Archive for the Events Category


Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s Massive Manga Giveaway!

October 12th, 2011


Manga is not a crime! Right now an American citizen is facing a minimum sentence of one year in a Canadian prison because customs authorities wrongly allege that horror and fantasy manga on his computer are child pornography. The CBLDF is helping him by assisting in legal strategy and by raising money to offset his legal fees, which are expected to reach $150,000.

Join the effort to defend this case by visiting the CBLDF’s table in Manga Artists Alley and signing up for membership! When you do, we’ll enter you into our Massive Manga Giveaway!  Raffle tickets will also be available for purchase at the CBLDF table in the Exhibitor’s Hall.

The top publishers in the manga industry, including Viz, Seven Seas, Vertical, Yen, Dark Horse, DMP, Kodansha, and ALC Publishing have contributed prize packages for teen and adult readers for each day of the show. Come learn about the CBLDF’s efforts to protect your freedom to read manga, and take home amazing books!

Titles include: Tenjo Tenge , Dance in the Vampire Bund, A Certain Scientific Railgun, Strawberry Panic! Complete Light Novel Collection , Lychee Light Club, Chi’s Sweet Home, High School of the Dead , Yotsuba! WORKS, Rica ‘tte Kanji!?, Yuri Monogatari, Volume 3,4,5,6, and selections from CLAMP





New York Comic Con Quick Queer Comics To-Do List

September 20th, 2011

If you’re following any comics news anywhere online, you know that New York Comic Con is around the corner. October 14-16, Javits Convention Center, New York)

Here is a short list of things to add to your to-do list if you’re attending:

In the Exhibitor Hall – Prism Comics (Table 1058) and Geeks Out (Table 1165) I’ll be hanging with Prism for a bit, and Rica Takashima is going to be at the Geeks Out table.

Do also drop by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (Table 1158) – consider becoming a member, as they are out there literally defemding people’s right to read whatever they want. I’m also hoping to be there for some time, helping them raise money for the manga border case defense.

On Friday, October 14, Rica Takashima will be on the It Gets Better (with Comics!) panel at 11AM-12PM with Abby Denson, Charles “Zan” Christiansen, Chris Shoemaker, Ivan Velez Jr. and Jackson Martin

I will be on the XX: Queer Women of Comics panel on Friday at 7:45- 8:45 PM with Abby Denson, Jennifer Camper, Joan Hilty, Kris Dresen, and Paige Braddock

There will be also be a screening of the Madoka Magica show by Aniplex. On Saturday, CBLDF will host a panel about Defending Comics.

There’s much more to do there, of course, and many of the folks on these and other panels, so don’t limit yourself to just what’s here. And, if you find yourself at a great LGBTQ panel and want to share, write a report and let us know how it went!

(And I know this is hardly comprehensive, so if you know of something/someone that should be added, tell me in the comments and I’ll add them!)





Event: Girls Love Festival Report

September 14th, 2011

First of all, my apologies for having no pictures of the event, as there were signs everywhere forbidding picture-taking. I had lost my camera early in the trip and my wife’s is too large to use surreptitiously.

Girls Love Festival (website is in Japanese) is one of two Yuri-only doujinshi events being held in Japan. Girls Love Fest is in the Tokyo area and Maiden’s Garden (website in Japanese) is held in Kyoto.

I had never had a chance to attend either of these, so I was both excited and a little apprehensive about this one. ^_^ But it turns out I need not have been worried at all.

Girls Love Fest has a list of participating circles on their website, so I knew going into it that there were a few people I wanted to meet or see again.

Bruce, my wife and I took the train to Kamata station, where we found the PIO building without difficulty. Outside was our dear friend Komatsu-san and we waited for the last our party, a lovely, talented and funny young lady, Ransui-san, who draws doujinshi herself. We were treated to a preview of her upcoming PreCure works, which are incredibly cute!

We watched the line of attendees go in when the event opened and were not terribly encouraged by the female/male attendee ratio. It appeared that very few women were attending, but when we finally got in, there were more than it appeared on the line. Circles seemed split 40/60 female/male and attendees were more like 30/70. So, not as many women this time as Komatsu-san said there were last year, but it wasn’t a bad split.

You have to purchase a copy of the event catalog to get in to the event – the catalog acts as your “ticket” into the event space. It wasn’t that expensive, and very nicely printed.

The room was a convention center hall, half was one show, half the other show. GLF was on the window side. Because the show was small, the aisles weren’t crowded, so it had a nice, airy, open feeling.

Everyone we talked to was so nice! Lots and lots of smiles. We gave away Yuricon “I Love Yuri” pins to the show Boss, and a few circles we knew and some folks who had come to the Yuricon 2005 event in Tokyo. (I had ordered more, but thanks CafePress for taking more than two weeks to ship a bag of pins, so they arrived too late.)

