Archive for the Yuri Network News Category


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – October 25, 2014

October 25th, 2014

YNN_MariKWell, we’re back and there’s a *lot* to talk about!

Event Reports

Here’s big news in LGBTQ Comic events: Queer and Comics. This is the first-ever university-based LGBTQ comics conference! It is being held at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY on May 7-8, 2015. Panel Proposals are open, so put this on your calendar for this spring. Panel proposals for manga-related topics are welcome! I’ll be there and hope to see you all. You’ll be hearing about this conference in the upcoming months, until I convince you all to be there. ^_^

Geek Girl Con is highly recommended. We had a blast, saw a lot of friends, and saw the shape of fandom where everyone is welcome and there is no “wrong” way to be a fan. It was great!

My write up of Girls Love Festival 12 is up on The Mary Sue, I’m hoping to introduce Yuri doujinshi to a wider fan audience. So be patient with the intro, which eases into what doujinshi and the shows where they are sold are.

In cased you missed it, I’ve also shared my most recent experience at a Takarazuka show, Snow Troupe’s perfromance of 70’s shoujo manga inspired Hakushaku no Reijou.

And I’ve uploaded the full-text of most recent lecture…and given you some broad hints about the future of Crunchyroll Manga in my first installment of the 2014 Tokyo Journal.

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Yuri Manga/LGBTQ Comics

Seven Seas has announced that they are releasing the Bodacious Space Pirates: Abyss of Hyperspace movie manga in August 2015.

Liz McMullen and JD Glass speak with Joan Hilty, Jennifer Camper and Kris Dresen about being Queer Women in Comics and the New York Comic Con Panel of the same name.

The Infinite Loop, by Pierrick Colinet and Elsa Charretier, which is debuting in France next month, about time-travel and a love affair between two woman, is shopping around, looking for an American publisher. Here’s hoping someone will pick it up. Click the link for sample art.

Anastasia Moreno and Nogami Takeshi-sensei have introduced a new character to their comic Marine Corps Yumi.  A foul-mouthed Evil Psycho Lesbian Navy Corpsman named Erica Busch. You’re welcome. ^_^

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LGBTQ Games

Playable character parity, a queer character, progressive male characters and game devs having fun while creating actual character moral complexity…Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel sounds like a winner to me!

Paizo is looking to hire female gave devs and designers for Pathfinder.

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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!





Tokyo Journal 2014 – Lecturing and Manga

October 24th, 2014

talkingDid I mention that this trip to Tokyo was a whirlwind? It really was.

On the plane over to Japan from Seattle, I was working on a lecture to be presented at International Christian University in Mitaka. Many, many thanks to Professor Beverly Curran and her Persuasion and Language class for inviting me and being so receptive to my ideas.

I’ve uploaded the full-text of the lecture to The Yuricon Essays page: Persuasion and Opinion in Pop Culture Fandom – Are We the Cart or the Horse?

So, this was very interesting, thinking about blogging as a form of persuasive rhetoric and narrative storytelling, as well as “just” opinion.  I’m planning on getting video of the lecture up in the near future as well, but to be fair I just uploaded the video of my 2013 lecture at Kanagawa University, Weaving Our Stories Through Anime and Manga. ^_^

After a lovely time at ICU (where, as I mentioned in my Geek Girl Con report, I lost that Uranus ring I had just bought, boohoo…) the very next day, I had a sit down with Robert Newman of Crunchyroll Manga and was ableeto visit the CR Manga headquarters in Harajuku. We had a fantastic conversation, most of which was OTR, but I’ll tell you this – he said to expect some really great things coming up, and interesting changes in the digital manga landscape in future days. And I’ll broadly hint that there’s a chance you’ll see some series that will be of great interest to us coming your way.  Thanks to Robert, Saida-san, and Michelle for their hospitality and enthusiasm. I look forward to your future efforts. ^_^

There’s still more 2014 Tokyo adventures to come!





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – October 4, 2014

October 4th, 2014

YNN_LissaYuri Events

Quick reminder that the next two weeks there will be no YNN, as I’ll be reporting from Geek Girl Con and Girls Love Fest one after the other.

If you are going to be in Japan for the Kaigai Festival, consider popping over to Kyoto for Fairy’s Residence, a Yuri event that appears to be replacing Maiden’s Garden in that city.

The Queers & Comics Conference is accepting proposals for their May 2015 event! Get your panel or workshop suggestions in today.

Not specifically LGBTQ, but the MoCCA event in NYC has also announced April dates and a new location. I find great indie stuff there every year,

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Yuri Anime

ANN reports that the voices for the leads in upcoming anime Yuri Kuma Arashi have been cast and that the staff for the Lyrical Nanoha Vivid anime has been chosen. They have the preview for the Yuru Yuri anime OAV that is getting a theater release in late November.

ANN also reports on a winter Psycho-Pass movie with the writing team of Urubochi and Fukami once again.

The Sasamekikoto anime  is getting a Blu-Ray Box  release in Japan.

