Archive for the ALC Publishing Category


Yuri News This Week – April 11, 2009

April 12th, 2009

Two quick things: One, I am working in an office again, so until I get settled reviews may be sporadic. I have a ton to review, I’m just running out of time to do it all. :-)

Secondly, in **one week** we are having the Yuri Monogatari Launch Party at the Rare Flix store in Secaucus, NJ. The party is open to everyone, and we’ll talking, watching and reading Yuri all night long, so please, please feel free to stop by and meet the artists and staff of Yuri Monogatari 6! The Media Blaster folks will have the store open, so you’ll be able to by Simoun, Strawberry Panic and more! Bring friends – the more the merrier!

Now on to serious stuff.

Yuri Manga

Aurora, the American imprint of Oozora Publishing (publishers of lesbian-themed ladies comic Mist back in the 90s) is up against the wall, as are all the American manga publishers right now. Yes, including ALC. We need to sell about another 500 copies of YM6 to break even. It’s a cold, harsh reality fans don’t care about but, it is a very real issue for publishers every day. Aurora is doing a deep discount sale on *everything* they publish, including Hitohira. So if Mugi’s struggle against shyness, or Nono and Mirei’s intensity appeal to you, consider jumping aboard the Aurora wagon and buying direct!

And, yes, ALC will be doing something similar, as *soon* as I have a second to spend some time on it. So look for a sale on ALC books shortly.

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Yuri Anime

The spring season offers us a cute mahjong anime called Saki which stars Kana Ueda as the lead voice actress and a Hikaru no-go-esqu intense friend/rival with whome Saki is easily slashed. And since Saki has been out as a manga for a while, I expect they already have been.

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Yuri Light Novel

After the riveting excitement of the last few Ichijinsha Iris novels, I was wondering if they sold well enough to bother printing more. Wel that answer appears to be – yes! A new Yuri Light Novel is coming out that tops off the scale on having almost every “Yuri” trope possible. Girls’ School, mysterious girl, Prince of the school…everything but the teacher on the motorcycle. We can still hope. :-) Oh, the title? see if you can not roll your eyes: Otome ha Hana ni Koi o Suru. No, I couldn’t not roll my eyes, either. lol

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Snatches of Yuri

Urapan is instantly reminiscent of Lucky Star. If you can imagine the LS girls in a music club, you’re not far off, apparently. :-)

Snow White- Kimi ni Mau Yuki takes place in a school for maids(?) in that fantasy land where there are no men, but there are romantic onee-sama relationships.

Tenzen Aluminum appears to be out of the same mold as Natural Four Color Heroines, but it is actually a “slightly” explicit 4-koma manga that is, according to one of my sources, “pleasing to the eye.” His eye and mine don’t always agree, but it’s nice to know. :-)

Sekai Seifuku Kirara Joshikan School. Crushes. Underwear. You know the drill.

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We’ll call it a wrp for this week. Thanks as always for all your support and here’s to see you all next week at the Launch Party!!





Yuri News This Week – March 14, 2009

March 14th, 2009

Happy Π Day!

Yuri Events

You are invited to join Rica Takashima, J.D. Glass, Althea Keaton, Jessie B. and the cast and crew for a Yuri Mongatari 6 for a Launch Party on April 18th, 2009 at the Rare Flix store in Secaucus, NJ. This event is co-hosted by Yuricon and Media Blasters, and will include the premiere of our “Yuri Monogatari 6” video trailer, and plenty of Yuri anime on the TVs! We’ll be there from 7PM til will throw you out, so stop by! Bring friends! Buy Yuri!

Sakuracon announces Serial Experiments Lain‘s Yoshitoshi Abe as a guest. Ask him whether Lain and Alice were a couple – I’m sure he’s never been asked that, before. :-)

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Yuri Manga

y_y let me know that the doujinshi circle Sakuraike will be publishing a mass market collection of their adorable Yuri series, Tact. It’ll be available in July. This is honestly very, very cool news for them. As soon as there’s info for purchasing the book, you can be sure I’ll make it available to you.

You’ve probably heard of this already, and I think I even mentioned it before, but – Moonphase says that there may be Sasamekikoto anime, and 2chan is all over it, endlessly. Will it be reality? Who knows.

Comic Yell, the “Shoujo magazine for Boys” from Hobunsha (publisher of Tsubomi,) is ending, leaving no competetition is Comic Hai (home of Morinaga Milk’s Girl Friends.) I wonder if Tsubomi is meant to take up that slack….

Here’s some Yuri Manga you want to pick up this month!

