Yuri Event

If you weren’t already planning on attending, get yourself down to AnimeNEXT in Atlantic City today at 3:30 for my last lecture of the first half of 2016! I’ll be talking “Yuri, Yaoi/Boy’s Love, Bara – How Fandom Made Queer Manga Possible” in Panel Room 319 at 3:30 PM. Prizes for good questions, as usual.

Yuri Manga

Well. Last week, we had a veritable deluge of amazing licenses from Seven Seas! They will be bringing out both Side A and Side B of the Okujou no Yurirei-san manga volumes under the western Kindred Spirits name. Both volumes were cute without being creepy, so that’s something we can really enjoy fully.

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Morinaga Milk-sensei is well represented with two new series, The Secret of the Princess (Ohime-sama no Himitsu) and her current series, Hana  and Hina Afterschool (Hana to Hina no Houkago).

Most exciting of all, they have licensed Takashima Hiromi’s Kase-san series, a series that has consistently made my Top Ten Lists and which was named Best Yuri Manga of 2014! (Here are my reviews of Asagao to Kase-san, Obentou to Kase-san and Shortcake to Kase-san.)

So kudos to Seven Seas and thanks for their continuing efforts to expand Yuri in the west. Good for them and good for us. You can be sure I’ll have links to these as soon as pre-orders are up. Now go tell friends – it’s up to us to make this a successful market.  ^_^

Yuri Comics and Novels

While we’re celebrating, let’s do a little jig at the news from Moviepilot.com that a Legend of Korra comic is coming from Dark Horse and it picks up after the series ends, Korra x Asami intact. Whee! (And btw, this site is your new best friend. Bookmark it.) YNN Correspondent Jennifer Y-D say she got the Free Comic Book Day prequel issue and it was great. This comic cannot come fast enough for me.

One more exciting publication on the horizon in English – the Steven Universe episode “The Answer”, which details the circumstances of Garnet’s origin will be made into a book, according to moviepilot.com. (I did tell you they were your new best friend.) And they have a lovely interview with Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar on why LGBTQ representation in cartoons is so important.

ANN has the news that Card Captor Sakura is getting it’s own newspaper.

And as a special for Pride month, YNN Correspondent Jennifer Y-D wants you to know that Humble Bundle has a LGBTQ book offer for Pay Whay You Want, which includes a number of graphic novels, as well as fiction and non-fiction books. This is an amazing deal – don’t miss it!

Yuri Visual Novel

A few weeks ago, we announced yet another Yuri VN coming down the pike. J. Kaplan has a new work coming out on Steam in a couple of weeks, called Highway Blossoms. Yuri Nation has an interview with J on the project. And I’ll be talking to him after I get a look at the VN! It looks pretty unique and I’m really holding out high hopes for it.

Yuri Light Novel

Paul Chapman at Crunchyroll News has the “what the what?” news of the month so far, with the scoop on Super Dash resurrecting the Read or Die Light Novel series!?!  You might remember from my reviews that the series basically crashed to a halt in Volume 8, then limped along for a few volumes, then just sort of stopped midway through an arc.  It’ll be interesting to see if Kurata can manage an ending for the epic series.

Other News

In my capacity as resident Quora expert about all things gay and animated, I wrote an answer to this question Why does everyone believe that Elsa is a lesbian just because she didn’t have a love interest in Frozen? that includes the gayest possible reading of Let It Go and the hope that we get a Disney romantic duet between Elsa and what I hope will be her dashing Princess.  ^_^

Speaking of gay media, Kitschmix.tv is a new on-demand service for lesbian movies and webseries that looks amazing. You can watch classics like Desert Hearts and brand new series like Carmilla. And it gets extra cred for the name.

Which brings me to a rewind. Someone legit asked if Kitschmix was carrying anime. No, but they don’t have to. You can already get a ton of classic Yuri anime (like Aoi Hana and Strawberry Panic) on Viewster and newer stuff (like Sakura Trick and Sailor Moon Crystal on Crunchyroll, free  – and legally.  And don’t forget company channels, like Revolutionary Girl Utena on Youtube. No need to reinvent perfectly good wheels. Nonetheless, it’s good to have a one-stop shop for live action series. ^_^

Our buddy Zan Christensen, publisher of LGBTQ comics and prose (with whom I have an upcoming project, squee!) made a splash this month with his pointed protest of Apple’s iTunes censorship of LGBTQ comics. This is not the first time they have pulled this and unless iTunes users complain, it won’t be the last.

We’re going to wrap up with some exciting, if mutedly so, news from Japan. Takarazuka City is the fourth Japanese municipality to offer same-sex certificates, and the first in Kansai. I want to run “fantasy themed” wedding packages so much and I don’t even like weddings. ^_^

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!