And Maria-sama ga Miteru is also getting Limited Edition Complete Series Blu-Ray Box set release! So tempting….

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Yuri Digital Comics/Webcomics

Denise Schroeder’s fun little “Story A” Yuri comic Before You Go,  is now available on Comixology. Publisher Chromatic Press reports brisk sales and in a recent Facebook update hinted that there was more Yuri ahead.

YNN Senior Correspondent Erin S. has a follow-up to Mira Ongchua’s the mermaid and the sailor, which has now been enhanced and is available for download, for pay what you want. And she suggests we all take a look at Carey Pietsch’s The Witch’s Daughter.

From the Queer Comic group, I found Minority Monsters, “They didn’t know they existed, until they found. themselves.” They include Madame Lucie Decline the Asexual Succubus, Sir Fabulous the Bisexual Unicorn, Queen Ravishment the Polyamorous dragon and others. Totally wonderful. ^_^

Heidi MacDonald at The Comics Beat pointed out this free downloadable comic, Under The Apple Tree, by Sarah Winifred Searle about a time-traveling teen girl. You know what to do.

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Yuri Manga

Seven Seas has added Non Non Biyori manga to their line-up, so fans of that anime will be happy. ^_^

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 Other News

Comic Artist Mari Naomi has written an illustrated guide to Writing People of Color, (if you happen to be a person of another color.) If you are a writer of any kind, please read this and share it widely. It’s entertaining and helpful.

From Comic Natalie we learn that Sailor Moon isn’t the only series getting the premium accessory treatment. Check out this cute CardCaptor Sakura clutch bag bundled with the December issue of Nakayoshi magazine.

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Subcribe with Patreon Enjoy staying up-to-date on Yuri news? Subscribe to Okazu with Patreon!

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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 Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 27, 2014

September 27th, 2014

YNN_MariKToday’s a news dump kind of day. ^_^

Have one of the old-fangled iPhone 5s and want to hide your despair at existence? Try these nifty Mucha-esque Sailor Moon covers and enjoy the schadenfreude of knowing your phone isn’t bending. Also note the delightful use of the word “sundries” in the URL. That just about made my morning. No, wait, these earphone plug Henshin wand charms did. Sailor Moon, Chibi Moon, Sailors Uranus, Pluto and Neptune, thank you *very* much!

I told you about – NSM48 (Nagoya Sexual Minority 48) back in 2012. They a girl group out of Nagoya, with inclusive lyrics and members. Well, they’ve renamed themselves NSM= (Nagoya Sexual Minority Equal) and have been recording their first album. Here’s a sample, the song Happiness, on Soundcloud. Enjoy! I love that they have morphed from being a parody to a real group. ^_^

This past week, I reviewed Obentou to Kase-san, the second volume by Takashima Hiromi. Well, I was poking around her blog, Takashimaya, and found that she has released some Yamada and Kase-san doujinshi digitally through DLsite. This is not a free site, but the cost is like a buck per doujinshi, and there are PC, Android and iOS options. Seriously, I’m going to be getting “Natsu to Kase-san” and “Chocolate to Kase-san”. If I could purchase all doujinshi digitally from the authors directly, I might die of happiness. No more cartons of books, just tons of great content.

Another option for getting doujinshi is Comic Zin. (Here’s Momono Moto’s page, for instance.) There does not appear to be overseas shipping, but if you have a buying service or a friend in Japan willing to ship them to you, it’s an option.

OMG! OMG! Molly Ostertag and Brendan Lee Mulligan’s Strong Female Protagonist is being collected into a volume published by Top Shelf, as the result of an incredibly successful kickstarter by the creators. Definitely going on my must-get list.

Kat Callahan listed her thoughts on the 7 Best Lesbian Anime Ever Made over at Jezebel. What do you think of her list? Let her know you thought in the article comments!

Molly Brooks has created what we’ve all been waiting for – a post-apocalytpic lesbian comic. Sweet. Check out Post on her website.

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Over on The Mary Sue, Dee Hogan has summed up all the current legal options for watching anime and digital and print options for reading manga. She lets you know if there are free and/or paid versions,  but doesn’t get in to regional restrictions. Good stuff, worth bookmarking.

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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 cool YNN correspondent’s badge. Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!





Upcoming LGBTQ Comic/Yuri Manga Events

September 21st, 2014

DSCN5321For folks on the East and West Coasts of the USA or in and around Tokyo, Japan, there are a number of events of interest coming up and I *hate* reports that start “Oh, hey, I did the coolest thing this year and forgot to mention it was happening in time for you to plan to be there!” So, in order for some of you to make plans to be at these events, here are several upcoming events that I think you might want to make an effort to attend!

