Yuri Manga

Top News this week is Seven Seas’ new Yuri manga license – Nakatani Nio’s Yagate Kimi ni Naru, which is slated for a early 2017 release as Bloom Into You.

Ookami-san to Kerberos!  (大上さんとケルベロスゥ!) is a 4-koma gag comic from Ichijinsha, Kings imprint, that looks awfully like it will have some Yuri-ish-ness.

Akuma no Riddle, Riddle Story of the Devil, Volume 4 (悪魔のリドル) is available in print in Japanese and on Global Bookwalker. Seven Seas has released English editions of  Volume 1  Volume 2, Volume 3 and Volume 4 will be shipping in July 2016.

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Yuri Drama CD News

The Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo Drama CD Limited Edition (あの娘にキスと白百合を ドラマCD 初回限定版) hits shelves this week! Whee!

Other News

Despite the hyperbole of the article title, same-sex marriage in Japan takes another small step forward this week as Iga in Mie prefecture began issuing licenses to same sex couples.

Out Japanese lesbian talent Ichinose Ayaka announced the publication of her new book, Biankon (ビアン婚) about her lesbian wedding.

Did you know that there is a famous cemetery in the Bronx, NY? It’s called Woodlawn and it has the final resting places of many famous and interesting people. And…it has a beautiful bronze sculpture of two women resting in eternal repose in each other’s arms, called Memorial to a Marriage.

Crunchyroll has added Fushigi Yugi to their catalog. I’m interested to see the reaction to Nuriko after all these years. I expect her characterization and back story will not wear well at all. I hope people complain loudly, because this was a tired trope in the mid-90’s.

LGBTQ Comics News

Senior Correspondent Erin S. points to another cute webcomic, My Vampire Girlfriend, by Heza Key, for your reading pleasure.

The Other Side: An Anthology of Queer Paranormal Romance Comics has just been announced. Spearheading the project is amazing artist Kori Handwerker. Look for a Kickstarter soon and help support another great queer anthology.

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondentby sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Today is a good day for Yuri. ^_^

Sailor Moon Crystal News

Via YNN Correspondent Elizabeth F. according to the Sailor Moon Official Page, the third season of Sailor Moon Crystal will be premiering in April 2016 and a special project and other news will be revealed at Anime Japan.  (Remember what I have told you about Toei? They just announced staff/cast and are rushing this out in 3 months. DO NOT be surprised when the TV animation is subpar. This is how they work every time.) The Mooniverse on Facebook has graciously provided  a translation of the full announcement.

FunkoPop showed off  new Sailor Moon Inner Senshi dolls  (and Tuxedo Mask) at  his week’s NY Toy Fair. There are plans for the Outers, so fingers crossed if you’re a FunkoPop fan. I think of them as the larger, USA-version of Nendroids – giant heads and weird proportions, but somehow kinda cute.

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Yuri Manga News

The official Anoko ni Kiss to Shiroyuri wo Twitter account announces that an Anokonikiss Drama CD will be included with the March 2016 issue of Comic Yuri Hime! Volume 4 of Anokiss (notice how the acronym gets smaller each time…?) will be hitting shelves on February 23.

And for those planning ahead, the May 2016 issue of Comic Yuri Hime is available for pre-order.

HaruYuri (ハルユリ) sounds like a rather typical, Story A girls in love story, but the description on Amazon.JP is amusingly hysterical. “a GIRLS ONLY love story!”

Muzutani Fuuka’s sweet little Yuri series, Kono Kutsu Shirimasenka? is getting a ‘perfect volume” collection. (この靴しりませんか? 完全版)

So is Kodama Naoko’s Fujiyuu Sekai. (不自由セカイ 完全版) I hope all the folks who have read the scanlations of this (a lot, based on the number of hits I get for that review,) consider actually buying the book they like so much.

Looking for a cute post-apocalyptic story about Yuri vampires? Yeah, me neither. But there is one!  Michiwarekusa Monogatari (道割草物語) Volume 1 and Volume 2 exist in this world.

Yuri Webcomics

YNN Correspondent Shannon L. wants to share this nice autobiographical webcomic What it’s like to be gay at an all-girls middle school.

And senior correspondent Erin S. shared this “cute f/f sci-fi short comic about a princess and knight.“

Other News

Kadokawa announced a ‘Yuri fair’ lineup of Valentine’s day cards by Kadokawa artists. Check out the designs on this Comic Natalie report.

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri Visual Novel News

Top story this week is the downloadable demo of  Yuri Visual Novel Kindred Spirits on the Roof, available from Mangagamer. This VN was a blockbuster in Japan, spawning an amazing number of doujinshi by artists we know and love. I’ve started the demo and will have some thoughts about it shortly. ^_^

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Yuri Anime

ANN has the report on dates for the Psycho-Pass film showings in the US.

Yuri Manga

ANN also says that there is a “new project” from CLAMP to celebrate Card Captor Sakura‘s 20th anniversary coming in Nakayoshi magazine.

Comic Natalie says that Hirao Auri’s “Oshiga Budokan Itekuretara Shi-ne” a manga about an idol group that includes a Yuri idol-fan love comedy, has been collected into a Volume 1. Let’s take this with the grain of salt it deserves, as we already know Hirao-sensei’s idea of “Yuri” and “comedy” do not necessarily jibe with our own. ^_^;

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondentby sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Sailor Moon News

This week was amazing. On an announcement timed to coincide with Haruka’s birthday, we received the news of just who will be playing the voice actresses on Sailors Uranus and Neptune, and Saturn and the other key roles in the third season of Sailor Moon Crystal! As ANN has excellent reports on all of these (and on Ogata Megumi’s response to the voice choices), I want to confine myself to noting that the seiyuu for Uranus and Neptune are already known to you! They played the roles of Akira and Alicia in Aria. And, as I shipped the heck out of those two in the series, I am 100% on board with the choices. ^_^

ANN also has the first key visual for the series, which shows all the Senshi, at last!

