Another amazing Yuri-filled news week!

Yuri Manga

From YNN Senior Correspondent Grisznak, we have more excellent news -Polish publisher Dango have announced that they will release Kimi Koi Limit by Momono Moto in November. I hope the Polish Yuri fans are taking advantage of all these great releases! And I hope you get the sequel, Rainy Song, as well.

Thai Yuri Manga Lily Love (which I reviewed in 2015) is now available in English in print! Preorders are being taken now! and the new edition will include a few extras beyond the Thai edition.

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Yuri Visual Novels

Roadtrip-themed Yuri Visual Novel Highway Blossoms has been released on Steam. I’ve just started it, so review to come soon. ^_^ 15% off if you buy now!

YNN Correspondent Jamie wants to remind everyone that  Love, Guitars, and the Nashville Skyline, another Yuri visual novel about a road trip through America, from Cosmillica, is currently being localized by Sekai Project. 

Yuri Cartoon

By Daniel Errico, the same creator who brought us the adorable gay fairytale, Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived, comes a brand new lesbian-themed Hulu fairytale cartoon, Rosaline, which was darling and you should totally watch it right now!

LGBTQ  News

The 2nd biennial Queers & Comics Conference will be in San Francisco, April 14-15, 2017.  They are seeking proposals for panels or workshops. LGBTQ cartoonists, editors, publishers, scholars, etc. – don’t miss this amazing event! Proposals for panels are due JULY 1, so get them in! Queer Cartoonists of Color, Transgender Cartoonists and Queer Women Cartoonists are encouraged to submit proposals.

For your summer reading, check out this list of 10 Classic LGBTQ Novels to not-miss. Jane Rule’s Desert of the Heart is highly recommended by me.

HumbleBundle has put together a special pride month special of LGBTQ graphic novels for you to enjoy. Get a bunch of comics I’ve reviewed like, Infinite Loop, No Straight Lines, Wandering Son  and other LGBTQ manga classics like Heart of Thomas and Massive. Pay what you can for more than $200 worth of LGBTQ comics and manga!

Yuri Essays

We’re going to wrap up today’s report with some personal good news. I have had my first ever article for an academic journal approved for publication. Yayyyyy!

“On Defining Yuri” is slated for inclusion in Transformative Works and Cultures, No. 24, “Queer Female Fandom,” guest edited by Julie Levin Russo and Eve Ng, which will appear on June 15, 2017. Finally! a definitive look at why there can never be a definitive look at Yuri. ^_^ When it’s published, I’ll be sure to include a link to it.

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 Event

If you weren’t already planning on attending, get yourself down to AnimeNEXT in Atlantic City today at 3:30 for my last lecture of the first half of 2016! I’ll be talking “Yuri, Yaoi/Boy’s Love, Bara – How Fandom Made Queer Manga Possible” in Panel Room 319 at 3:30 PM. Prizes for good questions, as usual.

Yuri Manga

Well. Last week, we had a veritable deluge of amazing licenses from Seven Seas! They will be bringing out both Side A and Side B of the Okujou no Yurirei-san manga volumes under the western Kindred Spirits name. Both volumes were cute without being creepy, so that’s something we can really enjoy fully.

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Morinaga Milk-sensei is well represented with two new series, The Secret of the Princess (Ohime-sama no Himitsu) and her current series, Hana  and Hina Afterschool (Hana to Hina no Houkago).

Most exciting of all, they have licensed Takashima Hiromi’s Kase-san series, a series that has consistently made my Top Ten Lists and which was named Best Yuri Manga of 2014! (Here are my reviews of Asagao to Kase-san, Obentou to Kase-san and Shortcake to Kase-san.)

So kudos to Seven Seas and thanks for their continuing efforts to expand Yuri in the west. Good for them and good for us. You can be sure I’ll have links to these as soon as pre-orders are up. Now go tell friends – it’s up to us to make this a successful market.  ^_^

Yuri Comics and Novels

While we’re celebrating, let’s do a little jig at the news from Moviepilot.com that a Legend of Korra comic is coming from Dark Horse and it picks up after the series ends, Korra x Asami intact. Whee! (And btw, this site is your new best friend. Bookmark it.) YNN Correspondent Jennifer Y-D say she got the Free Comic Book Day prequel issue and it was great. This comic cannot come fast enough for me.

