Crowdfunding News

Our friends at Sparkler Monthly are setting up for their 3rd year, and would like your help to continue publishing fantastic female-creator and female-focused comics, prose and audio dramas! Support their Kickstarter to support Josei for the English-speaking world. The price of one manga will get you an ebook, the digital desktop set and their thanks. There’s even special creator levels that focus on Yuri creators KAIJU and Denise Schroeder.

This has nothing at all to do with manga, but I’m enamored with the iBackpack, a portable comunications hub, with enough charge for you and a bunch of friends to recharge your phones,  have wifi hotspot and a number of other features that will make it invaluable on the con circuit. The Indiegogo campaign launches August 15th. Stay tuned. I think this one might be a game changer for those of us who travel and con.

Other News

We knew this, but here’s the confirmation doubters won’t accept anyway – creators of Steven Universe agree that the Ruby and Sapphire are a lesbian couple.

Comic Natalie reports on a new Yuri Sci-fi manga series called “Heart of the Girl” beginning in Mangatime Kirara Miracle magazine.

ANN Reports that Otome Teikoku, an “ecchi comedy” by Maka-Maka’s  Kishi Torajirou (by which I mean it’s fairly unreadable,) is getting a “petit anime.” I reviewed Volume 1 in 2011, and never looked at it again.

Sentai Filmworks has released their first Sabagebu anime collection shots. It looks damn good. ^_^

I don’t honestly expect any great licensing news out of Otakon this weekend, but Summer Comiket is coming, and there’s always treasures galore there. The circle Lesbian Erotica, for instance, is going to be selling their BDSM comic, YuriKa, (ゆり母) collected this year, after having been online for YuRibon and on LINE manga.

Transformative Works and Cultures is looking for articles for a special Queer Female Fandom Issue. The Call For Papers can be found on Fanstudies. org.

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!

Quick datadump this week, my brain is leaking out my ears. If you follow me on FB, you know why. ^_^

I found this month’s copy of  MdN Design & Graphic magazine that had a Takako Shimura character and a girl on the cover. It turns out to be, as translator Simona Stanzani put it so succintly, “a ‘visual collaboration’ between Shimura Sensei and the idol Rina Ikoma.” Ikoma is a current member of idol group Nogizaka46.

Zac Bertschy of ANN has an interview with Lauren Landa and Erica Mendez, who play Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus in the new Viz dub of the original Sailor Moon anime. He jumps *right* in with the “cousins” fiasco and moves on from there. Interesting read!  And I am motivated for the first time ever to watch a dub. I’m looking forward to Landa and Mendez’ performance.

ANN also follows up on our big question about Sailor Moon Crystal with a look at the “See You Soon!” message at the end of the final “Black Moon” arc episode. Will we get a third season? We don’t yet know, but there’s still hope.

We’re only a few weeks away from the Yuricon Store Grand Opening. We’re going to be doing some contests as part of the celebration. One of them will be for Okazu Patrons only, so if you have *ever* though about subscribing to Okazu, now would be a swell time. You’d be getting us closer to our launch goal and give yourself an extra chance at winning a contest!

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Rica Takashima’s article for Eureka magazine’s “Current State of Yuri Culture”, Japan: Fertile Ground for the Cultivation of Yuri, is live for all on the Yuricon Essays page! It’s thought-provoking and a completely different perspective than we might expect. If you do any writing on Yuri, please let us know the citations, or let us have a copy of the article, so we can keep Yuricon the most  comprehensive site for Yuri research!

Comic Natalie writes that the September issue of Comic Yuri Hime will have a 10th anniversary special “petit” Comic Hime edition application. I find this to be a bit wanky. For the last bunch of years, they’ve sold their “Saiyuri Hime” book at Comiket, and now they are just selling the same thing as a 10th anniversary special. Way to be uncreative, folks. If it were me, I’d do a retrospective of the last ten years with all the artists contributing a comic or a message…but it’s not me.

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 promised to let you know if there was any more good news out of San Diego Comic-Con…and there was!

First, many congratulations to the folks who work on The Lumberjanes, for their well-deserved Eisner awards. Yes, plural. The Mary Sue has the story. I’m gonna say it…if you are an Okazu reader, definitely, positively, check out The Lumberjanes. It’s wonderful and wacky and magical and adventure and gods and monsters and bears and summer camp. In other words, it’s great. ^_^

Also squee-worthy, and also from TMS,  is the announcement of a Legend of Korra comic from Dark Horse Comics that will be focusing on Korra x Asami. I’m gonna swoon.

Lastly, not a SDCC news item, but extremely exciting, on Yuricon we have a third article from Eureka magazine’s “Current State of Yuri Culture” issue – Rica Takashima’s Japan: Fertile Ground for the Cultivation of Yuri. This pointed and grounded perspective on the origin of “Yuri” is unlike anything else you’ll read. Now available to the public, it can be accessed by anyone!

