Yuri Manga
Some months ago, I mentioned a webcomic called Ahiru no Ballet, (アヒルのバレエ) that followed the “adventures” of a lesbian couple in ballet class. The manga, which can be read online, has now been collected into a single volume. The manga is a reflective comedy, that next-day-ache-from-too-much-exercise-after-too-little-for-years, but sweet, with a heartwarming ending.
YNN Correspondent Chris D points us to Dengeki Daioh magazine, where a new series “Yagate! Kimi ni Naru” (やがて君になる) has begun, about a girl who asks her friend for advice on what love is, only to have her friend confess to her.
A new magazine has premiered in Japan. Comic Cune‘s (コミックキューン) focus is on moe girls being extremely cute and cuddly. The premiere issue stars some of our favorite artists, notably Kuzushiro-sensei and Fujieda Miyabi-sensei and has just a slight lily scent. I’ve got the premiere here and will report back if there is anything of note.
Shinsokan’s Twitter account reports that Takashima Hiromi’s Shortcake to Kase-san hits shelves in Japan this week! Read a sample on the Shinsokan website.
Yuri Animation
You know I’m besotted with Steven Universe, Cartoon Network’s queer little love letter to Utena, but there’s so much more to love about it than just it’s queerness. The characters of Beach City are racially diverse and so is the cast. It’s like a vision of what the world might be if white people tried even a little to not be clueless. ^_^ (The article is written in an aggressive tone, for what I think are extremely understandable reasons. If it makes you feel defensive, think about why that might be.)
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Yuri Research
We have two new articles up on Yuricon’s Essays page this week and I’m terribly excited about them:
Beautiful and Innocent: Female Same-Sex Intimacy in the Japanese Yuri Genre – PhD thesis by Verena Maser, examining the relationship between media content, its production, and its reception in Japanese popular culture in regards to Yuri. (Full text article available at linked page).
Finding the Power of the Erotic in Japanese Yuri Manga – by Sarah Wellington A look at the Yuri Hime Wildrose series of volumes and their place in establishing a canon of Yuri erotica. Abstract available at the link, full-text is available with a clickthrough.)
And while you’re doing you research, check out Kathryn Hemmann’s Queering the media mix: The female gaze in Japanese fan comics in Transformative Work and Culture, a look at explicitly female gaze in shoujo and BL.
James Welker’s article for Eureka magazine, regarding Yuri Danshi and it’s meta-look at Yuri fandom, is now available in Chinese.
Kickstarter Watch
Dates! An Anthology of Queer Historical Fiction sound so cool I can barely stand it! Thanks to YNN Correspondent Elizabeth F for the heads up on this one.
Yuri Game
Takaaki-san’s Yuri news blog reports another Yuri game, Yoru no nai Kuni. This looks like a straight up fantasy ARPG.
Other News
Sequart.org has this wonderful interview with Deborah Whaley on Black Women in Sequence: Re-inking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime.
On Hooded Utilitarian, Chris Gavaler looks at Patricia Highsmith, best known for her contributions to lesbian fiction, as a comics pioneer.
A lost classic of 70s animation from MushiPro (credited with being one of the factors in Tezuka’s studio’s downfall,), Belladonna of Sadness has been restored and is making the rounds of film festivals. This looks absolutely stunning.
Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? 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!
Thank you for the new articles. These kinds of studies are invaluable for illuminating the Japanese yuri fandom to us in the West.
I watched Kanashimi no Belladonna some years ago; it is not quite as “lost” as this article suggests, except in a commercial sense. It came to my attention because Ikuhara credits it as one of his strong stylistic influences. That influence certainly becomes obvious when one sees the film. It is as the title suggests, a brutally unhappy film which takes pains to graphically (but symbolically) depict the rape and gradual destruction of a beautiful woman. However, it is undoubtedly a highly creative and original work of animation.