Look, I’m still jet-lagged, so although there is a TON of news, this week’s report will be short. Bear with me while I re-assimilate to this time zone.

Live Action Yuri

The big news in the world of Yuri this week is the announcement of a Live-Action Maria-sama ga Miteru movie, as announced in this Cobalt Salon ad. (PDF) And there is already a movie website, with the lead actresses listed: Miki Honoka as Yumi and Haru as Sachiko. I note that the leads appear to be teen idols who modeled for young men’s magazines. There are an endless supply of women who become idols and end up doing that kind of modeling – the actresses from the Live-Action Sailor Moon were found through the same route. It pretty much guarantees interest from a male audience for what is otherwise just another chick movie.

And thanks to ANN for ferreting out that Kakera: A Piece of Our Life, the movie based on Erica Sakurazawa’s Love Vibes, will be showing at Raindance and is going to have a UK theatrical release, followed by a DVD release. (Trailer here.)

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Yuri Manga

YNN Correspondent Darkchibi07 notes that Ichijinsha’s Yuri Hime Website has a nice new feature. If you click a volume on the scrolling banner, it leads you to a page on the Ichinjinsha store – if there is a GREEN link on that page, click that and you will be able to read that volume for free with their online e-reader. No, there are no translations – this is after all a Japanese manga, on a Japanese site, for a primarily Japanese market. (I will refrain from once again explaining why fansubs are not really connected to sales and I’ll ask that you please refrain from insisting that if the publisher put time and money into translating an e-edition into English it would somehow translate to better sales. Thanks.)

Takemiya Jin’s collection Girlish Sweet is available for pre-order. I love his work – although I don’t think he’s ever going to surpass his amoral/evil Noriko fan works with any of his original stuff. I keep hoping though!

Three new Ichijinsha comics about which I know nothing are slated for release this month: Kimi Koi Limit, YuriPop and Honey Inferno. I suppose I should actually read the ads in Yuri Hime one day…. Also I note that Raubritter, another Ichijinsha publication was came out while I was in Japan, but although I saw it, I just blanked. For some reason, I remember the cover putting me off.

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Other News

Manga Curmudgeon David Welsh came up with JiriRabu, a comic about gay married-in-all-but-name life by a gay guy in Japan. I thought it interesting enough to share. ;-)

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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!

Sailor Moon, Yes/No?

ICV2 talks about how fans of Sailor Moon would reallyreallyreally love a renaissance of the series. I include myself among the hordes of the hopeful. 20th anniversary? 25th anniversary? We never did get the Outers in a live-action version, hint hint.

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Yuri Manga

Shimura Takako’s story of a transgender girl and transgender boy who meet and become friends, Houro Musuko is listed on Amazon as Wandering Son: Volume One – it’s slated for a December release from Fantagraphics. (And as YNN Correspondent NguyenSon points out in the comments, this series is also scheduled to be turned into an anime.)

If you’re paying any attention to the mangasphere, you’ll know that this week, Fantagraphics announced a line of Moto Hagio classic shoujo manga works, “translated and curated” by Matt Thorn. This is pretty much excellent news for manga fans. Deb Aoki has an interview with Gary Groth of Fantagraphics, who was unaware how risky publishing a classic shoujo manga is. It will be interesting to know if his opinion changes after he’s put the books out. :-)

Chris Mautner gives a nod to Rica ‘tte Kanji!? in his Six Gay Comics that are better than anything on Ranker’s list. Thank you, Chris!

YNN Correspondent Darkchibi07 notes that yet another new Yuri Anthology is poised to hit the shelves in April, Hirari.

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Yuri Anime

RightStuf/Nozomi announces the Ninja Nonsense DVD Collection for June 1, 2010. They are offering the complete series, plus video extras and booklet, in a Thinpak-style art box.

ANN is streaming the first 4 episodes of Burst Angel on their website.

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Yuri Light Novel

YNN Correspondent Katherine H. wants you to know that the second CANAAN light novel is out.

