Yuri Manga

We’ve got a few new items up on the Yuricon Store:

Garasu no Kutsu o Nugisutete (ガラスの靴を脱ぎ捨てて) tells five short stories of working women finding love. ^_^

Goodbye Dystopia, Volume 3 (グッバイ・ディストピア) wraps up one of my favorite manga, boo.

Yuri Bear Storm Volume 2, the English-language edition of Yurikuma Arashi continues as Ginko and Kureha’s story unfolds.

We’ve got a veritable Miman festival going with Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume ５ (私の百合はお仕事です!) and Yuri Is My Job, Volume 3 and Volume 4!

I was on Shodensha’s Manga Jam site looking up Akegata Yuu’s Tsuki to Suppin (月とすっぴん) Yuri web comic, when I learned that last year there was a new-new Hana no Asuka-gumi series called Hana No Asuka-gumi BS  Volume 1 and Volume 2. But even more importantly, there is a new-new-NEW Hana no Asuka-gumi series, Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity (花のあすか組！∞インフィニティ), the first chapter of which is up on Shodensha’s Manga Jam. It begins with a “who’s who” of characters and the various pieces of the Zenchuu-Ura and upon seeing that, I yelled at it, “How can I be expected to read this if you EXPLAIN it to me!?!” 

It was a genuine pleasure to speak with Evan and David over at Ani-Gamers Podcast about Nagata Kabi’s autobiographical comic essays, My Lesbian Experience With Lonleliness and My Solo Exhange Diary Volume 1 and Volume 2!

Yuri Anime

Via ANN, Midnight Pulp anime streaming service has added Devil Lady and if you can, I recommend this anime so very highly. It’s the Go Nagai we need right now.

Yuri Drama CD

Via YuriNavi, we learn about original Yuri Drama CD Himitsu no Hanataba (秘密の花束) which is holding a Talk-show event in July at the Asgaya Loft.

Yuri Game

To celebrate the upcoming release of PS4 game Jinrui no Mina-sama e (じんるいのみなさまへ), this week also sees the release of a companion manga, Jinrui no Minasama e -Watashi-tachi no bassho- (じんるいのみなさまへ ―わたしたちの場所―).

Other News

The Yurikuzu Youtube Channel has posted an interview (in Japanese) with Tamilfly, creator of Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, ( 付き合ってあげてもいいかな). I’ve reviewed Volume 1 and Volume 2 is available now in Japan and waiting to be read by me. ^_^

I had the great pleasure of reviewing MangaClassics’ edition of Shakespeare’s Macbeth for School Library Journal.  I’m really enjoying the Manga Classics editions. Right now I’m working on Count of Monte Cristo (from which Eugénie Danglars has been cut, boo.)

I’m working on an updated piece on how to not comment on blog posts. If you as a writer have any pet peeves, drop them in the comments or on this thread on Twitter!

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast (I know I owe you all one!) Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to!

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Special News

For Pride Month, Seven Seas is teaming up with Yuricon & ALC Publishing to give away prize packs of LGBTQ books to libraries! Three library systems PLUS three individual libraries will win free books. Library staff need to fill out this form by June 30 to enter! Please share this news with your local library. Let’s get some great LGBTQ manga on your library’s shelves!

There are 3 weeks to sign up for the 100th Anniversary Yuri Tour of Japan. We need 4 more people to join this tour to make it happen. Okazu Patrons will get a discount off the deposit and a special 100th anniversary design T-shirt! I’ve made you a (really) short video to try and convince you to sign up!

Yuri Anime

ANN reports on the upcoming Yuri Theatrical OVA Fragtime teaser video, main visuals and staff and that it will have a November debut.

