Yuri Anime

Pony Canyon has announced that they will be selling the Asagao to Kase-san / Kase-san and Morning Glories animation DVD at their table at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, CA this weekend! The official Twitter account thanked everyone for their support and says that they hope to be able to do more animation for the series. Stay focused and keep supporting this series.  (If someone picks me up a copy of the DVD, I’ll be glad to pay for it and the shipping. Let me know if you’re there.)

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Citrus and NTR: Netsuzou Trap anime are moving forward and will be streaming this summer on various services. 

Kat Callahan wrote a lovely hopeful article on Anime NOW! on NTR that expresses hope that it will exceed it’s own description.  I wish I could tell her it would.

I’m going to take a moment to once again explain my position on these two series. Citrus and NTR  are not, in my opinion, Yuri. They are anime that use lesbianism as a fetish in relationship to manipulation (and in the case of Citrus, mental illness) for the sole purpose of sexual stimulation. The editor in chief of Comic Yuri Hime promotes what he likes and he likes this stuff, therefore this is what they invest in. It is not the kind of Yuri I want to read or watch. I will allow a guest review of the Citrus anime, but Okazu will never host any review of NTR. It is absolutely vile and I’m repulsed by everything about it.

Crunchyroll will be streaming A Centaur’s Life this summer.

If you’re looking for something classic and less manipulative, Sailor Moon S Part 1 and Part 2 are now available!   Not Yuri, but still Sailor Moon-related, ANN reports that Sailor Moon Crystal Season 4 will be released as a two-part movie, rather than a streamed TV series. 

LGBTQ News

The crowdfunding sensation queer WoC romance comic Bingo Love is now avaialable for pre-order! I’m looking forward to this book so hard, I upgraded my backer level. ^_^ Cannot wait.

Germany now officially has marriage equality! Very exciting for our LGBTQ friends there.

Check out this fabulous animated version of Johnny Cash’s Long Black Veil, by Jenny Owens Young and Isabella Rotman. Give them a thumbs up for their efforts then check out Isabella’s queer-friendly comics!

Signature Move, a movie about two female professional wrestlers who fall in love, is making the film festival rounds this summer. It’s been picked up by Amazon Video, so stay on the look out for it to hit in 2018. ^_^

Last bit of news this week – I’m very excited for Elizabeth Beier‘s announcement of her comic collection The Big Book of Bisexual Trials and Errors with Northwest Press. Yay for Elizabeth! Her work is brilliant. Please consider backing this project on Kickstarter.

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

Some new Yuri manga up on the Yuricon Store!

Volume 4 of Nakatani Nio’s Yagate Kimi ni Naru, will hit shelves later this month.  Bloom Into You, Volume 3 in English will be a September release.

The much-anticipated new volume of the Kase-san series, Apron to Kase-san. ( エプロンと加瀬さん。), is slated for a July release. If you’re interested in the deluxe version packaged with the animation clip, that also will be hitting shelves in July.

 Eclair blanche – Anata ni Hibiku Yuri Anthology the sequel to the first Eclair anthology, comes out this week.

August will see the release of MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 3 in English.

Read the first chapter of Kimashika Ruri’s To Aru Kekkon about a same-sex marriage! It’s really cute and I definitely want to read the full volume in Japanese.

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LGBTQ News

The ground-breaking documentary Queer Japan has released another new promotional clip! They can still use help with their post-processing, so if you have a buck or two extra and want to help, please go visit their GoFundMe.

Sailor Moon News

The Sailor Moon R Movie is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. This has no Yuri (though there is a good case for a BL plot) but it has Moon Revenge which makes the thing fully worth watching. ^_^

Resistance News

Look, I want to be honest here. The most radicalized, violent group of people in the world: rich, white, nominally Christian men, are about commit an act of terrorism against the American people that may not be something we’ll recover from in my lifetime.

But. Resistance is NEVER futile. Get involved in local activism. Run for office.  Donate your time or money to causes you care about. Keep fighting.

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 Research

It is with great pleasure that I announce the publication of my article On defining yuri in Transformative Works and Culture, no. 24 in which I take a definitive look at why any definition of “Yuri” cannot be definitive.  ^_^

As I’ve said elsewhere, if you spot a mistake in the article kindly do not tell me. I am already quite nauseous from looking at it over and over. ^_^ My sincere thanks the folks at TWC, who were absolutely lovely guiding me through their (to my mind labyrinthine) processes. I cannot imagine having to do that professionally, I’d absolutely lose what little grip on sanity I already have. I have sincere sympathy for academic researchers who need to publish regularly.

If you need to write a piece of research on Yuri and are looking for  resources, check out the Yuri Essays Page on Yuricon! And if you have written a piece of Yuri-related research, we’d love to host it. 

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Yuri Manga

Yay! The three chapters of Denise Schroeder’s Yuri Manga Before You Go is available as complete  e-book from Sparkler Monthly.

LGBTQ News

Check out this new clip from the Queer Japan documentary amplifying the voices of artists, activists, community leaders, and everyday LGBTQ+ people in Japan. You can support this movie on their Gofundme page.

Other News

ANN reports that Moto Hagio’s vampirish, BLish fantasy Poe no Ichizoku (The Poe Clan)  will be getting a Takarazuka show in 2018.

Comic Natalie has posted a discussion between Takashima Hiromi, creator of the Kase-san series and Satou Takuya, director of the Asagao to Kase-san animation clip. 

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

At last the first volume of Sweet Blue Flowers by Takaoa Shimura fro Viz is available for pre-order! The book has a mid-September release date.

