Happy New Year!

I hope you don’t mind that I’m not working hard at this New Year weekend edition of the YNN report. There’s still cake and wine left over from NYE celebrations and they are calling my name. ^_^

But it is because of New Year celebrations that we are even here today. I spent this year’s Eve watching the Kouhaku Uta Gassen –  the annual Japanese New Year’s eve singing contest television special – like Dick Clark’s special used to be, with a few contemporary singers and a bunch of Lawrence Welk-like fossils. The show has been adding in a lot of anime themes and popular VA singers, probably in a desperate attempt to get people under 40 to watch. ^_^

Well this year, they did a medley of anime songs, Pokemon, Yokai Watch, Sailor Moon, Love Live!, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Chibi Maruko-chan and Gundam  and probably some I’ve missed…still not why I’m mentioning this, although hearing Moonlight Desentsu on the TV was nice. ^_^ I’m mentioning it because they started to talk to someone in the audience and I became very excited – Uehashi Naoko, the creator of the Seiriei no Moribito series was on TV…. The new live-action Seiriei no Moribito series announced last summer is coming this spring on NHK! Waaah!

Balsa, Chagum, Tanda, Torogai, Shuga and the rest on TV. Squee. Ayase Haruka, (who was the Kouhaku’s Red Team host,)  is playing the role of Balsa.  No trailer yet, but as soon as there is one, you can be sure it’ll be on here. ^_^

Okazu News

The Okazu Patreon has been updated for 2016 with a new video and a new perq! Click the link to see the new video, and either the “Subscribe” button here to your right  —> or on the left of the Patreon page to become a supporter of Okazu. With your help we relaunched the Yuricon Store, we added a bunch of new Event reports on Okazu and Essays on the Yuricon page. We have a pile of thing we want to get done in 2016 and every little bit helps towards those goals!

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Yuri Game

ANN Reports the addition of Yuri VN Atom Grrrl! to Steam. According to the description it is a “yuri Tarantinoesque comedy about sex, drugs, and revenge.”  If Tarantino used 6 year olds as actors. ^_^;

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful holiday weekend and a great new year!

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondentby 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

Komatsu-san has the scoop on the new Precure series on Crunchyroll News and – for a Precure series – it sounds like a bit of a departure from the usual plot, which is rather cool, I think. I’m looking forward to seeing it. (Also I have the Heartcatch Precure light novel to read. I expected it to be for little kids, but its written in 8pt type with no furigana! What was I thinking?)

Also from Crunchyroll News, Patrick Macias announces that Zombie Loan has been added to the CR catalog. There was a vaguely lesbianish character in that series named Yomi, in case you don’t remember.

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Yuri(?) Manga

Comic Natalie reports on a new series called Yurizuki-kun to Yurizukizuki-kun, (百合好きくんと百合好き好きくん) which apparently follows the adventures of two male Yuri fans. The visual reads “Yuri? BL?” and I think we can safely say it will be neither, but hopefully it will be amusing. ^_^

Other News

Yuru Yuri themed t-shirts that proudly proclaim you are an idiot will be sold at Comiket to people for whom getting Yuru Yuri-themed items is more important than self-esteem. Scott Green has the visuals over at Crunchyroll News. And, I’m pleased to note that the t-shirt not only says you’re an idiot, but also has a shitty design so people who don’t know what “aho” means, can still see you have terrible taste. ^_^

For those of us with style, ahem, Crunchyroll News’ Paul Chapman points us to Super Groupies, a design tie-in division of Animate, with a spiffy series of Sailor Moon-themed travel goods. Super Groupies uses the international buying/shipping service Tenso, so you can buy these from outside Japan.

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 Cartoon

Steven Universe is coming back in January! Yaaaayyyy! /waving hands around like Kermit/ We’re getting 5 new episodes.  Andandand, they will include the story of how Ruby and Sapphire met. Swoon. Check the link for a preview video.

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Light Novels

This is probably not Yuri, but Konno Oyuki has a new light novel coming out called Friends about Kazami and Ao, long time friends who end up at the same College of Arts. I’m really excited to read a new, non-fantasy piece by Konno-sensei!

Yuri Manga

Akili’s Stretch (ストレッチ) is now hitting a 4th volume. It’s still not-really Yuri, either, but let’s face it, there’s service enough and subtext enough for many fans to pretend.

The second volume of 2DK、GPen, Mezamashitokei  (2DK、Gペン、目覚まし時計。) by Ohzawa Yayoi hit shelves this week. We turn our attention from manga artist Kaede to hard-working and mostly overlooked Nanami.

Mountain Pukuichi’s schoolgirl series NanaYuri also has a December release from Ichijinsha.

Other News

In 2014, I reviewed a gorgeous artbook by eri kamijo called Girls. Well kamijo has a brand new artbook out called Dear, and I cannot wait to get a copy. Her art portrays women as beautiful, fun, sexy and stylish, without being pandering…and has the occasional splash of Yuri as well.

Netflix has the localized version of Smile! Precure as of today. Check out ANN’s report on Glitter Force. ^_^It is legitimately a cartoon for little kids…so I’m really noncommittal about the localization. But the name, ugh.

