Archive for May, 2024


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 4, 2024

May 4th, 2024

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. Art by Mari Kurisato for Okazu

Yuri Audiobook & Drama CD

As reported yesterday, when I reviewed the 5th and final audiobook of the initial I’m In Love With The Villainess series, Seven Seas has announced that we’ll be getting the Claire-side point of view series also as an audiobook series! I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner Audiobook, Volume 1 is slated for a June release.

Watashi No Yuri Ha Oshigoto Desu! ‘Cafe Liebe Onna Gakuen Yori Aiwokomete’ Radio CD (TVアニメ「私の百合はお仕事です！」「カフェ・リーベ女学園より愛を込めて」 ラジオCD) is now up on the Yuricon Store! This is a collection of all the Radio shows done by the actresses for the anime Yuri Is My Job! anime.

 

Yuri Manga in English

We have a lot of new, and a few old, items up on the Yuricon Store!

The second volume of the manga for There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless…, is headed our way from Seven Seas in June.

I’m in Love with the Villainess manga, Volume 6 hits shelves this week in English, also from Seven Seas. Claire learns how life is for commoners…  inori.-sensei announced on her Pixiv Fanbox that she’s working on a collection of ILTV side stories for supporters. More to come on that.

Futaribeya, Volume 3 from Tokyopop is on the Yuricon Store. I’ll work diligently to get all of this listed.

Cheerful Amnesia, Volume 2 hit shelves this winter from Yen Press!

 

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Yuri Manga in Japanese

Speaking of series I fell way behind on, I not only have to add the remaining volumes of this, but also update old links, but Kimi no Tamaenara Shineru, Volume 10 (姫のためなら死ねる) is now on the Yuricon Store. Those of you enjoying Kuzushiro’s Amayo no Tsuki (雨夜の月) , might be entertained by her interpretation of Heian court life, with diarist Sei Shonagan as a NEET blogger and Murasaki Shikibu as her buxom rival.

Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 8 ( 私の推しは悪役令嬢。) manga tackles Yu’s arc with some amazing writing and art.

This series has been halted, and it’s digital only, but Monomo Moto and Izumi Kitta’s Liberty, Volume 2 (リバティ) is up on the Store, because it’s been sitting in my to-go-up list for a long time and I wanted it off there. ^_^

Japanese manga creator Aneido held a successful Kickstarter to publish their 18+ Yuri ero-horror manga, The Murderer And Her Runaway Desire in English and now you can download that comic directly from Aneido-sensei’s digital store.

Speaking of creator-owned work translated into English, via Natsuo Mutsumi-sensei, who gave this glowing praise, King Kurasaki is running their first Kickstarter to translate their Yuri manga,君と夏の音:You and the sound of Summer, into English! There’s almost 2 months left for this, so I’ll remind everyone gain, but I know I’d like to see this make it.

Aishitabun Dake Aishite Hoshii-! (愛したぶんだけ愛してほしいっ！) tells the story of a girl waiting for her prince on a white horse, who falls for a prince-like woman.

Galette, No. 27 (ガレットNo.27)  is up on the Store. Sadly, Galette no longer appears to be available on US Kindle, but they are definitely still available through Bookwalker.

Mikaunji’s story of random couples continues with Fuzoroi no Renri, Volume 8 (不揃いの連理). Read it in English as Assorted Entanglements, from Yen Press!

 

Queer Comics

Via long-time friend of Yuri, Niki Smith, she wants you to all know about Succulent: Trans-Inclusive Sapphic Comics on Kickstarter! The campaign page describes it this way: “Succulent is a lush collection of sapphic erotic comics. Twelve tales which are hot, humid, and above all, dirty.” With more than a week to go, this comics is only a few hundred dollars from it’s goal and is almost certainly going to make it, so jump on into the loam! ^_^

 

Anime News

Along with the live-action movie, Yamashita Tomoko’s Ikoku Nikki is also getting a television anime. Presumably all this attention comes from this series having been names best manga of 2023 in DaVinci magazine. Crystalyn Hodgkins has the details on ANN.

ON This Week In Anime, Nick, Chris, Lucas and Steve ask Is The Anime Girl Band Era Here? and the answer seems to be “Yes!” Some of my favorites are called out, including Hello Melancholic, but, what? No K-On!?

