Well, folks, April Fools’ Day played me. ^_^ I’m usually pretty good about not falling for anything, but Animate hit me right in my weak spot. It took a few days to disappear, but the Yurimate page is gone. The Shosen, Gamers (blecch) and Animate “Yuri club” pages are still in existence, but my dream of a dedicated Yuri section in the Ikebukuro Animate is once again a dream. And dream I shall continue asking for, until I get what I want. ^_^

And my appearance at Kean University tomorrow is also not happening, so we’ll chalk that up to April Fool’s as well. It’s no one’s fault, Kean is just bizarrely strict about paperwork (more so than any other university I have ever spoken at) and it wasn’t filed with enough time to get it done. 

There will be no YNN Report next week, as I’ll be busy with Queers & Comics, jut FYI.

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Yuri Manga

On the positive side, we have some excellent news this week. The creator-driven Yuri mook project known as Galette is putting out a 2nd issue. This is very good news. I sincerely hope this project continues.  Self-publishing is so much easier these days, and the printing and distribution which make it hard here in North America, have long been smooth in Japan from refinements for the comic markets. That said, it’s keeping groups of creators to deadline that can still be challenging. ^_^

After Hours by Yuhta Nishio in English from Viz is slated for a June release and pre-order is up on the Yuricon Store! Despite the cutesy art on the cover, this ought to be a story about and for adults.

A Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Volume 2 from Yen Press will be hitting shelves at the end of May. And so will MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 2. 

Ratana Satis’ Lily Love, Part 2 in English is available for pre-order on the Three Musqueerteers Tumblr page. Just as with last volume, one fills out the form and when the book is ready to ship, they’ll invoice you through Paypal. Pre-orders come with some physical extras and the first 100 orders will get a free keychain. ^_^ Part 1 was a very nice Story A, and I’m looking forward to seeing the characters develop in Part 2, as their relationship, and the story, becomes more complicated.

Events

Next weekend, there are queer academic events on both US coasts. Queers & Comics in San Francisco and  in New York City, CLAGS is holding the LGBTQ Scholars of Color Conference, both on April 14-15. 

ANN reports that the Sailor Moon series is going to have it’s first-ever classical concert in Japan  August. Fan club members will have first dibs on tickets. Hrm…I’m a fan club member….hrm….

Other News

Gender-bending in Asian pop culture is hardly new, and neither are boi bands, but the buzz behind China’s newest boys-who-are-girls group is both amusing and alarming in a “Really? They look like boys to you? Really?” kind of way. ^_^ Here’s the scoop about Acrush. 

From YNN correspondent soulsassasin, here is an interesting interview with writer and director Sam Lee on Filipino lesbian film Baka Bukas, which will be getting a North American release this summer.

Autostraddle is celebrating the accomplishments of 16 Lesbian Power Couples Who Got Shit Done, Together.

Via Takenouchi Daisuke on Twitter, here are a  few pictures of the live-action Silent Mobius stage play cast in costume. ^_^

Resistance

We’re in week 12 of a presidency of a man who can’t read, can’t count, can’t speak in cogent sentences, is prone to temper tantrums and has the codes to nuclear weapons. It’s time for some fight songs.

Joan Baez, the world-renowned folk singer and activist, has come out of retirement to create a new song for all our feels. Here is Joan singing Nasty Man. 

Music is often cathartic, and the winner of the cathartic award is Jussie Smollett’s video to F.U.W (Fucked Up World), a video so woke that Fusion magazine actually breaks down all the references in the video. And it’s a damn fine song.

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!

I’m blowing off YNN this week and going to the MoCCA Arts Festival in New York City to say hello to friends and buy comics.

But I had to share a lovely April Fool’s joke that got me right where it counts.

 A Twitter account for the Shosen bookstore ran a promotion for their new Yuri Tower in Akihabara. The picture was pure fantasy. ^_^ I said  it was nice to just imagine it for a moment. Imagine….an entire  building of Yuri. ^_^ 

In actual fact, (not a April Fool’s joke at all,) the Shosen book store has created a “Yuribu” a club for Yuri fans. Gamers store also has a Yuribu and (most importantly to me) the Animate in Ikebukuro is opening a “Yurimate” on the 3rd floor.  Shosen wins on logo design for their club though.

I’ve commented many times that Yuri rarely has a section of it’s own in Japanese bookstores. We may be about to see that change.  The reason I think that it’s important that the Ikebukuro location of Animate has the Yuri section, is that it is the one that is more focused on female customers. The Akihabara location is more focused on male customers (and Gamers tends to be focused on the creepy guy customers and predictably is tagging their Yuri club as “a garden of secret love.” ugh) Toronoana has had a Yuri section since 2014 of one configuration or another. But they may need to step up.

I’m going to have to get back to Japan. Soon. (Bruce, pack your bags…)  If you can get to Ikebukuro for April 15th, please report back! This is important stuff.  I don’t know how long this will last, they change things around all the time, although this is not being billed as a special event, but a dedicated section.  (I’m actually so excited about this,that I waited to check this morning to make sure it was still there on 4/2 in Japan. ^_^)

If a Yuri section becomes standard in JP manga stores now..we’ve won a huge confirmation as a genre. And it only took 17 years. That’s extraordinary. No joke.

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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 Anime

Last week we had a poster, this week we have a bit of news. Takashima Hiromi’s Asagao to Kase-san is getting a short “Animation clip”. Check out the official website, Asagao-Anime for more news on that.

