Yuri Manga

It’s an online Yuri manga bonanza this week!

For those of you reading Shimura Takako’s Awajima Hyakkei (淡島百景) series online, the final issue will be posted in October, according to Ohta Publishing’s twitter account. Presumably this means that the series, about a group of young ladies who have entered an academy for a famous all-female musical performance troupe, will get a second print volume this winter.

Via Godley Malabanan, the creator of  World Canvas, we have news of Spring Roll, by spring, that follows “The daily life of two girls who somehow fell in love with each other” on LINE’s webtoons.

Thanks to YNN Correspondent and creator Ari North, who wrote in to tell us about their comic, Always Human, “a manga-influenced webcomic about nanobots, genetic engineering and two women falling in love.” Also on LINE’s webtoons, this sounds like an amazing series. Science fiction author David Brin described it as “a reflection on genetic engineering, body image, beauty, and gender identity, as well as what it means to be human”. Well, cool!

And YNN Correspondent Bing C has written in with more news from online comic platform Lezhin. “Lezhin has recently announced the winners of the 1st Lezhin US Comic Contest.  Two new Yuri webcomics won second and third place:

***

Support Yuri News, Review and Interviews! 

Support Okazu!

***

Yuri Anime

Crunchyroll News has the report that Glitter Force, the localized version of Smile PreCure is getting a second season on Netflix.

Live-Action

I don’t really know what to make of this….there are plans for a live-action adaptation of Saki, the mahjong, moe and Yuri epic manga that I keep assuming will be finished any day and keeps chugging along.

The Grand Stage Live website has been updated with an image of the flyer for the show and I thought I’d tell you about the flyers. ^_^

When you go to a Japanese anime/manga store, there are racks for flyers for new releases, shows, anime movie premiers, doujinshi events and in-person events. The flyers interest me a great deal, because we always hear about how technologically advanced Japan is and never really think about that. In fact, every event I have ever been to there, comes with a half ton of printed matter. So check the link and imagine picking this up at Animate in Ikebukuro. (Actually, if anyone sees this somewhere, can you grab me one? I’d love to have a copy.)

The amazing, fabulous, wonderful Lumberjanes comic has been greenlit for a live-action movie. And now it has a director, Emily Carmichael. Woot!

Other News

The Yayoi Museum in Tokyo is holding a retrospective exhibition of artwork by Yamagishi Ryouko. She was a member of the genre-defining 24 year group (which includes Moto Hagio and Riyoko Ikeda and other influential and extraordinary artists.) Here on Okazu, Yamagishi is primarily known for her creation Shiroi Heya no Futari, which I credit as being the first “Yuri” manga. The exhibit will run from September 30-December 25. If you get a chance to visit, do let us know how it is!

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!

Welcome back to Yuri News Network! Today we have news from all over the globe, brought to us by our amazing YNN correspondents.

Yuri Manga

The top story of Otakon – Viz Media has licensed Shimura Takako’s Sweet Blue Flowers/Aoi Hana for a print release in 2-in-1 omnibus volumes. And, because it’s Viz, I think it’s a fair bet you’ll get all 4 volumes without problems. The ANN report has details, and thanks to all the many YNN Correspondents out there who let me know the news while I was away! You can be sure that as soon as I have pre-order info, it’ll go up here and on the Yuricon Store.

Welcome, Viz, to the Yuri family. ^_^

***

Subscribe to Okazu with 

and help support Yuri news and reviews!

***

2017 is shaping up to be a good year for Yuri manga in English with Rose of Versailles from Udon Press hitting shelves for the holiday season this winter, Bloom Into You,  Hina and Hana Afterschool,  and the Kase-san series from Seven Seas, Murcielago from Yen Press, and Sweet Blue Flowers from Viz. A good year indeed and a great variety of Yuri from various publishers. This is an excellent sign of growth.

The second volume of Morinaga Milk’s Hina to Hana no Houkago (ハナとヒナは放課後) is out in Japanese already, if you prefer to get your practice in before the series wraps up. ANN has the news that the series will end in November with Volume 3.^_^

Yuri Visual Novels

YNN Correspondent Ruby B. is thrilled to tell you that JAST  USA has brought the popular Marimite-esque Yuri VN series Flowers – Le volume sur printemps to the west. Whee! It’s $19.99 on Steam and also available at online retailers. Jye N. reviewed the first one of the series back in 2015,  and it’s part of the JAST USA’s summer sale, good until August 31, so give it a look!

Yuri Anime

Again on ANN, we’ve got news that Sentai Filmworks is set to release CLAMP’s fighting shoujo game manga Angelic Layer on DVD/BD. Back in the day, this was still considered a Yuri anime, when we had so few characters to work with, as there is a Yuri couple in the competition.

Funimation is releasing the Yuri Kuma Arashi anime on BD and DVD. ANN has details.

With news that R.O.D is going to a 12th and final novel, after more than a decade of it remaining unfinished, there is now news that a new Read or Die anime is being considered.  Interestingly, Crunchyroll’s report of this uses the newer R.O.D. Rehabilitation manga images and ANN’s uses a LN cover tying it to the novesl, so I honestly don’t know if this series would follow the new Yomiko (moe, futuristic, dark) or the older bibliomaniac we know and love.Thanks YNN Correspondent Shannon L for the heads up!

