Welcome to an edition of Okazu that transcends time and geography!  We have some really exciting news this week.

Yuri Manga

Starting, as always with new Yuri manga on the Yuricon Store. The store is the largest catalog of Yuri media and goods on the internets – if you’re looking for the newest volume or an older volume to fill in your collection; for anime,manga,  LNs, drama CDs and other media, you can search by creator, title, publisher, in Japanese and English. It’s a damn good resource, if I do say so myself. ^_^

School Zone Girls, Volume 2, a juvenile delinquent school life comedy is on shelves now from Seven Seas.

Don’t miss Cocoon, Entwined, Volume 3, as this school romance becomes more and more complicated out now from Yen Press.

Crowd-funded, creator-owned Galette, No. 19 (ガレット)  is out. One more and they make the big 5 year mark! You can of course get this as a print volume from Japan, but you can also get it as a digital magazine in Japanese on Bookwalker and Amazon US Kindle!

I haven’t read this yet, but love the cover, Anemone ga Netsu wo Obiru, Volume 1 (アネモネが熱を帯びる) is a school life drama by Sakuragi Ren.

Comic Natalie hosted a 4-way conversation about Kaijuu-iro no Shima (かいじゅう色の島) between Yuri manga artist Mochi Au Lait, Animate Yuribu Editor Saigusa Kensuke, SF magazine editor Mizoguchi Rikimaru and Yuri Navi’s Furippe.

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Yuri Studio

Okazu Patrons now have access to our newest video, the final entry in our Gateway Yuri Anime review. Part 3 covers 2010-present. Become a patron and get access today! Part 1 and Part 2 are available on Yuri Studio for you to enjoy.

Yuri Light Novel

Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 5 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) landed on Kindle this week and you are very lucky I took precious reading time away to do this news report. ^_^ I’ve carefully steered clear of spoilers for this final volume of the Nur arc.

Live-action

I’ve been really interested in Yuri outside Japan recently, I’ve bookmarked a Chinese GL webnovel I want to try to work through (致女神（娱乐圈GL)) and I was absolutely beside myself when BL scholar and gentleman Thomas Baudinette looped me into the news that an upcoming BL series in Thailand, Secret Crush on You was going to have a separate Yuri storyline. I detailed as much of the information as I had on Thai Yuri novel GAP ทฤษฎีสีชมพู being adapted into a live-action story, ทฤษฎีสีชมพู GAP The Series in a post on Friday, Thai Yuri Novel Adapted Into Live-Action: Pink Theory GAP, The Series.

WELL, since then, Thomas let me know about another BL series that includes a GL storyline: “The final of the 7 episodes titled “Remember.” The official trailer of 7 Project can be found on Youtube. Cool, huh?

Yuri Anthologies

Super fab news from queer manga artist Mutsumi Natsuo, a person whose work I was introduced to for our video, Are There Queer Creators Creating Yuri?. Mutsumi-sensei announced the second volume of a “butchy lesbian” anthology, called Boyish², being crowdfunded now. I backed it, and Mutsumi-sensei told me that an English-language digital version is being planned. Woot! Of course I’ll keep you in the loop when that happens.

Thousands of Books announced an upcoming Taiwanese Showa Yuri collection, Kitan Hana Monogatari (綺譚花物語). This is also being crowdfunded in Japan…I’ve backed it, as I love Showa and Taisho period pieces and I’m excited about/for the Taiwanese Yuri fandom.

Yuri Visual Novels

Via Yuri Anime News, “Taiwanese studios Narrator and Storia recently announced on Steam plans for a character image refurbish for their Yuri visual novel” Lingua Fleur: Lily.

Via Yuri Navi, we have a new Yuri VN, Watashitachi no Marriage ①. Watch the official Twitter account for updates.

LGBTQ Comics

Out Magazine offers up 18 New & Upcoming Queer Comics We Love by Mey Rude.