 

GLFes 

October 19, 2014, Yokohama, Japan, Yokohama Minato Mirai, Hall Marineria (横浜みなとみらい・横浜産貿ホールマリネリア)

This is the 12th Girls Love Festival event and it looks fantastic this year.  I think this is their first time in Yokohama, and next year it appears to be back in the Tokyo area. I actually changed my plans this year to attend, because under the GLFes umbrella, one of the events is “Onaji Hoshi ni Umareta Futari” an all-Yuri Sailor Moon doujinshi event. Amano Shuninta-sensei (Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na) did the cover art and I felt almost obliged to be there for the first-ever all-Yuri Sailor Moon event, y’know?  ^_^

The way GLFes works is that there are a bunch of thematically-organized sections. There will be a KanColle “event”, the above-mentioned Sailor Moon section, Sakura Trick, Yuru Yuri, PreCure and whatever other series are popular will get their own sections. Tucked in between are original works which, as you may be aware, is what I like best. ^_^

There are no panels, but I will be with a few folks with coherent Japanese and hope that I can speak to a few of the folks there interviewy-like. Fingers crossed.

 

Geek Girl Con

October 11-12, 2014, Seattle WA, Washington Convention Center

The reason I will not be at NYCC this year is because I am going to Geek Girl Con. This year is the 4th GGC and I wanted to at least experience it once.  Pretty much the entire Panel Schedule is of interest to and focused on Women in fandom, gaming, media, comics, etc. What I’m not seeing a whole lot of is LGBTQ-themed stuff, which sort of surprises me.

Queerbaiting in Genre Television: Representation or Exploitation?

Gaylaxy Quest: Exploring Queer Fantasy and Science Fiction

are the only things I see on the schedule. There is a BL-focused panel. No Yuri, but I wasn’t applying to run one, and there are, as I always say, way more straight girls than gay ones.  There are some “Female Gaze” panels, but from experience I know that those tend to be very straight (and usually pretty objectifying men-focused) and not my cup of tea.

I know The Legend of Bold Riley‘s creator Leia Weathington is supposed to be there and I hope to hang with her and a couple of Friends of Yuri. If you’re gonna be there, do let me know and we’ll make time to catch up and say hi!

 

New York Comic Con 

October 9-12, 2014, Javits Convention Center, New York City, NY

New York Comic Con has gone back and forth on Queer presence and equity of representation, but this year they seem to be making a special effort to have a number of panels on Women in Comics and Geek Media. Here are few you probably don’t want to miss:

Prism Comics Presents: Women in Queer Comics

Women of Color in Comics: Race, Gender and the Comic Book Medium

The Mary Sue Presents – Strong Female Characters: The Women Shining in Geek Media

Because I will be on the other side of the country for the weekend, if you do attend NYCC, (especially any of these panels) and would like to do a write-up of your impressions, please let me know and I’ll give you a quick tutorial on how to write something up! Industry panels are written up by every blogger in the universe, but far fewer people cover the meaty topic-oriented ones. I’d love to have eyes and ears at NYCC. You’ll get a colorful YNN Correspondent badge to display on your webpage or social profile in thanks. ^_^

 

International Manga Festival

November 23, 2014,Ariake, Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Big Sight

The International Manga Festival, aka the Kaigai Fes, is held as a part of Comitia, the biannual all-original doujinshi event. Begun just a few years ago, the Kaigai event is getting larger and more exciting every year. A bit like the opposite side of the TCAF card, the Kaigai Fes has comic artists from outside Japan, and it’s a lot of fun, seeing folks who are bridging the oceans to communicate about comics and comicking.

Comitia itself is a very cool event. Because it focuses on all-original doujinshi, I’ve found some good LGBTQ narratives and some straight-up Yuri as well. Next year I plan on revisiting the Kaigai and Comitia and seeing how far they’ve come. ^_^ If you can’t make it, rest assured, a number of manga bloggers will be covering this event. Keep your eyes especially on Deb Aoki’s Manga Comics Manga site for news and reporting.

 

Winter Comiket

December 28,29,30, Ariake, Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Big Sight

World’s biggest small press and self-published comic show. Makes SDCC look like a baby event. It’s huge, intimidating and electrifying. Everyone who loves comics should do this once. ^_^ There are Yuri parody and original circles, but you have to work at it a bit to find them all.

 

And while this is 6 months out, I want to give you all a heads up for these 2015 events:

Queers & Comics – LGBT Cartoonists’ Conference

May 7-8, 2015, New York, NYC, Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS)
The Graduate Center, CUNY – 365 Fifth Avenue, NYC

The Keynote speakers will be Howard Cruse and Alison Bechdel.  More information can be found on their website or their Facebook page. I’m hoping to be there, although it means I will probably miss TCAF, because the world is like that, but I don’t want to miss it!

 

Toronto Comic Arts Festival

TBA, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I can’t rave enough about TCAF. It’s got a strong manga presence, a strong LGBTQ presence and it’s generally the most fun I have at a North American event. The 2015 dates and location(s) have not yet been announced, but if you can make it, do!

 

So there’s a few vacation ideas for you coming up in the next half year or so. If you’re going to be at Geek Girl Con or GLFes, let me know so I can say hi!

 

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