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

December 30th, 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.Welcome to the last Yuri Network News report of 2023! This is the 43rd YNN post of this year, which means only 9 weeks were left un-YNNed. Given that I was severely ill for 4 months, I think that’s pretty awesome, both on my part and the fact that there was just that much Yuri to report on. Okazu and I absolutely “gambare”d this year. ^_^

 

Yuri Events

With the upload of my Closing Comments, Yuricon 2023 is officially over! We managed 12 videos – again, given that I was bedridden for 4 of those months, I’m calling that a win. Please take some time and enjoy the entire playlist of panels, presentations and discussions for Yuricon 2023. I’m also going to once again ask you to please subscribe to Yuri Studio, give our videos a “like” on Youtube, and leave a kind comment, if you can. It makes a huge difference to the channel.

There’s a lot left to talk about, so…you know what? If you have a panel or presentation you’d liked to have done for Yuricon, but the year got away from you (as it sure as heck did for me,) go ahead and use the Panel/Presentation Application and we’ll set it up for Yuri Studio’s 5th season! Do not self-censor. I want your panels and presentations and I want to talk to you about *stuff.*

Girls Love Fest is starting the new year right with a special event at Shinyuri 21 Hall in Kawasaki on January 21, from 12:00 to 3:00 PM.

I mentioned this previously, but it has become more likely that I will participate in the Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium in mid-April 2024. This is an online event and will be accessible globally. I have the funnest research idea, a collaborator in Japan and I think it’s going to be awesome (especially if I can get back before the presentation, to do “research” myself, i.e. hang out with other Yuri fans. ^_^)

 

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Yuri Manga

From Libros de Babel on Mastodon, Ana Oncina  and Ana C. Sánchez have been awarded Manga Awards in Japan for their respective works Croqueta y Empanadilla and Libro. Congratulations to them!

New Yuri Anthology Girl Prince Anthology – STAY GOLD (「王子様女子」百合アンソロジー STAYGOLD) appears to be headlined by Canno-sensei, and will include folks like Aoto, Mimoto, Ohsawa Yayoi and more! I’m really hoping to get my hands on it. ^_^

Speaking of girl princes, we have some titles up on the Yuricon Store. including Chinmi’s Kiraware Majyo Reijō to Dansou Ouji no Kon’yaku, Volume 1 (嫌われ魔女令嬢と男装皇子の婚約), a fantasy about a girl presenting as male for family reasons and the girl she takes as her fiancee.

Mikanuji’s Assorted Entanglements, Volume 3, which was released by Yen Press this past autumn.

Naekawa Sai’s fantastic supernatural story, Watashi o Tabetai, Hitodenashi, Volume 7 (私を喰べたい、ひとでなし). I’ll be reviewing that shortly.

Akili’s Vampeerz: My Peer Vampires, Volume 4 from Denpa Books will be hitting shelves here in March.

And via YNN Correspondent Patricia Baxter, Manga Mogura’s announcement that Octave creator Akiyama Haru has a new adult life Yuri series starting up in Melody magazine, Watashi no Blue Garnet (私のブルーガーネット).

I enjoyed LatteComi’s School Prince Yuri anthology so much, I’m really looking forward to their Shigoto x Buddy Yuri Anthology! (お仕事×バディ 百合アンソロジーコミック) Check out a sample online at Comic Growl. Oh my gosh – women looking happy!

 

Yuri Light Novels

Via YNN Correspondent Sean Gaffney, we now know that the Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta series is getting a sequel, as noted on Toshizou’s Twitter account.

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Live -Action

Thai GL Twitter account The Series Y Thailand, reports on 4 upcoming Thai GL live-action series for 2024: Freen and Becky in The Loyal Pin ปิ่นภักดิ์,  23.5 องศาที่โลกเอียง, Pluto นิทาน ดวงดาว ความรัก  and The Secrets of Us ใจซ่อนรัก

And! Season Two of She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat / Tsukuritai Onna To Tabetai Onna live-action drama is on the way in January for JP viewers. They have some added cast members on the NHK Evening Drama Instragram. Fujiyoshi Natsuzu as Nagumo is *perfect.” So perfect that I saw her picture and said “Oh, Nagumo!” I’m sure I am not the only one who cannot *wait* to see that. It’ll be a perfect way to get the new year started with great queer rep.

 

Thank you all for your support, your comments, your enthusiasm and your patience over this past year. With your help we are ready to face a whole new year of great new Yuri for us to enjoy!  Join us tomorrow for our Top Yuri article of the year, we’re doing it a little different this time around (I mean, like always, really. ^_^)

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!

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Today on Yuri Studio – Like A Clockwork Golf Course : The Shifting Moods of Birdie Wing

December 27th, 2023

For the final panel discussion of Yuricon 2023, I am joined by Journalist Sean Gaffney and Educator Amy Martin to talk about the hit anime Birdie Wing – Golf Girls’ Story!