 

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Yuri Visual Novel

Via YNN Correspondent Michelangelo H, House of Chavez is a new Yuri VN from Winter Wolves, that he thinks looks promising. “Play as Adriana and travel to Europe with her brother Bruno. Meet Silke, who attended to Adriana’s grandmother Maria during her final moments, and Dolores, a stunning and secretive woman on a trip. Explore House Chavez’s shadowy hallways and navigate the mysteries within.”

 

Other News

Clover DeMerrit has offered up an interesting look at From Takarazuka to Terayama: The influence of queer theater on Revolutionary Girl Utena. Some of it may be familiar to readers here, but the whole has a lot of new information that I certainly did not know! It’s a great read, and I’ll be adding the link to our Yuricon Resources page, for sure.

 

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I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 5

May 3rd, 2024

Two women, one with long blonde hair, one with medium length dark brown hair, wearing lab coats, hold hands and smile gently into each other's eyes, while sparks of lightening flash behind them.In I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 5, Rae, Claire, the main cast and we, the listeners, learn the “Truth of the World,” and it is not anything we could have expected.

But, first, the combined power of Rae and Claire and their children, Aleah and May, will unlock powerful magic, will complete a coup, and remake the world entirely…. and then they will take on the three Archdemons and finally the powerful Demon Queen herself.

And we will marvel as this fantasy isekai turns into something else, entirely.

And, then, they will all go home to live, one presumes, happily every after.

This final volume of inori’s epic fantasy series pulls in a lot of the random loose ends that had been strewn about the narrative. Why, for instance, does Rae keep running into people with her exact face? Why does magic work the way it does? Why does the Demon Queen want to destroy humanity? All these questions will be answered. If you have not yet read the ending, I expect it will surprise you. It certainly made me rethink everything I knew about this story and the characters.

Once again, the whole has been narrated by Courtney Shaw and she has done a fine job. She committed to the choices made in earlier volumes, so anything that rubbed me the wrong way remained, and, once again, a choice was made for pronunciation that was at odds with my choice, but I’ll get over that. ^_^ I hope inori-sensei was happy with the choices made and that really is all that matters.^_^

Ratings (for the adaptation only):

Overall – 10

If you haven’t been moved to read the books (and I am not the person to insist you do) or you have, and really love them,  I highly recommend listening to the audiobooks for a new way to appreciate them, to engage with the story or just to sit back and hear the characters come to life.

And the story is not quite done with! Next moth will see the debut of I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner Audiobook, Volume 1, the first of three volume telling the story from Claire and others’ points of view. As I said with the LN editions, these contain a lot of original content, so don’t skip them. There is a lot happening from other people’s perspectives. Only the Google Play link is available so far, but I’ll add the rest as they become available.

 





Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity, Volume 8 (花のあすか組 ∞インフィニティ )

May 2nd, 2024

A young woman wears an elaborate costume of faux-miltary-style uniform with lavender sash and gold brooch, her hair done up with flowers and a veil. She wears fancy white glove, ear piercing and heavy white makeup. A few weeks ago, I reviewed HabuCore F, the 10-years-later epilogue to Hayate x Blade (はやて×ブレード), which I described as “a gonzo battle/school manga series.” I really meant “one of the greatest gonzo battle/school manga series ever written.” Today, I am about to revisit the other.

Hana no Asuka-gumi is the other greatest gonzo battle/school manga series ever written. Where HxB is hilarious and everyone is an idiot is the most delightful ways, in Hana no Asuka-gumi, everyone is deadly serious. Hardly anyone ever smiles.  To remember where we were, and why I was screaming at a volume of manga, please go back and read my review of Volume 7. It is critical that you understand that I began this volume in mid-scream.

Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity, Volume 8 (花のあすか組 ∞インフィニティ ) begins with former Area Master Kanae having completely broken Asuka’s cool (something that never happens, but happened twice last volume) by appearing to look like the dead and gone love of Asuka’s life, Yohko. It throws Asuka off a notch and….she loses a fight.

For reasons, Kanae lies and tells everyone that Asuka won. Asuka is, finally, done. She’s done with being the target of Hibari-sama’s gangs and all her little weird groups and she tired of seeing decent kids ruining their lives. So she decides to face Hibari-sama and peace out of the Zenchuu Ura’s bullshit, at last.

