Yuri Manga

YNN Correspondent Komatsu-san caught this: French Publisher Taifu Comics has licensed Morishima Akiko-sense’s Yuri Manga Hanjuku Joshi. More great news for French-reading Yuri fans!

JManga tells me that they are planning on launching Yamaji Ebine’s Love My Life manga next week. That’s absolutely stellar news for North American fans, and hopefully for English readers elsewhere, one day soon.

Forgot to tell you this, but YNN Correspondent Rachel wants you to know that Wandering Son was added to the American Library Association’s Rainbow List for 2012. The Rainbow List is a project that is run by a joint task force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table and the Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Queer Round Table of the American Library Association. By the way, the ALA is and has been for *many* years, very LGBTQ-friendly, so don’t hesitate to ask your local library for LGBTQ books and let the ALA know if you get flack.

Sakamoto Ano’s Pie wo Agemasho, Anata ni Pie o ne (パイをあげましょ、あなたにパイをね) came out last month, and I forgot to tell you. Sorry.

There’s a manga with obvious Yuri called Sister Honey Biscuit, (シスターハニービスケット) that I will be avoiding like the plague. If you hate my taste, it looks like a good bet for you. ^_^

Morinaga Milk-sensei comments on her blog that the April issue of Comic High will include the final chapter of Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo, and following that, she’ll be starting a new series. So I’m guessing that a continuation of that series is not likely.

Sabagebu, (さばげぶっ!) Volume 2 hit the shelves this month, in case you’re looking for some shoujo war games-style Yuri service. ^_^

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Yuri Anime

From Soulassassinn457, we learn that Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica tops Amazon Italy’s pre-order list. Italian fans can watch Madoka on RAI4 starting this weekend. “Also,” he continues, “it is said that Italian fans with a fistful more of Euros could get the full VIP treatment… er, an envy-inducing Limited Edition (includes specially-designed box, soundtrack CD, some special books, and even a Nendoroid).”

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Other News

The happiest of all possible news, the March issue of Shueisha Cobalt has a supplementary Maria-sama ga Miteru story. Thank you gods. If I’m to believe Yuri Amagasa it’s called “Oppai Cake.” Indeed.

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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.

Yuri Anime

Media Blasters has put the release of Ikkitousen: Great Guardians on indefinite hold. Not surprising, but not cheery news.

Nico Nico Douga will be streaming the first episode of the Shoujo Magi Madoka Magica anime with English dub, on February 10 at 11:30 p.m. EST. Other countries getting streams are Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. I hope they’ll be streaming a sub too. Dub only means I’m watching it raw, if I can.

RightStuf has let me know that they have a countdown on the first two seasons of Maria Watches Over Us. This means that they are down to their last few hundred art-box copies of the anime. If you’ve been holding off, now is a great time to get this anime and spend some quality time with the ladies of Lillian Girl’s School. A quick looks tells me that Season 2 is down to just over 50 copies left, so don’t wait too long!

Not Yuri, but come on, if you didn’t love Hamutz Meseta in Book of Bantorra, you obviously weren’t paying attention. I so very desperately want a “Must kill Hamutsz Meseta” t-shirt. I told Sentai Filmworks so, since they’ve licensed it.

The wife is watching Inu x Boku on Crunchyroll and notes that Yuki-Onna is all over the girls in pervy-guy fashion, so if you’re looking for something new to watch, you might want to give that a try.

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Yuri Manga

New one from Hakamada Mera Kanojou no Sekai (彼女の世界) from Ryuu Comics.

Chou no You ni, Hana no You ni, (蝶のように花のように) is an Yuri Office 4-koma. Yep, it had me at the word “office.” ^_^

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Other News

Hrm, this is interesting, Yuri Hime is starting up a new Yuri novel series, starting in March. The first one to hit the shelves is Morita Kisetsu’s Note Yori Yasui Koi (ノートより安い恋)

And a third all-Yuri doujinshi event is proliferating. In May at Comitia 100, there will be a section of Yuri-only called Yuribu. Yuribu has a commercial on Youtube, how fun is that?

Didja ever wonder what the Yuri manga artists watch? Well, a bunch of them have been talking about 片思い FINALLY by SKE48. Here’s why:

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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.

Nothing makes me so aware of time flying as these weekly reports. End of January already? Wow.

Yuri Manga

Sasamekikoto, Volume 9 (ささめきこと)　is finally here! I haven’t paid the least attention to anyone discussing it, and the cover is lovely, so I’ll look forward to it. (Anyone who thinks to try and spoil it for me or anyone else in the comments, a pox upon you. It’s not clever or funny and I read fast, so it won’t work, either. I will see your linguistic clues and delete it before you can be an ass in public. You’re welcome.)