Don’t forget that After Hours by Yuhta Nishio is hitting shelves next week. Don’t miss this admittedly rare adult-life Yuri manga.

In Black Lily to Shiroyuri-chan ( ブラックリリィと白百合ちゃん) Lily is a top student at an elite school for girls. Then she meets Shiroyuri-chan.

The folks at ANN have been reviewing manga like maniacs and at least two, After Hours, Volume 1 and My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness fall into our wheelhouse. Take a look at what people who are not me think!

Anime News

I don’t think there’s going to be any Yuri in it, but ANN has the news that upcoming  Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection movie has a new trailer and I can’t help hoping. ^_^; It looks fun anyway. Lots of magical battles and that’s what we like best, right?

NTR: Netsuzou Trap, will have a July 5 premiere. Once again I point out that, despite lesbian sex, it’s not Yuri. The plot is two girls cuckolding their boyfriends and no one is happy. Ever. We’re not going to review it here on Okazu, so you’re on our own.

Event News

My trip to Yurithon, August 4-6 in Montreal, Canada is official and booked. I’m a “Special Guest” and hope to be doing a bunch of panels and giving away all sorts of random crap for good questions. ^_^ Please stop by and say hello! 

ANN also reports that Anime Expo will be hosting a premier of the Card Captor Sakura Clear Card Arc prologue anime. What fun!

The Annecy International Film Festival will be screening a special program covering 100 years of Japanese animation at their event, according to ANN. That sounds awesome.

LGBTQ News

In honor of LGBTQ Pride month, folks are pulling out the stops on great lists of LGBTQ content to read!

Tor/Forge has published What to Read After Watching Yuri!!! On Ice by Lianne Sentar (of Seven Seas and Chromatic Press)

Don’t forget the comic version of Queers in Comics Conference, by Maeve MacLysaght. It’s pay what you want, so go grab a copy!

Patrice Caldwell put together 25 New Queer YA Books To Read This Spring and Summer for Autostraddle.

Before we wrap up, I just want to point out that the top 4 books on Amazon’s Yaoi, Gay & Lesbian comic category are LGBTQ, not BL or Yuri. Admittedly, 2 are My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness (Print and Kindle are#1 and #2 in the category!) This is followed by My Brother’s Husband, which I hope to review this week. The third is Love is Love which, given that we’re up against the one-year memorial of the Pulse nightclub shooting, is not surprising. 

This year, we’re back to protest during Pride, and we’re going to need our community more than ever, Here’s wishing us all a great Pride month!

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 Visual Novels

Several Yuri VNs are on sale over at Denpasoft right now. The demo for the obviously 18+ Alpha’s Adventures is free and includes demos of all the paths, according to the description. If this appeals to you, do let us know how the demo looks.

Also on sale are Highway Blossoms and Love, Guitars and the Nashville Skyline. I enjoyed the former when I played it, and have heard nice things about the latter. 

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Yuri Events

Girl’s Love Festival is happening in a few hours in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, and Morishima Akiko-sensei has created the doujinshi that I felt was the most obvious thing *ever* that needed to exist. Check out her Yuri Yuri on Ice! doujinshi on Pixiv. (And if you’re going to GLF, pick me up a copy? Thanks!) If you’ve been wondering where she’s gone, the answer is…online. Her work has moved to mostly digital. Amazon JP won’t allow non-JP addresses to get Kindle books, but don’t worry, her work is available on other platforms as well, like Kobo, Renta! and Comic SeeMore (which I’ve used). Check out her comic novel in collaboration with Nanbu Kumako, Sasayaki no Kiss on Jimdo.com, for all the links.

Yuri Anime

Crunchyroll has added Serial Experiments Lain which, as I found during a recent rewatch, held up a lot better than I had expected! Check out my reviews of Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Yuri Manga

Kurosaki Rendou’s Yuri stories from Rakuen Le Paradis magazine have been collected into a volume, Kanojochuu (彼女中). His art is always kinda ugly, the characters look strung out, the sex is messy and the stories gross. but he has a niche. ^_^

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness is *still* heading up the Yaoi, Gay & Lesbian Manga category! Rock on you folks buying it!

Other News

Matt Thorn has put together a terrific primer on the “Magnificent Forty-Niners,” the women responsible for much of what we think of as shoujo (and BL) manga. This is a great read about manga history and these still-current masters of the medium!

The new photos of the next Sailor Moon musical characters, Sailor Galaxia and the Animamates on ANN made me squee. ^_^ Please, powers that be, let Lead Crow and Aluminum Siren have a moment. Please.

Another lesbian couple had a Disney Princess wedding at Tokyo Disneyland. Still meaningless, but pretty. BUT, back here in the real world, the city of Sapporo in Japan is now allowing same-sex marriage certificates. That makes six places in Japan. (And today, my Facebook feed included a letter from a Japanese store manager who told a customer to never come back, after receiving a complaint about a couple of men holding hands in the store.) Steps forward.

Resistance News

The Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, NY is hosting an exhibition called Graphic Activism. The opening is June 15, from 7-9PM. “Graphic Activism features a selection of posters, newsletters, and zines from the largest collection of lesbian materials in the world. Comprised of posters from across the United States, this exhibit celebrates lesbian arts and artists, including Leslie Feinberg’s Passing Fancy: Passing Women in Their Own Words and Rivers of Honey, a NYC-based Woman of Color Arts Cabaret, and addresses such topics as gay teen suicide and AIDS activism.”

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!