Queer manga artist Rica Takashima tells me that she’s got a table at AnimeNYC artist’s alley, and she’ll be selling her self-published comics, including her “Rica ‘tte Kanj!?” stories. Rica’s been working hard on the cover art for By Your Side: The First 100 Year of Yuri Anime and Manga, and let me tell you…it looks amazing. Okazu Patrons were able to see a teeeny little piece of the cover and even that looks awesome. I would like to attend AnimeNYC, but think the arc of COVID will keep me away.

AV Club has this terrific article in which writer Willow Maclay and artist Cressa Beer discuss the intersection of anime fandom and transfeminine identity, from Sailor Moon to Neon Genesis Evangelion: “Anime was a safe space”: On magical girls, damaged villains, and trans adolescence.

Other News

I haven’t done this in a while, but there are a couple of global same-sex marriage news items that I want to round up this week.

Marriage for All Japan announced this week that both Saga and Mie Prefectures are starting prefecture wide same-sex partnership programs. They join Osaka, Ibaraki, and Gunma prefectures and about 100 other individual principalities.

In Mexico, Yucatán’s Congress has passed SSM, making 22 of 32 states in that country in which same-sex unions are legal.

The Church in Wales is going to take up the issue of blessing same-sex unions in Welsh churches and I kind of think it’s likely to pass.

Thanks to our Okazu Patrons who make the YNN weekly report possible! Support us on Patreon to help us give Guest Reviewers a raise and to help us support Yuri creators!

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Thanks very much to every one who came to last week’s Yuricon anniversary event and thank you all for your patience as I made my way through this busy month. Here is a gigantic news report as your reward!

Yuri Events

Sailor Moon fans, here’s a chance you don’t get that often – the Nogizaka 46 Sailor Moon Live-Action Musical is streaming online from the 20th through August 26th. Tickets are available on Japan 2.5D Stage Play World online now along with a couple of other anime stage plays!

Flamecon starts today as a virtual con. Admission is free, but you’ll need to register. Donation and VP packages are also available.

Yuri Light Novels

The fifth Watashi no Oshi ga Akuyaku Reijou. (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) noveI is now available for pre-order in Japanese, on US Kindle, and of course on JP Kindle. The cover is boss.

(Speaking of inori’s series, I played through fa- created I’m in Love with the Villainess visual short, Revolution Lily!? ~Claire’s Birthday Party by wataoshi. It was sweet (and short!) ^_^ Queued up for my next break is Revolution Lily? ~Desert Island where can’t escape without ?? by the same team. ^_^)

Otherside Picnic, Volume 5 has just released and Otherside Picnic, Volume 6 is on the way next month!

And, for something lighter, Girls Kingdom, Volume 4 is headed our way at the end of this month.

Not sure what you’re in the mood for? Bookwalker Global is doing another Coin Boost Promotion with a number of Yuri titles included. So pre-order these and get extra coins!

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Yuri Manga

New licensing announcements from Yen Press! They have licensed Watashi no Kobushi wo Uketomete as Catch These Hands!, a post-girl gang life romance. And they’ve gotten Mizuno and Chayama, the two volume Romeo & Juliet story by Nishio Yuhta, creator of After Hours.

We have some new items up on the Yuricon Store!

Superwomen in Love! Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit, Volume 2 is out now from Seven Seas.

Also from Seven Seas, the My Next Life as a Villainess Side Story: Girls Patch.

Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 3, Shimura Takako’s new and very excellent series.

Makoto Hagino’s A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 8, is still a lovely girl-meets-girl story.

Monologue Woven For You, Volume 1 is a full-color story about two women who meet and change each other’ life.

Galette No. 19 (ガレット) is available in print and digitally, with new chapters by Morinaga Milk and Morita Miyuki among others!

Ookami no Kawa o Kabutta Hitsuji Hime (狼の皮をかぶった羊姫) is an animal-ear Yuri manga about a wolf butler who falls in love with the Princess of the the land of sheep.

Via YuriMother, we have some fascinating news. Kadokawa’s Bookwalker platform is launching a new infinite scroll, Webtoon-style format. Among the titles being launched on the service is Nakatani Nio’s Yagate Kimi ni Naru (やがて君になる).

Comic Yuri Hime on Pixiv has a new manga, Yandere Meruko-chan Loves Senpai (ヤンデレめる子ちゃんはせんぱいがお好き), you can read a sample in JP on Pixiv.

