Archive for the Yuri Network News Category


This Week in Yuri – July 19, 2008

July 19th, 2008

This week, we once again start off with a retraction of a news item from last week. :-)

Yuri Anime

ADV says that Best Student Council DVDs are *not* on the discontinued list – and in fact, fans should keep their eye out for a thinpack, coming soon. Thanks for this news item goes out to Eric P., who is always vigilantly scanning the wide world of news for us. :-)

Right Stuf announced that the trailer for Aria is up on their Aria website.

Coming any day now are the first episode of the Shoujo Sect anime and the second episode of Mai HiME 0 ~ S.ifr, finally.

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Snatches of Yuri

The new Koihime Musou anime is full of service-y Yuri goodness. I’m told that it reads like a parody to people with a brain cell, so I have no doubt that when I finally get to watch it and say, “gee, it’s a parody” I’ll be called all *sorts* of names. ^_^

And over on the manga side of the equation, if Candy Boy is relevant to your interests, you’ll probably want to keep an eye out for L16 the touching story of two sisters – not twins this time – who love each other very, very, *very* much.

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Yuri Manga

Well, all the Yuri Hime books that were slated to hit the shelves yesterday have, and I’m already being asked about YH Wildrose 2 which I will review when I actually *get* it. ^_^

And speaking of reviews – while my Japanese is nowhere it needs to be for me to mirror Okazu in Japan, I have begun to do short mini-reviews on my mixi page. If you are Japanese, or know someone in Japan who would like to read these reviews, here is my mixi profile. I’m glad to give referrals to anyone, but unless you have a Japanese cell email address, they won’t allow you in now (ostensibly to “protect” mixi members, but it’s a measure that seems awfully xenophobic to many.) In any case, if you know someone in Japan looking for short one or two-line reviews on Yuri manga and novels, pass it along.

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Other Yuri News

In totally other news, Rica Takashima sent me this link to Sparkling Rain: And Other Fiction from Japan of Women Who Love Women. To quote from the advertising copy: “This collection features an historical perspective on lesbian literature and activism in Japan as well as erotic poetry, a movie screenplay, science fiction with a queer twist, classic love stories, humor and more.” I will definitely be getting it and let you know how it is. :-)

Just in case you missed this – we’re did an Okazu Reader’s Survey. It was ten short questions, very painless. So far only two result sets have differed from my expectations. The poll is now closed – I’ll report results whenever I have a chance. :-) Thanks to everyone who took it!

Oh – and not Yuri, but dammit, I don’t care. Seirei no Moribito will be on Cartoon Network, Media Blasters will be releasing the anime, and the novels are being published by Scholastic. (Yay!) I think Balsa is the absolute bomb – practically the definition of gar. So if you haven’t seen what was the *actual* Best Anime of 2007, do. This was an amazing anime. Everything about it – story, acting, characters, art, music, everything, was stellar. I can’t wait to buy it – and if MB screws up the subtitles with typos, I’ll personally see to it that they have permanent scars to remind them why to not do that.

Thanks to Anonymous for reminding me that today is International Femmeslash Day!. In honor of which I offer up to your reading pleasure any of the stories on my fiction and fanfic site, “Worldshaking” Fanfic. I actually have a brand new story to go up there shortly, but it won’t get posted for another day or so. :-)

And once again, I thank Komatsu-san for his insightful comments and thoughts regarding Shoujoai ni Bouken on his blog, Ultimo Spalpeen. (In Japanese.) His kind words make me very happy and his insights were very valuable to me. Thank you Komatsu-san! ^_^

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That seems to be it. I feel like there’s something I’m forgetting. Oh well. There’s always next week. :-) Thanks to everyone for reading – and special thanks to those of you who send me news items – you can email news of interest to anilesbocon at hotmail dot com – just type “Yuri News’ in the subject line. Thanks!





Yuri News This Week – July 11, 2008

July 12th, 2008

While there’s no huge news this week, there’s a *lot* of Yuri-related news this week, so here we go!

