Thanks to JD Glass for this great video trailer for Yuri Monogatari 6! Please post it on your Facebooks, blogs, MySpaces, Twitter is and get the word out!
I’ll have a recap of the party with some pictures as soon as I’ve had more coffee and watched some Kolchak.
I am of course, not “out of office.” I am getting ready for the Yuri Monogatari 6 Launch Party tomorrow at the Rare Flix store in the Secaucus Outlets.
Join JD Glass, Rica Takashima, Althea Keaton, Jessie B and some of the staff behind ALC Publishing for a late-late brunch, Yuri anime and lots of great conversation!
I will therefore not be posting a news report tomorrow, because I plan on sleeping in and kicking back. I’ll see you all tomorrow anyway. :-)
Going forward, you should probably know that ALC is *not* planning on being at Otakon this year, but we do plan on hitting up Anime Las Vegas 2009 – the furthest west we’ve made it since Anime Expo in 2002.
We do hope to be at AnimeNEXT and MangaNEXT as usual, barring disaster.
In any case, don’t expect a post again until Sunday at the very earliest. Have a lovely weekend and see you in Secaucus!
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 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!
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. :-)
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!
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