 
Event News

I’ve got a couple of exciting events coming up this year. In April, I’ll be giving a talk at Baruch College in NYC on April 7th as part of an Alt-Manga Symposium. Details to follow.

I have another talk planned in April in Long Island City, NY, and again, details are forthcoming.

And put your hands together that this works – I have been invited to speak about Yuri history at a Rainbow Week event in Tokyo. Squee! Argh! Augh! Again, details to follow.

I hope to have all of this sorted by the beginning of March. ^_^

The 2016 MoCCA Festival has announced guests for their April 2-3 event in NYC, and Heidi MacDonald of Comics Beat has the scoop – Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universe is one of the guests!

 
Okazu News

We’re into our 2016 Patreon campaign and we have a new perq! If you are already a subscriber at the $25/month level, when donations reach $150 (so, 6 months), you’re entitled to a one-hour personal Yuri panel with me. Alone or feel free to share with friends! We’ve made this perq retroactive, so it should be an interesting year. ^_^

Support Yuri Journalism – support Okazu!

Any donations are always spent on the discussion and promotion and support of Yuri. Thanks to everyone who is an Okazu Patron – every dollar helps!

 
Other News

Once more we turn to ANN for the news that the trend of themed pop idol groups is not yet over and we can expect Lilygirl, a group that is specifically Yuri-themed. Carefully calculated for those fans who equate two females in the same frame touching as “Yuri.” Whee. If you saw this report and thought “Oh it’s  T.a.T.u. all over again,” you were not alone. ^_^;

Nicola Scott Art presents this wonderful gif of badass female characters. Click it and discover someone new everytime!

Online harassment does not seem to be going away anytime soon and I thought I would write a bit about my experiences and my takeaways: The Perqs of Online Harassment is over on Medium.

A new visual collaboration between Yuri manga Ano ko ni Kiss to Shiroyuri wo and photographer Hasegawa Keisuke provides some lovely images.

 
Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Takarazuka News

Top Story this week is via YNN Correspondent Chet B, who let us know that a Takarazuka show is coming to New York City! I did a little more searching and found that it’s an OG (Old Girl) group, so not an official troupe per se, but mostly made of otokoyaku from previous years and it looks like it’ll be otokoyaku even in the main women’s roles. They’ve got a number of possible actresses from previous years, including, maybe, Yamato Yuuga as Roxie, which I have to say intrigues me mightily. ^_^

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Yuri Manga

It’s been about a year since the last volume, Comic Natalie reports, but Yuru Yuri 14 (ゆるゆり) is coming out this winter. HMV will be selling it along with collections of volumes 1-13.

Kickstarter News

Alex Heberling has launched a Kickstarter for Volume 2 of her post-apocalyptic magical girl comic, The Hues. I reviewed the first volume back in August 2015 and found it good.

YNN Correspondent Bing C wants you all to know some exciting news from Korea. “Due to the popularity of this Korean [Yuri] manhwa and demand from non-Korean fans, lezhin has started to release the English translated version of What Does the Fox Say?. Readers can purchase coins either on the website or through the lezhin app (cheaper through the app). The coins are used to purchase chapters of this ongoing manhwa. 7 chapters cost approx US$3.

There are other GL manhwa on the website but so far only WDTFS has been translated to English.”

The comic looks great, you should check it out!

Other News

Readers in and around Berlin, take note: The Schwules Museum is holding an exhibit called Super Queeroes: Our LGBTQI* Comic Book Heroes and Heroines from January 22 – 26. If anyone attends , please let us know how it is!

Prism Comics has announced it’s annual Queer Comics Press Grant is open for submissions from independent queer comic book creators. Get your submission in by March 1, 2016.

Don’t miss this report by Komatsu-san over at Crunchyroll News, on the main visual for the upcoming Seirei no Moribito live-action series! Read the whole article, for details of the series, which is planned to cover all 12 volumes of the books!

The casting event for Sailor Moon Crystal‘s Outer Senshi will be streamed live on January 26th on Nico Nico Douga, so don’t miss it.

Yuri Anime

ANN has the scoop on Sentai Filmwork’s announcement that they have licensed the Strawberry Marshmallow anime and OVAs, based on Barasui’s manga, Ichigo Mashimaro. (The OP of the TV series is on my slogging mix, so it’s something I think of fairly often. It surprised me, therefore, to realize it’s more than 10 years old!)

Sentai also has licensed the Azumanga Daioh anime, ANN reports. So those of you who missed all the key Yuri series of the 2000s, will have a chance to see them for the first time.

Again, ANN brings us news that The Anime Network is restreaming the amazing and often overlooked Yuri anime Blue Drop. I recommend this one highly. And they’ll be streaming the dark and disturbing Uta-Kata as well.

All three of these anime series have their own sub-categories in the Series menu over on the right hand sidebar. Do check them out for reviews! —->

YNN Correspondent Roxie writes in to let people know that in the UK, “Steven Universe episode “We Need to Talk” has had scenes featuring Pearl and Rose dancing together cut and replaced with scenes of entirely different characters.” There is a change.org petition, if you’d like to do a thing that may or may not have an effect.

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondentby sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!