Yuri Events
Join me on Discord for CasaCon on June 26-27:
June 26 8PM EST US for What Goes Into Manga Licensing and Translating?
June 27, 2PM EST US time for the “Secret” History of Yaoi and Yuri.
Not Yuri, per se, but adjacent, The Japan Foundation in NY is hosting No Friend to Girls: Kawabata Yasunari and Appropriation of Girls’ Culture, with Deborah Shamoon and Melek Ortabasi. From the JF site, “This lecture reevaluates Kawabata’s fiction in terms of his involvement with and appropriation of girls’ culture, through analysis of the novels Otome no minato (The Girl’s Harbor, 1937-1938) and Utsukushii tabi (Beautiful Journey, 1939-1941). Kawabata’s use of the idealized shōjo is consistent in his writing for girls and adults, and is a parallel to the fascist aesthetics and colonial ideology in his work of this time period.”
Also adjacent is this fun post by WikiVictorian on Twitter about Modern Girls (モダンガール) in Japan after WW1, which are also relevant to Otome no Minato and to mid-century proto Yuri manga Sakura Namiki.
Keep your eyes peeled for my appearance at virtual event Anime Lockdown in July.
August 14th, on Zoom, we’ll be doing a Yuricon 20th anniversary event with myself, Verena Maser and James Welker. Okazu Patrons will get early registration, so if you don’t want to miss this – and want to assist our efforts to give financial support directly to queer creators, become an Okazu Patron today!
Girls Love Fest is returning to the Pio Building on September 4, 2021 in the Tokyo Metropolitan area!
I’ll be sticking to online appearances for a while longer, so if you have a virtual event happening and would like me to participate, drop me a line and we’ll talk!
Yuri Manga
BOOK☆WALKER Yuri Festival 2021 is on! Purchase eligible volume 1-2 eBooks through the Bookwalker Global platform for a 40% Coin Back and sequel volumes for a 25% Coin Back. Plus, BOOK☆WALKER members can download a “I Love Yuri” bookshelf cover image for free – all until June 26th 11:59 PM, 2021 PT. This offer is not valid for volumes purchased through the Japanese BOOK☆WALKER portal. Thanks to YNN Correspondent Luce for the heads up!
Yuri Visual Novels
Studio Élan has some great news. Their newest Yuri VN, Please Be Happy demo is out now with full voice acting. You can grab that on Steam or itch.io.This feel-good story is described on their site:
“Born as a fox in the forest of Korea, Miho carries with her the memory of a traveler who showed her kindness and spoke of home. Now more human than fox, Miho has spent a long, long time searching for her person. She arrives by airship to Wellington Skyport, one of the jewels of the floating island of New Zealand.
Despite her years spent observing humans, she still has a lot to learn about their culture and society. She’s made a living so far as a thief, her heightened senses allowing her to easily take advantage of people. She’s also seen a lot of the worst of what mankind has to offer.
It’s only after meeting Juliet, the owner of a small library, and Aspen, an aspiring novelist, that Miho starts to understand what kindness is, and that there’s more than just the bad stuff when it comes to people.”
And happy 5th anniversary to Studio Élan’s breakout hit Highway Blossoms! To celebrate, Élan is releasing the original VN and the DLC together to current gen consoles as Highway Blossoms Gold Rush! Which consoles haven’t yet been specified, I’ll keep you informed. According to their twitter account, they’ve sold 50,000 copies of Highway Blossoms on Steam. That is an amazing milestone. Happy birthday and congratulations to everyone at Studio Élan!
Via YNN Correspondent Eleanor, Steam is running a 65% off sale on A Little Lily Princess, a Yuri VN adaptation of A Little Princess through the 21st of June. We had a guest review of the VN by Brian a while back – you can read the review here on on Okazu!
YNN Correspondent Patricia Baxter has two exciting pieces of news for us! First up is A Year of Springs by npckc. This is, Patricia writes, a “remastered version of their previous three games of a visual novel trilogy focusing on three queer women, with updated visuals and a new epilogue. It follows the lives of a transgender woman, two lesbian women, and an aromantic asexual woman living in Japan, and covers heavy issues that queer women encounter (transphobia and heteronormativity) respectfully and with empathy while still having a positive ending for all three protagonists.” This is $5 USD, so give it some love!
Patricia also reminds us that Queer Games Bundle is a collection of over 200 indie games developed by and focusing on, queer people for the price of a single AAA video game ($60 US) on itchi.io There’s also a “Pay what you can” version of the bundle! Thanks Patricia. ^_^
If you’ve got an idea for a Yuri game, don’t miss this year’s Yuri Game Jam, which will begin in October of this year. Get ready….
Queer Comics News
I had a chance to watch No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics streaming on the Tribeca Film Festival’s website and I am so glad I did! I hope you will, too. Learning about the history of queer comics in the USA was a perfect way to celebrate Pride month… . Shoutout to Jennifer Camper, Justin Hall and Vivian Kleiman and everyone involved, for such a fantastic piece of history.
WeHo Pride ran a series on LGBTQ+ History in Comics with Prism Comics, which is now on Youtube. Check their full list for all the videos readings by comics creators!
George Gene Gustines has written up 8 Comic Books in Honor of Pride for the NYTimes. Paywalled, but I believe in you. ^_^
I’ve ordered Marvel Voices #1 and DC Pride anthologies from my Local Comic Store (click the link to find your LCS!)….we’ll see what I think when they both get in. ^_^ YNN Correspondent Shannon L found this post by Lucciano Vecchio, one of the contributors to the DC Pride book and I loved reading how passionate and happy he was about his story! ^_^
Other News
We have a new digital manga subscription service on the scene – Azuki Manga App launches late this month with offerings from Kodansha. Alex Mateo has the full list at ANN. If you’re trying to divorce yourself from Amazon/Comixology, why not take a look at Azuki? Congratulations to Evan, who sent out Azuki’s press release this week. I’ve known Evan since he was a young, and I’m super proud of his accomplishments!
Which lead me to something I’ve been thinking about a lot these days. Popular culture fandom and industry is so very much a group effort and I’m honestly blown away by all the people out there I have met that have pursued their interest and turned it into a thing. A blog, a site, a company, an event, work as writers and artists and producers and managers. So, if you are working in the industry you love as a translator, or editor, production manager, press person, or whatever, if you writer for or run or are EiC of a news site or service, if you contributed to a game or an animation, congratulations! You’re doing important and amazing work. On behalf of everyone who enjoys your work – thank you and great job. ^_^
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Yuri Events