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Yuri Drama CD

Katherine is also glad to let you know that there is a Sasamekikoto Radio Cast CD available.

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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 Manga

Erin S. cheerfully announces that Comic Lily, Volume 3　is available for purchase. She’s probably cheerful about it, because she hasn’t read Volume 2 yet. :-)

Aoi Hana, Volume 5 has hit the shelves. More Fumi, more A-chan!

A manga continuation of the story from the CANAAN anime, CANAAN Sufiru, has debuted on cell-phone only in Japan. I imagine that that will cut down on scans for a little while, at least.

Next month, Takemiya Jin will have a collection, Girlish Sweet: Watashi no Kanojo – something to very much look forward to! Now all we need is a UKOZ collection and my top 3 doujinshi circles will have taken that so-huge step to legitimacy.

Gokujouu, that utterly awful book about idiots girls who are very silly, has managed a second volume. Oh, yay.

The fourth volume of Morinaga Milk’s Girl Friends is due out in April.

And the sixth volume of Sasamekikoto is coming out on March 23!

Ending on what should be a very strong (and certainly a more unique) note, Rakuen Le Paradis 2 is now available. Instead of supporting Comic Lily‘s mediocrity – throw your money at this fabulously eclectic anthology!

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Snatches of Yuri

Paradise Lost is a light-novelish manga about two women who met some time ago, and suddenly come back into each other’s life.

The newest Mai-HiME manga series, EXA is pinging all the Japanese Yuri reviewers. Since my opinion and theirs are frequently light years apart, take that information with a grain of salt. :-)

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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!

Stuck in the February doldrums? Let the light of Yuri bring you joy!

Yuri Anime

Right Stuf/Nozomi announces ARIA The ORIGINATION DVD Collection has a new street date of March 16.

In the footsteps of Lesbian sites like Afterellen, SheWired, OneMoreLesbian and CherryGrrl that have opened up their doors to Yuri anime, Brazilian Lesbian website Parada Lesbica has reviewed Kannazuki no Miko. Ton Ton, from the Yuricon Mailing List did us the favor of translating into English. English is not Ton Ton’s first language, but I’m sure you can understand this without too much difficulty. Disclaimer: This review has *nothing* to do with Okazu, so if you’d like to respond to it, please visit Parada Lesbica and tell them. Thanks!:

Today I bring to you the animated version of Kannazuki no Miko. Created by the Kaishaku group in 2004, the series started with a manga, very short, with only fourteen chapters published during eight months in a Japanese magazine.

In the same year, the Geneon released the series in anime version. Although this anime is not an so old anime, he won many fans, and today is a reference when it comes to yuri.

Recently, Kannazuki won a spin-off manga, which is already being translated and released by the group Moonlight Flowers in Brazil.

The story begins with a collegial atmosphere, very typical of the yuri series. One of the main characters, Chikane, is the perfect model of girl. Good student, pretty, stylish and admired by everyone. Chikane is always misterious and she is the desire of girls and boys from her school.
The other protagonist is Himeko, a girl who is extremely sweet, confused and muddled. Of course, Himeko is one of the Chikane fans in school.

Another important character is a boy named Souma Oogami, according to the students of the college where they study, this boy is the only one who has enough quality to be Chikane boyfriend, but as always, there are someone who suffer and he is in love with Himeko.
During the first episode, the two girls become friends, take tea in a hide place.

But all this pure, happy and high school mode ends soon. The city is taken by a curse, and chaos is installed. Chikane and Himeko discover that they are Mikos (a kind of priestess), and must fight together against the Orochi.

There’s a little drama here, because Souma, that loves Himeko, is an Orochi. Obviously he refuses to be a being of evil and fight your loved one. But he can not always dominate his nature, after all, he is cursed.

The narrative begins to develop from here. I find this anime very interesting because it mixes romance with mecha battles, and spells. It is an exciting anime, there are no points where the story stagnates, and the end is really incredible, in my opinion.

