Archive for the Events Category


AnimeNYC Event Report, Pt. 1 Yuri Licenses

November 17th, 2019

I have returned from AnimeNYC, which was fabulous. I am moving this event up to the No. 1 must-attend anime/manga event in North America, along with TCAF, which is my recommendation for  No. 1 must-attend comics event.  This event has it all. If Javits wasn’t the worst convention center in America it would be perfect. (The fact that it is the worst is because of its design, which was meant to host several smaller events, not one gigantic pop culture event that needs lots of space for free movement and spaces to stand in costumes with wings that don’t block stairs and escalators. Also, people, do NOT stand in front of or on stairs and escalators for photos. Take them to the side. Please.)

Because the event was so good, I’m going to break the event report up into two pieces. Today, we’ll talk about some of the licenses that were announced and a few other Yuri tidbits. To begin with, let me remind you that  every single major western manga (and light novel) publisher currently is now putting out Yuri. Seven Seas, Viz, Yen, Kodansha, Tokyopop and J-Novel Club have really embraced Yuri. Sentai Filmworks is on our side as well, snapping up all the Yuri anime.  Going to an event like AnimeNYC once upon a time, would have netted us a list of one or two things of interest, but this event, I could not go anywhere without seeing Yuri represented. It was…really nice.

Part 1 of the report is something I have *never* done before – a round up of just Yuri licenses announced at this event!

On Viz‘s plate this week saw the release of Makoto Hagino’s A Tropical Fish Yearns For Snow, a slow-burning romance in a seaside school’s aquarium club. You can read a preview of the English volume on their website!

The Yuri OVA Fragtime premiered at AnimeNYC and, at the beginning of the showing, Pony Canyon read a statement from Sentai announcing that they had licensed the anime. Seven Seas followed up with an online announcement that they have acquired the Fragtime manga for digital and print release. I will do a review of Fragtime later this week. I did not enjoy it.

Square Enix announced a manga adaptation of Wandering Witch. Yen Press will be localizing the light novels next year. I know absolutely nothing about this series, but trust Yurimother’s reporting.

Speaking of Yen Press, they announced Nikurashii Hodo, Aishiteru, as  which I genuinely enjoyed, as I Love You So Much, I Hate You.

J-Novel Club revealed that Sexiled will be getting a print release! I am genuinely thrilled about that. I spent all  weekend proselytizing it. This is an absolutely must-read book for any woman and all men. Someone called it a “power fantasy” novel for women and I absolutely wholeheartedly agreed. Fabulous, fabulous book. Second volume will be released digitally next month.

And this morning Kodansha rounded out the announcements with….I’m super excited for this, Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau, which I just reviewed, as Whisper Me a Love Song!

It was a really great event for me as a person, as a comics journalist, as an otaku and, most especially as a Yurinin, a Yuri fan!





100 Years of Yuri and More at AnimeNYC

November 14th, 2019

This weekend may be light on reviews and there will be no YNN this week, but it won’t be light on content! I’m heading out to New York City, to be part of AnimeNYC which is sincerely everything NYCC wishes it were in regards to anime and manga.

I’ve written up a manga-focused pre-event report for The Comics Beat which I’ll link to when it goes live. In the meantime, here’s the queer highlights for you if you’re planning your schedule! The panels schedule is available in full on the event website.

Friday

I will be presenting 100 Years of the Yuri Genre at 3PM in Room 1E17. I don’t have a lot of room in my luggage, but I have some small prizes for good questions!

Con guest translator Zack Davisson and myself will be shouting into the void at The Great Debate at 6PM in Room 1E17.

 

Saturday:

The day begins with That’s Gay! Anime and Manga for the LGBTQ Audience at 10:30 in Room 1E17.

Yuri OVA Fragtime will get its US Premier at 1:30 in Room 1E13.

 

Companies that will be there, holding panels, sponsoring guests, and who have been licensing Yuri include Viz Media,who are celebrating the release of the Stars season of Sailor Moon, Sentai Filmworks, who just released a premium box set of Bloom Into You, Yen Press, which has with the Kadkoawa pipeline, J-Novel Club, who just launched a line of Yuri novels that were great), Funimation, Kodansha and Denpa. I’m also going to see if I can ask Square Enix for a book or two.

I’ll see you there!

 





British Museum Manga Exhibition Report, Guest Review by Eleanor W.