Yuri Live-Action

I’ve actually mentioned this before but so many folks have mentioned it to me recently, I thought it’s worth repeating. Park-Chan Wook who is already well known as a director for  Korean live-action movie of Oldboy, has released The Handmaiden, based on Sarah Waters book Fingersmithing, as a Korean gothic tale. Thanks to YNN Correspondent Simon B and a bunch of other folks for reminding me of this. ^_^

ANN has a glimpse of the new lineup for the fourth Sailor Moon Musical,  Amour Eternal. New Inner Senshi, same Outer Senshi and I’ll never look at Yamato Yuuga the same after seeing her as Roxy in Chicago. ^_^

I feel nasty about linking to 9gag, but here is a bit of fun otaku stuff worth sharing. Apparently Japanese Yuri otaku were going gaga over German Olympian Ariane Friedrich for a resemblance to Tenoh Haruka/Sailor Uranus. The icing on the cake is that Friedrich is, in fact, a Sailor Moon fan. ^_^

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!

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!

Events News

This week we celebrate 14 years of Okazu and 16 years of Yuricon!

While I celebrate several things at once, the next few weeks will be a veritable desert of reviews. Please imagine me having a very good time while you re-read 14 years of reviews, news and interviews here on Okazu. ^_^

Trust me –  when I get back I’ll have something very fun for you AND a Flame Con report!

In the meantime, if you want to help celebrate, please consider subscribing and helping us continue to expand our sites!

***

Celebrate 14 years of Yuri News, Review and Interviews! 

Support Okazu!

***

Yuri Manga

Speaking of expanding, we’ve got some great new Yuri manga up on the Yuricon Store!

Koruri’s Momoiro Trance, Volume 1 (桃色トランス) and the final volume of Yuri Kuma Arashi, (ユリ熊嵐) Morishima Akiko and Ikuhara Kunihiko’s amazing fantasy collaboration.

I’m excited about the first volume of Takemiya Jin’s newest series, My First Lady (マイ・ファーストレディ).

Bookwalker has a new entry for Yuri Tantei Yurianzu (百合探偵ユリアンズ), which sounded like it could be fun, but then I saw it was from Champion Red, so it won’t. ^_^;

I’m also very interested in SYNCANDI, “real love in a synthetic world.”. “Sync, a fatally wounded military assassin would rather die than have the state corporation which owns her body turn her into a fully synthetic immortal killer. She steals Ikkyu, a synthetic human paramedic and flees to an abandoned experimental zone codenamed Genies Res, in order to die. The last thing on Sync’s mind is love .”

I’m looking forward to giving this a test run. ^_^

Other News

Bleeding Cool has a terrific interview with Corrinna S. Bechko about the first superheroine created and drawn by a woman, Miss Fury.

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

Top News this week – Yen Press has announced that they’ve licensed Canno’s school-life Yuri series, Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo as A Kiss and White Lily For Her. ANN has the report.

With this and the MURCIELAGO license announcement, it’s pretty obvious that Yen is serious about getting some interesting Yuri manga in their catalog. Thanks, Yen Press folks! ^_^

From Comic Natalie, we have news that the third volume of 2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei by Ohsawa Yayoi will be getting special bromides with illustrations, depending on where you get your copy. Gamers, Toranoana and COMIC ZIN are participating.

Also from ANN, we see that Kodansha is planning a deluxe English edition of the Ghost in the Shell manga. Uncut, which means that one page of gratuitous lesbian sex, if that’s important to you. ^_^;

Crunchyroll News tells us that the 10th volume of the Non Non Biyori manga is being packaged with an original animation, for those of you who like that series (Greg, this one’s for you!)

***

Subscribe to Okazu with 

and help support Yuri news and reviews!

***

Kickstarter Watch

The Kickstarter of the Week that we really, really, really need help with is Year 4 of Sparkler Monthly! 3 days left to go and we’re so close we can taste it! Please, if you have an extra few bucks, send it their way and give this wonderful magazine another year of life! More Yuri, more BL, more voice dramas!

Yuri Anime

Also from ANN we learn that Media Blasters will be releasing Yamibou on Blu-Ray (which won’t actually help with the visuals, but will look as nice as possible, one assumes.)

ANN also reports on the agreement between Viz Media and TubiTV that will bring all 5 seasons of the original Sailor Moon anime streaming to Canada.

Crunchyroll News tells us that the second season of Smile! Precure has been licensed to Netflix – still renamed as Glitter Force.

Other News

Scott Green on Crunchyroll News has gathered some video clips from the Takarazuka shows in New York City last week. Enjoy!

One more from Crunchyroll – Kaiohsha is bringing Japanese classic literature to life as Drama CDs with well-known voice actors. What a fantastic idea, huh?

In the American comics world, Roxanne Gay is the first black, gay woman to write a comic for Marvel. Gay and Ta-Nehisi Coates are teaming up to work on a comic about two women in love in Black Panther’s kingdom of Wakanda.

We’ll finish up with some sweet news from Comic-Con, where Steven Universe creator, Rebecca Sugar came out as bisexual and spoke of the personal importance of media representation for sexual and gender minorities.

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!