As always giving is a “like” on Youtube and a kind comment is much appreciated. ^_^





I Married My Female Friend, Volume 1

December 26th, 2023

A woman with long, dark hair in a green dress and a woman with collar-length light hair wearing pink overalls and a beige shirt, share the handles of a plastic bag as they walk and talk.Kurumi and Ruriko are friends. They have decided to be married even though neither of them feel romantically inclined toward one another. They come up with rules to follow to preserve their relationship and immediately those rules feel strained in I Married My Female Friend, Volume 1.

“Or so they think…” weighs heavily in every scene in which they monologue about their feelings of friendship for one another. Kurumi is a free spirit, but on a solo trip she keeps thinking about Ruriko. Ruriko is glad to let her wife roam, but her mind is always on what would make her happy.

They negotiate boundaries. When Kurumi messes up the garbage Ruriko redistributes the labor more sensibly. When Ruriko doesn’t tell Kurumi about how sick she is feeling, until she has to be rushed to the hospital, they find themselves discussing what will make “them” work. For that…and for the moment, Kurumi comes running into the hospital asking to see her wife, left me feeling happy, with a coda of “been there.” Very happy, because it’s still new and exciting to see women identifying themselves as wives, and I don’t see it becoming less wonderful as time goes on.

The one thing that feels different from Usui-sensei’s other “couple figures it out” series, Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon, is that from the beginning, there’s a very distinct sense that, while Ruriko says she’s only gto feelings of friendship for Kurumi and Kurumi does not seem to have any romantic feelings for Ruriko, there’s an overwhelming sense that that is where we’re heading.

I have been thinking a lot about platonic intimacy between women…and I have always been an advocate for a legal partnership that is not meant as an indication of a romantic pairing. Why shouldn’t friends just be able to designate one another as “family?” Of course, with same-sex marriage in some countries, we’re a little closer to that, but I cannot designate my dear friends who are married to each other, as members of my family, in case of emergency or need. That has never made sense to me. Why shouldn’t people who live together and share household requirements just be able to be seen as a “family” legally? This first volume skirts this issue, as Kurumi and Ruriko balance what their friendship means to them and what their marriage means. 

This series is less of a personal journey into sexuality and identity than Doughnuts, but is, perhaps, more of a journey into social identity. It’s also quite goofy at times, which is fun.

The folks at Seven Seas brought us a wonderfully clean adaptation, with retouched sound effects (yay! whoo! It looks great! Thank you Aly Villanueva and Seven Seas for allowing Aly to do that.) Avery Hurtley’s translation does a great job of giving Kurumi and Ruriko their own voices. I care deeply about that kind of thing, especially for a manga in which these two voices are most of what carries the story. The cover, which is a straight-up gloss looks great, thanks cover designer M.A. Lewife.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 6

Overall – 8, with loads of potential

This is not the deepest book about queer identity (the issue of same-sex marriage is handwaved away as “it’s legal now”) we’ve seen in 2023, but it doesn’t need to be. Sometimes, all we need is a gag about a roaside radish.

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy…I had bought myself the print volume first, but I appreciate the thought!





And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor

December 25th, 2023

Today we’re going on a ride down a rabbit hole, so buckle in. 

This story begins in the 19th century with a figure whose name, at least, almost every woman of my generation knew…Fannie Farmer. Younger generations may not be as familiar with her, she was a real woman, not a corporate mascot. Farmer was the Principal of the Boston Cooking School in the late 1800s. Every time you read a recipe and it has measurements, lists of ingredients, then cooking directions, you are reading her specific influence. She was among a number of women who brought nutrition and food science into existence, with medicine and chemistry weighing in for the first time about what people ate affecting their well-being backed scientifcally. The Boston Cooking School Cook-Book was *the* text book on how to prepare foods…and for generations afterwards, editions of what became The Fannie Farmer Cookbook taught American women what and how to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This morning I finished reading the text portion of the Cook-Book, and turned to the ads. For fun, I decided to see which of the companies listed still exist – so far Knox is it. We came across a company that no longer exists, but my wife suggested that it had become part of General Mills, and the ground fell beneath my feet. In the meantime, looking up things like Grist Mill Entire Wheat Coffee and The Pure Food Company’s (unrelated to the current one of the same name…) Cocoanut Butter…

 

And advertisement from 1989 for "Cocoanut Butter" featuring a naked angel baby rising from a broken coconut.

“Health Springs From Cocoanut”


…I ended up reading the entirety of the General Mills Wikipedia page. Where I learned some amazing things. They had a “Aeronautical Research Division and Electronics Division.” Did they? Why? Well, according to Wiki, “The General Mills Electronics division developed the DSV Alvin submersible, which is notable for being used in investigating the wreck of Titanic among other deep-sea exploration missions.”

… Oh. Okay. Of course a cereal and food company would build submersibles. ????

It gets weirder.

