Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 30, 2020

May 30th, 2020

Editorial: Online Events, Representation and Accessibility

This will be a summer of virtual events in the anime world and I want you to think about this before we do any thing else:  Because panels and guests are moving online, there will be a tendency for event programming to have less diversity than usual, as organizers talk to people they already know about, for content. Take a moment and write organizers to remind them to seek out panelists and presenters from marginalized groups. Representation and accessibility ought not to be afterthoughts.

If you’ve been following me anywhere, you saw the most amazing thing over the last couple of days. I’ve been trying to ensure that the Online Yuri Panel will have automatically generated closed captions available. YouTube does not offer these for Livestreams unless an account has 1000 subscribers. I had no idea how many subscribers we had on Yuri Studio, for many reasons. Back in 2009, I was just uploading some of the Yuri AMVs we had from our events, and then a few of my lectures and presentations. As it turned out we had 420 subscribers.

So I asked the Internets for 600 more subscribers so YouTube might listen to me and grant me auto captioning. In two days, and people clicked that button. I’m very mindful of the reason *why* they clicked that button – not for me, but so people can get closed captioning. I don’t trust YouTube to turn on that feature for me, so I found a good option, Webcaptioner. It only works in Chrome but it works and it’s free (donations welcome on the site, click and you’ll see.) I tested it to see if it works while watching a Youtube stream and even with an accented voice speaking at normal speed it did well enough.

My point here is, please write these online events and gently remind them to seek out queer and PoC and disabled folks for their panels online and to make sure that closed captioning is available.

I’ve written to Funimation and Anime Expo to ask that they consider these issues for their upcoming events. I hope you’ll write the events you plan on attending. As fans we can and ought to make fandom more welcoming and open every chance we can. ^_^

Having said that, I invite you all to join me tomorrow, Sunday May 31, 2020 at 5PM Eastern US time (with my apologies to folks in Japan for who it will be 6AM)  for the 2020 Online Yuri Panel Livestream on Youtube. I hope to see you all there.

 

Yuri Manga

Kaishaku’s Kannazuki no Miko spin-off manga Himegami no Miko (姫神の巫女), is beginning serialization,.Yuri Navi has sample pages from the first chapter in the July issue of Dengeki Mao. You can get it digitally on Global Bookwalker.

ANN’s Rafael Antonio Pineda has the news that spin-off manga Murciélago Byproduct Araña will be coming to an end with the 5th volume. I’ve reviewed Volume 1 and Volume 2 here.

 

Other News

In one of the few delightful moments of a dark week, Stjepan Seijic offered up this piece of fanart of Color_LES’s webtoon Mage and Demon Queen. ^_^

Global Bookwalker is doing a huge “Stay Home, Stay Safe and Read” campaign with up to 50% coin backon loads of J-Novel Club and Seven Seas Titles.

You may remember my adoration for the novel Gideon the Ninth. A free e-book preview of the upcoming sequel Harrow the Ninth is available on Kindle. /jubilant shouts of joy/ I’m re-reading Gideon right now, because holy heck it’s a brilliant book.

 

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Special thanks to Okazu Patrons for being an essential part of the team!

10 Responses

  1. Super says:

    Is Himegami no Miko a reboot or a sequel to the original story? As far as I remember, the original manga had a rather weird ending compared to the anime.

    • It is a sequel as far as I can tell. I don’t know what you mean by a weird ending because it didn’t end. That was the point. The two priestesses were reborn in the modern world and it was going to happen all over again. Well, here is the all over again.

      • Super says:

        Hmm, it seemed to me that there was some plot with the twins … Well, it doesn’t matter, I would not refuse to read a new part of the story.

  2. chapellefan says:

    It’s so strange.

    It feels like yesterday I was arguing with Cryssoberyl and Zefiris at the defunct Shoujo ai dot com about the quality of the Kannazuki no Miko anime and calling the show overrated. And yet, it was because of that show I was able to find works like Simoun, Marimite, Kashimashi, Aoi Hana and others and it led me to a bigger and better genre.

    Nowadays, in the world where even Western animation gets shows like Korra and She-ra, and genuinely great shows like the Kase-san OVA or Yagakimi exist, it seems like KnM is little more than a footnote. It just seems overshadowed by stuff even like Citrus by today’s standards.

    Before, I thought Chikane was spoiled and ungrateful for being rich but not having the one thing she couldn’t have and I’m still mixed on the use of rape as plot progression. Then again, in a world where Light Yagami is still praised and Eric Cartman is on his 23rd season, maybe Chikane spoke to a generation of lesbians looking for a voice.

    I can’t in good conscience say Kannazuki no Miko is the best yuri anime I’ve watched, but it was the one that had the most influence in my life and that’s no small feet.

    I’ll read Himegami no Miko. And, in someways, I’ll feel nostalgic for those days I took for granted.

    • Well said.

      I thought the anime fun and ridiculous, but found the VERY SERIOUS rape apologists in the manga audience distressing. It was always only shitty writing with no meaning.The manga was a hack job. And their writing just got hackier and lazier and rapier as it went on. But the Drama CDs were fucking brilliant (presumably because Kaishaku had nothing to do with them.) So in the end, I felt that it was a great idea that had been almost, but not quite butchered by mediocre artist and writer. They did slightly better with Kyōshirou to Towa no Sora for Chikane and Himiko. We’ll see which Kaishaku we’ll get. ^_^

      • Super says:

        Well, in the world there are still a lot of people (mostly men, of course) who sincerely believe that lesbians are just overly lustful women or that female harassment is not serious because it is not connected with men. Even innocent titles like Clannad are joking about it. To such an extent that the lesbian rape scene will cause much more questions from censorship than the scene of consent straight sex. I think that if Chikane were a man, then all these apologists instantly changed their point of view to the opposite and did not even consider it something defiant.

        • Super says:

          I wanted to say “much less”. I hope you understand me correctly.

        • There were KnM fans of all genders who took what is very obviously, to me, a ridiculous story (which the Drama CDs proved was meant to *be* ridiculous) and took it very, very, VERY seriously and explained why a unneeded rape scene in an incoherent trash manga was critical to a story that didn’t make much sense anyway.

          • Super says:

            You have so low opinion about this anime? I watched this anime for the last time so long ago that I don’t remember at all any of my emotions about this, but I was thinking that this scene are the main fandom’s claim to the title.

    • Super says:

      I do not think this is strange. Yes, many genres begin with dubious copycats who want to repeat the success of one or two masterpieces (hello, CGDCT). But there are genres that grow due to a successful hype title and the desire of young authors to do something similar, but better and deeper.

      Go Nagai was particularly successful at this. Cutie Honey or Devilman may seem incredibly lewd and cheesy by modern standards, but these works have inspired many generations of shonen / seinen with strong female protagonists or dark drama. Of course, they also inspired people like Takatou Ryu, but that’s another matter.

      As for Light … Personally, I always thought that his popularity was similar to that of Darth Vader and many people just love him because he’s a “cool villain”. In the end, Death Note’s stated idea was criticism of Nietzsche’s fanboys.

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