LGBTQ Cartoon

The team behind Steven Universe posted a tweet that sent my heart all a-flutter, with the announcement of the folks working on music for the Steven Universe Movie. Chance the Rapper is co-producing. How awesome is that? It also leaves me with questions. Is Bismuth getting a song? Will we see Opal again? When will I get a Peridot x Lapis fusion?! ^_^

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic debuted a same-sex couple this month! Aunty Holiday and Auntie Lofty are Scootaloo’s guardians. Taimur Dar writes about this, Arthur, Doc McStuffins and LGBTQ representation in kids cartoons on The Comics Beat.

Yuri Manga

Nikurashii hodo Aishiteru  (憎らしいほど愛してる) is a story about an office affair between a married woman and a woman who loves her maybe too possessively?

Hayakawa publishing (publisher of the popular Yuri issue of SF magazine) is about to release a Yuri science fiction short story anthology, Asterism ni Hanataba o Yuri (アステリズムに花束を 百合).

Yuri Doujinshi

DMP’s Lilyka imprint has a bunch of new Yuri doujinshi including SHWD an action Yuri series full of beefy women that I picked up last winter at Comiket!

Yuri VN

Mangagamers has released Yuri VN Amrilato: The Expression. Enjoy Yuri romance and learn Esperanto at the same time!

LGBTQ Comics

Comixology has added LGBTQ superhero comic series The Pride Season Two.

Over on School Library Journal, Brigid Alverson looks at LGBTQIA+ Graphic Novels for Young Readers.

Yuri Event Reports

I just wanted to take a quick look back and thank all of our intrepid YNN Correspondents reporting from spring 2019’s Yuriten events in Osaka, Sendai and Fukuoka! Thanks Zoey, Meru and Jenn!

Here’s a lovely account from Takashima Hiromi-sensei’s panel at the Japan Foundation in Toronto in conjunction with TCAF.  I can’t see it when I’m in it, so it was really nice to see what the impression from the audience was. ^_^

I’ll be posting a new appearance schedule this week on Yuricon, so look out for that!

Other News

I’ll now put myself out of business when I point you to Yuri Times, a Twitter feed that covers Yuri news in English. ^_^

Comic Historian Carol Tilley presents this brilliant history piece – Jane Krom Grammer: A Golden-Age Comic Book Artist Finally Receives Credit for Her Work.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC’s Tale of Genji : A Japanese Classic Illuminated was very interesting! In effect, it was Muromachi and Edo period fanart and fanfic of Genji. ^_^

Gentleman Jack’s Finale Was One of the Finest Hours in Lesbian Cinematic History article by Heather Hogan on Autostraddle neatly summarizes everything I thought and felt about the end of the first season of this terrific show.

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast (I know I owe you all one!) Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to!

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

100 Years of Yuri

I hope I’ll see you at 12:30 today at AnimeNEXT in Atlantic City for the 100 Years of Yuri! I’ll only be there for the panel, but I’ll have a great wopping box of things to give away for good questions!

And if you can’t make it, be sure to take a look at Anime Feminist, on which I ask a question that we don’t often occasion to ask…Is Yuri Queer? I get some Yuri mangaka to weigh in on this as part of their Pride month articles.

And, as part of this series, definite check out Alex Henderson’s look at Bloom Into You on Anime Feminist in Not “Just a Phase”: How Bloom Into You challenges common yuri tropes. (It would also be easy enough to also note how it doesn’t challenge the tropes,  but the perspective is valid and excellent, as always. ^_^)

Yuri Manga

Via YNN Correspondent  Alice D., French-language “manga” Hana no Breath: Scent of Flowers by Caly is available in English on RightStuf. You can find the French language edition out from H2T.

Yen Press’s Yuri Life hits shelves in mid-July. If you’re looking for a slice-of-life manga about two adult women in love, this is the  book for you!

Also hitting shelves in in July is Miman’s Yuri is My Job!, Volume 4.

MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 10 is available in English, while Katakura Ako’s Hiru Shitagari, Mata, Volume 2 (昼下がりに、また) is now available in Japanese.