The cover image you see, is the costume Asuka is dressed in when she faces Hibari-sama for what Asuka expects to the be the last time.

Hibari-sama, enraged at Asuka’s refusal to come back to her, still, slaps Asuka across the face with her fan. Asuka gets to walk away, but she does manage to kick the shit out of Kurenai on her way out. Snort.

This is the whackest love triangle ever. A 14-year old warlord, the 16-year old empress of the girl gangs of Tokyo and a dead two-bit teenaged criminal who talks to Asuka from the great beyond.  Asuka walks away, still done.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

The School Wars are over, but the Battle of the deities has begun and undoubtedly, Asuka will be at the center of it, once again. One more volume to go.

I’m on Team Dead Yohko.





Blank The Series, Guest Review by Frank Hecker

May 1st, 2024

Viewed from above, a girl lays her head on her homework on a table. She is holding hands with an older woman who sit next to her, listening to musicA young woman on the cusp of adulthood latches onto an older woman and pursues her, but a sheltered adolescence causes her to come off more child-like than her age might suggest. The older woman, burned by past relationships and not looking for another, thinks of the younger woman more as a daughter than a potential lover, but eventually finds herself reconsidering what they mean to each other.

Wait, didn’t I review this story several weeks ago? But, no, this is not Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord, Volume 2 , it’s season 1 of the Thai live-action yuri production Blank: The Series.

Blank: The Series is an adaptation of a novel by Chao Planoy, the author of GAP: Pink Theory, and is set in the same universe. It’s squarely targeted at fans of GAP: The Series, although its age-gap premise has occasioned online controversy among some in that fandom. 36-year-old Neung (the older sister of Sam from GAP) is a mature woman burned out on relationships, four years on from ditching rising politician Chet at the altar in the series’s opening scene. As previously seen in GAP: The Series, Neung is estranged from her grandmother, has rejected her place in the Thai aristocracy, and is pursuing a life on her own as an artist (partially subsidized by Sam).

Into her life comes 20-year-old Neung (the identical names are not a coincidence). Young Neung (or Aneung, as older Neung refers to her) is a young woman denied a normal adolescence; she’s still in high school, held back by ill health. She has no friends her own age, and her only family is her demanding and censorious grandmother. Aneung’s only escape is reading yuri novels, and when she meets older Neung (whom she calls Ar-Neung or “Aunt Neung”) she immediately sets out to win her over, alternately flirting with her and pouting at the older woman’s rejection of her advances. As for Neung herself, she goes from finding Aneung annoying to struggling with her ambiguous and growing feelings toward her.

“Faye” Peraya Malisorn is excellent as Neung in a role that calls for subtle acting to show Neung’s slowly evolving emotions. “Yoko” Apasra Lertprasert generally acquits herself well as Aneung, although her performance at times threatens to become repetitive. “Ice” Papichaya Pattaralikitsakul and Marissa Lloyd have the thankless jobs of following in Freen’s and Becky’s footsteps as Sam and Mon respectively, but they are very much the side couple here.

Like GAP, Blank has its share of melodrama, especially involving Chet (“Kun” Kittikun Tansuhas) and Phiangfa (“Ploy” Preeyaphat Silahom), Aneung’s long-absent mother. The producers toned things down somewhat from Blank the novel — for example, they aged up Aneung — and hopefully will continue doing so with the second season, which apparently has even more melodrama. They could have toned things down even further, for example getting Aneung out of a high school uniform and dialing back her childish aspects a notch or two. In terms of production values, the major problem with the series is the mediocre to poor English subtitles, which sometimes left me struggling to figure out the meaning of certain lines.

Despite that issue, Blank season 1 is a welcome addition to the GAP extended universe. The core relationship is handled well (except for Aneung going overboard at times), and there’s minimal “service”. I liked it enough that I’ll watch the second season, which begins airing in May. It will presumably deal with the fallout from the final episode of season 1, which ends on a cliffhanger.

Rating:

Story – 7 (unless you hate age gaps)
Characters – 7
Production – 5 (the subtitles drag it down)
Service – 2
Yuri – 6
Overall – 7