Archive for 2023


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 30, 2023

September 30th, 2023

In black block letters, YNN Yuri Network News. On the left, in black silhouette, a woman with a broad brim hat and dress stands, a woman in a tight outfit sits against the Y. Yuri Anime

Set your  alarms! Crunchyroll will begin streaming I‘m In Love With The Villainess  on Oct. 2 and Stardust Telepath on October 9. Thanks to YNN Correspondent Patricia B for the link.

Speaking of ILTV, Rafael Antonio Pineda has the news on ANN that the cast will include Nana Mizuki as Manaria, so I guess a bit of a spoiler as to how far the anime will get. Personally, I’m guessing it will go through the end of the Revolution arc. ^_^ Maybe we can wangle a second season to cover the Nur and DQ arcs. 

Not yet announced for streaming, but I’m betting on it, Kibou no Chikara – Otona Precure (キボウノチカラ～オトナプリキュア‘23～) premieres on NHK in Japan on October 7. Whether this gives us a taste of the Yuri everyone saw in the original series is anyone guess, but there is a hint in the trailer. Click the link and see if you see what I see. ^_^

The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess will be streaming on HIDIVE in (checks…) 170 hours. Look for this on October 7th, as well. Fanservice Yuri hijinks undoubtedly.

 

Yuri Manga

The Crunchyroll store still has no category for manga, only anime ,and I’m waiting to hear back about an affiliate account, so for the moment RightStuf links are staying put, but may soon become unusable. I apologize for any inconvenience while we wait to see how this shakes out. 

This weekend Global Bookwalker is doing a huge Manga Haul Sale for National Comic Book Day with discounts and coin back on many selected titles!  This sale is good through Oct 1. 

Via YNN Correspondent Patricia B, Kodansha is offering a Yuri, BL, and LGBT Manga Sampler on Global Bookwalker for Free!

Newly added to the Yuricon Store: 

I’m playing catch-up on Kimi to Tsuzuru Utakata, Volume 3 (君と綴るうたかた). This series will be ending shortly and I want to get it all up. The Summer You Were There, Volume 3, is up on the store, Volume 4 in English will hit early in the new year.

Cheerful Amnesia, Volume 1  is hitting English-language shelves in October.

With the addition of Vampeerz, Volume 9 (ヴァンピアーズ), I am finally and fully caught up on that series, which ends with this volume. 

Ichijinsha on Twitter has offered us cover reveals on Watashi no Oshi  ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 7 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) and Watashi no Oshi  ha Akuyaku Reijou. Maid Kitchen, Volume 1 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。メイドキッチン) I’ll get these up on the Yuricon Store asap.

Via Comic Natalie, Sekai Ichiban Oppai ga Suki!  (世界で一番おっぱいが好き！) is ending with a final volume 8. Volume 7 of Breasts Are My Favorite Thing In The World  will be out in October from Yen Press. I’ve never read any of that series, so if you are enjoying it and would like to review it for Okazu, drop me a line!

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Yuri Audiobook

The first pre-order links for the I’m In Love With The Villainess Audiobook are live and up on the Yuricon Store. I’ve added it to the newly renamed Voice Drama & Audiobooks category on the Store, and I’ll start weeding through the old Drama CDs and adding new voice dramas….and audiobooks… as we get them! 

 

Yuri Light Novel

There was a first look at the cover design for Yuusha ni Naritai Shoujo To, Yuusha Narubeki Kanojo (勇者になりたい少女と、勇者になるべき彼女), inori.-sensei’s newest LN. Amazon JP and Melonbooks have pre-order links up for it, so I went ahead and put it on the Yuricon Store. ^_^  Here is the synopsis as given on Amazon JP: After the end of the war between humans and demons, humans established a school of heroes using the magic tool “gear” to train successors. Ruchika, a demon girl who admires being a hero, meets Leonie, the daughter of the hero who defeated the demon king, when she visits the capital to enroll. Ruchika likes her and asks her to marry her even though she is in the middle of her exams. Although she is flatly rejected, Ruchika continues to attend school with the aim of becoming her hero, and approaches Leonie to become even closer.

