Just before Yuriten opened in Tokyo, there was some big Yuri news!

Yuri Anime

Nakatani Nio’s Yagate Kimi ni Naru manga, which is sold as Bloom Into You by Seven Seas in English, has been greenlit for an anime! ANN has details and the main visual which was also on display at Yuriten.

I still have a lot of mixed feelings about this series. At lunch after Yuriten, we were discussing what makes a thing “Yuri.” Kawamoto-san’s position is similar to the Yuricon definition – anything with character or characters who fee emotional, physical or romantic attraction to another woman. I said that that’s the official position of Yuricon, but what I personally look for is, you know, two women actually in love with one another. Morishima-sensei and I were kinda in sympatico on this. Yagate Kimi ni Naru is Yuri, but it’s still not what I’m looking for in a Yuri story. Kase-san is. Two women who are actually in love with one another is a lot to ask from an anime, I know. ^_^

Speaking of Kase-san, the Shosen Book Tower in Akihabara will be hosting a Kase-san event from the end of May through the middle of June, with a Kase-san “Museum”. According to Comic Natalie, there will be a book signing by series creator Takashima Hiromi-sensei on June 2.  The fifth book in the series, Sakura to Kase-san with a new, original Drama CD (さくらと加瀬さん。) is on sale at the end of May. The OVA will be in theaters in Japan on June 9th.

Yuruyuri is getting a 10th anniversary anime, ANN reports. Speaking of not-really Yuri in any meaningful way. ^_^

Nozomi/RightStuf is losing the license to Maria-sama ga Miteru and is currently selling all it’s stock off at $12/season litebox set!  Get them while they last.

Yuri Manga

Nishio Yuhta’s After Hours, Volume 3 (アフターアワーズ) has hit shelves in Japan.

Yuri manga quarterly, Galette, Issue No. 6 (ガレット) will be released this month!

Seven Seas has licensed Yuri one-shot manga Bocchi Kaibutsu to Momoku Shoujo (ぼっち怪物と盲目少女), which is on my to-read pile, as Beauty and the Beast Girl, with a 2019 release date. It it is the story of a blind girl who falls in love with a monster girl who has secluded herself away in the forest. More details can be found in this report on Crunchyroll News.

Live-Action

Netflix will be streaming the live-action Kakegurui, according to ANN. I’ve been watching some of the live-action anime-based stage plays on Amazon Prime and they are less good than one might hope. ^_^; I didn’t review Blood C  – The Last Mind, because it, while not terrible, had little enough to do with the series as I knew it and there was no Yuri at all, even if you squinted this time.

Other News

ANN has a report of Intersex manga creator, Arai Shou’s life and work being made into a documentary. Seibetsu ga nai! is currently being crowdfunded and is worth taking a look at.

Matt Alt has a fascinating article in The New Yorker called The United States of Japan. “Hit Japanese products such as Pokémon have long captivated us, but Japan’s most influential export might be its own lived experience.”

Yuri Events

Yuriten 2018 in Tokyo is over and so is Comitia, but there’s still a bunch of stuff coming up, so get your calenders ready!

Toronto Comic Arts Festival – May 12-13, Toronto, ON, Canada – I’ll be moderating a Queer Romance Comics panel and conducting some interviews and there is always a lot of queer content and comics to enjoy. If you’re there, do drop in and say hi!

Girls Love Fest – May 19, Oota-ku, Tokyo, Japan – As, always, this is a combo event. Girls Love Fest will be joining AiFest and related “cute girl” doujinshi events at the Oota-ku Industrial Plaza Pio. The participating circle list can be found here. If you’re planning on attending,  please contact me about doing a report for us.

AnimeNEXT 2018 – June 8-10, Atlantic City, NJ, USA – I’ll be a guest, doing some panels, giving piles of stuff away. Definitely do not miss this! There’ll be loads of Yuri and lots of fun!

Yurithon – August 3-5, 2018 – Montreal, Canada  – This was so much fun last year, I recommend it highly. All the benefits of a small con, with Yuri-focused programming and the massive Dealer’s Room of a larger event. ^_^ It’s literally the best of all worlds. I really want to get back, but I just can’t do it this year because of other things I have scheduled. So, again, if you’re planning on attending, please contact me about doing a report for us. And I’m gonna put this back on my calender for 2019!

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with your name and an email I can reply to!

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!