Yuri Manga

Deb Aoki of Manga.about.com brings good news with a short, but very targeted, interview with Kodansha USA about the localization of the new Sailor Moon and Codename: Sailor V editions.

My wife is going to laugh when I read this to her, because she’s been saying all along that this would happen: Kakifly has announced that the K-ON! manga will continue, in two magazines. One magazine will contain the college life adventures of Yui and the gang, while the other manga will follow Azusa, Jun and Ui’s remaining high school years.

If you’re following the adventures of two college-age women living a cheerful life of poverty in Flat and Flow, Volume 3 is out. (ふらふろ)

The May issue of Mangatime Lovely will include a Yuri story by Uso Kurata called  “Itsuka Ouji-sama ga.” (いつか王子様が)

Save your yen for June when Volume 14 of Hayate x Blade hits the shelves! I promise you will not be disappointed. Based on a tweet by Hayashiya Shizuru-sensei, it looks like a special edition with booklet will be available.

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Yuri Anime

Section 23 has added the third season of Hidamari Sketch, Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu, to their summer release schedule.

YNN Correspondent George R. has written in to say that in Episode 3, some Yuri has been unnaturally and artificially injected into Hanasaku Iroha: “Jiroumaru, the author staying at Kissuisou, provides more complications as well as the first Yuri in the series. How many series offer you lame slash fiction about the girls in the series. In this case, it’s just a glimpse at an ero-novel featuring the girls together in the bath. Jiromaru is writing it to try to pay his bills. Some folks will find this a jarring turn-off, I just had to laugh at this way of showing his inadequacies. His personality is an interesting mix of arrogance and insecurity.”

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Snatches of Yuri

Young Gangan magazine has a collected volume that Yuri Japanese lists call Yuri. I have no idea what to expect, except that Young Gangan kinda never makes me happy. The collection is Oshieshirabusu (オシエシラバス) If you get it, let me know how it is. ^_^

Fans of Manga no Tsukurikata will be excited to hear that in late June an original Manga no Tsukurikata doujinshi will be published by the author, according to a tweet by a Comic Ryuu editor.

I know, I know, you were just dying for the day when Mikarun X, Volume 7 is out. Well, here you go.

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Other News

As I mentioned Thursday, I was honored to be invited to participate in a post-mortem on Tokyopop on ANN’s ANNCast.  I’m pretty certain that Zac, Lissa and I ripped open every seam of poor Tokyopop’s shroud and well-critiqued the dead company’s thread count and stitching of the bed curtains, “rings and all.” It was a great conversation, many thanks to Zac and Lissa for the opportunity!

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That’s a wrap 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.

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

Other News

Top News this week is the shuttering of the US publishing division of Tokyopop. This seems rather inevitable after the recent layoffs there. A few years ago, this may have been cause for alarm, but Viz’s Shoujo line and Yen Press remain pretty strong. Dark Horse has been putting out some classic manga and Kodansha USA will soon know whether the US market is robust enough to support manga sales. So, while this is a sad day for those of us reading The Secret Diary of Lady Kanako, it’s not yet the end of the world here. Tokyopop is keeping the German office open, so Europeans will still have access to those licenses.

Discussion of Tokyopop on Twitter led to a side discussion with someone whose comment was “what about digital manga?” I pointed out that Viz, Yen, Square Enix, DMP and other publishers had come up with digital options, and had been announcing them. Since this person didn’t follow any of the many news sites out there, they were unaware of the state of digital manga. I said this to them and I will repeat it to all of you – there is no way that companies can beam their news directly to your frontal lobe. You do have to make at least a little attempt to read news sites to find out what is going on. (Realistically, if companies *could* beam news directly to your brain, it would be very annoying, I have no doubt. ^_^) I reminded this person that, just because they didn’t pay attention, doesn’t mean a company is doing nothing. ^_^

Of course, what is not yet in existence is a portable, scalable, non-proprietary solution so a reader can read any manga they want from any publisher in the format that works best for them and on the device they choose. But I still believe that that will happen. Which brings me to….

Negima and Love Hina creator Akamatsu Ken is taking a fantastic, out-of-box approach to the idea of legitimizing downloaded scanlations. I love this idea and hope that this can be eventually expanded to include the global market.

Now, for something completely different!

‘Strawberry Marshmallow manga characters give Shizuoka taxis a soft touch.’ A Shizuoka taxi company is offering “special tours” (I read that as meaning “outrageously expensive tours for obsessive moe fans”) with a commemorative card by Barasui. Amusingly, the title for the Japanese article is significantly different and mentions “moe-taku,” so I think my reading of “special” was right. ^_^

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Yuri Manga 

New YNN Correspondent Jeffrey T. did some investigative journalism and contacted DMP to find out the status of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS manga and was told that the manga had been canceled. No real surprise, I’m sorry to say. Western Nanoha fandom had already proven that it was only “fans” of the series when they could get it for free. This series is a perfect example of the ongoing problem with western fandom; lots of “fans” – not so many people who actually buy the books and DVDs. Which once again leads to me to thank all of you Okazu readers, because I know you do pay for what you watch and read. The industry appreciates it…and so do I. ^_^

Not necessarily Yuri, but of interest, Aoi Hana‘s Shimura Takako is launching a new manga about girls in an opera school. Hints have been dropped that some of the Aoi Hana characters will make cameos. My wife suggests that this would be a perfect venue for yet *another* manga version of Der Rosenkavalier, which, if you care, has already been covered in Pride, Volume 11, by Ichijou Yukari.

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Yuri Anime

Sentai Filmworks has licensed and Anime Network is streaming Maria+Holic Alive.