The girl-meets-girl school fantasy of girls with different motivations begins with a bang!

 

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Yuri Visual Novel

Popular fan artist Yamino announced a new Visual Novel The Phantom of the Black Rose free demo will be released as part of the itch.io Spooktober Game Jam. The art is pure 70s shoujo, like a Takarazuka Phantom of the Opera, shoujo style. I may have to give in and get this one. ^_^

Studio Élan’s Élan Festival begins tomorrow night on their Youtube Channel. Check in for news updates and more!

 

Other News

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Cryssoberyl: CW: VERY DARK, Guro, Body Horror, Cannibalism, yet beautifully animated, The Lovers,  is “An animated thriller about the romantic tension between a seafood chef and a siren, set in a dark fantasy Philippines.” If horror this is your thing, there is a Kickstarter for the animated film, the debut work from Studio Heartbreak. If you are squeamish, maybe skip this trailer.

Ayashi no Ceres is now on the Viz App. I mention this because, much like Fushigi Yugi, creator Watase Yuu was clearly working through some stuff about gender and sexuality (and sexual violence) in days before they came out as X-gender. It was an interesting read but – in my very personal opinion – ultimately disappointing for exactly the same reason FY was, including, but not limited to, the use of rape as a casual plot point more than a few times. The resolutions for what we now can see as non-binary or trans characters did not work for me, either.

While working on adding the ILTV Audiobook links, I noticed that one of the sites also had a book I had been wanting to listen to. Andrew J. Robinson, who is probably best know for his role as Elim Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has written a DS9 Novel  – A Stitch in Time, which he narrates as Garak. It is both an excellently well-written novel, which makes me want to read the other books he’s written AND it is a stellar voice performance. Garak is written as bisexual although, like the TV series, it so far hasn’t committed to more than being interested in other men. What the novel does do though, is really deeply develop Cardassian society, politics and mindset in ways that fully explain everything, except Dukat somehow becoming the leader of Cardsassia without being knifed immediately. I recommend this very highly as an audiobook.

 

If you’d like to support Yuri journalism and research, Patreon and Ko-Fi are where we currently accept subscriptions and tips.  Our goal now, into 2024, is to raise our guest writers’ wages to above industry standard, which are too low!

Your support goes straight to paying for Guest Reviews, folks helping with videos, site maintenance, managing the Yuricon Store and directly supporting other Yuri creators. Just $5/month makes a huge impact! Become part of the Okazu family!

Become a part of the Yuri Network, by being a YNN Correspondent: Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share with us.





Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu Live-Action (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ)

September 27th, 2023

For various reasons I have spent the last few weeks playing catch-up with everything I have meant to watch and read and listen to but never got around to. At the behest of folks on the Okazu Discord, I *finally* watched Sound Euphonium all the way through and Sean Gaffney suggested that, but for one episode, I might find Management of a Novice Alchemist worth a try. Why is Ep. 9 always the absolute worst? I’m looking at you, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

And, finally, spurred on by my recent read of Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 9, I finally managed to sit down and watch all ten episodes of the Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu Live-Action series (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ).  And wow do I have some opinions about it. ^_^

First of all, the acting was really quite excellent. Matsumura Sayuri as Eripyo was outstanding. In all her pathetic  and inappropriate enthusiasm, she was absolutely perfect.  Jitsukata Takao as Kumasa and Toyota Yudai as Motoi were likewise absolutely spot-on for their roles. If you’ve been following this series, you’ll know that Kumasa is very much our otaku godfather and mentor. He’s balanced and wise and deeply moved. Motoi is a fuckup that I am never going to like, but that’s pretty much the point. LOL Motoi’s sister Reina is so normal and nice in comparison.

The members of ChamJam are, likewise, absolutely fantastic in their roles. Like the manga, the best scenes are those with the members and their relationships. While the story centers Eripyo’s obsession with back-row member Maina, the slow building relationship between Yumeri and Maki is really quite sweet.