Rakka Ryuusui 4

Sasamekikoto 4

Ichigo Mashimaro 6

Yuri Hime S, Volume 8

Of course all of these have been added to the Yuricon Shop, as well.

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Other News

I attended the KRAZY! exhibit at Japan Society a couple od days ago. The exhibit is very small and, because of the lack of context for it, it appeared to me to be the zOMG! moments of a person’s anime/manga interest. As it turns out, there was a huge western component to it that had to be cut out for space. The original exhibit was much larger and talked more about the evolution and convergence of visual culture and zeitgeist to make an explosion of concepts that defy cultural hegemony to create a kind of translocal modernism. (Words from Ueno-sensei one of the lecturers the night I attended.) It might seem a tad pretentious, but if you take a moment to parse it – so exactly right. :-) I want to thank translator Mari Morimoto for asking me to accompany her.

I got to meet Roland Kelts of Japanamerica, who did a very very good job of speaking to an audience that was half Japan Society members with no understanding of anime or manga and half anime and manga fans with no understanding of Japanese art.

Lastly for today, Riyoko Ikeda has been awarded the French Legion of Honor for her efforts promoting French history through Rose of Versailles. Hopefully that will inspire everyone involved to get that movie completed already!

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It’s also Einstein’s birthday today and White Day, so take a moment today to celebrate art and science, math and language and the power of the human mind.

See you next week. :-)





Yuri News This Week – December 20, 2008

December 20th, 2008

Yuricon and ALC Publishing

The pre-order for Yuri Monogatari 6 is officially up on the refurbished Yuricon Shop! ALC Publishing now has a page for direct orders for 100% Yuri.

And we’ve migrated the Japanese Drama CDs page on the Shop to the new format! This weekend, I’m going to try and get the English Manga page to the new format, to make shopping for Yuri Manga in English a painless and pleasurable process. :-)

YM6 has a place holder on Amazon now, as well; pre-order coming soon. :-) You can sign up for updates about the availability of YM6 on Amazon.com.

We’ve updated the Yuricon Toolbar with new links and new widgets. This toolbar includes a customized “Yuri Search” and present RSS feeds so you can stay up on anime and manga news without lifting a finger. :-)

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Yuri Anime

Crunchyroll announces that you can watch legally, licensed, streaming episodes of Steel Angel Kurumi and the even more Yuri Steel Angel Kurumi 2!

The director and team that brought us R.O.D. – Read or Die are working on a full-length feature film of unknown content. Might be something to look forward to…might not. lol

Canada’s YTV will be showing Futari ha PreCure. It still amazes me that western Yuri fans haven’t glommed onto this series yet. It’s totally derivative and has the world’s most annoying “cute” mascots, but the Yuri isn’t exactly subtle. lol

And Anime Vice notes that Konno Oyuki is being credited as “Supervisor” for the 4th season of Maria-sama ga Miteru, which is a leap past “consultant” or “anime based on novels by” as in previous seasons. Read more on Anime Vice’s Winter 2009 Anime Preview. Looks like we’ll get service in a few of the series, but no substance.

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Other Yuri-ish News

Not really Yuri, but totally GLBTI-frendly. Fans of comic artists Abby Denson and Colleen Coover will want to take a look at their collaboration for Spiderman Family 3 which is now available at comic stores. Aunt May as the Amazing Spiderman. I mean, really, who wouldn’t want that? lol

And also not “Yuri” per se, but if you like your women animated, and are looking for a game that is a little off the beaten track, JILL-OFF might appeal to you. It’s simple, silly and about boot-licking, Queen-loving warrior of love and justice, Jill and her adventures defending her beloved Queen’s Tower. It’s so cute that I was almost tempted to try and play it. :-)

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Snatches of Yuri

Amazingly, Wild Bouquet: The Flower Whose Name Spells Hope is indeed a sequel to the other Wild Bouquet Light Novel, so we can learn what happens to Deriana and Josette after they sneak away from rigid-gender-role-land. Who knows – they might even kiss this time!

Takahashi Mako apparently left her creepy kids home for her new collaboration, Seinen no tame no Dokusho Kurabu.

And Abunai! Tosho-inchou! looks to be a perfect gift for the Kokoro Library fan in your life, or anyone you know who feels that librarians ought to wear maid outfits. Personally…I’m all for the military librarians of Toshokan Sensou, but that’s just me. lol

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That brings us to the end of another wonderful week o’Yuri! Keep the news items coming please – email me at anilesbocon at hotmail dot com with any Yuri news that comes your way!





