I’m absolutely beside myself with joy. There’s only three anime I want to see licensed right now and this was number one on the list. (Blue Drop and Mnemosyne are two and three. I know you’re gonna ask.)
Fans of Bee Train’s girls-with-guns-on-the-run trilogy, completion is around the corner at last, with Funimation’s licensing of El Cazador de la Bruja!
Finally, we’ll get to see Ellis loving Nadie best when her eyes are shining.
Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s been a decent week for Yuri, we have lots of stuff to be all love-love about, so away we go!
Yuri Manga
Erin is pleased to tell you all that Aoi Hana (Sweet Blue Flowers) Volume 4 will be out in April! (I know you are all loving the scanlations, but allow me to remind you that scans don’t pay bills, so if you *can* please buy the actual manga, so the artist that draws it and the company that publishes it make actual money on it.)
And for your shopping convenience, the Yuricon Shop now has entries for the upcoming Volume 2 of Octave, Yuri Hime Wildrose Volume 3 and Manga no Tskurikata (a story about girl who wants to become a manga artist and, since yuri is so popular now decides to draw that.)
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Yuri Anime
The big news for the week was that Right Stuf has announced the license for Maria Watches Over Us Season 4. I wonder what gewgaw we’ll get with the 4th season? :-) And by the way – Yay! The trailer for the fourth season can be seen here. Not so crucial to them as are actually watching the season, but fun, nonetheless.
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Other Yuri News
y_y-san reports by Twitter that the Girls Love Festival doujinshi event this month was a success and that there are plans for a second GLF event to be held in Japan in September. That makes three such Yuri-specific events that have been held in Japan more than once. Hopefully one day I will be able to actually make one.
Grisznak just wants everyone to enjoy this Yuri-themed AMV that melds the timeless, classic sound of Elvis and the timeless, classic romance of Yumi and Sachiko. :-)
And Sylwia wants all Polish Yuri fans to know that the Comix Grrrlz website is relaunching with a shiny new look, and they plan on adding more Yuri info and materials, and more articles about lesbians in comics. Very cool, I think. I’m always impressed by the Polish Yuri fandom. :-)
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Other News
Follow this blog on your Kindle! If you want to get your Yuri news and reviews hot off the press on your shiny new Kindle Reader, take a look at Kindlefeeder, a nifty way to get your favorite RSS feeds delivered directly to your Kindle.
The Media Blasters store in Secaucus, NJ is officially open! Serge and I stopped by on a lark today and found the store fully functional, full of friends and we weren’t the first customers! Drop by – here’s the map of the location – they are listed as #5 “Rareflix.” And here are directions to the Harmon Cove Outlets. (We talked again about a Yuri Monogatari 6 launch party in April – looks like we’ll be doing that, so keep an eye out for details!)
Also for our NY/NJ/CT area folks, a friend of Rica Takashima’s, Yasushi Tamaki, is offering Japanese language classes in New York City this spring using one of the hottest, most brilliant Japanese manga around. If you’re in the area, give it a try! Here’s the info:
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NEW YORK JAPANESE LANGUAGE SCHOOL
www.ny-japanese.com | [email protected]
Learn Japanese with MANGA!
The New York Japanese language school is offering a SPECIAL CLASS! Learn Japanese and Japanese culture with the newest manga, “Saint Young Men.”
Beginners are welcome!
Please apply by email at [email protected]
Date:Special Course1 (Wednesdays):February 18th, 25th, March 4th &11th
7-8pm (total 4hours)
Special Course2 (Saturdays)February 21st, 1-3pm &February 28th
2-4pm(total 4hours)
Location:CAP2118 W.18th St, 6f l. NYC 10011
Free trial Lesson!
Text Book:Saint Young Men (聖★おにいさん)In this popular comic Christ and Buddha enjoy a comical holiday in Tokyo in the 21st century. This is a hugely comic in Japan which feature the funny adventure of these two friends as they experience Japanese culture on their zany vacation.
Tuition:One Lesson $20/a hour (Including material)
Other Services:The Survival Japanese Class for Beginners
New class starts in March!
Private Lesson in Manhattan
Learn Japanese one-on-one at a coffee shop in Manhattan!
Any questions? Send us email!
NEW YORK JAPANESE LANGUAGE SCHOOL at CAP21(18 W.18th St, 6fl. NYC 10011)
[email protected]
Another quiet week in the news, and I’m at NYCC today, so I’m keeping this short.
Yuri Manga
Erin wants you to be ready for the spring releases of Yuri Hime comics collections. April 18th will see the release of Fujieda Miyabi’s Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan (Chatting At The Amber Teahouse) which will also be available in a special edition with Drama CD. Sweet Peach! will make its debut and there are second volumes of both Hanjuku Joshi and Gokujou Drops in your future, as well.
As you know, I can’t stop talking about Gunjou. This time I told the folks at Afterellen.com. The response was a staggering silence. Post a comment and push the thread back up into the sight of people who need to know!
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Yuri Anime
Johann is excited that Animax-Asia reruns Maria-sama ga Miteru this Sunday. Back to back episodes, 11pm (GMT+8).