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Yuri Manga

YNN Correspondent Bruce P. offers up glowing piece of praise for an upcoming addition to the Yuri Hime lineup: “the prolific and long established mangaka Ishida Atsuko
will have her first Yuri story published in the next Yuri Hime S. She has been drawing shoujo manga (among other genres) for many years; she also did the character design and animation direction for several older anime series, including Magic Knight Rayearth and Shamanic Princess. In her work she concentrates heavily on her female characters and obviously very much enjoys drawing them, in a lush, freehand kind of style. Both Rayearth 2 and Shamanic Princess had slight touches of Yuri, and she drew some cross-dressing fake Yuri in Jun-sui! Date Club back in 2004, and so I’ve been half expecting her to eventually try her hand at the real thing. It’s been a long wait. Unfortunately it appears from the advertising blurb that her contribution will be a fluffy akogare schoolgirl story (in Yuri Hime S? Imagine).

The first volume of GUNJO has hit the street this weekend! For those of you who would like to try your hand at reading the story in Japanese, YNN Correspondent and my respected colleague in the world of Yuri, Erin S, points out that some of the chapters that were published in Morning 2 magazine (1, 3, 11-13) are currently online on the IKKI magazine website. The current issue of IKKI is running chapter 14. I have not myself read Chapters 1 and 2 and I’m holding off until I get the whole collection next week.

Through the generosity of Okazu Superhero Ted V., we will have a copy of the first volume to give away. I will announce the giveaway rules officially next week. Thanks Ted!

I’m pretty excited about seeing GUNJO in print – I hope you are, too.

Rakuen Le Paradis, the first volume of which I have reviewed, now has a second volume on sale. (Thanks Erin and Sean for the reminder!)

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Other Yuri News

Also from Erin, is a news item about a movie called Kakera: A Piece of Our Life, which is based on the Yuri manga, Love Vibes by Sakurazawa Erica. There is a trailer on the website, which makes it look interesting – definitely different than the source material, but interesting nonetheless.

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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!

Welcome to your weekly edition of the Yuri Network news. I’m Erica, anchor for today’s broadcast.

Yuri Anime

YNN correspondent bystrouska, shares that “Japan Expo Sud, Japan Expo’s Southern baby sister con, which will is being held in Marseille on this weekend, will have advanced showings of… Aoi Hana. Which is awesome,” bystrouska says, “as it means that Aoi Hana DVDs will be coming our way in a not-so-distant future.”

Right Stuf/Nozomi is relaunching their Aria site, with news on about the third season and of the anime, Aria the Origination and the OVA, with the addition of new content – including new “virtual postcards from Neo-Venezia” and a trailer, plus wallpapers and avatars.

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Yuri Manga

Okazu Superhero and YNN corespondent Eric P. has spotted the news that Saito Chiho, best known among Yuri fans as the artist of the Shoujo Kakumei Utena manga, will be attending Animazement in North Carolina.

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Yuri Drama CD

Ever vigilant as always, YNN correspondent Katherine H. reports that a second original To Aru no Kagaku no Railgun Drama CD is up for Pre-order.

I just finished listening to the Sasamekikoto: Longest Day of Sumika Drama CD and the song is still stuck in my head. Not the opening or closing song – the birthday party song. It was…special. Review forthcoming.

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Other News

Totally unrelated to Yuri, I have recently done two Guest Reviews for those worthies of manga blogging, Deb Aoki of Manga.About.com and David Welsh of Manga Curmudgeon. For those of you who read Okazu for my reviews, (as opposed to those of you who read for Yuri only) I invite you to read my reviews of Stan Lee’s Ultimo, and Kurouda Iou’s Sexy Voice and Robo which I reviewed as part of the Manga Movable Feast – and I hope you’ll read the other reviews that were part of the MMF. The Feast was an idea born on Twitter, that legendary place where many manga bloggers gather to discuss things and basically squeal over the good and squall over the bad. :-) I enjoyed both these titles, for what it’s worth.

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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!