Yuri Manga
If you’ve been reading Okazu at all the week, you’ll know that JManga is the big news-maker here. Japanese Publisher Takeshobo has agreed to let all of their titles be released globally, which allows readers everywhere to access Poor Poor Lips and Morita-san ha Mukuchi. As a result, PPL lips has become their best-selling title. Thank all of you for jumping in and purchasing it! I hope you find it to be as interesting as I did. And thank everyone around the world for helping me make the (really obvious) point that letting more people buy a thing means you can sell more of it.
Hopefully with the success of Takeshobo’s global push, JManga will be able to convince other publishers that selling more is better. It’s hard to not eyeroll at that, I know, but let me just remind you that your cooperation and effort are still needed in this! Bruce McF had a great suggestion – go to a title you want to read, but can’t and use the feedback tab on the page. “I’m from XX country and I would like to read YY Title.” Just keep doing that until they can convince all the publishers to open their titles up globally. (My next goal is to encourage them to list whole magazines on the system. The day I can subscribe to Comic Beam in JManga is the day they own me for life.)
And, I hope, because PPL is doing so well, JManga and ALC Publishing are teaming up again to bring you another Takeshobo title, Kimi no Tamenara, Shineru. This is a much more typical 4-koma, but the setup makes it unique. It’s worth a read, anyway. ^_^ In fact, I’ll be spending the weekend doing some research to write up a nice introduction on Heian Imperial life and literature. ^_^;; (If anyone ever tells you that once you get out of school, you won’t have to write reports or essays, they are lying.)
In honor of this new license, here’s the link to Volume 2 of Kimi no Tamenara Shineru, (姫のためなら死ねる) which will be out in Japan in April.
Spring will blossom with Yuri this year: Comic Yuri Hime, May Issue and Tsubomi, Volume 17 are both ready to bloom. ^_^
YNN correspondent Katherine H. doesn’t want you to miss Higashiyama Show’s Prism, Volume 1, from Tsubomi. (Neither do I, for that matter.) This was a series that started off much like a Story A and suddenly, magically, was a very lovely realistic story that had some actual body to it and a little real-world conflict. Totally worth getting.
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Other News
In other news, Jean Giraud, known as Moebius, passed away at 74. This has nothing at all to do with Yuri, but Moebius was the first comic artist whose name I learned. His style of art and story-telling radically influenced my reading and I believe it was his work that allowed me to step into manga with little difficulty. I will never forget the moment I encountered his work in Heavy Metal magazine. It changed everything I ever thought about comics. If you are not familiar with his work, check out his official website. The world is a bleaker place for his loss. Rest In Peace.
I also really want to turn your attention to the three-part series on Anime News Network called The Anime Economy. Written by Justin Sevakis, this series is a cogent, incredibly well-written and compelling breakdown of the money trail in the anime industry.
If you ever wondered why about anything in terms of money, costs, distribution, profits (which many fans still imagine to be great piles of cash) read this series!
Part 1: Let’s Make An Anime!
Part 2: Shiny Disks
Part 3: Digital Pennies
Part 3 is especially important for the discussion of “mindshare” and the disconnect between wanting to read/watch a thing and wanting to support that series. This lack of mindshare is why we’re still struggling with a large body of “fans” who do not have any intention ever of paying for manga or anime, unless they can have it exactly the way they want it, for prices they determine, not market-bound, and an even larger percentage of fans who have absolutely no idea at all that there is a reason to pay for entertainment at all.
This series was genuinely terrific reading. I hope you’ll all take a few moments and read it.
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That wraps it up for this week.
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.
and Sei Shonagon, writer of the 
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