Yuri Manga: Sneek Peek at Yuri Monogatari 6!

December 19th, 2008

It’s just about that time again, when we roll out a fantastic new all-Yuri anthology. Yuri Monogatari 6 is available on Amazon and directly through the Yuricon Shop.

In the meantime, I wanted to give you a glimpse in between the covers, so you can get an idea of what you’ll be seeing this year!

 

 

 

 

We are very excited to have Circle UKOZ returning with their beautiful and subtle stories. The book starts off with two stories by Nishi UKO: “Grass” and “Make a Style,” both of which are sequels to the story in Yuri Monogatari 5, following teachers Zuka-chan and Enomoto in their relationship.

Newcomer Maria Bieganska has drawn a surreal and evocative story about loss, need and love in her tale “40 Minutes.” Sample of the art can be seen to the left. It’s dreamlike and beautiful.

 

 

 

 

In “Sakura Gun,” lesbian novelist J.D. Glass tells us a tale of the epic fight against evil and to protect the ones you love, in this side story to her newest novel American Goth. Sample on the right.

Mike Hayes and I have teamed up together to teach you “How to Tell The Difference” – because we’re pretty sure you all need the help. lol

In “Miho-chan’s Memories,” Rica Takashima looks back at little Miho’s early years, to point out that some things are just…obvious. lol

Sobiyuki and SirKozz’s collaboration “Jaded” (on the left here) is a classic gangster flick/film noir with guns, beautiful but deadly dames and a twist or two.

What do you get the girl who has *everything*? Althea Keaton ponders this age-old conundrum in “For the Girl Who Has Everything.”

Houjo KOZ, the second half of Circle UKOZ takes a long, hard look at exactly what “love” means through the words of a popular singer who never stops to think about what she’s saying, in “Sinful.”

A party, a major misunderstanding and a looooong list of “Univited Guests” cause humorous chaos in Jessie’s B’s world of cracked characters.

 

Coming out isn’t really ever simple – and in “Simple,” (seen on the right) Sophia Kudo reminds us that sometimes our sexuality isn’t the only thing we’re dealing with.

Greyscaled’s “Speak Love” is a look at the end of a relationship – and the ironic turn that it takes to put it back together.

And we end the anthology off this time with a lovely, poignant story by Eriko Tadeno about the trials, tribulations and triumphs of a really long term relationship in “30th Christmas.”

Several other extremely talented individuals have also contributed to this volume: Susan Knowles, Sirk Tani and cover artist Kristina Kolhi have all provided art for our viewing pleasure.

There you have it – an early sneek peek at the upcoming Yuri Monogatari 6!

 





Yuri News This Week – December 13, 2008

December 13th, 2008

Strap yourselves in, we have a *lot* of news this week.

Yuri Live Action

I have been forgetting to tell you about this for *ever, so I’m putting it first so I can’t forget this time.lol Yoshida Akemi, mangaka of Lover’s Kiss and many other classic manga, also wrote a story called Sakura no Sono (The Cherry Orchard.) It was made into a movie a long while back, but earlier this year, a remake of the movie was made. There are two trailers, one from the original version and the second from the new version – you can see how the tone changed. Here is the original trailer, here is the new trailer. The basic plot is that a new girl transfers to a private girls school and runs up against the usual stereotypes (bullying ojousoama and henchicks, girl who falls for her, etc…), and then learns it used to be traditional to perform Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard every year until tragedy put an end to it. She decides to revive the tradition – melodrama happens. Aside from the fact that it once again allows me to mention Chekhov on this blog, this story is an eary Yuri classic. Keep an eye out for this movie.

While I’m on live-action, I discovered an incredibly good way to waste chunks of time with Afterellen.com’s short lesbian detective web series BJ Fletcher, Private Eye. It’s hammily written and hammily overacted and the protagonist is not the hero, but it’s a great way to blow a half hour here and there watching a couple of episodes. (Episodes are about 15 minutes long.) :-)

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Yuri Anime

It’s busty women in battle bikinis! The Queens’ Blade trailer is up for your viewing…erm, pleasure.

AND the 4th season trailer for Maria-sama ga Miteru is up on Animate TV, along with a list of the cast (which gives us on the irc channel #[email protected] a good idea of how far this season is going to go through the novels. Join us if you want the low down.) Here are the narrowband and the broadband trailers. Extra points if you can tell what story all that comes from. :-)

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Yuri Manga

Erin wants us to not be sad, but the second volume of Strawberry Shake Sweet will be delayed until January.

