Yuri Manga
J-Novel Club has licensed Ajiichi’s manga I Love Yuri and I Got Bodyswapped with a Fujoshi!. Crystalyn Hodgkins at ANN has the specifics.
Denpa Books has announced the license of Akili’s vampire series, Vampeerz. Crystalyn Hodgkins once again has the details on ANN. I’ve reviewed Volume 1 and Volume 2 here on Okazu.
The news prompted me to write a limerick:
There once was a reviewer of Yuri,
who said about all things vampire 「無理」
They might bring publishers luck
But I think they just…suck
So my reviews will be writ in a hurry.
YNN Correspondent Chris L has written in to let us know that Canno’s new short story collection, Mushoko to JK (缶乃短編集 無職とJK) is up for pre-order on Amazon Japan. Presumably this is a collection of her Éclair series shorts.
Via Yuri Navi, Shounen Jump Plus in Japan has added an interesting Yuri manga called Tomodachi Kekkon (ともだち結婚), by Nakata Yuuki. You can read the first chapter for free in Japanese on the SJ Plus site.
Queer Podcasts
I had the tremendous pleasure of speaking with the fine folks over at Imagine Me & Utena about one of our favorite Yuri series, Revolutionary Girl Utena on Friends Like That.
And I had an absolutely breathtaking conversation on the way One Piece handles queerness, with my nakama at the One Piece Podcast for Fight Together – Pride & Pirates.
I love doing these podcasts, because I meet the coolest people when I do them. If you’d like me on your podcast, hit me up!
Okazu News
We’ve redesigned the Okazu Patron badges – so if you are an Okazu Hero-level, and would like the new badge, drop me a line. Superhero is being worked on and Miko and Kami-level badges are staying the same, because I like them. ^_^
Patrons will get early access to our first Yuri Studio 3.0 video…which will be going up on YouTube as soon as I’m done here. ^_^
Help us pay our guest writers, invest in queer creators, support Yuri research and the whole Yuri economy. You are a critical part of the Okazu team, when you become an Okazu Patron!
Yuri Doujinshi
Irodori has launched the first of their Yuri doujinshi from their Irodori Sakura Yuri imprint and the first three releases, which are SFW, are up on their SFW-only site, Irodori Lite. Take a look and I hope you enjoy the competition in the world of licensed translated Yuri doujinshi.
Yurimother has announced that she’ll be stepping up and reviewing Yuri Doujinshi on her Tumblr this week. As *soon* as I have a second, I’ve got a bunch of doujinshi from Irodori and Lilyka I need to review for you, as well. ^_^
Yuri Anime
It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I’m super delighted to see one of my trashy favorites, Air Master, on Crunchyroll. This series has one of the most ridiculous plots, constant panty shots, attempted rape, extremely ugly art. But it also has Paku Romi as Maki, the greatest opening theme ever in this history of anime, and has some of the most violent, best fights scenes I’ve ever watched. Most importantly, this series has the closest thing I have to an anime avatar, the delightfully deranged, Tai Chi beatdown, psycho devil lady wrestling queen, Sakiyama Kaori. It is one of my most favorite terrible series, that died an ugly death as a manga and still manages to have its own category on Okazu.
Events
Via YNN Correspondent Mariko S., Tokyo House Party is holding a virtual event on July 25, Cant Spell Anime Without “Me”: Creating Representation in Anime & Manga. The event will begin at 2PM CDT on their Twitch channel. Looks very cool, I’ll see about watching. Check out their Twitch to watch their previous talks.
LGBTQ News
Via YNN Correspondent Ivan V, Maya Gittleman writes We’re Gonna Win In The End: The Subversive Queer Triumph of She-Ra on Tor.com. It’s a wonderful article and a fun read…I’m not sure I agree that “subversive” is the term I’d use, just because there was no subtext in this series. It says something about us that the ideas of individual value and acceptance of difference is seen as subversive. Your thoughts in the comments, and another helping of Queer Triumph for me, please. ^_^
Speaking of She-Ra, Reuben Baron at CBR notes that some Fans Think They’ve Found Noelle Stevenson’s secret She-Ra Fanfiction.
Still speaking about She-Ra, Always Human creator Ari North shared these Catradora fanworks on her Twitter.