Via YNN Correspondent Megan on Twitter,” A new LGBT+ manga out in Japan today,” Kikon Starters, (既婚ステータスだけいただきます！)…”about a lesbian couple and a gay couple that enter into fake hetero marriages so they can stay closeted to their families, the 4 of them end up living together in a flatshare.” I remember the Mist magazine version of this… ^_^

Yuri Doujinshi

Lilyka has a new interview with their Arabic translator, Jamila, as part of their “Yuri Save the World” project.

They also have a new title, The Gathering of Love by Toriniwa.

Lilyka also has an artbook collection now, Ｌ∴Ｋ∴Ｒ：La Lilio kaj la Rozo Illustration Book / Shirahime Lilio (White Princess) & Kuro’oujo Rozo (Black Princess) and an interview with the creator.

Yuri Anime

I’m super excited to have Stellvia: The Complete TV Series from Diskotek up on the Yuricon Store.It’s a solid scifi school story.

Other News

ICYMI, this week I published a fanfic that kind of got away me, from as a novella on Amazon Kindle. For a brief moment, it was the #1 Bestseller in its category, so that was fun. ^_^ You can get A/CI Case File: An Inside Job for only $2.99 if you want to see what series it started as a fanfic of. ^_^

We have new Yuri research on the Yuricon Essays page! Tales of lilies and girls’ love. The depiction of female/ female relationships in yuri manga – by Marta Fanasca, from Tracing Pathways 雲路 Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia, Firenze University Press, 2021.

Here’s something fun to enjoy, an original song about “enemies to lovers,” on Youtube  Vices & Virtues by Reinaeiry.

Since the Age of Keisuke Kinoshita and Yasujiro Ozu: The Journey of Japan’s Queer Films is a fascinating article, from Japanese Film Festival Plus.

Seven Seas has announced a collaboration with Hiveworks, “the charming, full-color LGBT+ graphic novel LIFE OF MELODY by Mari Costa.”

Become a YNN Correspondent:  Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share and be part of the Yuri Network. ^_^

Thanks to our Okazu Patrons who make the YNN weekly report possible! Support us on Patreon to help us give Guest Reviewers a raise and to help us support Yuri creators!

Yuri Events

There are a double handful of spaces left for the 20th Anniversary Yuricon Community Event. I hope you will join James Welker, Verena Maser and myself for an event celebrating you, the global Yuri fandom – in one week, on August 14, at 8AM Eastern US time on zoom.

Yuri Studio

We have a new video up on Yuri Studio. Following S02 E03 Gateway Yuri Anime Part 1: The 1990s, in which we looked at anime that had a powerful impact on developing what we now think of as the Yuri fandom, in Yuri Studio S02 E04 Gateway Yuri Anime, Part 2: The 2000s  we talk about the anime that helped a new Yuri fandom grow and evolve! Please do not forget to like this video on Youtube and subscribe to the channel. It is a huge help.

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Yuri Manga

Out now from Seven Seas, we have the conclusion of Days of Love at Seagull Villa, Volume 3 and Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon, Volume 2!

Coming next winter from Seven Seas, we are getting Monologue Woven For You, a full-color Yuri manga that has been on my to-read pile for months. I’d better get to it!

Shizuku is directly involved in Kaori’s trauma, but wants sincerely make it up to Kaori in Volume 1 of Kimi to Tsuzuru Utakata, (君と綴るうたかた). Complicating matters, Kaori is Shizuku’s favorite author!

In Doukyuusei no Oshi Sakka ni Yuri Mousou ga Bareta Kekka (同級生の推し作家に百合妄想がバレた結果) a classmate finds her classmate is the writer of her favorite Yuri novel! Which is like the same plot as above without trauma.

The Manga Park app has sample pages of a new occult Yuri comedy up for free in Japanese. Occultken ha Sonzashinai!! (オカルト研は存在しない!!) is also coming to Japanese shelves as a collected Volume 1 later this month.