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Yuricon Site Update

I keep saying this, so feel free to roll your eyes…

Now that we have the new Yuricon website /rolleyeshere/, we can get back to doing some interesting stuff. First up – Contests!

I’ve opened two polls, where you can tell me which kind of contest you are more likely to enter:

On the Yuricon Mailing List and on the Yuricon & ALC Facebook group.

Now, here’s the thing, the new Yuricon is going to be more interactive, less passive. My goal is getting as many of you to *participate,* rather than waiting for others to entertain you.

So, don’t pick what you want to see as a Yuricon contest – pick what you want to participate in!

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That’s a wrap 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.

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

Yuri Anime

The big news of the week is the announcement of the first anime from a Comic Yuri Hime series. Namori-sensei’s 4 girls sitting around goofing off, slice of life series, Yuru Yuri (ゆるゆり), which has been thus far collected in 4 volumes, with a 5th just around the corner, will become an anime. The official website has a cover page at the moment, and links to a Twitter feed following the hashtag #yurururi and staff info – with more details being added as they are released, presumably.

YNN Correspondent George R. wants you all to know that the (entirely mediocre) Sengoku Otome manga has finally become a (probably mediocre) anime, Sengoku Otome ~Momoiro Paradox~ . (Be warned, the website has music.) Fans of Koihime Musou are very likely to enjoy this, as it does to the great heroes of the Warring States period what KM did to the great heroes of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, turns them into buxom women and makes them take baths a lot. And, just to really make the point that this is for the he-men women-haters out there, the English title is…ugh….Battle Girls. Could ya just spit?I know, sengoku otome does mean battle grls, but there are ways of translating that less skankily. Crunchyroll is simulcasting this aberration.

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Yuri Manga

I don’t have a link for it yet, but finally, May will see the blooming of Aoi Hana, Volume 6!

Tsubomi, Volume 11 (つぼみ) will hit the streets mid-month in April.

YNN Correspondent Komatsu-san reports that the worldwide revival of Sailor Moon continues with republication of the manga in Germany by EMA.

YNN Correspondent Megan D. also wants to share news with you – Josh Lesnick, creator of webcomic Girly has announced a special hardcover collection of the series, which includes color poster galleries and all sorts of goodies (including figurines of Winter and Otra kissing…which level do you think I bought? ^_^). He’s taking pre-orders through his Kickstarter page. There are only going to be 500 of these printed and they are running $100 for the collection – what you get for this amount is listed in detail on the site. You get more if you “donate” more. There’s just under a month to go. Good luck to Josh hitting that goal!

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Yuri Drama CD

Zaou Taishi and Eiki Eiki’s Love DNA XX (恋愛遺伝子XX ) series from Comic Yuri Hime is being turned into a Drama CD! The cast has been announced:

Aoi: Taketatsu Ayana (Azusa in K-ON!)
Sakura: Hikasa Youko (Mio in K-ON!)
Mizuki: Satou Satomi (Ritsu in K-ON!)
Matsuri: Kotobuki Minako (Tsumigi in K-ON!)

Hmmm, seems to be a pattern here, if only we could see it…

Seriously, this is a business move of pure genius.  K-ON! fans in Japan are obsessive, the Yuri-service sells well there. By using these actresses, this gives what otherwise might be a relatively obscure Drama CD a very good chance of selling less like “obscure Drama CD” and more like hotcakes. The CD has a June release date.

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Snatches of Yuri

Citrus (シトラス) is a coming of age story about Shiho, whose future as a pianist is thrown into disarray with the arrival of the beautiful Nanami into their quiet town.

Gekibuno (げきぶの) has a predatory lesbian character in it. Based on the title, I’m going to go out on a limb and say – it’s about the Drama Club. And it has a predatory lesbian character in it.

Predatory….what a perfect lead-in to Shudano no Aria AA (緋弾のアリアＡＡ), a side story manga to an upcoming anime, Aria the Scarlet Ammo. This appears to be about a sempai/kouhai – oneesama/imouto team of moe assassins. Exactly the right formula for the Young Gangan magazine audience.

Transistor Tea Set ( トランジスタティーセット ) is still limping along with only hints of plot, character, Yuri and headless robot maid. Volume 4 is going to be available in May.

I don’t know much about this, but it’s on all the Japanese Yuri blogs – Hime no Tamenara Shineru (姫のためなら死ねる) . Based on the title alone, it sounds awfully dramatic.

Moshikashite Haitenai (もしかして:はいてない) may indeed be a Yuri anthology, but the cover skeeves me. If you buy it and want to review it, let me know.

YNN Correspondent Katherine H. wants to make sure you all know that the 6th volume of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun is out now in Japan. “It’s light on the yuri/appearances by Kuroko (as well as Saten and Uiharu)” she reports, “and heavier on the Touma cameos than I would prefer (as he’s rather dull), but still entertaining.”

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Other News

The apparently tireless Nakamura Ching-sensei has a new manga running in Monthly Comic Bunch (月刊コミック@バンチ), called “Avare Senki.” (アヴァール戦記). This is on top of GUNJO, a new comedic series Chin-Come (ちんコメ) running in Monthly Manga Goraku (週刊漫画ゴラク) and taking on editorial duties with Earthstar magazine on a comic titled “Water Cube.” AND she has some work in Quick Japan 94 (“Bananaman.”) None of this is “Yuri” per se, but if you like her art, you might want to take a look at these.

And in case you missed it, I was part of a Anime3000 podcast on Sailor Moon last week, along with Jordan D. White and Deb Aoki.

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That’s a wrap 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.

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