Yuri Anime

ANN reports that the Yagate Kimi ni Naru anime has cast announcements and a promotional video. Minako Kotobuki (Tsumugi from K-ON!) and Yūki Takada  (Eruma from Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid) will play Touko and Yuu respectively.

Happy Sugar Life has unveiled some new visuals, in this report from ANN.

One more from ANN, Comic Cune magazine’s Yuri-ish Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-chan will be getting an anime for the fall season. Anyone interested in writing some review limericks?

LGBTQ Manga

We wrap up my 30 Days of Pride Manga recommendation list on Twitter with fabulous news from Seven Seas, who have just announced that they have licensed Kamatani Yuhki’s Shimanami Tasogare!

Yuri Manga

Coupla new items up on the Yuricon Store! Hana ni Arashi (はなにあらし) follows Chidori and Nanoha who are almost as close as lovers. 

Miman’s debut volume Kimi-iro Shoujo (キミイロ少女 完全版) has been given a Perfect Edition.

In Hiru Shitagari, Mata (昼下がりに、また), Katakura Ako’s most recent volume, a married woman is wooed by her downstairs neighbor.

Sailor Moon News

The Nogizaka 46 casted version of the next Sailor Moon Musical has some cast visuals to share.

LGBTQ Comic News

Directly from creator Tee Franklin on Twitter, LGBTQ comic Bingo Love has a new edition coming out this fall!

The Comics Journal has an interview with our long-time friend Nikki Smith on her LGBTQ comic Crossplay.

Yuri Sim Game

I have no idea at all what the content is, but, Yuri Oboeru Yuri Amor / Yuri Oboeru Esperanto (百合でおぼえるユリアーモ/百合でおぼえるエスペラント) looks fascinating. Someone play this and tell us all about it!

Other News

Great news from YNN Correspondent Verso S, Julie Yllogique‏ on Twitter posted that the Annecy Film Festival featured “an all-women panel, and more importantly that it “didnt [sic] revolve around “being a woman in the animation industry”, just focusing on these amazing director’s work.” 

From Jawn-Luc Picard on Twitter, this amazing panel (from an anti-gay comic)…the birth of Diesel Dyke!

The Akihabara Gamers store is celebrating a year of their Yuribu with a special giveaway event. Buy 3 volumes of a selected set of Yuri manga and get a free first anniversary pamphlet!

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with your name and an email I can reply to!

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

An extra super-duper long YNN today. Check back in at the end to see why!

Yuri Anime

As the prophecy foretold, Anime Expo, July 5-8 in Los Angeles, will include a premier of the Asagao to Kase-san OVAhosted by both the director and producer. Check out the ANN report for details. 

Both Animage and Newtype magazine July issues spends some time giving coverage to the movie.  

Of all the interviews and articles I’ve mentioned here in support of the movie, the oddest and least apparently relevant so far has to be this interview with AKB48 member Okada Nana, who assures us that it doesn’t matter if its girls in love. Well, that’s settled then. ^_^

Funimation slams back onto our radar with complete DVD/Blu-ray combio boxset releases of the entire Mai HiME collections, My Hime, My Otome and My Otome: Zwei + My Otome 0: S.ifr! All the Shizuru x Natsuki, Chie x Aoi, and Haruka x Yukino for the win!

Yuri Manga

My Pride Month Manga recommendation list is still going strong onTwitter! This past week included not-manga suggestions that I thought folks should really not miss. ^_^ (In case its not that obvious, I’m trying my damnedest to give you a variety of genre, age, subject and publishers. Unlike my usual capricious choices, this one has been curated within an inch of it’s life. ^_^ If you value the effort, please consider spending a buck or two a month to support Okazu!

Do you remember that Yuri manga I mentioned last week called Yurikabe (ゆりかべ)? I thought it was about “kabe-don”, you know when people box someone in on a wall? I was soooo wrong. The wall is a Yuri matchmaker! It’s nuts. And great. Check out Seta Seta-sensei’s wacky story on Sukima for free (in Japanese).  My wife reminds me that one of my favorite youkai is Nurikabe, so perhaps this is his lesbian cousin. ^_^

Galette magazine is looking for Yuri doujinshi artists to contribute. They are very clear that they do not provide editorial support or take non-digital submissions, but if you’re interested, check out the guidelines on Galette [meets].

Nishio Yuhta’s After Hours, Volume 2 is now available in English from Viz!