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondentby 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 today, Seven Seas continues it’s tradition of licensing only the vilest, least consensual, most dysfunctional stories to be found in Comic Yuri Hime, with NTR -Netsuzou Trap, a series about two girls with boyfriends who have public, mostly non-consensual sex for no goddamn good reason.

I do not discuss this series when I review Comic Yuri Hime, because I do not consider it to be “Yuri” at all.  Along with To Lie Angle, NTR is a story for creepy dudes. This is not a series I want to have anything to do with, and therefore I will not link to it, it will not be added to the Yuricon Store nor will I mention it again. No reviews will be published on this or any Seven Seas materials until they publish some Yuri that isn’t vile. Citrus is bad, NTR is unspeakably awful. I have spent many years making sure people know that Yuri is not just porn. Stuff like this sets us back two decades.

NTR is not  erotic, not melodrama. It’s not a cute story with a lot of service, it’s a unpleasant story about girls cheating on their boyfriends with each other, with one girl coercing the other to have sex with her, chapter after chapter. If you buy it, I will not condemn you, but I will have nothing to do with it. For the first time ever, I recommend against buying a Yuri manga being put out in English.

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If you rely on translated materials, now is a great time to learn Japanese, so you can read some of the decent Yuri manga being published in Japan.

To wash the bad taste out of my mouth from this news, I’ll recommend Rebecca Silverman’s Best and Most Memorable Manga of 2015 list on ANN, which awards Ikeda Takashi’s Whispered Words the “Sweetest Finale” title. The whole article was worth reading. ^_^

Japanese fans run down their top Yuri Manga for the year in the “Kono Yuri Manga ga Sugoi!“.

And for something much less awful, next week sees Katakura Ako’s Last Waltz (ラストワルツ) hitting the shelves in Japan.

Yuri Anime

From YNN Correspondent Day, we have news of savings on holiday sales! “Rightstuf is doing their massive annual sale and several Yuri titles have been included so far. Blue Drop is $11.99, Kashimashi is $12.49, Destiny of the Shrine Maiden is $11.99, Simoun is $9.99, the various Marimite boxes are between $14.99 and $19.99, and Sakura Trick $22.49… and Burst Angel for $15.61 (on Bluray). They also, quite helpfully, have ‘Yuri’ as one of the ‘Theme’ listed in their sidebar for sorting.”

Excellent news, Day, thanks!

ANN reports that the Madoka movie created for the SHAFT “Madogatari” exhibit in Japan is at the core of the new project by the studio. Crunchyroll  News has some of the visuals.

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

The January issue of Comic Yuri Hime ( コミック百合姫 2016年 01 月号) is hitting shelves in mid December.

Also being released from Yuri Hime, is a “perfect edition” of a out-of-print series that I quite liked back in 2009, Kazuma Kowo’s Junsui Adolescence (純水アドレッセンス-完全版).

From Kasuga Sunao, December sees  Sumedo Jigoku no Inferno ( 住めど地獄のインフェルノ) hitting shelves.

Rakuen Le Paradis, Volume 19 (楽園 Le Paradis ) came out in October, and Murcielago, Volume 6, (ムルシエラゴ) just made it into stores this week. Both are on my “don’t-miss” list.

YNN friend and on-the-spot reporter for Crunchyroll News, Komatsu-san, tells us that the 13th volume of Yotsuba&!  (よつばと!) is out in Japan, almost three years after Volume 12, and comes with the news that there are approximately 13 million copies of the series in print, including the translated copies. That’s pretty amazing.

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Anime News

Crunchyroll reports that Nickelodeon is streaming the entirety of Legend of Korra this weekend. Go, watch!!

Komatsu-san has the scoop on the upcoming Precure series from Toei, Mahou Tsukai Precure!/ Maho Girls Precure! on Crunchyroll News. Check out the favicon for the official site. ^_^

ANN reports on a line of clothes inspired by Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Please excuse me while I remain fascinated by the continued squeezing of this rock for blood. It seems practically never-ending. But then, the game Puzzle and Dragons* just did an Evangelion collaboration.  (The Shinji/Eva 01 Tamadra said “I won’t run away!” which made me laugh.) Some series are just never going to be allowed to die, they are way too lucrative. ^_^

From Crunchyroll once again, we get a report on Yuru Yuri’s creator namori-sensei drawings to celebrate the Blu-ray release of Yuyushiki.

Other News

Komatsu-san has two more reports of interest this week: the original character designer for Omajo Doremi has drawn a series’ picture book.

AND the first commercial footage for the upcoming Princess Knight stage musical, which honestly, is looking damned cool. The promotional poster is awesome. ^_^

Smithsonian Magazine has an article on Françoise Mouly, a former editor at  New Yorker magazine who started Toon Books, a company bringing out educational comics specifically for encouraging kids to read. (Yes, this hardly seems world shaking to us, but if it takes another zOMG! article to push comics, then fine.)

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!

* Yes, I play Puzzle and Dragons. Stop giving me that look.