This is the kind of news that makes me glad to be alive: Scott Green at Crunchyroll News notes ” the National Federation of All Japan Guide Dog Training Institution has followed a couple of years of Puella Magi Madoka Magica posters with one depicting Bodacious Space Pirates‘ Marika walking a candidate puppy.”
Yuri Manga
Thanks to the eagle-eyed Erin S. for this one: Digital Manga Publishing has listed Sweet Blue Flowers Vol. 1 on their Upcoming Titles. I’ve asked them to keep me in the loop if they get any other Yuri titles. So the series may be ending this summer in Japan, but here’s a sign that it may be rescued here. I’ll keep you informed if there’s any new news.
For folks with mailing addresses in Japan, Ichijinsha is selling the Comiket promotional collections Sayuri Hime 2-6 for 1000 yen each on their website.
Zenraku, Yuri no Sono Yori, Volume 2 is out from Tsubomi Comics this month, along with Himitsu no Recipe, (ひみつのレシピ) Volume 2, Betsukiss, Volume 2 (ベツキス) and Sentou Hawaii (銭湯ハワイ).
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Yuri Anime
YNN Correspondent DM00 says, “Crunchyroll is adding (at least part of) R.O.D. the TV to their streaming collection. Premium members get the first 13 episodes, while free members get 3 per week.” R.O.D. The TV was the first anime series I ever awarded a score of 10 to here on Okazu. If you have never watched it, I hope you will. It’s quite wonderful.
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Financial News
Two things of note in finance this week. The US Senate passed an Internet sales tax. I’m going to be honest – I have no objection paying tax. Had this law been passed a few years ago, we might still have book stores.
And, as of the moment I am writing this, the dollar passed the yen once again, for the first time in some years. If you’ve been holding off buying from Amazon JP or visit Japan, now is a very good time to do so.
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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!
This is the point where I would be programmed to jump in and say that 100Yen/USD, so $6.99=Y699, is not really “parity” ~ “parity” is when the two currencies have the same buying power.
BUT … while current Consumer Price purchasing power parity is about 125YEN/USD … Corporate Price purchasing power parity is about 96YEN/USD, and in reality, that’s the kind of parity that is most likely to affect exchange rates.
So for the current period, parity is close enough to 100Y=$1 to actually use it as a rough rule of thumb.
With the exchange rate at around 101YEN/USD, there’s no particular reason to expect any long term improvement SO …
… yeah, there’s no particular reason to hold off buying.
There’s always a chance that something will give exchange rates a knock, but from here, its about a 50:50 gamble whether it makes things better or makes things worse. If anything, since its about 5% under parity, maybe slightly strong odds that a random shock will make things worse.
holy crap is that dog poster awesome!
Wow, you guys have some seriously weird tax laws. I didn’t quite get what this internet sales tax meant and looked it up..and wow, just thinking that this hasn’t been done for YEARS already is baffling. Talk about one big loophole and a huge disadvantage for ordinary stores.
Oh well, over here in Germany it’s been fair all along. Whether I buy online from Germany, England or whatnot…19% sales tax (7% for books) get slapped on and it’s done with.
Oh well, I still save on exchange rates^^
Still surprising how such a law could be neglected for so long in the US.
As for Aoi Hana, I’m really hoping that it gets rescued! Such a shame JManga didn’t work out.
Lookin’ at the 3rd link, I see “The poster by Osamu Horiuchi instructs children how to behave around seeing eye dogs and encourages them to volunteer as walkers.”.
THIS IS AWESOME.
Not just because of the anime characters, this would be awesome even without those.
My parents didn’t cover this. My schools didn’t cover this. I had to learn stuff like “the guide dog’s trained to know that harness on = work time and harness off = play time, don’t ask to pet the dog when the harness is on” from USENET as an ADULT. Maybe my parents and schools left that out because it’s merely about being a good member of society instead of about getting good test scores?
Also, the poster art is great – see the dogs and anime characters *go together well in the same scenes* even while the dogs look way more physically realistic than the people. That takes SKILL. :D