In Bakejyou! ~ Youkai Gakuen Youkoso~ ( ばけじょ! ~妖怪女学園へようこそ~), 4-panel gag comic, Azuki enters a high school for youkai. 

Sakura Minori is an average girl, why is she so popular with the other girls at this rich girls school? Find out in Minori to Hyakunin no Ojousama ( みのりと100人のお嬢様 ).

Mushroom Girls In Love, about the valiant fungus-girl Arriala, fighting to rescue her love, will hit English-language shelves in July. Bruce would have been so pleased (and puzzled).

Shiori o Page-tachi ( しおりを探すページたち) from Comic Yuri Hime magazine is a belated entry to the Yuricon Store. And sweet slice-of-life Yuri, Tsurezure Biyori ( 徒然日和 ) joins it.

LGBTQ News

Have some queer news for Pride Month. ^_^

Do you want more comics about lesbian witches? I know I do! Then check out I am Hexed Kickstarter for the comic by Kirsten Thomas!

Sapporo, Japan has issued cards proving LGBT partnerships for use in emergencies, the Kyodo News Agency reports.

Meanwhile, Mainichi reports that Sexual minorities seek recognition of same-sex partnerships from 23 municipal assemblies. 

The Japan Time says that high-profile Japanese businesswoman Katsuma Kazuyo has come out as being in a same-sex relationship with political activist Masuhara Hiroko. 

Syfy channel‘s official Twitter account did a quick tweet with 5 queer comics creators whose names and work you should know!

Here’s a first for Okazu…Good Morning America(!) has an article on the 27 countries where same-sex marriage is legal. It’s a start.  I never expected to ever mention GMA here, for sure. ^_^

Visual Novel News

Studio Élan’s first Yuri Visual Novel Heart of the Woods demo is available on Steam and itch.io. 

Aikasa Collective has entered the Yuri Visual Novel market with Mizuchi (白蛇心傳),  a supernatural fantasy, inspired by the Legend of the White Serpent. 

Other News

Deb Aoki takes a look at the growth of the English-language manga market for Publishers Weekly in A New Golden Age for Western Manga.

Rachel Thorn has a new article on her blog called The Rise, Fall…and Rebirth…? of Shōjo Manga, in Japanese.

Okazu News

After several months of frenetic events and paneling, I am taking a well-deserved extended vacation from Okazu for a few weeks. I have a bunch of reviews lined up to post while I’m offline, I expect/hope/desire to get one last YNN report out this month. For the first time ever, we will have a Guest YNN Editor! I know you all know Louis P for terrific Visual Novel reviews. Louis has kindly accepted the charge of filling in here for at least one YNN Report in July. So please appreciate the effort, the time and thank them. I know that I’m ecstatic over this. I’ve never had anyone to step in on YNN before! Whee! I will be intermittently online, but mostly, I’ll be out having fun, so you go have some summer fun too. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks. 

Check out the Episode 2 of our Okazu News Analysis Podcast now on Patreon!

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with your name and an email I can reply to!

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

Kase-san Series News

June 9th was the official theatrical premiere of Asagao to Kase-san, the anime based on Takashima Hiromi-sensei’s manga of the same name. The press for the event has kept up the energy and at least a few theaters have booked the run for a week or even two, while other have an open-ended time frame. 

In the meantime, the interviews and articles are coming thick and fast. 

Comic Natalie reports that folks who see the OVA have another new piece of art in the pamphlet. The Director and voice actresses have a discussion about Yuri. Comic Natalie also has an event report from the premiere event. And Movie Walker has an article about the movie. (All of these are in Japanese.)

Yuri Anime

The folks at Comic Yuri Hime have yet another new anime license and, again, it is one of the stories I don’t follow, Watashi ni Tenshi ga Maoirita!  (I read about half the comics now – you know, the half they aren’t animating. ^_^) Check out the ANN report for details.

ANN also has news that Kaishaku’s incoherent Yuri-ish series, Eikyuu Monogatari ~Eternal Alice Rondo has been licensed by Diskotek. If you’ve never seen this, you won’t believe my description of it, anyway, so you might as well watch it, then come back and read my 2006 review, since not one moment of it makes sense anyway. ^_^

Yuri Manga

Killing Me~! (キリング・ミー!) is probably-a-vampire Yuri number four
It could turn out to be a bore
I may never know,
my motivation is low
I don’t think it could suck any more.