DMP’s Lilyka imprint of Yuri doujinshi has released Boat of Reeds, “A high school girl struggles with the loss of her parents, and is on the verge of just letting it all go. Her friend is puzzled by her strange question at first, but soon realizes the pain she is in…”

Galette, No. 10 (ガレット ) is also now available in print and digital (on Amazon JP and Amazon.)

Via YNN Correspondent Ash, Mag Comic’s Pixiv vehicle, Magxiv is offering School Zone, (スクールゾーン), a “devilish” Yuri gag comic.

Yuri Anime

Diskotek is putting out the New Cutey Honey OVA on Blu-Ray. Now if we can get Re: Cutey Honey, I’ll be happy. ^_^

Yuri Events

Via James W, Comic Horizon 7 is Yuri doujinshi event being held in October in Taiwan. How cool!

Yuri Photographer

You can now stay on top of  Yuri photographer Takahashi Minori’s (whose work is featrured in every issue of Galette and in the Yuriten exhibit),  photos which can be seen on this dedicated Twitter account.  Her work is not salacious, but it is intimate. I quite like it.

Yuri Live Action

I was a bit surprised when I was followed on Twitter by Happy Days a “Yuri Short Drama” on Youtube. These short films follow two women who live together. They eat candy, they argue about dirty clothes on the floor. It’s pretty low budget, but well-acted and kinda sweet.

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast, Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to!

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri Events

Please join me in Atlantic City on June 8th at AnimeNEXT for a 100 Years of Yuri presentation! There will be prizes for good questions!

The deadline for signing up for the 100 Years of Yuri Tour in Japan is July 9th. We need 4 more people to join our tour to make it a reality. I hope you’ll be part of this historical event! The tour itself is scheduled for September so we can finish off with the Girls Love Festival Yuri doujinshi event. ^_^

Yuri Manga

We have a release date for the sixth volume of the Kase-san series in Japan, Yamada to Kase-san (山田と加瀬さん。) This book will be hitting Japanese bookshelves in late July. We don’t yet have a date for the English edition, but I’d expect an early 2020 release.

Okujou PikaPika Romance Complete Edition (屋上ぴかぴかロマンス 完全版) a re-issued collection of Ohsawa Yayoi’s early shorts for Comic Yuri Hime, was released this month.

In celebration of the opening of Pride Month, Anime Feminist is giving us a three-pack of Yuri articles, the first of which is the honorable Vrai Kaiser’s The Beginner’s Guide to Yuri Manga. I hope you’ll pop in and give thanks and praise (and your own 2 cents, because obviously, you will, ^_^) in the comments. Please remember to be respectful, you are representing Yuri fandom and everyone’s opinions are correct for them.  One of the upcoming articles is by me, but I have no idea what the third is, so I’m looking forward to reading it along with you!

LGBTQ Comics

In my discussion with Emily Carrol, creator of When I Arrived at the Castle, I commented that we’re not yet seeing a renaissance of queer horror. I wasn’t faking my prescience with that – I’ve been feeling it coming for a while. Black Horror has been on the rise, which is awesome, so I honestly expected Queer Horror to be next. And here it is! Northwest Press’s collection Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers is a Kickstarter I’ve backed. I cannot wait.

The Nib offer’s this important LGBTQ history lesson with Dorian Alexander and Kazimir Lee’s comic, The Homophobic Hysteria of the Lavender Scare.

Yuri Literature

Science Fiction publisher Hayakawa (whose Yuri issue of SF Magazine I reviewed last winter) found that it was a pretty popular issue – it sold out quickly and had to be reprinted. Now they’ve  decided to do a Scifi Yuri Anthology, Asterism ni Hanataba wo (アステリズムに花束を), which will be released late this month.  The worlds of queer scifi and queer horror are ready for their closeup now.

This is not a drill. We are getting a 3rd volume of Yagate Kimi ni Naru: Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite!  No link yet, but check out the ad in the back of Volume 2. This will take us and Sayaka into her life after graduation from high school. I am all a-flutter with anticipation.