Pony Canyon released a promotional video of the effort this week.

Also from the website, the  Kase-san manga will be serialized on the Line Manga tool, which is excellent news for those of us who like the series! The first installation was to have started this past Tuesday, so Japanese readers can let us know how it looks. 

From YNN Correspondent Shannon L, ANN reports that A Cenatur’s Life anime will premier in July.

The anime for Saburouta’s series Citrus will begin in November 2017, according to Comic Natalie. Kodama Naoko’s NTR: Netsuzou Trap anime will also be hitting around the same time, says Crunchyroll News. I will be glad to have someone review the Citrus anime, but NTR comes nowhere near this blog.

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Other News

From khoda on Twitter, there is a Rose of Versailles cafe  in Yokohama through September, with trick paintings that allow you to sit in the palm of Oscar’s hand, be part of a painting scene.or get cornered by Andre. ^_^ 

In case you missed it, Brigid Alverson interviewed me this week all about Yuri Manga on the Barnes & Noble blog. It starts with a definition and has some history, so if you’re looking for a place to point people to explain what Yuri is and make some recommendations, it’s a solid place to begin.  

The fifth Sailor Moon musical will play this coming autumn in Tokyo, according to Crunchyroll News. Obviously, it will cover the Sailor Stars arc. ^_^

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 Anime?

This week was the “Yuriten” event was held in Tokyo. The event began life as a Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo homage event and has become a kind of Yuri manga festival. This year, fans in took notice of a Kase-san series poster which notably listed a director and an art director. The YuriNavi blog suggests that a Kase-san anime might be in the making.

As we have nothing but this poster at this time, we are free to conjecture all we want. ^_^  

Seven Seas has already released the first of three Kase-san manga, Kase-san and Morning Glory.

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LGBTQ Comics News 

Two very exciting Kickstarters this week, via YNN Correspondent Ashley S.

First up Bingo Love: A Black Queer romance graphic novella. Sample pages are up. Writer Tee Franklin,  Artist Jenn St-Onge and Colorist Joy San have put together an absolutely delightful comic. You bet I’ve already thrown money at it! The kickstarter just started and is already more than halfway there. Let beat the hell out of those goals shall we?

And Dates! An Anthology of Queer Historical Fiction (Volume 2) kickstarter has about a week to go and has already exceeded initial goal. If you enjoyed the first volume, and want more historical queer fiction, you know what to do!

We all cope with stress in different ways. Alison Bechdel draws comics about the different ways we cope. A new Dykes to Watch Out For is about all of us right now.

Live-Action News

Comic Natalie reports on a live action stage play, Embryo, put on by creative arts company fragment edge, that will run from May 17-21 in Tokyo that, is supposed to show the “World of Yuri.” It takes place in Shinjuku where the girls are shielded from the world by “Hazard Flower” which pretty much makes me think this show will be poisonous. But hey, if you’re there and it’s there, let us know!

YNN Correspodent Brendan B writes in with this positive news: “CW is currently making a TV adaptation of Black Lightning, one of the oldest black superheroes in comics. They just cast an actress named Nafessa Williams to play his oldest daughter, Anissa, who in the comics was one of DC’s first out lesbian superheroes, Thunder. I’m hoping that aspect is retained for the show (I’m optimistic since the CW does have some LGBT characters on their shows).“Awesome, thanks Brendan!

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!

Live-Action News

The BBC and HBO are  working on a drama called Shibden Hall, about Anne Lister, the “first lesbian.” The Hollywood Reporter  describes the story thusly, “

Set in West Yorkshire in 1832, Shibden Hall is the story of landowner Anne Lister. Returning after years of exotic travel and social climbing, she determines to transform the fate of her faded ancestral home, Shibden Hall, in Halifax, England, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution.

To do this, she must re-open her coal mines and marry well. But charismatic, single-minded, swashbuckling Anne Lister – who walked like a man, dressed head-to-foot in black, and charmed her way into high society – has no intention of marrying a man. True to her own nature, she plans to marry a woman.”

The Mary Sue has more details.

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Goddess of manga, Riyoko Ikeda made an appearance on Japanese TV this month  with her visit to a morning show on TV Asahi, in which she discussed her early years.

Via ANN, a video of cast of the fourth new Sailor Moon Musical, Amour Eternal, performing “Koi Suru Satellite.”

Game News

Polygon reports that Steven Universe is coming to consoles with a second original RPG!  If you’re a phone gamer, there’s also a phone game called Sound Attack which is a SU-themed version of the Taiko Drum game. 

Yuri Anime

ANN also has the news that anime streaming service Tubi has added Revolutionary Girl Utena to their line up. (It’s also available on the official Nozomi Youtube channel.)  I think it’s time for an updated list of legit digital anime streaming for Yuri. I bet you all keep forgetting Viewster, which has series like Strawberry Panic! and Aoi Hana, and is free and completely legit. ^_^ Maybe tomorrow. 

Event News

I want to thank everyone who came to yesterday’s lecture at Hunter College. It was a genuinely fantastic time and I enjoyed the class presentations a great deal. Anne and I agreed that we’re going to have to up our own presentations to keep up with you young folks. ^_^ Thanks again for having me, Takeda-sensei! You’ll be able to see both Anne and I next at Queers & Comics in San Francisco!

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!