For folks who like high school love, Dare mo Ienai, Futarigoto (誰にも言えない、ふたりごと), first chapter is available online in Japanese.

There’s a new Yuri anthology on the block! Avalon (girls x garden comics) looks nice, but We’ll see. ^_^

Ichijinsha is putting out a perfect edition of Fujieda Miyabi’s Ame-iro Kouchakandan (飴色紅茶館歓談　完全版) in two volumes. Volume 1 and Volume 2 are slated for release at the end of this month. That means a new chapter in which Seriho makes Sarasa blush. Worth it.

I’m looking forward to the first volume of Model-chan to Jimimane-san (モデルちゃんと地味マネさん) about an attractive, yet flaky model and her serious, not-particularly-stylish manger.

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with your name and an email I can reply to!

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

Yuri Events

One more time with gusto – join me next weekend at AnimeNEXT in Atlantic City, NJ! I have so many things to give away for good questions! Please ask me good questions*, so I can give you things!

* I’ll be talking about what makes a question objectively “good” or “bad” during a panel in this week’s YNN Analysis Podcast, so be sure to tune in! (Okazu Patrons get early access at all levels. For as low as $2/month, you’ll get same-day access to this new feature, now available on Patreon!)

I’ll take this opportunity to remind you that there won’t be an YNN Report next week. But I may do some extemporaneous videoing (no promises!) from the con!

Yuri Anime

It’s the all Kase-san week, as we are seven days away from the huge theatrical release of Asagao to Kase-san in the theaters in Japan.

Yet *another* goodie for folks attending the movie has been released, reports Comic Natalie, original artwork by series creator Takashima Hiromi and a photo shoot of Yamada’s voice actress, Takahashi Masami and Kase-san’s voice actress, Sakura Akane has been posted online. The photo shoot was done by Hasegawa Keisuke, the same person responsible for the Yuriten main visual.

Rightstuf has a very attractive pre-order deal for the Revolutionary Girl Utena Blu-ray set, which includes production sketches, a simply gorgeous box set design and both Student Council and Black Rose rings. I have no money and should absolutely not be getting this, but…Black Rose Ring. ^_^;

ANN has the 2nd promotional video of Happy Sugar Life and reports a July premier.

Yuri Manga

Blick Publishing has announced a digital agreement with Morishima Akiko-sensei to digitally serialize her story for Galette magazine, Motto Hanjuku Joshi, (in Japanese). Just as the title indicates, Motto Hanjuku Joshi takes place after the conclusion of her two-volume series Hanjuku Joshi. Take a look at Okazu reviews of Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the original and drop by Booklive.jp for the newest chapters!

Yurigurashi (ゆりぐらし) tells the story of a two women in a relationship, living together. Hits me right in the “I want that so hard it hurts.”

YNN Correspondent Pat wrote in to let us know that there is a third Yuri + Kanojo anthology, Yuri +Kanojo Heroine doushi no Happy End (百合+カノジョ-ヒロイン同士のハッピーエンド). It’s already in my shopping cart. I’ve enjoyed both the Yuri + Kanojo volumes I’ve read. 

The final volume of Viz Media’s definitive English release of Shimura Takako’s Sweet Blue Flowers is hitting shelves this month. I hope they did that on purpose, it being Pride Month and all….

Speaking of which, because heaven knows I don’t have enough on my plate I decided to release a “Good Pride Month Manga to Read” a day on Twitter. Because I can.

Yuri Visual Novels

I’m not trying to beat this Valve thing to death, but just after I posted this report last week, a news item came across my desk which was a bit of an ah-ha. Nick Statt on The Verge wrote: Apple rejects Valve’s Steam Link game streaming app over ‘business conflicts’. 

LGBTQ Comics

Being True, a comics anthology celebrating LGBTQ life and identity, has just launched a Pride Month kickstarter, and is already past their halfway point. Run by a local comics group out of Boston, the sincerity and sweetness of this collection is really quite lovely.

Other News

The Animate Cafe in Kyoto is celebrating Maria-sama ga Miteru‘s 20th Anniversary with special themed cafe items.

If you liked Marvel’s Black Panther, check out Nnedi Okorafor’s TED talk on science fiction that imagines a future Africa.  I’m a huge fan of her work and found the talk enlightening.

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with your name and an email I can reply to!

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