Yuri Manga

So, Seven Seas says that their Yuri line is fine, but many fans are frustrated and angry about their inability to *find* them. Even I have run into this. I’ve got some insight into the issue, but it is a very complex situation, so I’m going to write more about the publishing/distribution/buying cycle and its accompanying array of dizzying difficulties tomorrow. In the meantime, I’d like to hear from Seven Seas what they suggest for fans trying to find a copy of some of their earlier Strawberry titles?

Yuri Hime Volume 13 goes on sale next Saturday, as does YH Comics collections, Yuri Hime Wildrose 2, Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen 1 (yay!) and Creo the Crimson Crisis 1, which I will be skipping. Preorders are up on Amazon JP.

Suzunari in English, will also be out shortly. It’s got some Yuri – I’ll be reviewing it here soon.

There’s a new manga coming out in English called Kasumi that has no Yuri whatsoever, but I thought was an interesting analogy for being a lesbian. Kasumi can become invisible when she holds her breath but, when she goes to a new school, she finds her true identity at risk. Made me think how much like being gay that sounded, so while not Yuri or lesbian, it still sounds very queer.

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Yuri Anime

Sean informs me that on the 2nd Lucky Star DVD, “the liner notes not only mentioned the MariMite (reference), but also a quick Glass Mask ref and the fact that Konata has Strawberry Panic on in the background at one point.” He adds that, despite that, Konata is *still* not gay.

From the world of my past, the husband-and wife team of designers that worked on the the Sailor Moon anime will be making an appearance at Otakon this year.

ADV has announced that the Best Student Council, aka Gokujou Seitokai anime is being discontinued. Get your copies quick! There will probably be some copies left on Amazon, so go through the Yuricon Shop and support the cause.

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Events

Speaking of Otakon, Yuricon and ALC *will* be there in the Dealer’s Room, and we’ll be running a Yuri Panel, as always. When and where to be announced. Like all other Yuricon and Yuri-related events, you can find details for where and when Otakon is on the Yuri Events age on the Yuricon site.

And also for your calendar, add in October 31-November 2 for the return of MangaNEXT in New Jersey. Yuricon/ALC will be there, and we’re looking for Yuri artists to join us for a Yuri block in the artists alley – details to follow.

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Other Yuri News

Yuri fan Chris points us to these two videos on YouTube that appear to be a discussion of shojo [sic] ai. I did not watch them, as I am less enamored of YT than mostly everyone in the known universe, but please do feel free to enjoy and comment on them! Part 1 and Part 2. (I have been told that he seems to have made these videos for me to comment on…sorry, I’m really not going to watch them. Feel free to email me with a short coherent email on your views if you want my opinion. I really don’t watch YouTube, I’m not very visually inclined. I prefer text.)

soulassasin has done us the favor of running his (my) Strawberry Panic Fighter jets through a flight simulator. The resulting pictures are fabulous. Check out the Astrea jets and the new “Miator Airways” in flight on his LJ. Awesome work, soulassassin! Can you work on making me some MariMite tanks now? (This is not a capricious choice – doujinshi artists LOVE to draw the Yamayurikai as Rommel’s desert tank forces. I have no idea why, nor do I wish to know. I just want General Torii’s Yellow Rose Division tanks. lol)

This is not Yuri, per se, but worth a note, I think. Merriam-Webster has added “fanboy” to its storehouse of words.

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That about wraps it up for the week. As always please send any news with Yuri interest my way and I’ll do my best to get it up on the report!

 





Seven Seas Says Strawberry Survives

July 9th, 2008

Breaking news!

Seven Seas was kind enough to let me know that their Strawberry line of Yuri manga is *not* on hold. In fact, Strawberry Panic Light Novel, Volume 2 is out *right now*. You should of course run right out and order it because it is utterly cracktastic.

Actually, while I’m talking about this book, let me warn you in advance that the translation is EXCELLENT. It’s just that the original text is really quite laughably bad. LOL (See my review of the Japanese volume here.) I’ll definitely review the English edition asap, because I want to see how they handled the overblown goings on at Astrea Hill. :-)

In any case, thanks Seven Seas for clearing that up – we look forward to more Yuri from you!





Yuri News This Week – July 5, 2008

July 5th, 2008

This news report is 100% complete as of the time I typed it, but there are still plenty of Industry panels to come at Anime Expo, so expect more updates later on.