September 29th, 2019

This summer saw the largest manga exhibition at a museum outside Japan, as the British Museum for their Manga マンガ exhibit, to critical acclaim. A little belatedly, because I was away, we have a review of that exhibit by YNN correspondent Eleanor W. I was seriously sorry that I couldn’t manage a trip to London this summer to see this, so I’m settling in to walk through the exhibit with a friend. ^_^ The floor is yours, Eleanor…take it away!

When I heard about the British Museum’s manga exhibition running this summer, I decided that a trip to our capital was necessary. Since London is 4 ½ hours from me on the train, I made a weekend of it, took my best friend (also a manga fan) and we had a great time. As long time manga fans, we were both curious as to what the exhibition would hold for us, as opposed to people who know nothing about manga or comics. 

The museum’s own website invites you to “Enter a graphic world where art and storytelling collide in the largest exhibition of manga ever to take place outside of Japan.” 

It’s always nice to see Miyuki

The exhibition began with a quick introduction to manga, including some sample draft pages, some examples of artist’s tools donated by Takehiko Inoue and some videos from editors at the major publishers Kodansha, Shueisha and Shogakukan, wishing the exhibition success.

Once in the main hall of the exhibition there was a lot to see. There was clearly a lot of time and effort taken to cover every aspect of manga and its history and diversity. From focuses on a few specific artists, to a model bookshop where you could take Japanese and English volumes off the shelf to read, as well as information on seminal series like Dragon Ball and One Piece and even a small explanation of doujinshi and Comiket. 

There was of course a lot of space devoted to telling the history of manga and how it evolved over the 20th century into what it is today. From ukiyo-e woodblock cuts to early newspaper strips, it was definitely a good beginner friendly introduction to where manga came from beyond Osamu Tezuka. 

An example of early Japanese cartoons published in a newspaper, in the style of Western newspaper strips. 

 

 


I particularly liked this board game

I was happy that there was mention of the Year 24 Group and how they developed shoujo manga and BL, with a particular focus on Moto Hagio. 

Leading on from the Year 24 Group, there was another section on Boys Love, though disappointingly Yuri didn’t get a mention. I almost forgive them though, as they included Fumi Yoshinaga and What Did You Eat Yesterday as an example of a different more modern type of BL along with a few pages of My Brother’s Husband, which if you haven’t read already, you absolutely need to. 

 

The curators definitely tried to pick diverse examples of series to show, evidenced by Chihayafuru being right around the corner from a display on Junji Ito and his horror works, a large print of JoJo on one of the walls and a Colossal Titan head model looming in the opposite corner.

Another part I particularly enjoyed was the section about sound effects. Fumiyo Kono (Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms and In This Corner of the World) has produced a manga guide to the common Japanese sound effects often seen in manga, and uses an adorable rabbit character to explain how they are used and often form part of the art.

Overall, this exhibition was a good balance between not intimidating newcomers to the world of manga, but still providing enough for veteran fans to enjoy. I’m glad I made the trip. 

For further reading, take a look at the British Museum’s blog on the exhbit:

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/manga-a-brief-history-in-12-works/

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/an-introduction-to-manga/

and ANN’s report of Viz Editor Urian Brown’s walkthrough video of the exhibit.

Erica here: Thank you Eleanor! I appreciate your overview and I’m very glad that you were able to see the exhibit.

 





October Yuri Events Schedule

September 20th, 2019

Just back home from the 100 Years of Yuri Tour and we’re already working on the next set of events! Here is my October appearance schedule:

October 3-6, New York Comic Con, Javits Center, New York, NY

I will be on at least one panel on Sunday and will be taking a look at this year’s AnimeFest at Hudson Mercantile.

 

 

Oct 15-16 Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

Tuesday, October 15, 5PM, B122 Wells Hall, MSU Campus

I will be talking about about Rose of Versailles and Sailor Moon to a class on translation. They each pose a significant set of challenges to translators and adapters. This is free and open to the public (check with the school for registration.)

Wednesday, October 16, 5PM, Rom 301 International Center, MSU Campus
We’ll be talking about 100 Years of Yuri!

Oct. 25 Diversity Con, Fashion Institute of Technology NYC, NY

This is a brand-new event that is specifically focusing on marginalized communities within comics. There’s a lot of potential and I have hope that it will be grand.

I’m hoping that I’ll be at AnimeNYC, in November as well. Fingers crossed. ^_^ Let ’em know you want me there!





