plotted slash fiction.

    No reason for that speal other than to call attention to a 1994 manga/anime that was not noticed enough.

  2. Rynnec Z says:

    So are how are the fight scenes in Sengoku Otome? If they’re any good, then I may check it out if only for that.

  3. @Rynnec Z The “fight scenes” will primary be the characters taking baths.

  4. @Mara –

    Thank you for the heads up – if you’ve read it, I’d be delighted if you feel like reviewing it.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Hime no tame nara shineru is a Yuri comedy based on Sei Shonagon. Well she did express a lot of love to the Princess in her book, so as the manga tries to look at her from ‘modern’ POV – Sei being a hikikkomori blogger, her love becomes somewhat more professed. Anyway, she’s cool, Princess is cute and manga is funny.
    Better than Itosho wo tome in many ways.

  6. Rynnec Z says:

    @Erica That’s rather… disappointing. :/ I like a little fanservice as much as the next guy, but still. Is it too much to ask for a show with a primarily female cast to mostly focus on crazy awesome fight scenes?

  7. @Anonymous – Thanks for the tip – it sounds like fun!

    @Rynnec Z – Well, if that’s what you want, then perhaps you need to look at a different genre This one is “make busty girls take baths.”

  8. darkchibi07 says:

    Poor, Yui (Aki Toyosaki)! She doesn’t get to join the crossdressing lesbian fun with her friends!

  9. Anonymous says:

    @Erica Oh, and I forgot to add the link for Hime no tame nara shineru
    http://4koma.livedoor.com/mangalife/kuzushiro/kiminotamenarashineru/001/
    The author uploads it’s own work to the net.

  10. @Anonymous – Thank you for the link. ^_^

    It does indeed look like the author uploads their own work.

Leave a Reply to darkchibi07