LGBTQ Media

Yuritribe Lesbian Media Project is looking for folks who want to be a concrete part of their work. If you’re fluent in Japanese and want to or have worked in media creation, take a look at their recruitment form.

Get a dose of happy feels by watching And Then She Kissed Me!, a short animated film by Alexia Khodanian.

Got family or friends looking for queer family friendly reading? The Toronto Public Library offer Reading With Pride, a curated collection for “LGBTQ2S Families.”

Other News

Viz Media’s Urian Brown walks us through a private video tour of the British Museum’s Manga exhibit.

This week, I took the first concrete steps to developing an online course on Steven Universe! I plan on running it in the late autumn. It’ll be 4 weeks, 2 classes a week, with assigned pre-reading, a lecture, class discussion and a Google Docs workspace for writing assignments.  Keep your eyes open for the announcement. ^_^

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast, Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to!

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri Manga

From the twitter feed of Suzuki Paisen, a “sexy” harem Yuri manga has begun serialization in Shonen Jump Plus. You can read a sample of Tonari no Heya kara Aegigoe ga surun desukedo… (隣の部屋から喘ぎ声がするんですけど…) in Japanese on the Shonen Jump Plus website.

Via ANN, Towa Oshima, creator of High School Girls, will launch a new manga about frenemies, Daishinyyu, (大親友) in Young King Bull magazine. Given the many years of Yuri or nearly-Yuri  from this creator, we can expect hijinks, breast jokes and gags aplenty. ^_^

Still Sick by Akashi has been licensed by Tokyopop, according to the TheOASG’s Twitter feed. I reviewed this office Yuri romance this spring and I’m actually quite positive about this coming out in English.

We’ve got a couple of new things up on the Yuricon Store (which is now functioning better than ever, thanks to our web weaver):

Yagate Kimi ni Naru Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite, Volume 2 (やがて君になる 佐伯沙弥香について), the second light novel following young lesbian Saeki Sayaka, which I am reading right now. ^_^

Ohsawa Yayoi’s first serialized story, Strange Babies (ストレンジベイビーズ 完全版), is getting a Complete Edition. And, now that 2DK, GPen, Mezamashitokei is over, we’ve got news of her upcoming series, “Hello, Melancholic!” (ハロー、メランコリック！) which will have  60-page debut in a future issue of Comic Yuri Hime. This new story will follow a Yin/Yang sempai-kouhai pair. Mismatched personalities do seem to be all the rage right now. And since the ad says its going to debut on the magazine that’s on sale in June, I’ll presume it’s the August issue.)

Kodama Naoko’s Uminekosou days, Volume 1 (海猫荘 days)  is now available.

Ichijinsha’s Surechigai Kyodai Kanjou Yuri Anthology (すれ違い巨大感情百合アンソロジー) is another example of mismatched pairings, with deep emotions.

Live Action

Last year we saw the Revolutionary Girl Utena live-action stage musical and it was actually pretty good! Now via about every YNN correspondent and media outlet, we have the scoop on the Black Rose arc musical. Ikuhara is going to be supervising again and most of the main cast is returning. ANN has the details and the first visual from Shōjo Kakumei Utena ~Fukaku Hokorobu Kuro Bara no.

Sailor Moon News

Viz has announced additional voice roles for the upcoming release of Sailor Moon Stars according to ANN.

The newest Sailor Moon 4D experience at Universal Japan includes the Outer Senshi. Check out the promo video on ANN.  (The Sailor Moon franchise is doing well outside the usual 2nd and 3rd dimensions, isn’t it? ^_^)

Other News

Via Yuri Navi, Yagate Kimi ni Naru/ Bloom Into You is getting a set of LINE stamps if you’re on that platform.

I was working on my day job when I encountered this amazing manga, The Story of Basic Immunology. This comic appears on the Japanese pharmaceutical company Kyowa Hakko Kirin’s website in Japanese and English. My coworkers found the manga (and the overlap of my worlds) very amusing. ^_^

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast, Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to!

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!