Let’s see what the Yuri Network is doing this week!
Yuri Manga
Seven Seas has announced the license for Akuma no Riddle: Riddle Story of a Devil, with an Autumn 2015 release date.
Okazu readers in Japan might want to look at the new online manga magazine service that Amazon JP is launching for Kindle. Based on current region issues, I don’t expect we’ll be able to access it outside Japan. ^_^;
Comic Natalie reports Oiwa Kenji is launching a new Yuri fantasy in GUM magazine called “Aka to Ao no Ehrenberg”. (Thanks Orphireus, for the clarification.) Just a heads up, despite the pretty color picture on the news article – GUM is where Ikkitousen runs. Just so you know what to expect. ^_^
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Yuri Anime
Yurikuma Arashi launched this week. I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, but please share your spoiler-free opinions in the comments!
ANN has the scoop on the second Psycho-Pass movie trailer.
While Hollywood is busy white-washing Ghost in the Shell by giving Scarlet Johansson the lead, Studio IG is releasing a new animated GitS movie in summer 2015. Check out the trailer and sigh with relief.
ANN also has the second Ikkitousen: Extravaganza Epoch trailer for us.
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Other News
Out in the real world, Vietnam has abolished their same-sex marriage ban, becoming the first Asian country to allow same-sex marriages!
Marcy Cook has an article on the The Mary Sue with 10 Rules for Making a Transgender Superhero. (Of which we need more, so get to it!)
In a transparent, but welcome, effort to compete with Marvel’s wonderful Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, DC is launching a new Power Girl, sans boob window or Aryan looks. Tanya Spears looks awesome as a young WoC superheroine, let’s keep our fingers crossed that they give her the writing team she – and her readers – deserve.
The LGBTQ Rights Index page Equaldex has launched a new page tracking LGBTQ Kickstarters. If you’re looking for a good cause, or want to support a LGBTQ artist but don’t know where to start – check it out!
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I’ve watched the first episode of Yuri Bear Storm twice and I’m still not sure what I saw. There was Yuri. There were bears. And there was talk of an Invisible Storm. This first episode introduced a lot of elements so hopefully the next one starts tying them together. But I’m not holding my breath. Yurikuma Arashi is either the best or worst anime of the season. I haven’t decided yet.
I read it’s from the same guy that did Revolutionary Girl Utena. It certainly has a similar style and the same weirdness factor.
The best way to deal with any series by Ikuhara is to not try and guess what will happen but just ride out what does happen and when it’s all over put the story together. As with Mawaru Penguindrum, the story really only makes sense after the fact.
Assuming the live-action ‘Ghost in the Shell’ comes to full fruition and doesn’t go the way of ‘Cowboy Bebop’, I’m still curious to check it out, even if it’s not bound to be as good as the original. The new animated movie seems to be set in the same universe as ‘Arise’ based on it having the same cast and crew, yet the awesome poster alone has me psyched for it!
I’ve seen the first episode of Yurikuma arashi…as i expected it’s very weird… i don’t understand what happen exactly ( and i’m sure i’m not the only one) but wait and see…
Lesbian Bear Storm? It is sexy!
(Shaba-da-doo.)
Just a note, Ooiwa`s new manga is called Aka to Ao no Ehrenberg (赤と蒼のエーレンベルク). The article advertises it as a high school fantasy interspersed with erotica – I can`t say I`m excited…
Thank you for your report as always!
Thanks for the clarification!
YKA was 100% Ikuhara, and I’m both very frightened and very hopeful.
As I said to my best friend, taken optimistically, we could be in for a canny contemplation of Yuri as a genre: just what “Yuri” and “lesbianism” as concepts mean to each other, what they really are when stripped of their popularly accepted conventions and implications, and how love and desire between women can stand up against the forces who seek to either destroy it or render it impotently invisible.
However, I won’t deny that Ikuhara’s treatment of the character Yuri in Mawaru Penguindrum has shaken my faith in him as the champion of female same-sex relationships that Sailor Moon and Utena gave me to believe for so many years. Without giving spoilers, there are thematics at work in YKA that make me uneasy, and could lead to disheartening places. It all depends on his intentions.
So here, he has a chance, to either reaffirm and solidify that legacy, or destroy it. For me, the stakes are very, very high.