Archive for the Yuri Network News Category


Yuri Network News – July 18, 2009

July 18th, 2009

Welcome to the relaunch of the News Report as Yuri Network News. YNN correspondents have reported in from around the world! I just whacked together this logo, so I’m officially announcing a YNN logo contest. Send in your YNN logo to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com and I’ll come up with something fun as a prize, along with sincere gratitude and the approbation of your peers.

Yuri Anime

darkchibi wants you all to know that the first episodes of El Cazador de la bruja are available for viewing on the Funimation Channel. We’re not sure if this is a reguarly placed series or a DVD teaser, but as soon as I know, I’ll let you know.

This hasn’t gotten too much mention anywhere, but Needless will have some Yuri. It’s not really a good series, unless you like magic fightin’ school-lolis. If that’s your schtick then you’ll *love* it. For anyone else, I want to warn you, I’ve been reading the manga in Ultra Jump magazine and while it has some good elements, I often feel like my brain needs a sandpaper shower afterwards. (As I expressed to the wife, it’s not that I *have* a soul anymore, its just that sometimes the hole where it used to be aches. lol)

I know no one but me cares, but Air Master is now on Crunchyroll. Let me be plain, this is mostly important because CR’s streaming sucks less than Funimation’s. I can’t stand streaming video myself. I hate sitting still that long and when I’m halfway along and lose the stream I want to KILL someone. Funi’s stream was loading extra super-duper slow for the wife and I and we got tired of waiting.

Which brings me to today’s random observation. What we need is a POD (Print on Demand) system for DVDs. Let’s say I watch Aoi Hana and would like to buy it. I might, eventually, be able to download it and burn it to my own DVDs. Or, the licensor could come up with a system by which I could download it for a fee (say $2/episode) *or* for extra $ download it to a system that will burn it to a DVD with a cute, branded design on the disk, and stick it in a jewel case with a cover. I would totally spend the extra $, but if you didn’t want to, you wouldn’t have to.

As I said, I don’t much care for streaming anything. I want to pause and walk away, Fast Forward!!!! and other things that streaming isn’t happy with. I would be very glad to pay per episode a fee to allow me to get a disk of Ep. 1-4 so I can watch it again not on my computer. POD is just getting running, really ,for print and e-books. What do you think about a POD for DVDs?

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Yuri Manga

French correspondent Karin would like you and “especially our French readers to know that the French publisher Asuka is releasing the manga Aoi Hana. They’re releasing it under the name of Fleurs Bleues (Blue Flowers) and it seems that the first volume has already appeared on June 11. Futhermore, Asuka will be releasing Oniisama E under the name of Très Cher Frère (Very dear brother) in September. As far as I see it, they will publish all three volumes in one volume. Sounds like very good news for French and French knowing Yuri fans, doesn’t it?”

Yes, Karin, it does! France has always been josei-friendly in a way that the US has never really managed. I am very saddened that I don’t read French, because I would love to see these. Thank you so much for the exciting news. Ryoko Ikeda loves your country best. :-D

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Snatches of Yuri

Katherine is excited about a new manga, Shitsurakuen. She describes is a kind of Utena clone, with girl Prince, who saves girl princesses, and Yuri.

About a million people have written in to suggest we all watch Taisho Yakyuu Musume, a story set at the end of the Taisho period, about 9 girls who will struggle against social and gender perceptions to create a baseball team. Any “Yuri” is probably going to be akogare and not much more, but it’s a cute sports story and refreshingly service-free.

Also, I have has a number of folks mention new season anime Umi Monogatari as having Yuri. I can only asume they think the opening credits mean something. I’m not that innocent. There is no “truth in advertising” in manga covers or anime Openings. Word of warning, some folks are calling this series a mahou shoujo series. It is not. It is a magical girl for guys series, like Nanoha, not an actual shoujo series. The amount of time we spend looking at their asses really ought to be an indicator, folks. It feels to me much like Kaleido Star, sort of for girls, but not really, so when I checked out the opening credits, it was no surprise to see Sato Junichi’s name there.

Lastly, another series that a number of folks suggested to me a while back that it just took me *forever* to make myself watch that you ought to know about is Live-Action series Mendol Ikemen. This low comedy about three girls that will do *anything* to become idols, even become boys, is not hardly high art. BUT, it’s got Yuri. I’ll probably do a review in detail on it later, but in short – the one girl who reads the most likely to ever even remotely be gay does in fact get the girl, among other suprisingly open-minded things. Otherwise, it’s a silly, slapstick comedy.

And for the crowd that thinks that moe is all about the adorable innocence, and wouldn’t it be even better if there was some nudity, we have Hana no Palette.

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Other Yuri News

Right Stuf/Nozomi announces “The Art of ARIA Lithographs” series. They have created a Fan vote to determine which print will be produced first; Poll now open at aria.rightstuf.com. Get started on this process by which Right Stuf takes all our money today! ;-)

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It’s been a crazy week, so I’ll wrap it up here. Thanks again to everyone who comprises our “Yuri Network!” Please feel free to be part of our Yuri Network and email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with any Yuri News you’d like to share!





Yuri News This Week – July 11, 2009

July 11th, 2009

I was in NYC last night at “Passion Fruits,” the Lesbian art show that is running as part of the Fresh Fuits Festival this month. Rica Takashima has some pieces in the show. It was a really, honestly an amazing opening, and tomorrow I’ll be posting some pictures I took of people with her art.

In the meantime, here’s this week’s Yuri news!

Yuri Anime

It’s an anime kinda week this week!

First of all, as I announced yesterday, Afterellen.com will be streaming the Aoi Hana anime series, which is really amazing – and will get Yuri in front of a lot of people who never heard of it, but need to see it! There’s a lot of positive response for the first episode, so hopefully it’ll be a successful venture for all.