It’s hard for me to not see the idol ecosystem as an non-sexual form of human trafficking and the bits where the otaku bankrupt themselves to “support” their favorites will always make me angry – especially when the story positions that behavior as honorable. But slowly, almost as slowly as the manga, the members of ChamJam and their otaku have their worlds widened.  One of the strongest bits of the live-action was to give me a reminder of everyone’s personality and finally, I may be able to remember Yuka’s name now. ^_^;  I don’t know why…but I just keep forgetting her. Maybe that’s why Aya is so annoying, so people remember her. The support Sorane shows leader Reo when she’s feeling pressure was quite nice. And we get a glimpse of Maple Doll, which features the lead in Reo’s former group. As I have repeatedly said in reviews of the manga, the moments spent with the group members, getting to understand them has been the best part of the story.

Ratings for the adaptation, not the story:

Acting – 10
Story – the beginning volumes can be harsh, let’s say 6 at the start and 8 at the end
Characters – 10 Everyone was perfect.
Service – 0
Yuri – Eri x Maina  – an uncomfortable 7  Maki x Yumeri  – a comfortable 5

The live-action picks a solid place to end, thankfully, so my guess is that they did not let Hirao-sensei pick the stopping point. ^_^ We’re left with some hope that Eri and Maina might one day communicate appropriately and that ChamJam will one day be in an even bigger venue….

…which reminds me of the day my wife and I saw a bunch of boy idol groups at a Japanese mall, and all their fans came to shout and wave things at the right times. It was really interesting to watch these not-that-popular groups performing. We did not buy any CDs, although we considered getting one song that wasn’t bad.

This series is streaming on Hulu Japan, if you have access. I wish Crunchyroll would pick it up, since they have the anime (via their Funimation merger.) I think I’ll write them and ask.

 





Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 9 (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ)

September 25th, 2023

Three female pop idols dressed in "cute" costumes that are reminiscent of Nara deer dance on a stage.When we left this series in Volume 8, there were rainbows and doves flying because an entire volume had passed without making me feel unpleasant thoughts in the mangaka’s direction. This was a genuine achievement in the uncomfortable relationship I have with creator Hirao Auri’s works. As a reminder, Volume 8 of Manga no Tsukurikata was dire. So for there to be an entire volume that did not make me want to die or cause something else to be destroyed was a miracle. Well, here we are in Volume 9 of Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ) and a miracle has occurred once again. ^_^.

The volume has a rough start, though, as a collector’s photo event with special, super special and super special rare photos is going on and, of course, Eripyo does not get one of the SSRs. (Why the management doesn’t just make sure she gets one, after all the money she spends is beyond me.) But Motoi does. And he doesn’t just give it to Eripyo, which has me solidly annoyed for a few chapters. Kumasa and Eripyo are pathetic otaku, but Motoi, wtf, he is such  loser. Thankfully, his sister Rena is not  a loser and makes sure Eripyo gets it. Rena is turning out to be a good friend to Eri.

But even that becomes fragile, when Eripyo learns Rena has fans of her own (fans who ultimately get Motoi the SSR photo he wanted.) Eri explains that, as an otaku she can’t be friends with someone like Rena. Thankfully, Rena is a perfectly decent human being and insists on being friends anyway.

And then we head into the endgame and I tensed up…

Maina has fans! This is a brand new development and Eripyo is ecstatic. Because that means for the first time ever, the group will be holding a Maina birthday event. Eripyo and Rena talk about what they should do for the event and of course Eri’s ideas are too too much. In the mean time Maina has an idea for the birthday concert that actually gets everyone in Cham Jam fired up – they’ll sing in front of a cardboard stage set that is reminiscent of the Budokan. Everyone is stoked.

We’ve actually learned a bit about Maina in recent volumes – shes in this group because she really wants to be for one thing. In this volume she admits to be eating bread a lot recently, because it reminds her of Eripyo, who always smells like bread from working in a bread factory.

And then…and then…Maina and Eripyo have a nice, extended conversation in which Maina’s nail color is the exact color Eripyo wanted for her birthday celebration. And they smile at one another happily.

I almost collapsed with relief.

There is drama on the horizon, though, Reo is about to retire and Kumasa is in despair.

The final chapters follow other idol groups including Reo’s former group Maple Doll, whose “deer costumes” grace the cover.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Character – 9, except Motoi who was a 5. WTF dude.
Service – 0
Yuri – They had a conversation and made each other happy. 10

Overall – 9

Another good volume? No, no, I can’t relax until it’s all over. Not possible.





