Catching up on a couple of week’s worth of Yuri News! 

Yuri Anime

ANN reports that anime for Saburouta’s Yuri series Citrus will premiere on Japanese TV on January 6th. No streaming license as of yet for it here in the US, if you have news of it legally streaming in your locality, let us know. Additionally, ANN has news about the Citrus anime theme songs and character voices.

Vixz has announced the release of Sailor Moon Crystal 3rd Season on Blu-ray/DVD combo.

Crunchyroll is on a licensing spree the last few weeks. They’ve added Kiddy Grade and Burst Angel, (aka Bakuetsu Tenshi, notable for having characters named Meg, Jo, Amy and Sei-who-is-not-named-Beth) from the Funimation catalog. Both of these have marginal Yuri, the latter more than the former. Not-Yuri, but of interest to many of us, Crunchyroll has also added ARIA The NATURAL.

Also available in the new year will be the new Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card Arc, (for which Funimation will be producing a dub.) Here’s the lushly animated trailer.

Komatsu-san over at Crunchyroll News says that Toei has announced the next PreCure series – Hugtto! PreCure, which based on its name, is going to be ever-so inspiring to doujinshi artists. Komatsu-san also notes that Toei has created a PreCure 15th anniversary website announcing collaborations and celebrations.

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Not-Yuri, and very likely, not-good either, “gender-bender idol manga” Back Street Girls is getting an anime, that I think ought to be titled, “Many ways to offend women and trans people-a-Gogo” as three street punks getting “sex change operations” and become a girl pop idol group seems like a great way to be obnoxious about both sex and gender for many hundreds of pages.

LGBTQ Manga

Reminding you all that Seven Seas has announced the license of My Solo Exchange Diary by Kabi Nagata, the sequel to My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness. Very interestingly, Seven Seas announced another autobiographical LGBTQ Comic Essay recently, The Bride Was A Boy by Chii, about her life as a transgender woman.

Live-Action News

The Japonisme 2018 event in Paris, France will have an exciting addition this year -a Sailor Moon musical performance! Check out ANN’s report for the details.

My Mom saw Fun Home the Musical last night and thought it very good. She viewed it from the perspective of a mother whose daughter was like Alison, so a completely different perspective than my own, obviously. ^_^ (So, now, both my mother and father have reviews on Okazu. How fun is that?)

Visual Novel News

BL game production site BL Lobby, has announced a Yuri route in their game Hatsukoi Signal. 

Other News

ANN confirms what I guessed, that Torikaebaya by Saitou Chiho will wrap up with the 13th volume (I’m reading Volume 12 now and we are heading for a tempestuous climax.) They also report that she’ll be starting up a new series in April and that the second new Utena chapter will be in the March issue of Flowers magazine, hitting shelves on January 27.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

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

Short news report today, as I’m on the floor of Anime NYC.

LGBTQ Manga

Seven Seas has two big license announcements so far this week. As we previously covered, Kabi Nagata’s sequel comic My Solo Exchange Diary  continues her struggles with life and, I’m pleased to report that they have also licensed Riyoko Ijkeda’s LGBTQ comic Claudine!, which I have many times noted can be validly read as either a story of a butch lesbian or a trans man. I very much look forward to seeing this in English!

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Live-Action News

Comic Natalie has a report of a new Revolutionary Girl Utena Musical making its way on stage in March 2018.  As  one of the few who remembers the musical from the early 2000s, this news made me cringe and laugh. Hopefully this one is not nearly as excruciating. ^_^ And, in one of those maddening mis-timings that plague me, There is a Revolutionary Girl Utena exhibit at Tobu in Ikebukuro that will close the day before I arrive. Yes, I’m vexed. (-_-);

Other News

Prada is honoring the work of female comics creators and illustrators with a new fashion line.

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find.Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

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

Revolutionary Girl Utena News

As Shoujo Kakumei Utena hit’s its 20th anniversary, (about which I have written a retrospective), a new 2-volume reprint is hitting shelves from Shogagkuan in Japanese (You can read a preview here and see the covers here) and of course we have gorgeous Viz deluxe 2-volume set in English.) Figma is also weighting in with their Utena figurine.

LGBTQ Comics

YNN Correspondent Laura C.  says that Jpop announced an Italian edition of Shimanami Tasogare! She’s not sure if they’ll actually carry through, though, so fingers crossed.

The Maiden Voyage is a lesbian-lead pirate story picture book for kids that sounds like it ought to be on all our holiday wish-lists. ^_^ 

And while you’re adding that, make sure you include Elizabeth Beier’s The Big Book of Bisexual Trial and Errors, which I have sitting here and cannot *wait* to read! Here’s a review on Comicsverse, in case my enthusiasm isn’t enough to convince you to run out and get it.