One more exciting publication on the horizon in English – the Steven Universe episode “The Answer”, which details the circumstances of Garnet’s origin will be made into a book, according to moviepilot.com. (I did tell you they were your new best friend.) And they have a lovely interview with Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar on why LGBTQ representation in cartoons is so important.

ANN has the news that Card Captor Sakura is getting it’s own newspaper.

And as a special for Pride month, YNN Correspondent Jennifer Y-D wants you to know that Humble Bundle has a LGBTQ book offer for Pay Whay You Want, which includes a number of graphic novels, as well as fiction and non-fiction books. This is an amazing deal – don’t miss it!

Yuri Visual Novel

A few weeks ago, we announced yet another Yuri VN coming down the pike. J. Kaplan has a new work coming out on Steam in a couple of weeks, called Highway Blossoms. Yuri Nation has an interview with J on the project. And I’ll be talking to him after I get a look at the VN! It looks pretty unique and I’m really holding out high hopes for it.

Yuri Light Novel

Paul Chapman at Crunchyroll News has the “what the what?” news of the month so far, with the scoop on Super Dash resurrecting the Read or Die Light Novel series!?!  You might remember from my reviews that the series basically crashed to a halt in Volume 8, then limped along for a few volumes, then just sort of stopped midway through an arc.  It’ll be interesting to see if Kurata can manage an ending for the epic series.

Other News

In my capacity as resident Quora expert about all things gay and animated, I wrote an answer to this question Why does everyone believe that Elsa is a lesbian just because she didn’t have a love interest in Frozen? that includes the gayest possible reading of Let It Go and the hope that we get a Disney romantic duet between Elsa and what I hope will be her dashing Princess.  ^_^

Speaking of gay media, Kitschmix.tv is a new on-demand service for lesbian movies and webseries that looks amazing. You can watch classics like Desert Hearts and brand new series like Carmilla. And it gets extra cred for the name.

Which brings me to a rewind. Someone legit asked if Kitschmix was carrying anime. No, but they don’t have to. You can already get a ton of classic Yuri anime (like Aoi Hana and Strawberry Panic) on Viewster and newer stuff (like Sakura Trick and Sailor Moon Crystal on Crunchyroll, free  – and legally.  And don’t forget company channels, like Revolutionary Girl Utena on Youtube. No need to reinvent perfectly good wheels. Nonetheless, it’s good to have a one-stop shop for live action series. ^_^

Our buddy Zan Christensen, publisher of LGBTQ comics and prose (with whom I have an upcoming project, squee!) made a splash this month with his pointed protest of Apple’s iTunes censorship of LGBTQ comics. This is not the first time they have pulled this and unless iTunes users complain, it won’t be the last.

We’re going to wrap up with some exciting, if mutedly so, news from Japan. Takarazuka City is the fourth Japanese municipality to offer same-sex certificates, and the first in Kansai. I want to run “fantasy themed” wedding packages so much and I don’t even like weddings. ^_^

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!

It’s kind of ironic that, on a week I’m off for a little R&R, we’ve had a ton of amazing news. Check out this week’s posts for all the main news and I’ll be back to summarizing when I get back!

Yuri Visual Novels

You may remember a few months ago I tried to play the stylish Visual Novel mystery game Black Closet. (Tried to play. I didn’t get far) from Hanako Games. They have released a second Yuri VN, A Little Lily Princess –  based on the classic Victorian girl’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess. The game is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and is on Steam, so they have you covered. We’ll have a review soonish here. ^_^

Via Senior YNN Correspondent Elizabeth F, Sekai Project has just launched a new Yuri VN called Love, Guitars and Nashville. I’m going to give it this – it looks unique. Check out the trailer on Youtube. (Sekai Project apparently also did Ne no Kami, another Yuri VN.)

AND MangaGamer is releasing Kindred Spirits – Drama CD, Friendship Plans. You know, I’m getting this. I liked the characters.

Yuri Anime

CLAMP’s series Card Captor Sakura is getting a new anime to go with the new manga series. ANN has the scoop.

Scott Green at Crunchyroll news reports on Azumanga Daioh‘s shiny new box set release in Japan. There was a time when I would have said the chances of us getting it are slim Now, I say, wait. I bet someone picks it up.

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Yuri Manga

ANN  reports that mahjong manga with Yuri-ish tones, Saki, is getting another spinoff, Toki.It’s quite extraordinary to me that Saki is still going now at 15 volumes.

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!