Comic Yuri Hime, October 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年10月号)

September 24th, 2023

A girl sits at a canvas in a schoolroom, ready to sketch, watching another girl standing at the window, turned away from her.Comic Yuri Hime, October 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年10月号) begins with another moody cover by mebachi. It has been a cover story very full of emotion, but…sort of free-floating out there to be interpreted at will. Impressionistic storytelling with every-day art.

The opening stories this month are not my faves, including “Kyou ha Kanojo ga Inai Kara” which has just been licensed by Seven Seas as My Girlfriend’s Not Here Today.

Usui Shio’s “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkonshitemita” is coming to an end next issue, but in this one, Ruriko and Kurumi have an important conversation like two adults, which was deeply refreshing.

Also refreshing and relaxing is Takeshima Eku’s “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau” in which Shiho and Aki finally have a normal conversation. Phew. Will they make it as an item? No way to know – Shiho is pretty high-strung, but maybe they have a shot at being something to one another.

This was followed by Aonoshimo-sensei’s full-color report of Anime Expo in Los Angeles. That was a lot of fun, seeing Claire and Rae experiencing American fan culture at it’s friendliest.

In “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.” Rae’s story about her first love comes to a crashing halt with rejection and bullying and a painful love quadrangle.  She very lightly tells us that they all made up later, but it’s hard to not sympathize with Claire and Lily being angry.

And, then, once again Claire has a problem – it is very hot out. Lene and Rae create a main course (not a dessert! Claire insists) to cool her down, in “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. Maid Kitchen.”

We finally, finally get the story of Shizuku’s trauma in “Kimi to Tsuzuru Utakata” and it really wasn’t about the thing that happened in school, but what happened afterward when she stated writing. Which makes much more sense.

“Odoriba Skirt Ni Naru” edges closer to the quadrille. Kiki gives Michiru the best present of all – her own tuxedo coat resized to fit her new partner. Michiru tells Kiki how she feels about her.

There is a cute one-shot by Kashikaze about two students passing notes.

“Osoto Gohan wo Go-issho ni” is heading back to camping, this time overnight. Whee!

There are a lot of stories I’m reading in the magazine right now where I am just waiting for a plot to happen. Magical school zombies and post-apocalytic travelers and friendly zombies in ancient China…it’s all good stuff, I just need to see a plot sometimes?

A brand new utterly goofy, derivative story called “Extreme Super Darling” with an average girl, Ikeda Rio, in a school of Yuri stereotypes elites. We have  Haruka/Michiru pair, Chikage and Yurika. Rio ends up being challenged to a duel by Chikage because of a misunderstanding. The art is over-the-top with 70’s shoujo stylings and I think I like it! ^_^ Ikeda Rio…really.

All in all a good issue. Some things will come to an end next month and some things will begin. Time and Yuri move onward.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

The November issue is out now, featuring a new story by Kodama Naoko. If you like her brand of Yuri, keep an eye out!





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 23, 2023

September 23rd, 2023

A blue silhouette of a girl with a white flower in her hair, embracing the earth. Blue block letters read YNN Yuri Network News. Art by Lissa P. For Okazu.

I’m In Love With The Villainess News

Some great news to start this week’s report – Seven Seas has announced an audiobook for I’m In Love With The Villainess, featuring Courtney Shaw as reader. The book is so far available on Bookwalker and a few other systems – we’ll be getting it this November.  Click the link for a sample!

The full trailer for the upcoming I’m In Love With The Villainess anime is up, with subtitles and a bit of the end theme from Crunchyroll.

Ichijinsha shared these photos of an ILTV ad display in Shinjuku station. There will be a ILTV pop-up store on October 7-22nd at the Akihabara Gamers store. Click the link, you will be able to purchase goods from this store online and with Tenso or some other shipping service, they’ll ship to you!