In the meantime, the next Yuri Hime S is out in 5 days, so no crying. :-)

And please don’t forget that Yuri Monogatari 6 is in the December Previews and that pre-ordering really *does* make a difference!

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Yuri Light Novels

On December 26th, the next Maria-sama ga Miteru novel, Hello Goodbye hits the streets. In case the title is too subtle, this is likely to be the *last* novel in the series. Fans all over the world are smiling through their tears.

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Yuri Drama CDs

Through the kindness of Okazu superhero Ana, I just recently received a copy of the fifth Ichigo Mashimaro Drama CD. It’s crazy, and just slightly beyond my ability to follow, but as it’s the typical IM setup you have Nobue perving over Anna and Matsuri, and Miu fighting for Nobue’s attention. I’m kind of sympathetic to Chika when she says, “Are you really my sister?” lol

Katherine wants you to know about the Maria-sama ga Miteru Christmas CD, and I want you to know about the Maria-sama ga MiteruSpecial DCD, which comes out on Christmas.

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Yuricon News

Members of Facebook, you can now ‘Become a Fan’ of Yuricon & ALC Publishing! Just visit the Yuricon & ALC page on Facebook and become a fan!

Not on Facebook? You can friend Yuricon & ALC publishing on LiveJournal, MySpace or follow us on Twitter, too!

Also – Yuricon is looking for, well…a new look. The website is four years old now and it’s time for a new design. This is a paid contract job, I’m looking for someone with good design skills, excellent communication skills and a strong sense of deadline and responsibility. You will be responsible for creating the design and assisting with the migration of the site. Students of design are welcome to apply.

If you would like to apply for this position, please email me at yuricon at hotmail dotcom with an introductory email and if possible a link to your portfolio or an example of your work.

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Yuri Doujinshi

Winter Comiket is right around the corner. If you are going to be in Japan for New Year’s Eve, drop by Tokyo Big Sight on 12/30 and stock up on Yuri doujinshi! Use Small Call’s List of Yuri Circles to plan your purchases. (The List is in Japanese, but if you can’t even read the list, then there’s basically no way you’ll be able to make it around Comiket without a guide, lol.) Visit the West Hall, Row Mi (in hiragana), Table 36a for Office Mono, our own Eriko Tadeno’s newest Yuri doujinshi! (yay!!)

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Yuri 3-D Worlds

Lastly. You may remember that I mentioned a Rose Mansion event on Second Life this week. Well, due to other resposibilities I did not make it (I’m still hoping to make the event on 12/19 11PM Japan time…) but someone did! (And, after only a little verbal abuse from me, wrote up a nice little report for us) Let me turn this over to Rei:

This morning I visited the Rose Mansion open house on Second Life. I have to say I was impressed. The entire SIM is really quite amazing – it’s apparent that someone spent a lot of time painstakingly recreating the setting of Maria-sama ga Miteru. As you approach the gate you’re given a free change of clothes for your avatar into a Lillian uniform (or Hanadera uniform for the guys) and from there on it only gets cuter. If you explore far enough you’ll discover there are Photography Club and Newspaper Club branch offices in the Rose Mansion. Here you’ll find free armbands for your avatar. I chose to adorn myself with the Photography Club arm band. There’s also a church on the premises that features pictures from past MARIASAMA group events, and of course, the ever-serene Maria-sama’s garden, replete with statue.

The visitors are also very charming: chatting away in Japanese about everything under the sun, but mostly fashion. I met two locals who were very encouraging and helpful. MAO Amaterasu seems to be a Linden Millionaire who has various gorgeous avatar costumes to change into, hair that never stops flowing and walks like she’s on imported air (thank you Blondie). Her cute rosary-toting soeur, Sakurako Ceriano, gave me some toast to carry around in my avatar’s mouth and told me all about Hatsumoude at her local shrine. I think there were games and stuff but I arrived too late to for the party-favors. Anyway, it was a blast.

For anyone interested, the SIM is located in Sonima, but just so you know, you can’t fly within school grounds: walking slowly so as not to disturb the pleats in your skirts is the preferred mode of travel here. Have fun exploring and be sure to bring your parasol. ~Rei (Known on Second Life as Kohime Matsuri)

Thanks Rei, that was fabulous and now I really want to make it to the next event…!

Oh, btw, Rei also told me that when you arrive at the Rose Mansion, the light shines through the stained glass above the stairs and rains three colors of light down upon you. LF heaven.

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That’s all there is for this week, except for the stuff I forgot. Oh well, there’s always next week!