“[General Mills] along with its subsidiary The Program Exchange, backed DiC Entertainment in syndicating the Dennis the Menace animated series.” So, of course GM sponsors cartoons, they sell cereal.

Of course my ears pricked right up at the mention of DiC, because they are most famous for one thing.

And there it was:

The opening panel of the English dub of Sailor Moon. from DiC featuring the five Inner Senshi superimposed on a poorly drawn city night scene with the DiC logo of the words 'Sailor Moon' over a crescent moon image.“From 1997 until May 31, 2004, General Mills sponsored and syndicated the first 82 episodes of the original Sailor Moon English dub …”

But wait, there’s more!

While talking about this on the Okazu Discord, longtime friend of Okazu Cryssoberyl had this to say:

“Some of you may know the name of a website called “Save Our Sailors”, which – when it wasn’t peddling “Prince Uranus” theories intended to degay HaruMichi – was concerned with keeping the English release of Sailor Moon on television. As part of these efforts, one planned idea was a “procott” of Kellog’s Pop-Tarts. Fans were supposed to all go out on a particular day and buy Pop-Tarts. Now, Pop-Tarts aren’t from General Mills, but after this “procott” happened, DIC, sponsored by General Mills, returned to syndicating the show. It was then claimed that the procott had been a success because it had drawn General Mills, Kellogg’s competitor, into the move. (Even though it very definitely had nothing to do with it.)”

We’ve talked about Prince Uranus here before, but I absolutely did not remember the Pop-Tart thing, but wife was amazed that she did!

So, as I told the class at Keio University just a few weeks ago…the answer to every question is Sailor Moon. Even, apparently, if the question is “Does this company which makes “Entire (i.e.whole) Wheat Coffee” from 1898 still exist?

Please enjoy the variety of eye-straining fonts on this ad from the Boston Cooking School Cook-Book, edited by Fannie Farmer for Imperial Granum cereal.

An ad from 1898 for "Imperial Granum" cereal with eye-watering font choices

 





Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. (- 私の推しは悪役令嬢。) レイジョアハンズ!!～Raise Y/Our Hands!!/O.C.～Optimum Combination～

December 24th, 2023

A woman with brown hair pulled into a short ponytail in a white and blue tuxedo, dips a woman with golden curls, in an orange evening dress, as they dance at a formal dance.While in Japan, I had a very short list of things that I wanted to pick up. Usually I come with a long list, but this time, I had already decided that I wouldn’t be buying much media, only things I didn’t know – and goods. Media is the easiest thing to get shipped. That said, there was one manga series I was looking for, that sadly I did not find and one CD, which I did!

Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.  私の推しは悪役令嬢。) レイジョアハンズ!!～Raise Y/Our Hands!!/O.C.～Optimum Combination～ is the CD of the opening and closing themes of the I’m in Love With The Villainess anime. It was apparent to me from the credits that some interesting manipulation of the lyrics was going on, so I really wanted the whole CD to get the lyrics.

Well…I’m blown away. Absolutely gobsmacked at the effort put in by everyone involved. From the awesome cover image, you know you’re not getting something generic. I’m not saying I’m burned by the G-Witch drama or anything, because that was merely annoying and somewhat silly, but it still feels real and important to have something like this image being a genuine reflection of the contents of the music.

The music is suitably sticky and I will now sing the choruses to Raise Y/Our Hands!!  and O.C. ~ Optimum Combination~ over and over for the next week undoubtedly. But as I sat with the lyrics and listened to the music, I was quite overcome with the sense that the writers really understood the story. I wondered if inori.-sensei had been the writer, but to my surprise lyric, composition and arrangement were credited to TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND. I’m going to give those guys serious praise for the music, but even more for the lyrics.

Most of the OP/ED CDs I bought back in the day had 4 tracks. One each of the OP/ED sung and one each of a karaoke track. This CD has five tracks. The OP, of course and 4 different iterations of the end theme, as we saw on the anime. Both Rae and Claire have their own individual tracks. But as the text bubbles of the ED animation make clear, this is meant to be a dialogue. The first track is O.C. ~ Optimum Combination~ -Side by Side- which remixes Rae and Claire’s verses to respond to one another. The final track O.C. ~ Optimum Combination~ -Side by Side-/reverse (which surely has to be the most punctuation ever used in a title) which remixes the verses *again* for another take on that conversation.

The more I listened to these…the more I liked them.

Serizawa Yuu acquits herself very well, while singing in Rae’s silly voice, with occasional flashes of her real voice, but Nanami Karen is the star here, bringing a lot of varying emotion into very quickly sung lyrics.

So for a series that put lesbians in the top ten rankings for weeks, is still out there giving us a ton of queer rep (I just finished Volume 2 of the audiobook yesterday), even the animation opening and closing themes are worth your time and money!

Ratings:

Music – 9
Lyrics – 10
Art – 10

Overall  – 10