The third and final volume of the Claire POV spin-off, Heimin No Kuse Ni Namaikina! will hit as a digital book in Japan this week.   Volume 1 of She’s So Cheeky For A Commoner! is available in English from Seven Seas now.

inori’s newest novel, Yuusha ni Naritai Shoujo to (Boku), Yuusha ni Narubeki Kanojo (Kimi) (勇者になりたい少女と、勇者になるべき彼女) is already up for pre-order on Melonbooks and Amazon JP. I’ll get this up on the Store as soon as it has a cover.

And, finally, after many delays and illnesses on both sides, I am proud to announce that our interview  with inori.-sensei for Yuricon 2023 is live! We of course talk a bit about how she got into becoming a novelist and the global success of ILTV.

We have a bunch of new panels lined up for Yuricon 2023, so I’m excited to share more as they go live!

 

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Yuri Events

The Yuriten Exhibition has announced their Tokyo and Osaka locations. If you are going to be in Tokyo from October 14-22, you can find the Yuriten at studio fab in Morishita, and in Osaka from October 28-November 5, at T5 Studio in Osaka’s Minato-ku (not that far from Universal Studios Japan.) I am definitely looking for someone to cover one of these events for Okazu, so if you are going to attend, please contact me!

 

Yuri Manga

ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword! Manga Volume 4 hit shelves this week.

Mikanuji’s Assorted Entanglements, Volume 3 came out this week. We just had a heckuva a review for Volume 2 here on Okazu by Matt Marcus.

Seven Seas announced the license for the “salacious Yuri” manga by Kiyoko Iwami, My Girlfriend’s Not Here Today.

Also heading our way in November from Seven Seas is Sheep Princess in Wolf’s Clothing, Volume 1. This fluffy soft princess is an animal in bed.

This winter we will see sono.N’s muscled women vs monster action series continue with SHWD, Volume 2.

Usui Shio’s series “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkon Shitemita” will be ending in the next issue of Comic Yuri Hime, writes Joanna Cayanan on ANN.

 

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Yuri Anime

ANN’s Egan Loo points us to the third Hoshikuzu Telepath trailer, which debuts the end theme of the anime.

 

Yuri VNs

Via YNN Correspondent Matt Marcus, Witches and Lilies is a new Yuri VN from Stromatsosoft on Steam, where the game is described, ““Witch and Lilies” is a 3D dungeon RPG with a theme of romantic relationships between girls. Players form a party of five girls from 10 different job classes and navigate dungeons to clear them while managing the relationships between the girls.”

 

Other News

Also via Matt, this amazing music video by Mashiro Shirakami of his song Kawaranaide as an official collaboration with How Do We Relationship? by Tamifull. It’s a beautiful animatronic. The song is perfect  – Matt says that Shirakami says he was inspired by the manga to write it. The animation really highlights the art.  Give it a “like” on Youtube if you enjoy it!

Alex Henderson writes on Queer time and the quarter-life crisis in contemporary yuri for Anime Feminist.

Worth your time is Sara Moon’s documentary about the anime/manga localization industry, By Fans, For Fans. I have a short segment as do a bunch of other folks in or adjacent to the industry. Sarah’s funny, and incredibly insightful about the history of the anime, manga and gaming translation as we know it. She describes this opus as “Anime, a history lesson, and multidimensional time travel shenanigans.” ^_^

You may have heard the news that RightStuf is closing on October 10 and their operations will be moving to Crunchyroll on October 25. RightStuf links on the Yuricon Store are still working, but we may need to do some re-jiggering this winter, so heads up. No one is particularly happy about this, and decreasing competition is never a good thing for customers. We’ll have to see who gets to be the next up-and-coming smaller business that steps in. Tokyo Otaku Mode, Robert’s Anime Corner Store (if they ever update that website…). I guess we’ll see.

 

If you’d like to support Yuri journalism and research, Patreon and Ko-Fi are where we currently accept subscriptions and tips.  Our goal now, into 2024, is to raise our guest writers’ wages to above industry standard, which are too low!

Your support goes straight to paying for Guest Reviews, folks helping with videos, site maintenance, managing the Yuricon Store and directly supporting other Yuri creators. Just $5/month makes a huge impact! Become part of the Okazu family!

Become a part of the Yuri Network, by being a YNN Correspondent: Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share with us.