Another from Mangatime Kirara, Onegai Kami-sama (おお願い神サマ！) has, to Japanese fans’ relief, Yuri. Or at least one characters says she likes Yuri. Or something. Anyway, I’m not reading this myself, and if any of you lovely folks out there has purchased Volume 1 or Volume 2 and would like to do a guest review, this is a great opportunity!

Speaking of Magatime Kirara and all it’s little wizards, a couple of folks pointed out that Aoki Ume’s new series will begin in the newest addition to the Mangatime library, Mangatime Kirara Carino.

If you, unlike me, enjoyed Kiji Torajiro’s Otome Teikoku (オトメの帝国) you’ll probably be happy to know that a second volume is out.

The new edition of Morinaga Milk’s Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo (くちびるためいきさくらいろ) is due to hit shelves in April.

Volume 7 of Pure Virual Anthology Hirari (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) will be out in March, Tsubomi, Volume 16, in February and March issue of Comic Yuri Hime is currently gracing Japanese bookstore shelves.

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Yuri Anime

You may have seen that Gokujyou anime airings are being cancelled, with really bizarre apologies for “excessive stupidity.” This is clearly a ploy to get people to buy the DVDs – but the apology is absolutely correct. This series was excessively stupid in every way. I realize that this is a lame, obvious ploy, but it’s so in keeping with the story itself, it kind of makes sense.

Let’s finish off with some positive news and a glimpse at a future I’d like to see. The Black Rock Shooter anime, in conjunction with Nico Nico Douga, will stream *worldwide* in 8 languages, and will be airing on the Noitamina time slot on Japanese TV.

I know it’s hard to imagine that things are changing for the positive sometimes, when all that affects you is the negative, but there is nothing absolute or fixed in the universe – only change.

Let me take this opportunity to hop back up on my sopabox, just for a sec. Recently, a fan asked about whether Fantagraphics is licensing Aoi Hana. I suggested she write them an ask. They said, “not at this time” and she wrote to me with “I guess we’ll never get it.”

This is not the right lesson to have learned at all.

What she and so many of you must understand is, publishing is about money – it’s a numbers game. Sure if five people say they’d like to buy Aoi Hana, Fantagraphics will reply “not at this time.” That is true – right now, they have their hands full with other projects. When that number increases to 500, 5000, 10,000…that might change. The lesson is – do not give up, do not got all weird and fatalistic, *organize!* When 5000 people write Fantagraphics a polite note suggesting that if they licensed Aoi Hana, we’d buy it, I guarantee they’ll think differently about the topic.

The only constant is change. learn to roll with it and you’ll generally be a happier, healthier person. In the meantime, get ready to enjoy Black Rock Shooter in 8 languages. ^_^

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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.

Yuri Anime

From multiple sources in the Phillipines comes the news that Sailor Moon is returning to TV there. Johann C from the Yuricon Mailing List says that it’s getting “a New Tagalog dub with Jenny Bituin (Misaki Suzuhara in Angelic Layer, Sakura Kinomoto in Card Captor Sakura) as Usagi.”

The first episode of Gokujyouu anime will be streamed for free online on January 30th and if that doesn’t turn you off then we have nothing left to discuss, you and I.

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Yuri Manga

So, yesterday we announced the partnership of JManga and ALC Publishing to bring Goto Hayako’s POOR POOR LIPS to digital format. Let me address some of the obvious issues that came up, to the best of my ability.

Distribution – I am pushing to try and get JManga to establish access for Yuri publications outside North America, but this is primarily an issue between JManga and the Japanese rights holder. You all know how I feel about this nonsense. If it were up to me, everyone, everywhere would have access to this book. Unfortunately, I am only in a position to suggest.

Digital Format – Yes, this is a digital format only. And only on JManga. JManga is the rights holder, not ALC. We have no say about the format.

Yesterday, this question became an issue, as some people claimed that they preferred to buy books. That may be true, but 1) As I’ve said many times, the book-buying Yuri audience is not yet sustainable and 2) Digital makes a lot more sense going forward than books. We are at one of those moments in time, between two formats and everyone over the age of 18 is digging in their heels saying “But I prefer books.” What we really mean is, “I am used to books.” Digital is not going away and, in days to come you should probably expect more digital, not less. 3) People who rely mostly on scans really, I know most of you do (not all, Okazu readers are very likely to buy when they can and I know that!) really have no voice in the distribution/format wars. I understand fully why you rely on scanlations. You don’t have to justify that. But, when a legit version is available, and a person is still downloading illicit scanlations, and says, “I prefer to buy books,” it’s disingenuous, at best. What that person is really saying is, “I prefer free.”