Yuri Anime

The historical fantasy Yuri manga Uchi no Shishou ha Shippo ga Nai, about a Tanuki who learns Rakugo from a Kitsune woman is getting an anime adaptation! ANN’s Egan Loo has casting details and Alex Mateo has the rest of the story. I reviewed volume 1 of the manga here last winter.

Adrian Hazra on ANN has the news that Retrocrush has picked up Revolutionary Girl Utena Movie – The Adolescence of Utena for streaming.

Yuri Doujinshi

This news item was a whole story in 4 panels: Lilyka has licensed a new doujinshi (Yay!) call Hakuba Run. It’s an action adventure story! (YAY!) I’ll just go over and read that synopsis….(What the ever-loving fuck? What did I just even read?) I won’t spoil…go read that synopsis for yourself. It’s an adventure, for sure.

Yuri Light Novels

Seven Seas tweeted that Roll Over and Die: I Will Fight For An Ordinary Life With My Love and My Cursed Sword, Volume 4 is on shelves. It’s been a pretty violent series, even so, let me suggest you read Sean Gaffney’s review before picking this one up. 

Other News

Hayate x Blade Fans! Hayashiya-sensei has put together another round of limited shirts on her webstore. Some of the Black Group characters are available and Nagi and her shinyuu.

AkiYanagi on Twitter wants us to know that Yahoo News JP announced that  Takarazuka will be making an appearance at the Olympics closing ceremony, with a Rose of Versailles performance.

Among a number of other anime/manga homages at the Pandemic Games, the Uzbekistan rhythmic gymnastics team performed their routine to Sailor Moon theme Moonlight Densetsu.

Princess Weekes has news on The Mary Sue that Renee O’Connor and Lucy Lawless will be teaming up for some episodes in Lawless’ new series. It’s heart-warming to know that they are still out there, enjoying their fandom enjoying them. ^_^

The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies is a relatively new open-access peer-reviewed academic journal about anime and manga studies. This journal is hungry for your submissions and is a fantastic resource for independent scholars. You can find them on Twitter, where they retweeted this discussion by Billy Tringali on the Importance of LGBTQ+ Representation in Anime.

JAMS also shared ANN CEO and Publisher Christopher MacDonald’s editorial about How Much Does It Cost to License Anime? This was a direct response to the AnimeTube debacle of a Kickstarter that expected to license anime for bout $4 an episode, so was probably only 100000x off projection.

Become a YNN Correspondent:  Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share and be part of the Yuri Network. ^_^

Thanks to our Okazu Patrons who make the YNN weekly report possible! Support us on Patreon to help us give Guest Reviewers a raise and to help us support Yuri creators!

Yuri Events

Anime Lockdown was a lot of fun and you can still watch my panel on Youtube (and lol at my wife’s interjection.) Yuri: How It Began, How It’s Going. ^_^ Honestly, Anime Lockdown was 9/10. I’d participate with them and Casacon again any time!

On July 26, join me at HYPER JAPAN for a “LGBT+ in Japan” panel on which I will likely to have nothing to say, as it’s about LGBTQ life in, y’know Japan. ^_^

Keep August 14th, 8AM Eastern US time clear, because I’m being joined by James Welker and Verena Maser for our Yuricon 20th anniversary event! We’ll be talking Global Yuri fandom. Registration is currently open to Okazu Patrons only, and there are limited spots, so please register asap!

August 20-26, you can watch the 2019 Nogizaka 46 Sailor Moon Musical online on Japan 2.5 Stage World. I already have my ticket, of course. Sure, let’s rehash that same story one more time from the top! ^_^

Make a note for November 2022, when German Yaoi and Yuri focused event, YaYuCo will return. With luck – and the ongoing efforts of our own Okazu Hero Karin – you’ll see some edifying Yuri content!

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Yuri Manga

Bookwalker is running a 30% back coin event. Grab some of your favorite manga and light novels in English today!

We’ll start off with a pile of new titles on the Yuricon Store! We’re still working through updating everything, almost all the English translated anime and manga have been updated, with expanded purchasing links.