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Other News
GLAAD has announced finalists for their annual Media Awards, which includes a “Best Graphic Novel” category – apparently this year you needed to be working for DC or Marvel to nominated. Tell them about Yuri.
Speaking of nomination, nominees for best lesbian blog of the year, the Lezzie award, is open to the public. Naturally, I hope you’ll nominate Okazu along with your other favorite lesbian blogs. :-)
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I want to take a moment to thank all my new Okazu Heros and Superheros – your generosity is simply staggering. It’s going to take me ages to get through all this, so if I don’t review your sponsored item right away, it’s not because it didn’t arrive! It’s just that I only have so much time in the day. :-)
I’ll report back Sunday on NYCC (no Twitter from my phone, no lol) – see you then!
Pretty quiet week. Watch me make soup from stones. lol
Yuri Anime
Bruce McF. believes that Kaleido Star being shown on Crunchyroll is an objectively Good Thing. And to the guy who keeps writing in to say that KS isn’t Yuri – that’s the good part of subjectivity. You can see a non-Yuri anime, and those of use who see it as a love-hate Yuri relationship can see that. :-)
Not as much of an aside as it seems
I’ve been talking alot about this on my Twitter Feed: Japanese Anime companies are clearly starting to hit a wall in regards to using western companies as middlemen. Last week, TV Tokyo’s Iwata talked about how, in order to survive in a glutted, shrinking market and to combat fansubbers, Japanese anime companies are taking control back of series. The key to this seems to be simultaneous multiple digital distribution methods. (日本語で) I’m not surprised – and I strongly suggest that manga companies should start thinking about ways that they too could be cut out of the loop. Manga is already distributed by cellphone in Japan, and several OEL series can be found on iPhone apps. How big does the writing on the wall have to be before Nebuchadnezzar notices? Guess we’ll see.
Which leads back me to….
Yuri Anime
An announcement in March’s Dengeki Daioh magazine states that Queen’s Blade anime, slated for April will be simultaneously released on YouTube, TV and the company’s official cellphone site.
IMHO, the writing on the wall is REALLY big.
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Yuri Manga
I mentioned this before but it’s worth repeating. The January issue of Morning 2 magazine is graced by a Gunjou cover. Before I give you the link, go *read my reviews*. Because a bunch of you seemed to have completely missed the point of the series. It’s not what you think it’s going to be. And your initial reaction is likely to be “Aaah!”. Take a deep breath. Look at it. Really look at it. I’m not the only one who thinks it’s genius. You can find the picture here.
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Snatches of Yuri
I should probably have mentioned this series earlier, but it just kept slipping my mind, can’t imagine why. Strike Witches features moe, pantless, military uniform-wearing girls. And lots of Yuri potential, I’m assured by an awful lot of guys. So far I haven’t met any women at all who watch it. It’s a good candidate for a guest review, so if you’d like to tell the world why you like military uniform-wearing pantsless moegirls, drop me a line. :-)
O-Astuku COOL ni Oshiete A-ge-ru is an anthology with various levels of Yuri, and all of it is Yuricest.
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And there you have it, another exciting week o’Yuri. Or not, but there you have it.
-_-;
Yuri Manga
Katherine wants you to know that Chapter 22 of Franken Fran has some old school horror Yuri for those of you who like that kind of thing. It was, IMHO very Black Jack meets Nightmare Before Christmas. Or maybe Ray. Interesting and worth a look, anyway.
Don’t forget to order your copy of Yuri Hime Wildrose 3, the newest anthology of softcore Yuri from Ichijinsha. It’s all nice and fine to read scans but remember, those don’t pay the bills. If you love Yuri, buy Yuri.
I’ve been asked by a number of people what the heck happened to some of the most recently released Yuri manga – Strawberry Shake Sweet 2, Hayate x Blade 9, Otome Kikan Greteland some others popped up on Amazon JP and just as quickly disappeared. It looks as if it was merely a case of popularity. All of them were relisted with a waiting period of 4-5 weeks, so clearly there were either distribution issues or they just plain sold out. I’m thinking it was the latter, personally.
Which leads me to today’s….
Snatches of Yuri
One of the other series to come and go quickly on Amazon JP is the Yuri-ful Gokujou. I haven’t the vaguest clue what it actually is about, except that it is ero and about the student council at a girls school – something that has never been done before. lol I’ll let you know more about it after I read it. It’s not back up for sale yet, but I expect to see it back soon – I’ll add a link then.
Panna Kiss is a moe Yuri manga about Nanako, who works at a bread shop and is at least marginally in love with her coworker. It looks to be all the same old-same old rehashed with plenty of maid outfit/bathing suit service, so if the most typical service-y tropes are your faves, this looks to be perfect.
Manatsu Labyrinth is about love among three girls in a girls school. Totally new territory, I know. ;-)
And lastly for today, we have Dorobo no Meijin, a Light Novel which appears to be written as a retrospective of a Yuri love in her youth by a woman who is now an adult.
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Yuri Anime
This anime season and the next look pretty thin on Yuri. We’ve got Marimite for a little while longer, at least.
And this week, the first episode of Ichigo Mashimaro Encore went live.
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We’ll wrap it up here for today, because I really need to go eat something.
See you next week for more Yuri News!
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