4chan has already stated that they want rips of the JManga edition. This is what publishers hear when “fans” say “We want a thing.” They could have it, all three current volumes of Poor Poor Lips, but oh wait, not for free. So they’ll just rip it and move on. THIS is why I am not trying to license the print version. There’s no other reason, just this. Until this changes, I have no incentive to invest my money in the market. I don’t have an angel company pouring money over my head, so I have to be very cautious.

So, while I’m very proud to be bringing the Yuri audience Poor Poor Lips, and will do what I can to make it available to as many of you as possible, I’m still frustrated by the instant “I won’t buy it because…” reactions. If you have any reason at all that you won’t support it, you’ve given up your voice in the conversation. As for all of the non-North American fans out there – I want you to know that I really understand your frustration and will keep pushing for your right to read this!

And, in keeping with the concept of anyone, anywhere reading a comic, Tsubomi magazine has put several of their comics online and they do not appear to be region-locked! Of course, they are in Japanese.

Here’s the moral of the story – the market is still changing and changing quickly. Publishers are scrambling to make things available and also scrambling to pay their bills. (Like…if you do work, you should be paid for it. Well, so should the people who work for the publishers.) Japanese publishers are still a bit behind the times, but they are also doing their best. Not too long ago, someone on Twitter asked about using Kickstarter to fund an obscure series and I had to tell them the facts about publishing. The bits you see – translation, lettering and distribution are only a teeny portion of what goes into the licensing and publication of a book. Because most of the steps are invisible to readers, they may think that that’s all there is. But, just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. ^_^ So, please, be patient with the industry. We’re trying.

David makes a good point in the comments – the business model for JManga is off-putting for some folks. I don’t disagree. Honestly, I’d prefer to have ad hoc sales as an option, too. I’ve mentioned that to them as well. So yes, the whole thing is imperfect. You know what? Life is imperfect. ^_^ All we get is to choose how we react to life’s imperfections.

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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.

Happy first YNN report of the New Year! It looks like there’ll be a lot of shiny fun for Yuri fans of all persuasions this year. Today we’ll catch up on some anime trailers and the like.

Yuri Anime

Looking forward to Black Rock Shooter anime? Check out the trailers on the official website. (I’m really hoping that this series looks half as good as all the figurines for this series, which tempted me mightily over the New Year holiday in every single store.)

The Smile! PreCure commercial has aired, take a look here.(NicoNico Douga is iffy, so if you have an account there, try logging in to see it.) The “difference” this time is that they are going with a team right out of the box, rather than two to start, then adding in a new character at intervals. They are also going with extra super teeth-grittingly cute names. I think they are punishing the adults who watch the series. Cure Happy, Cure Smile. Ugh. ^_^

Of great interest to me, the first Jormungand anime trailer is up on ANN, with the pleasant bonus of Itou Shizuka as Koko (She was Nadie in El Cazador de la Bruja and Rei in Maria-sama ga Miteru.) She’s a perfect choice for the role, I couldn’t be happier. And, while I say this knowing I should be careful what I wish for, I hope they leave the Valmet-Koko service in, because I like it. ^_^

Probably no more Yuri than its predecessors, but by Yuri-friendly Nanzaki Iku, Queen’s Blade: Rebellion is slated for a spring release.

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, A Channel and Yuru Yuri are all getting second seasons of anime.

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Yuri Manga

JManga is now offering Morita-san ha Mukuchi for your reading enjoyment! The Yuri is very light in this series, but the overall story is enjoyable enough that it’s worth a read.

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Other News

Manga Erotics F magazine announced a line of toys this year, including an Ah-chan figurine, for fans of Aoi Hana.

And for those who like to take their Yuri in game form, the trailer for the upcoming Madoka Online Browser game is streaming.

I was joking on Twitter a few days back, about which series has been the most over-merchandised series of 2011. The top three suggestions were One Piece (which has got to have hit some kind of saturation point in Japan by now…there are no stores of any kind without One Piece *somethings*) K-ON! and Madoka.

My three favorite random branded items seen for these are:

Axe has One Piece body spray available, I can’t imagine what Luffy or Chopper body spray could smell like and I never tried to find out…

K-ON! themed “Fuwa Fuwa Time” cotton candy in a bag at Lawson.

Madoka men’s trunk underwear.

So, yeah, these three win.

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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.