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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
