Yuri Live-Action
Huge news this week as Netflix announced a live-action adaptation of Nakamura Ching’s GUNJO (羣青). This dark, but magnificent, Yuri manga follows two women – one, abused and desperate, the other a lesbian who loved her, after they conspire to kill the abusive husband. To be called Kanojo (彼女) in Japan, the series is getting simultaneous global release and has a site named Ride or Die on US Netflix. The synopsis on the US page reads, “Her abusive husband is dead, killed by her lesbian friend who’d do anything for her. Now they’re running for their lives.”
Check out Komatsu-san’s report on Crunchyroll News of the initial announcement!
GUNJO has long been one of my favorite series. Volume 1 of GUNJO is available in English on Nakamura-sensei’s website as a chapter-by-chapter purchase. Erin Subramanian did the translation and I was editing, until the pandemic put the project to a halt.
The Queer Japan documentary is alive! and will be available on demand through Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Google Play on December 11.
Yuri Manga
We’re doing a massive cleanup here and as a result, you have a chance to get some Yuri history for amazing prices. Our friends at cheapmanga.com are doing a sale on the remaining ALC Publishing manga, including WORKS, which was the second Yuri manga ever published in English and our global anthology Yuri Monogatari.
You can get all of the remaining ALC Manga, Yuri Monogatari 3,4 &6 and WORKS for $25 on Cheapmanga.com – and they are offering free shipping for $25 or more with the code ALC2020! While you’re there, look around. The folks there are good friends and have lost a lot of business to the pandemic. If you have the money, fill in a few holes in that collection, try a new series, give them a hand. ^_^
I get a lot of questions about Yuri Monogatari Volumes 1 and 2. They were both extremely limited runs. Only 200 copies of YM1 were ever published. I don’t even have a final copy, only a proof. So, no, we don’t have more of those, sorry. We didn’t have Volume 3 until a little while ago when I found another box. ^_^ There only the one box left, so get ’em while you can!
Seven Seas has announced a January release for Takako Shimura’s new series Even Though We’re Adults, her adult-life Yuri drama manga.
We’re only a few patrons away from hitting our 2020 goal. We’ll Guest Reviewers a raise,
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Yuri Doujinshi
YuriMother has taken a look at a new Yuri doujinshi over at Lilyka, As You Wish by Aosaki Rusou. She’s noticed some improvements in their offerings. Lilyka are doing another signed art event, this time for Ruri Kumashika’s work.
Irodori Sakura has a new title, Yuriyon which is a collection of shorts by Why Does Love Do This To Me? creator Ayano Ayano.
The University of Tokyo’s Yuri Enthusiast Research Group has announced on Twitter the 4th volume of their doujinshi collection, Lilliest, Vol. 4 available through Booth.pm. Check out the free sample pages (in Japanese).
Yuri Light Novel
Yuri LN ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword! is now out in print from Seven Seas.
Bloom Into You, Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Volume 3 is slated for the end of December. ^_^ Don’t forget to add it to your holiday wish list.
Yuri Visual Novel
Meru on Twitter notes that Kudan Folklore from Sukera Sparo is now available in Chinese, English and Japanese. That’s pretty awesome.
Other News
Via YNN Correspondent Sandy F., Shinsokan is planning a 2021 Kase-san series calendar. This is exactly the kind of thing we have Tenso and Buyee accounts for. ^_^ It appears that you can customize the calendar by putting the images in the order you want. I’m fascinated by this and may have to try it out.
The Murderbot series by Martha Wells stars an agender cyborg protagonist in a humorous and action-filled science fiction series. mar has created a 5-book synopsis animatic (spoilers!) on Youtube that I found to be superb. Check out I’m Not Your Hero – The Murderbot Diaries Animatic, using Tegan and Sara’s song of the same name.
BBC Bitesize interviews creator Cienan Muir on superhero diversity, touching on Indigenous and LGBTQ representation and even a bit about anime.
This week was the 110th Birth Anniversary of Kenkoy’s creator, Mr. Antonio “Tony” Velasquez, who is regarded as the Godfather of Taglog Komiks!
Via YNN Correspondent Kat C, check out this handmade lily-themed Japanese school uniform in early 20th century style. The Haruka Kimie shop is worth a look if Meiji-Taisho period cosplay is your schtick.
The Library of America shares this fun snippet: “When Clare Winger Harris’s byline appeared in Weird Tales in 1926, she became the first woman to publish a story under her own name in any of the American science fiction magazines.” The name of the story? The Miracle of the Lily. ^_^ It’s not at all Yuri, but the title made me smile.
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!
Some tidbits from the last week!
Two-vol historical Yuri series titled 夢の端々 – this one follows two young women in post-war Japan up to the Reiwa era. The story begins with one of the women, now an old lady, visiting the other at home, though she doesn’t seem to remember her. Back in the 70s as teens, the girls attempted a 心中 (lover’s suicide) together. Later, one of the girls is entered into an arranged marriage, while the other girl arranges one last trip for the two of them before the marriage.
A LGBT+ novel out this week titled ヒゲとナプキン – written by Ototake Hirotada, the author of all-time Japanese bestseller “Noone’s perfect” (the last I heard of Ototake was him being lined up for a Diet seat back in 2016 as part of the LDP’s disability outreach, but this was quickly brought to an end by an adultery scandal). The novel was written in collaboration with and modelled on the life of Ototake’s old friend, trans rights campaigner Sugiyama Fumino, and is about a 28 year old trans man. Sugiyama is also putting out his second autobiography soon, titled 元女子高生、パパになる.
Kageki Shoujo is getting an anime – not a Yuri series, but no doubt the combo of an all girl cast, theatre, and shoujo will appeal to many of us anyway. The English release of the manga starts in November too. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-10-27/kazuhiro-yoneda-directs-kageki-shoujo-tv-anime-for-2021-premiere/.165647
Vlad Love’s official Youtube is uploading creator interviews – first up is character designer Aragaki Issei https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0PHttSqHYM
Kageki Shoujo isn’t exactly all female show. Of course, for obvious reasons, female characters understandably make up two-thirds of the cast, but the remaining third also consists of more or less notable male characters.
The only thing I don’t understand is why so many resources indicate that this show will be seinen. The original manga is outright shoujo and I personally find it hard to imagine a more shoujo-ish premise.
The manga is seinen because it runs in a seinen magazine, Jump Kai.
The sequel, which takes up most part of the story, is published in shoujo magazine Melody, and as far as I know, the reissue of the prequel was also published as shoujo, which is why the Seven Seas positions the license as a female-targeting manga.
I don’t know the details, but maybe the original publication of the short manga in the seinen magazine was more convenient for the author.
The original two volumes were seinen, which may be what the generic “so many resources” you asked about were thinking of. I’m not arguing with you…I don’t care why someone somewhere said something. You posed a question, This is the likely answer.
I LOVE Kaegki Shoujo – I’m delighted that its getting an anime.
Retrocrush has some good titles for us too. I’ll add that all next week.
Thanks for the heads up on the books, too.
I completely agree. I’ve been looking forward to a complete and authentic Takarazuka anime for a long time, as the inspiration in Utena or the homages in Revue Starlight was not enough for me. If it is at least as good as Shouwa Rokugo, another adaptation of a shoujo manga about Japanese theater, it will be incredibly cool.