Anime Network has announced that Revolutionary Girl Utena will be shown on their online channel. Since ADV rescued some of the CPM properties, this make loads of sense – and it’s nice to know that this classic anime won’t disappear entirely from the world.

Katherine is pleased to shout out that the voice actresses for Sasamekikoto have been announced. Like Aoi Hana they seem to be favoring new voices.

Crunchyroll is really hotting up the Yuri pot with new anime Kanamemo, a series based on a Mangatime Kirara 4-panel comic. There are two characters that are said to be a “Yuri couple.” I will withhold a final decision until I actually see it. ;-)

And another new anime of interest, Canaan has just started in Japan – it has a Yuri-ish air about it, and is about two women with guns. Noir fans take note!

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Snatches of Yuri

Nekomimi Days is getting tons of press on the Japanese blogs. It is about moe school girls with cat ears, so it will appeal to people who are completely unlike me. I should warn you that it is from Gum Comics, which means it isn’t as innocent as you want to pretend it is.

Yuyu Shiki is exactly what it looks like – another “cho-kawai” 4-koma from Mangatime Kirara. The connecting theme this time is that all three have name that begin with “Yu.”

And Arisu no O-chakai takes featureless moe faces one step further into “circles with eyes” territory. It tells the story of 3 girls who are members of the “Chado” club – the tea ceremony club.

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And there you have it, guns, 4-koma, moe, schoolgirls and sword duels. Sounds like Yuri to me. :-)





Yuri News: Aoi Hana on Afterellen.com

July 10th, 2009

The largest online lesbian media source, Afterellen.com will be premiering this summer’s Yuri anime hit, Aoi Hana: Sweet Blue Flowers via Crunchyroll.

Afterellen covers lesbian media and entertainment of all forms, and they stream a number of live-action drama and news series on their site. This is their first anime stream.

Both the anime stream and an article I wrote about the series goes live tonight at 11PM EST. Check it out and don’t forget to rant about how much you love my articles in the comments! :-)





Yuri News this Week – July 4, 2009

July 4th, 2009

What a week for Yuri fans!

Yuri Anime

The top story this week is, of course, that the Aoi Hana anime is not only available on, but is “simulcasting” an hour after its Japan TV debut on, Crunchyroll.com. If your country is not blocked, you can watch it for free, but a small subscription fee will get you a better stream, higher definition and more options. The anime has received critical acclaim so far, from both fans and reviewers. Smart folks on the Yuricon Mailing List like Katherine, have identified preorders available for the DVDs on Amazon JP and like Sal, noticed that it looks to be running 11 episodes. Here’s hoping it does well enough to garner a second season.

I was chatting with @Funimation on Twitter and they let me know that the projected release date for El Cazador is autumn 2009 and Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne is sometime in spring 2010.

Speaking of 2010, Right Stuf/Nozomi (@AnimeToday on Twitter) has announced that the 4th season of Maria Watches Over Us is slated for a 2010 release. They also announced the licenses for Aria the Origination and the Arietta OVA to be released together in one set. Also Right Stuf is planning a line of Aria lithographs, which Gia Manry of Anime Vice explained as coming out one at a time until there’s no money left in our pockets. :-)

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Yuri Manga

Erin S mentions on her LJ that Fujieda Miyabi has nothing in this month’s issue of Yuri Hime, but that he’ll be back in October’s issue. To me, this says that we’ll finally get that Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan tankoubon. It’s pretty common for the mangaka to take a break the month of the collection release. I’m sure we all hope so! (This just in – Ichijinsha Mail Magazine has a release date for Ame-iro of July 25th, so there ya go.)

Bruce P wrote me to tell me about the summer Yuri-themed issue of a magazine called Kikan S (Esu). He says, “There are articles (principally author interviews and artwork examples) on a selection of Yuri manga: Aoi Hana, Sasame Kikoto, Manga no Tsukurikata, and Otome Keki. There is also an article about Anise magazine, in one sidebar of which I was pleased to see them show the cover and give publishing info on Rica’tte Kanji. Another sidebar describes the evolution of the word Yuri. The original illustrations in this issue are also mostly Yuri, though some of them are, in the unfortunate tradition of Kikan S, pretty skeevy. Artistic, but skeevy.”

Lastly, if you’ve been wondering where Gunjou went, since it hasn’t run in Morning 2 magazine in a while, I can assure that it is live and well! I haven’t reviewed it, because honestly, the climax chapter was so raw and beautiful that I haven’t been able to deal with it in words. I know that sounds melodramatic, but it’s totally true. It was 72 pages of some of the best manga I’ve ever read and when I was done, I was wiped. Then the series took a few months off, I assumed it was because of the Morning International Comic Contest. It turns out I was wrong about that, but Gunjou returned to the magazine for issue 23 – which is the important bit. If you do like Gunjou, I hope you’ll write Morning 2 and let them know. It’s important to communicate these things to the editors and publishers.

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Yuri Drama CD

And really quickly, links are now up for the 4th Special Maria-sama ga Miteru CD and the newest Drama CD (and the first in a long time) Tears of the Rosary!

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I was going to get caught up on “Snatches” this week, but with so much real news, I think I’ll leave it at that. It’s a really wallow-worthy week, don’t you think?

As always, if you’d like to share news with the world, please feel free to email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail. dot com and share!

 





Yuri News: Aoi Hana Anime on Crunchyroll

July 1st, 2009

Fans of Aoi Hana will be able to watch the new anime within an hour of it showing on Japanese TV on Cruchyroll!

Check out the CR Aoi Hana listing for information. It will be made available at 3PM EDT for American viewers.

Update: This simulcast is subbed, and appears to be available to UK, Mexico and Canada viewers as well. If you can confirm any other countries, please let us know!.