Doing your own Yuri research? Check out the Yuricon Essays page for all the available English-language research on the topic. And if you’ve written your own, do let us know, so we can add it to the citations!

And that’s a wrap for the news this week!

Hi folks. As you know, San Diego Comic Con is in full swing and we’ve gotten an amazing piece of news out of it. But first, I want to share a piece of amazingly bad news with you.

Our good friend, Yuri supporter, translator, creator of Marine Corps Yumi, Anastasia Moreno, has passed away.

Ana and I met when she was working on Strawberry Panic (and other Seven Seas titles) and since then, we’ve had some amazing adventures together. We beat the crap outta each other at Takarazuka just last October. She’s been fighting a particularly awful cancer since last year. Selfishly, I’m glad I was able to Skype with her this week, so I have a recent memory of her.

Marine Corps Yumi will continue in Japanese and English, with Nogami-sensei taking over the story as well as the art and Dan Kanemitsu handling the English translation. I hope you will continue to support the series.

RIP Ana. You were one of a kind. We’ll miss ya.

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And now for the good news.

UDON Entertainment has licensed the Rose of Versailles manga. All I can say to that is “holy crap.”

They’ll be releasing it in 2-in-1 omnibus volumes starting in spring 2016. At last! You’ll be able to see Lady Oscar in her bell-bottom uniform pants. ^_^

If anything else cool comes out of SDCC, I’ll let you know.

Crowdfunding News

There are a number of crowdfunding campaigns I wanted to highlight before they wrap up.

I know I mentioned this before, but it bears repeating, Hope Nicholson’s The Secret Lives of Geek Girls is all of everything all at once. The contributor list makes my eyes water, in a good way. ^_^

Sparkler Monthly is looking to fund a third year of publication, both off-line and online. They’ve been a big promoter of BL and Yuri stories and tons of great (by which I mean complex and interesting) female characters…and creators…in their pages. Support female-focused comics, by folks who support you!

This next campaign has nothing at all to do with Yuri, or manga, or anything we usually cover here, but it’s for a friend who is doing an amazing thing – helping young people to fulfill their dreams of artistic excellence. Manga Bookshelf’s Melinda Beasi is running an opera workshop with her students. As of time of writing, they are 78% funded and when you read this, they will have 4 days left. Please help support the arts, help support young performers, and help one of my dearest fellow bloggers, Melinda.  Please support Act Too Studio Opera Workshop: The Medium. A dollar can make a major difference to them!

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Yuricon Store News

New on the Yuricon Shop! The Yuri Goods page. Featuring Uranus and Neptune figurines and henshin wand lip glosses right now, more to be added.

Also featured is  our *brand new* original I Love Yuri Goods page at Redbubble. Click on the “I Love Yuri” logo and scroll down to see all the items available. Our original “I Love Yuri” design is now  a clear-background transfer to shirt, so colors other than white will look just as good. Here it is in dark blue. I think it looks swell. We’ll be putting up some more designs in the upcoming months.

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Yuri Manga News

My wife is making her debut as a YNN Correspondent! She wants you to know that Tezuka’s Ribon no Kishi/Princess Knight is getting a new reprint in Japan, one that is reproducing color and title pages from it’s original appearance in Nakayoshi magazine, as reported on Crunchyroll News.

Sean Gaffney has the licensing news from Anime Expo, and for us the title of interest might be Saki, which is going to be a digital only release by Yen Press. This series has a lot of fan-pairings and a few canon ones in the story.

I’m going to keep reminding you that Fujieda Miyabi’s Iono-sama Fanatics , Volume 1 is hitting shelves in Japan at the end of this month!

Hanako’s private school Yuri series Shiritsu Seijou Gakuen Kirarin Ryou (私立星城学園きらりん寮)  is digitally available on Comic Walker.

I’m probably the only one who really cares about this, but I really enjoy “violence Yuri” manga MURCIELAGO, and so, I really enjoyed this little PV for the series by Square Enix on Comic Natalie to celebrate it’s being released in digital motion comic for Volume 5.

Comic Yuri Hime is celebrating a 10th anniversary and, according to Comic Natalie,  is doing all sorts of giveaways I can not apply for, (and probably don’t want!) ^_^

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LGBTQ Comics News

Have you read these 5 LGBTQ comics that are out now?

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Miscellaneous Wonderfulness

“Kase-san” creator Takasaki Hiromi was pleased to share a piece of Korra x Asami fanart, along with a plea to bring LoK to Japan on Twitter.

Late addition to today’s report. Our own Rica Takashima has made the New York Times as part of their look at the emerging artists of the FLOW exhibit on Randall’s Island (which I am hoping to visit today.)

I think we’ll finish up with this look at 19th-century Lesbian erotic art, because why not.

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a <strong>Yuri Network Correspondent </strong>by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to <strong>anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com</strong>. <em>Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed</em>. 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!