Hara Yukiko’s, Cocoon, Entwined, Volume 3 hits shelves later this month from the folks at Yen Press. I’ve got V4 next up in Japanese and I’m pretty sure it’s going to end just right. ^_^

Nakatani Nio’s Farewell, My Alter, also from Yen Press, is out now. This is her short story collection from the Éclair anthologies and some originals.

Kodama Naoko’s Day of Love At Seagull Villa, Volume 3, wraps up the series in early August.

Via Comic Natalie, Galette WORKS has released a new collection, Anoko no Hana ga Hoshi (あのこの花が欲しい), by Asuba Yui. As I mentioned yesterday, every collected volume that come out of Galette is a mark of perseverance and effort in trying times!  Galette No. 19 (ガレット No.19) in paper has gone up for order on Galette’s Fantia site.

Also from Comic Natalie an android x human story is staring up in Comic Yuri Hime, Android ha Keiken Ninzuu ni Hairimasuka?? (アンドロイドは経験人数に入りますか？？)

Wada Shinji is spinning in his grave, as Sukeban Deka is getting a spin-off manga. He killed Saki off at the end of the manga, but cannot kill off corporate greed. ^_^; Rafael Antonia Pineda at ANN gives us the news of who and what the new manga will be.

Yuri Webcomics  & Doujinshi

In Yuri online comic news, YNN Correspondent Evie Starcross wants you to know that “Ratana Satis’s “Soul Drifters” has only 2 chapters left & they just released info about their next upcoming webcomic titled “Beast Knights” & the 3 new main characters are Lunar (Bunny Woman), Akela (Wolf Woman), & Synne (?). ” Thanks, Evie!

Lilyka has a new Yuri doujinshi for sale, The Story of Inhuman Girls, by Siu Yosiujima. “From fairies and mermaids to witches and zombies, The Story of Inhuman Girls, is sure to have a little of something for everyone.”

Yuri Light Novels

Otherside Picnic, Volume 5 is headed our way next month! Since Bookwalker’s running a sale, I’ve linked to it there. ^_^

The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Volume 2 is on Global Bookwalker, with coin boost this week!

I’m reading End Blue (エンドブルー) by Iruma Hitoma with illustrations by Nakatani Nio and stumbled across this voiced ad for it on Youtube!

Inori-sensei noted in a recent Pixiv fanbox post that there are now two free indy-developed browser scenario games for I’m in Love With the Villainess:
Revolution Lily!? ~Claire-sama’s Birthday Party~  and Revolution Lily!? ~Desert Island where can’t escape without ??~.  I started the first one and was awed by it’s wholesomeness. I hope to finish it up this week. ^_^

Yuri Anime

While we’re talking Executioner and Her Way of Life, let’s not forget that an anime of this grim, yet interestingly built world, is headed our way in 2022. YNN’s Rafael Antonia Pineda has the details and trailer. Thanks to everyone who kept me abreast of this news! (Yeah, pun intended.)

CR New’s Paul Chapman invites us to watch the Blue Reflection Ray creditless ED for some quiet time between the characters.

Komatsu-san has a trailer for the Tropical Rouge Precure movie that brings back some old friends from Heartcatch Precure! Amazingly, I am still watching Tropical Rouge Precure…. ^_^

Other News

I want to shout out to Kaelan Ramos on Twitter who deftly noted that memes about Takeuchi Naoko being a starving, lonely artist when she drew Sailor Moon is incorrect, and that “celebrating” women by not actually crediting them for their and work is a bullshitty and demeaning thing to do.

And, to that end, why not listen to the recorded session for No Friend to Girls: Kawabata Yasunari, Shōjo no tomo and the Appropriation of Girls’ Culture, to see how Kawabata Yasunari took Nakazato Tsuneko’s work and put his name on it.

In happier news, Zombieland Saga Revenge is getting an exhibit (and pop-up shop, of course) in Harajuku. Choo Sum Lee has the scoop on ANN!

Last, but not least, Takarazuka’s never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down. ^_^

Become a YNN Correspondent:  Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share and be part of the Yuri Network. ^_^

Thanks to our Okazu Patrons who make the YNN weekly report possible! Support us on Patreon to help us give Guest Reviewers a raise and to help us support Yuri creators!