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Yuri Manga 

Crunchyroll News has a report on Writer x Writer, the new manga series by Fukami Makoto, running in Mangatime Kirara Forward magazine. I wouldn’t normally say that cover art is indicative of Yuri, but Fukami is and combined with the fact that it’s a Mangatime Kirara magazine story, I’d give it a 75% chance of being or having Yuri.

Yuri Anime

According to Komatsu-san on Crunchyroll, Lantis’ official YouTube channel has posted a four-minute full music video of  the OP theme for the ongoing TV anime adaptation of Sakuya Amano’s Yuri manga Konohana Kitan.

Other News

Laura C also noted that Lucca Comics, the biggest comic convention in Italy and Star Comics said there is no date for Sailor Moon Eternal Version because Takeuchi-sensei wants it to be the most faithful possible to the original This echoes some comments I’ve heard from Viz, as well. So as 25 years approaches for Sailor Moon, it’s obvious that Takeuchi-sensei’s got firm hold of the reigns of her masterwork. That makes me happy. Laura also says that Dynit announced the Kill La Kill anime. Great news out of Italy.

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find.Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

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

Yuri Manga

We’re starting today with some excellent news out of Italy from YNN Correspondent Laura C! She has these items to share: 

A new edition of Sailor Moon is being published by Star Comics. They call it Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon New Edition, in 16 volumes which should include the short stories and Sailor V. They also announced the Eternal Edition (12 volumes ), but no date has been announced.

Star Comics will also be releasing the Harmony manga next March. 

Il marito di mio fratello (Otouto no Otto) hit the shelves last week from Panini Comics. Laura believes it’s the first proper “gay” manga to be published by a major comics publisher. It will be released in omnibus in 2 softcover volumes. 

Thanks for the news, Laura, this is really terrific!

The editorial team behind Rakuen Le Paradis (楽園 Le Paradis) magazine announces two new Yuri series:  from creator Kazuma Kowo will be a reprint of her Yuri Hime story Junsui Adolescence (my review of which you can find here on Okazu) and Preparat by Shigisawa Kaya in Volume 25 and 26.

Whoa! Via Comic Natalie prolific manga creator Nakamura Asumiko is turning her sights on Yuri with a new series Mejirobana Saku (メジロバナの咲く)! Also starting in Rakuen Le Paradis, Volume 25. Guess I’m getting that volume. 

Let me editorialize here for a moment. I’d been reading Rakuen Le Paradis since it began publishing. I especially like the early volumes of this quarterly when they had a weird, uncomfortable mix of BL, Yuri and straight manga all for adult women. Since the beginning, it included comics by Nishi UKO, quite possibly, my favorite manga artist ever, and a number of other Yuri titles, including runs by Hirao Auri, Hayashiya Shizuru, Mizutani Fuuka and others. 

Once Nishi UKO’s stellar series Collectors wrapped up, I moved my reading over to Bookwalker, because I just am out of room for magazines and I won their giveaway of $100 gift certificate, so I filled my Bookwalker box up with light novels and magazines. But the next several issues had no Yuri, or BL and was basically wholly straight romance and sex. I don’t mind that, however the fetishes weren’t mine. It had sort of settled down and hadn’t settled into my niche. So I decided to drop the magazine without prejudice. The last issue I read was Volume 24. … …. And here we are 3 months later, and I’m going to have to keep reading the next volume. Seriously, what happened there? Did a metric ton of people kill their subscriptions or something? I’m not complaining, but it does seem like interesting timing. ^_^

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Yuri Anime

ANN has the dub trailer for Viz Media’s release of Sailor Moon Crystal 3rd season.

From Crunchyroll News, Funimation has announced the dub cast for Konohana Kitan. (As of time of publication, Crunchyroll is down, but I hope they will fix their problems quickly. Just be warned.)

LGBTQ News

Maiden, Mother, and Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes is a Bedside Press anthology of new fantastical short fiction by trans women and trans feminine writers curated by celebrated poet and author Gwen Benaway. They are taking submissions until December 15th, so get those stories in!

The Yodogawa section of Osaka has passed a pro-LGBT ordinance. It confers no legal status, but indicates that the section of town will respect LGBT people.

Other News

If you like beautiful Yuri artbooks, take a look at Shilin’s newest offering FANTASIA.

Over on Oh No They Didn’t on Livejournal(!), Zyuranger takes a look at the 5 Best and Worst Animators on the original Sailor Moon anime.

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find.Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

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