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. ^_^

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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!

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Celebrate 14 years of Yuri News, Review and Interviews! 

Support Okazu!

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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!)

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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!

Yuri Manga

Top story this week comes from Comic Natalie who announces that, with the January 2017 issue (on sale in November,) Comic Yuri Hime is moving to a monthly format. This is a first for a Yuri manga magazine. Congrats to the folks at Ichijinsha and gambatte to all the manga artists.

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Huge news from Denise Schroeder, creator of  Yuri Manga Before You Go for Sparkler Monthly. She has announced that, if the Year 4 Sparkler Monthly Kickstarter reaches full funding she’ll be creating a third story in her Yuri series, which will take this to a full graphic novel size.

I’ve repeatedly sung the praises of Sparkler Monthly and this news gives me  chance to do two things I like doing – promote good manga and promote a worthy, diverse Kickstarter. The folks working on Sparkler totally get their audience’s interest in Josei, BL and Yuri manga, Light Novels, and Voice Dramas and provide a wide variety of styles and story. If you’d like to see more and better of all of this, please consider throwing some money at them!

Itou Hachi’s newest legally married fox-earad girls story, Gohou Fuufuhon, ( 合法百合夫婦本) is available, as is the Special Edition of the 5th Volume of Saburouta’s Citrus.

Anime News

Amano Kozue’s Amanchu! has launched on Crunchyroll. If you’ve watched it and have any thoughts, let us know in the comments!

ANN has the scoop on the art for the Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 Box Set cover art. It’s nice. ^_^

Other News

Japanese telecom DoCoMo has a new TV ad that features, among others, a lesbian couple. Awww…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38827HPvfzc

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!

LGBTQ Comics

From YNN Correspondent Shannon L, Heathen, by Natasha Alterici, is a Norse tale of a young Viking woman who sets off to defeat a god with the help – and love – of a Valkyrie. Bitch Media gave it rave reviews. Click the link on the title to get a preview of the work. I’m adding it to the to-read pile.

Also from Shannon, and I quote, “Lesbian bountyhunter in SPAAAAACE.” Satellite Falling looks quite good. I guess my summer reading is going to have to be a pile of western works again. ^_^

Panels has a discussion of Magically Queer Webcomics that’s worth taking a look at.

LGBTQ Events

San Diego Comic Con is coming up and they have a small set of LGBTQ panels that look interesting:

Thursday, July 21
5:00pm – Queer History in Comics (Description: LGBT)
6:00pm -LGBTQ Geek Year in Review
6:30pm – SuperheroIRL: How Pop Culture Media Brings Justice and Healing (Description: LGBT)

Friday, July 22
10:00am – Queer Representation in All-Ages and Youth Media (Description: LGBT)
7:00pm – The Gay Agenda in Horror: Terrifying Subtext (Description: LGBT)

Saturday, July 23
4:00pm – We Are All Heroes: The Changing Landscape of Comics, Geekdom, and Fanboy Culture (Description: LGBT)
6:00pm Gays (and more) in Comics (and more): Year 29: Queerly Inspired (Description: LGBT)

And over on the east coast, Flamecon in Brooklyn is moving to a larger venue. They’ve got a new no-weapon-looking-things-at-all policy for cosplay in support of post-Orlando trauma  and on Sunday, August 21, they are giving free access to teens in partnership with the Ali Forney Center. I’ll be presenting during Flamecon and will be massively jet lagged, so watching me flounder ought to be funny. ^_^

From August 3 to7th in Tokyo, a play called Fragment Edge will include a story that touches on girls in love. Comic Natalie has the report.

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Yuri Anime

Again from Shannon L. A new Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha spin-off anime, Vivid Strike! has been announced. Komatsu-san on Crunchyroll News has the details.

Crunchyroll has added the Sound! Euphonium OVA to their lineup, Scott Green reports.

Other News

Kinokuniya has announced a new promotion called Bibliobattle in which you have a limited amount of time to present the content of a book, and fieled questions about this book. Winner is chosen by majority vote and I have to say that this eerily similar to the “Read Fight” described in  the Light Novel R.O.D., Volume 10.

Takarazuka is coming to New York City in just a few weeks and seats are still available. See Takarazuka performs Chicago…it’ll be a hoot.

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!