Yurithon at Otakuthon 2019 Event Report

August 19th, 2019

Once again, I had the genuine pleasure to attend and panel at the Yurithon programming track of Otakuthon, in Montreal, Quebec.

Otakuthon is a large general anime convention, held in the Palais des Congrès in downtown Montreal. For people like myself, who enjoy touristing in a city as well as attending the event, Montreal is near-perfect. (With one exception – the construction is ridiculous. Whole streets in what is meant to be a walkable town are ripped up and blocked off. On Gay Pride weekend, while Otakuthon is on, in the middle of tourist season in August. Great idea, Montreal.)

My wife joined me on two panels, the amusing “Yuri Court” game, where we prosecute or defend Yuri series and the traveling to Japan as a Yuri Otaku panel. For the History of Queer Manga, we has Historian James Welker, who was absolutely brilliant and fascinating. And of course I ran my Must-Read/ Must-Watch panel, letting folks know about good stuff coming out right now that they should be reading. (I will try to get this up some day in the near future, but I make no promises.)

I tried to sit in on the Queer webcomics panel but no one arrived to run it. I briefly considered jumping in, but thought it wouldn’t be fair to the folks looking for gay content, as it’s not really in my wheelhouse.

4 Panels over 3 days is perfect. Enough to keep me busy, to provide a chunk of programming, but also give me time to shop! The real benefit of the Otakuthon Dealer’s Room, is that it is very large, with a big Artist’s Alley. I always meet new folks there. This year we spoke with Koyamori, Lollipop Sisters, both of whom had really unique art.

This year we bought one piece of original art by Kelli Kiakas, from her Giggly Game series in which she draws the childhood games we played in the style of 1930s comic/animation art. We bought “Marco Polo” because it made us both laugh.

"Marco Polo" Giggly Games Series, by Kelli Kiakas http://foolishcaptainkia.com/site/

We had multiple amazing meals, including a poutine at a fancy French restaurant. It was reallly gooood poutine. Best we’ve ever had. Yes, there can be a “best.” ^_^ Here’s a rundown of the weekend’s food:

Biiru
Japanese izakaya(ish) featuring what James named “wafusion”. Exceptional.

Bistro Boris
French, beautiful garden seating, amazing food. Very, ridiculously dark. We needed phone flashlights to read the menu. The poutine we had here was the best we’ve had. Pattie had foie gras, I had duck risotto.

The cafe at Le Westin Hotel (we can’t find the name. Not the Gazette, but the cafe by the Saint-Antoine Tower elevators) has good coffee and croissants and were super friendly. The vegetable tartin was spectacular.

Reuben’s
Montreal’s version of Junior’s. Smoked meats, yum.

Now the fun part, where I will assuredly skip someone and break their heart. Many sincere thanks to everyone who made this event an absolute blast: Meggie and Kim, once again gracious and cute conrunners. James for joining me on panels, for the first and, I hope, not the last time. Fujimoto Yukari-sensei for coming to the panels and to dinner and just being a delightful person to speak with. Mark for being a great laugher and long-time Okazu friend. We look forward to more French-language manga reviews from you! Nick T for being someone I was delighted to meet in person. I had been on his Nickcast some months ago and we had so much fun. It was a genuine pleasure to put a face to the name.  Special thanks to Severine, for conveniently being in Montreal while I was there; dragging you into the colorful world of anime fandom and shiny cosplay was a delight (and smoked meats are always a good thing.) I want to shout-out to Sam Pinansky of the J-Novel club, who are putting out a bunch of Yuri novels! And of course, my wife who is brilliant and funny on panels and all the time.

If you attended any of my panels, thank you! The audiences were great. I forgot to remind people to not ask my opinion of series in the Must-Read/ Must-Watch panel and, since it was my fault, I gave my opinions. I expect some of those people will be recovering for a while and I’m sorry, but not really. If you will insist on asking me what I think, I’m going to tell you. ^_^

I basically come to Yurithon to give away candy and books, and eat smoked meats (Montreal’s version of pastrami, essentially) and at Biiru, so all objectives were achieved.

During the very same weekend, New York City hosted Flamecon and I hope we’ll be getting a report on that later this week, too. I can think of worse ways to spend my Augusts, alternating between Flamecon and Yurithon. ^_^ I hope to see more of you in both places~!