Thank you everyone who came to the Mechademia panel at too-effin’-early today! And my very sincere thanks to James and Verena for being fabulous panelists. As a result of our conversation (because we had so little time and we could talk about this for hours!) we’re going to try and arrange a panel for Yuri Studio sometime so you all can watch us natter on about Yuri…and we’ll record it this time.
So, stay tuned for that. I’m super excited about the idea, but timing will be the issue.
Yuri Manga
Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 2 drops this month. What will become of Yukari and Ayano, now that Ayano told her husband how she feels about the other woman?
Via Yuri Navi, Atsui Hifuu (あつい皮膚) is about a girl with atopy (a disease in which a body’s immune system triggers extreme allergic responses to common stimuli) and a girl who she meets in a library. It’s a kind of sweet story, with fairly grotesque (both figuratively and the other figuratively) art that you can read for free in Japanese on Kurage Bunch.
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Yuri Light Novels
I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 3 is here! If you’re in Japan and get a chance, next week will see a WataOshi pop-op shop and yes, they are doing online sales. Woot woot.
ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!, Volume 4 is on it’s way at the end of the month. I’m so backlogged, I still haven’t cracked open Volume 3.
Adachi and Shimamura, Volume 5 hit shelves this week, as well.
Yuri Anime
Racing to the front in the “perfomative Pride” category is HIDIVE, who reminds you that they now have a LGBT genre category on their platform.
Coming in a close second is Funimation, with Essential Anime That Expands LGBTQ+ Representation by Aedan Juvet.
It’s rough for anime companies, honestly, since most anime is trash entertainment and I don’t want to harsh anyone’s joy, but once more for the folks in the back – if you want to show support, drop the rainbow logos, don’t make us beg for appropriate tags…just support your queer staff with inclusive policies, promote your queer content, defend it against assholes. Thank you.
Speaking of Funimation, Magic Knight Rayearth is aliiiiive~~~!!! After you finish up Sailor Moon Eternal and want to find something next to eat those Planter Cheez Balls while watching, Magic Knight Rayearth is the CLAMP you need.
Yuri Games
Yuri Empire has done a damned comprehensive roundup of all the Yuri games and news for June.
Queer Comics
Hazel Newlevant has a terrific comic on The Nib, Before Stonewall… about acts of queer (most often trans) protest before the famous NYC Stonewall Uprising.
Via YNN Correspondent Laurent, Volume 1-6 of Stjepan Šejić’s very queer, beautifully drawn BDSM comic, Sunstone is available by the author for free right now, while he works on Volume 7.
Ren at Bring The Tea has written a perspective piece on anime and manga, titled The shifting landscape of queer narratives -with a focus in the 2010s.
Superstar lesbian comic artist Jennifer Camper has interviewed superstar lesbian comic artist Alison Bechdel in When Alison Bechdel says comics are her ‘other girlfriend,’ you’d better believe it for Xtra* magazine.
Superstar Queer Comics Artists, The Movie, No Straight Lines, is making its way around film festivals, with a premier at the acclaimed Tribeca Film Festival. You can get it at home to watch on June 13th. (I will definitely be doing that. For $15, it’s a steal.)
Other News
Oh. My. God. Someone has made the perfect movie for me. Jigoku no Hanazono (地獄の花園) about Office “Ladies” and if that pun doesn’t make sense to you then the whole thing will be befuddling, but trust me, it’s hilarious.
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I had to click on what HIDIVE was listing as LGBT+… and the fact that they’re flogging Love Stage as a show in which boundaries are respected almost made my eyes pop free of their sockets. But I guess my heart goes out to any person tasked with having to promote Dramatical Murder as something other than a cheaply-made piece of crap…
Y’know? I don’t want to be too critical, but.
As I said, my heart does go out to the writer of the post… (I decided to look at the full category listing, and am somewhat puzzled by the fact that it lists the all of the TV series for Marimite but not the OAVs. S1 is queerer than everything else, I’d say OAVs are about on par with Printemps and S4?)
Agreed.
Looking forward to your review on Sailor Moon Eternal. A great opportunity to refresh my manga memories.
That HiDive blog post on their LGBT+ anime…oof. I was about to give them a pass on promoting Love Stage and Hitorijime since they only have trashier BL in their catalogue, but actively choosing to promote a show like From the New World (where anything queer is in one episode and is presented as a phase the characters grow out of) rather than O Maidens, Flip Flappers, Maria…?
I recently noticed ‘trans’ and ‘LGBT+’ tags on Crunchyroll attached to Zombieland Saga. Under trans there’s only that show and the now removed Wandering Son. Under LGBT+ there’s some BL OVA “This Boy Suffers from Crystallization” which is… teacher/student shotacon. Yeah, I’d take even Hitorijime over that.
But on a more positive note, stuff that caught my eye this week…Maeda Jun, author of tearjerker VN/anime from Clannad to Angel Beats, has published a novel and it’s a – Yuri romance? Kim Morrissy has a relatively positive review at ANN https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2021-05-28/jun-maeda-debut-novel-is-a-queer-romance-about-depression/.173125
Vlad Love is finally getting a Japanese TV broadcast – ending the anomaly, among others surrounding the production of this show, of a full length anime series going straight to streaming other than Netflix and Amazon. https://www.crunchyroll.com/en-gb/anime-news/2021/05/31/vampire-romantic-comedy-anime-vlad-love-hits-japanese-tv-in-july
Kodansha announced their June digital debuts, including ‘Police in a Pod’, from the description “she met the new, female director of her station! And after spending a little time with this gorgeous role model, Kawai realizes that maybe she isn’t quite done being an officer after all” you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s Yuri… from Japanese reviews I found, it’s not quite, but there’s reportedly some subtext to go with your seinen workplace slice of life. https://kodansha.us/volume/police-in-a-pod-1/
Kageki Shoujo’s Sarasa is getting the nendoroid treatment – not painted yet but I’d expect it to go on sale while the anime is airing: http://whl4u.jp/wh33/gallery/en/#/images/43 The series’ anime premieres on July 3rd, plus there’s a character PV for Sarasa. I really like what the anime is doing with her hair, in general I have a lot of appreciation for anime that change up the characters’ hair or clothes: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-06-01/kageki-shojo-anime-reveals-videos-7-more-cast-members-july-3-debut/.173470
Penguindrum’s crowdfunding campaign closed reaching over 10 times the initial target: https://www.crunchyroll.com/en-gb/anime-news/2021/05/29/penguindrum-crowdfunding-campaign-ends-with-1051-of-funds-raised and in other Penguindrum news, if you’re looking to pick the series up on BD in English Anime Limited is releasing it this August, preorders open Friday 11th June https://www.alltheanime.com/products/penguindrum-collectors-edition-blu-ray (there’s an early bird price for preordering in the first week, so I fully expect to be camped out in front of my computer hitting the refresh button at 5pm on Friday ^_^’ )
‘Tell Me Why’ is free to own on PC and Xbox during June. The first major western video game with a trans protagonist! Fans of LGBT+ gaming may know the studio Dontnod from their Life is Strange series where the protagonist in each game so far has the option of being Bisexual https://twitter.com/DONTNOD_Ent/status/1399762939704397824
This is indeed Maeda’s first yuri work, but I wouldn’t say it was unexpected. He has repeatedly used bisexual female or even male characters in his works, while gay jokes about close friends have been part of his comedy style for many years. Another thing, it’s quite interesting to see the author of Clannad write a story about a female character who admits to abandoning the idea of marriage and motherhood. I think, people groundlessly accused him of self-repetition.