Yuri Anime

A second Ichigo Mashimaro OVA has been announced, so members of the “Cult of Miu” rejoice! (And look – I made us a badge. lol It’s crappy. I don’t care and I don’t see you making one, so shush, you.)

Funimation announced that they have picked up distribution rights for many Geneon and ADV anime properties including Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Murder Princess, and Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora, which was licensed (and already suspended) by ADV as Shattered Angels. Kyoshiro first volume was technically released and Volume 2 suspended, but I haven’t actually seen Volume 1 anywhere, so basically, we’re waiting for it from the beginning.

Nozomi/Right Stuf announced Gakuen Alice at their Expo Panel last night.

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Yuri Manga

Big news this week is that Kodansha is launching a Kodansha US office to release manga on their own. While everyone else is musing over how this will effect their Del Rey and other licenses, I have a completely different take on it. I think that Kodansha is about to run into the the uncomfortable truth that is the reality of the manga market here in the US. From various dealings in the industry, I think that a lot of the Japanese companies are under the impression that they can *sell* a lot more manga than they actually can. Here’s why.

In Japan, manga and anime are easily accessible by a large portion of the population on a weekly/monthly basis. Along with free TV release and weekly cheap manga mags, they are bombarded by a never-ending stream of advertising for product. When the tankoubon, the collections, come out, there is little advertising in them, because the stream of distribution *ends* at the tankoubon. In America, the distribution begins and ends at the tankoubon. There are very few anime that are easily accessible on free TV. Most of them are Shounen Jump titles, and not coincidentally, SJ is one of the few magazines that comes out regularly here. So those titles do really well in sales. But most of the other titles are printed, stuck on a shelf and have exactly zero advertising, promotion (other than licensing announcements) or recognition. Without an anime to beat the title into people’s heads, the actual number of people who will ever care about a non-anime title is going to remain low. And without weekly or monthly chapter of a manga to keep interest high, all you have is tankoboun on the shelves.

Here’s what I imagine happens. J Company thinks – we sell 30K tankoubon here of x title. If we assume a 2% audience in the US, we can assume 6000 books will sell. Which seems fair. Only…the amount they will actually sell might be 1500 – 2000. Because the American audience doesn’t have the constant stream of promotion and availability, so Joe Blow finds it easier – and cheaper – to grab a scan, or read a book in the bookstore. And another 25% of the potential audience has no clue about the title’s existence or availability at all.

I think that when Kodansha realizes that without a lot more advertising and a TV anime, their books really won’t do well no matter how popular they are, they will be surprised – and sad. In the meantime, let’s bombard them with letters asking for a translated version of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. We’ll only get two volumes before they pull it for lack of sales, but hey – that’s two volumes we didn’t have, right?

Which leads me to the next thing I wanted to mention – Seven Seas has put several of their Yuri series on hold, First Love Sisters among them. The stated reason is that sales were well below expectations and they didn’t break even. I could have told them that if they had asked. The Yuri audience is small, cheap and sales of 2000 are exceptional, not average or low. Personally, I can see Hayate x Blade failing in the exact same way because the ONLY promotion that title will get is me talking about it. Neither Seven Seas nor Tor is going to spend a cent telling people it exists, and it has no anime. Which is a damn shame, because it’s an awesome series which *could* be popular. But if your marketing plan is to print too many copies, send them anonymously to chain bookstores to disappear them among crowded, unlabeled shelves of manga…expect it to fail. You want people to buy it? You have to invest in promotion. Contests, ads, bookstore displays, more ads, ads in things other than your own books, like gaming magazines, and Giant Robot (an awesome Asian pop culture mag) and on websites. Did I mention promoting the effing hell out of it? Because otherwise, it’ll sell 1000 copies and once again you’ll wonder why. Jason, Adam – I mean you.

And as for you, Yuri audience. Buy the books, buy the anime. These companies spend $$$$ on *you*. Stop being a bunch of cheap bastards – and *still* complaining that there is no Yuri out there. Buy Yuri. From Infinity, from Seven Seas, from Tokyopop, from Yen Press, from Media Blasters, from ADV, from ALC Publishing. Stop complaining that there is none. There are many series at this point and you aren’t buying them. For god’s sake – stop whining and put your money where your whinging is. Please. Thank you.

