It’s been very exciting this week – let’s get right to the good stuff!

Yuri Manga

Kodansha has announced that they are releasing three issues of their Morning 2 magazine online for free. You’ll need to download their online reader, but it is also free. You’ll see all sorts of news how this gets you Saint Oniisan and Peepo choo but, who cares about those absolutely brilliant, quirky, manga series when this means you can finally read the equally quirky, brilliant and Yuri Gunjou!!!! And you *need* to read it. Dark, brutal, dysfunctional Yuri that transcends anything else the genre has ever offered. (And for once, the lesbian character is actually a lesbian.) Issues 14, 15 and 16 of Morning 2 will each be released as the next print issue hits the shelves. Gunjou is a shoo-in for my number one spot at the end of this year. It’s absolutely breathtaking. (Morning 2 is a Japanese magazine, written in Japanese. “Gunjou” has not yet come out in a collection, nor is it licensed. Please, I beg you, do NOT ask me if it’s available in English or when the tankoubon is coming out. No, and I don’t know.)

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Yuri Games

Keep forgetting to mention this, there’s a new Yuri game for PS2 in Japan called ‘ppoi. Now, let me be honest here – I know nothing about this game, and am skeptical as to its actual Yuri content. It’s about a couple of high school girls and you and I both know that means that if two touch, or perhaps look into each others’ eyes, the hordes will call it Yuri. OTOH, who knows. It might actually have some snatches of Yuri. Guess someone’ll have to play it and tell us! ^_^

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Yuri Events

Kyouka wrote in to let us know that there will be a new Yuri event in Japan this coming February (so you have plenty of time to plan a trip!) The event is called the Girls Love Festival. The event is held in Tokyo on February 1, from 2:30PM – 4:30 in Itabashi-ku, Tokyo. 100 circles will participate. If you missed Maiden’s Garden, can’t make it to Comiket, and don’t want to wait and see if there’ll be another Yuriket, this is your big chance to score a pile of Yuri doujinshi!

And, while not specifically Yuri, I think it’s worth mentioning that tomorrow is “Wonder Woman Day III” – held in Portland, Oregon and Flemington, NJ, with proceeds going to benefit domestic violence shelters. I’d cut and paste the press release, but it’s like a mile long, so here’s the basics:

Wonder Woman Day III (Portland)
Sunday, October 26, 2008 – 12noon-6pm, FREE
Excalibur Comics, 2444 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, Oregon

Wonder Woman Day III (New Jersey)
Sunday, October 26, 2007 – 12noon-5pm, FREE
Comic Fusion, 42 Main St., Flemington, New Jersey

Additionally, I’d like to point out that Comic Fusion is co-owned by Yuricon staffer and a very good friend of mine, Stacy. So, yes, I’m totally biased when I say you should absolutely go down there – it’ll be a blast!

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Yuri Anime

Eric blows the horn on the good news – Funimation has announced that fan request has trumped strategic business model and they *will* be releasing the final volumes of Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK and some other anime that I can’t remember off the top of my head and am too lazy to go look up. lol So if you, like me, have collected 5 of the 6 DVDs, you will not be forced to buy a 3-disk box just to complete the collection. Now it’s up to us to actually go *buy* those Volume 6s and make it worth their time, or next time they aren’t going to bother listening to us.

(This news item came in a few days later:) Eric promises that this is the last time he’ll mention it, but that Funimation has put up a limited pre-order for Red Garden 6. (Which, oddly, was what I suggested they do. I have no doubt that they came up with it on their own, it would be bizarre if they took my suggestion. lol) Anyway, he points out that if we don’t want to seem like a bunch of morons, NOW would be the right time to run out and pre-order that disk. lol Thanks for the heads up, Eric!

And thanks to everyone (whose numbers are too great to count) who wrote in with the the answer to the question – yes, Right Stuf is blessing us with more goo-gaws for pre-orders of the second season of Maria Watches Over Us. This time, we are being gifted with a White Rose phone strap. Naturally, we will now all expect and demand the Yellow Rose phone strap for the Third set, the OAV season. :-) I wonder if our phones will hold all these? Incidentally, I found a picture of the Japanese versions of the phone straps. I expect that they were more expensive and down’t ship flat and neatly as the ones we get. I’m not complaining, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad that we get anything!

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Yuri Novels

Thanks to Kasuga for letting me know that there is a Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou novel. I can’t wait to add it to the pile of Japanese novels I have sitting here, mocking me, taunting me, while I don’t read them.

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I think all that’s enough to hold us a week, don’t you? :-)