Mitchell Lineham wrote up 13 Games with Positive LGBTQ+ Representation You Should Be Playing to help you pass the time. ^_^
KPop duet Irene & Seulgi have some fairly high Yuri service in this video for Monster.
I’m going to wrap up with this unbelievably swoony performance by Jodie Comer of Vita Sackville-West’s letter to Virgina Woolf.
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 important part of the Okazu family. I couldn’t do it without you!
About the list of “13 Games with Positive LGBTQ+ Representation You Should Be Playing”… I find it funny that I already own and played 10 of 13.
I find it slightly disturbing that 3 out of 13 have a trigger warning for themes of suicide and self-harm. Incidentally, I played and liked all 3, but hadn’t made the connection.
” I Love Yuri and I Got Bodyswapped with a Fujoshi!”
I have had alarming suspicions that this title would portray the LGBTQ staff as a fanservice for straight folks. At least in terms of using gender bender as “safe” yuri.
” It is one of my most favorite terrible series, that died an ugly death as a manga and still manages to have its own category on Okazu.”
Well, although in those days it seemed like a typical recipe for toxic yuri or yuri-ish work, nowadays many works are even more problematic. For example, if Air Master simply used rape attempts as a fan service, many modern works directly add rape, implying that “as long as this is without a man, this is not hurt.”
A student council love triangle Yuri comedy started on Twitter 4-koma account Twi-yon this week, title is ‘Lily triangle’ https://sai-zen-sen.jp/comics/twi4/lily/
Thank you!
That She-Ra analysis was interesting, made me think about a few things in the show that I originally didn’t care for from a different perspective. That said, having recently finished the series, I am a bit torn on it still.
In general, I find that as I get older I enjoy less the “superhero” narrative where a chosen or privileged person or group needs to singlehandedly do something to save the world – where to have agency you need to be a powerful princess or a billionaire vigilante. It obscures the way that evil actually moves in the world and what is actually required to fight it. But I appreciate that this *is* a superhero show, based on an existing IP, and that this kind of simple framework is easy for kids to grasp. Also, that the creators did try to do some things to upend expectations in that area.
I find it more enjoyable with something like Sailor Moon, where the threat is mystical and isolated to the mythology of the heroine. I have a bigger problem with She-Ra because The Horde/Horde Prime is a clearly entrenched political threat. She-Ra kind of… exorcises the spirit of Prime and everything’s good now. But you can’t rout out fascism by dispatching one person, even the leader. The roots of that evil are much more complex than that.
But again, I’m aware that I’m overanalyzing a kids show where the heroes refer to themselves as the “Best Friends Squad” and a talking horse cracks jokes all the time. I love the way the show is able to be effortlessly diverse, which the article talks about in detail. I also like the points the article made about the difference between a pat redemption/healing kind of narrative, and one where that redemption comes through growth and work.
Finally I gotta give props to Aly Michalka’s voice acting when Catra tells Adora she loves her. It’s really spot on, maybe the best English VA line reading I have heard.
Oh, and here’s my very favorite piece of Catradora fan art:
https://mobile.twitter.com/OmyChan2/status/1278862583966109702
PS: The games list is obviously not meant to be exhaustive but in terms of AAA games, Guild Wars 2 continues to do a pretty good job of including diverse representation in their storytelling.
PPS: I am not a One Piece fan, but I enjoyed that podcast and was surprised to hear how much (seemingly) queer representation is in a series that I had always assumed was entirely heteronormative.
“PPS: I am not a One Piece fan, but I enjoyed that podcast and was surprised to hear how much (seemingly) queer representation is in a series that I had always assumed was entirely heteronormative.”
I didn’t listen to the podcast, but I think that this is the element that will somehow should be in any long franchise so that it is always relevant and modern, and not just a cash cow.
For example, in the 90s, Dragon Ball used sexual harassment as a joke or referred to the character’s homosexuality as an element of their toxicity, but by the time of Super, Toriyama’s message became more diverse and we got something like Class S and an open lesbian couple too.
Of course, even now it was more like token minority (They explained to us that two female characters love each other, because “love is the core of their universe”) or weird Maria-sama parody, but compared to the past, it was really progress.