(And if you *do* buy the anime and manga – thank you. Very, very much. Not just for myself, but for the artists and writers, directors, voice actors and publishers. Thank you.)

I found this news item to be kind of interesting in a “huh?” way – Aurora, the US imprint for Oozora Publishing, will be putting out a manga version of Hitohira. Since Aurora’s stuff is usually Ladies Comics and more adult stories, Hitohira seems an odd series for them. Guess we’ll see, huh?

And DMP has announced the license for the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS manga. I reviewed the first volume a while back. It was fun. Not particularly Yuri, but fun.

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Other Yuri News

I’ve been very good about not talking about this, since I was told about it. lol

Nozomi/RightStuf is going to be launching the full Maria-sama ga Miteru website soon and when they do, it will include a submission form to *ask Konno Oyuki-sensei questions*! How cool is that? You’ll have a chance to ask her good questions like “Will we see Yumi as Rosa Chinensis?” and fandumb questions like “Will Sachiko and Yumi ever kiss?” and thank her for providing us with hours of entertainment. I am so going to be putting questions up for her.

bystrouka tells us that both Blue Drop and Mnemosyne will be shown at the Paris Japan Expo this weekend. This is tantalizing, because we haven’t heard any licensing for these titles, but what is being shown is supposedly already licensed. Interesting, huh? bystrouka promises to report back!

And Polish anime/manga portal Tanuki now sports a Polish-language interview with Erica Friedman, thanks to Grisznak! Some of the questions were the usual, but some were pretty funny, so in case you are not a Polish reader, here is a link to the English-language version.

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That’s it so far for the weekend, but expect more as more industry panel feeds come in. Media Blasters has said they they are holding their big announcements for Otakon, so I’ll see if I can get a preview of those to see of there’s anything relevant to our interests. :-)





This Week in Yuri – June 27, 2008

June 28th, 2008

Obviously, while I was at AnimeNEXT last week, some stuff happened. :-)

Yuri Manga

Top story is that Media Blasters has licensed and is working on Maka Maka, in glorious full color, with the internal extras. (No dolls, though. I asked about the dolls and they didn’t know what I meant. Oh well, still no Jun and Nene dolls for me. Boo hoo. Unlike Right Stuf, Media Blasters folks don’t really get the fans’ (my) interest in physcal extras. Too expensive, no one cares, was the basic feedback I got. I think they are totally wrong about that, so if you happen to be talking to them at a con, tell them that you like the physical extras – postcards, dolls, phone straps, etc, too!)

In any case, look for Maka Maka one day soon. :-) In the meantime, if you don’t know why you should care, here’s links to my reviews of Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Here’s an interesting little fact, through Brigid Alverson’s Mangablog. Germany Tokyopop functions as a separate company from the American side, and they have announced that they *will* be publishing some of TP’s OEL titles, including lesbian-themed Steady Beat, by Rivkah.

And from Comipress, a translation of the Ichijinsha polls on the readership of their magazines. Yuri Hime holds steady at 70% female, 30% male, despite their attempt to make it more moe and less Yuri.

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Yuri Anime

Nozomi/Right Stuf formally announced the first season of Aria license. I maintain that it’s not really a Yuri series, but plenty of Yuri fans (including myself) feel comfortable enough making it all up in our heads. lol

Nozomi/Right Stuf will be at Anime Expo and they have said that they have two more licensing announcements – will they be Yuri-themed? Guess we’ll have to wait and see!

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Other News

I found this news on Japan Today – As you may know, The L Word was released recently in Japan, and they held an event to promote the series. Selected bloggers were invited and got to be photoed with and interview at least one of the series’ stars.

I’ve never watched a single moment of this series, but I know many Yuri fans in Japan are interested in it. It’ll be interesting to see what the predominantly male fanbase of Yuri takes away from it there. lol

Last up, for the three people out there who are consuming light novels and novels the way I am, lesbian writer Natsuko Mori has a new novel out, about lesbian shenanigans in college called Sempai to Watashi. Because this is Mori-san, I expect it to be brilliant and trashy. I’ll report back when I’ve read it. :-)
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That’s it for this week, and last. As always, if you have any good Yuri-related news, please feel free to shoot it off to me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com!