We were able to say hello to Circle Sakuraike (Kimochi no Katachi Volume 1 and Volume 2) and of course buy their books! and slowly, relaxedly wander the aisles. There wasn’t as much 18+ material as I feared. In my heart, I sort of expected the event to be mostly loli-porn, so I anticipated being disappointed with the doujinshi for sale. But, I was pretty much wrong. I was glad to be wrong. ^_^

The event theme was “magical girl,” so there was a lot of Madoka work, no surprise, and a fair dollop of PreCure. A little Nanoha, much less than I expected and surprisingly a pretty decent showing for Maria-sama ga Miteru (thus proving that Yumi is pretty much magical. ^_^) There was one lonesome guy selling Strawberry Panic doujinshi and only one Vocaloid seller – all of us commented on how strange that was. We all expected way more of that.

I got fangirly squee-y when I came across Amano Shuninta’s (Sweet Guilty Love Bites) booth. I saw the doujinshi first, and recognized the art style, then blurted out, “OMG, is this Amano Shuninta?” at which the adorable woman standing there raised her hand. I asked her to sign a doujinshi, and bought everything, pretty much, then gave her a “I Love Yuri” pin. ^_^ I also found Momono Moto (Kimi Koi Limit) gave her a pin, tried to buy a book, but she gave it to me. Thank you! I really wanted it for the CD it came with, I think it’s a game, that looked kinda fun. Girl Prince and Princess on the cover. I’ll see if I can make heads or tails of it. ^_^

I also asked some random artist to sign her work, because it was so cute. She looked shocked, then embarrassed, but she did it. That was also very cute. (^_^)

Kogado, the company that created Yuri game Soulfege was the only corporate presence there, they were advertising their new Yuri game, White Robe Lovers, which takes place in a nursing school. If there is a faster way to turn me right off, I can’t think of it. That whole nurse fetish thing just leaves me cold. But, what was notable, was that Kogado had an itasha there to advertise the series. In the front window of the car was a URL which struck as all as amusing, but none of us knew whether it was unintentional or not: http://blog.kogado.co.jp/patheticar/. Either way, we agreed that the URL was truth in advertising.

Before we left, we all agreed that next year we’ll go to the Maiden’s Garden event together. Komatsu-san and Ransui-san left us to go to take in a PreCure musical show, so we said our goodbyes to them and left GLFes, with piles of doujinshi, fan novels and memories of many smiles.

I would encourage any of you to attend this event – it was friendly, relaxing and fun, just as one would hope it would be. ^_^ Thanks to everyone who made it possible and to everyone who sold there. And many, many thanks to Komatsu-san and to Ransui-san for joining us on our adventure!





Yuri Network News – April 9, 2011

April 9th, 2011

Event News

Today and tomorrow is the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival.  I will be there today only at Rica Takashima’s Table – L9. She will have art prints, postcards, magnets and a new doujinshi, Miho-chan’s Memories. Drop by say hi – I intend to have random items to give away, as stuff always sort of accumulates here in the house. ^_^

As I’ve said in the past, I consider MoCCA to be one of the best events for comics and cartoon art I’ve ever attended. If you think you want to be an artist or just want to feel the vibe of a whole lot of creatin’ going on, you really must attend MoCCA’s event.

For the more literary-minded, New York’s Japan Society is hosting an event titled Seeing Stories: Fiction, Manga & Graphic Novels on the reciprocal nature of literature and manga. This is on May 3 in NYC. I plan on being there, if I can.

One more event I am planning on attending – Yuri doujinshi event Girls Love Fest this September in Tokyo. It’s about time, wouldn’t you say? Next time, Maiden’s Garden. ^_^

***

Yuri Anime

I am actually amazed it took this long, but massively popular with moe fans Idolmaster
has finally gotten an anime.

YNN Correspondent and Okazu Superhero Eric P. shares the news that Nozomi/Right Stuf has licensed Sora no wo to and will be releasing it as a DVD collection, Sound of the Sky. This collection has a street date in July.

Funimation is releasing Ga-Rei-Zero in combo DVD/Blu-Ray packs and on their Youtube channel.

There was a book in every single store when I was in Japan in 2010. Moshidora is about a girl who becomes a manager of a baseball team. And it was on all the Yuri lists, because it was moe and they reaaallllllly wanted it to have Yuri. Now it’s an anime and they still reallllly want it to have some Yuri, even if they have to squint and lean.

And in the same trend, Hanasaku Iroha, which is streaming on Crunchyroll, IMHO (which may not be yours) sounds like the Yuri will be mostly in your head.

Maria+Holic has been granted a second season and, like Hanasaku, I will not be watching it. If you enjoy Maria+Holic and want to review that second season, please feel free to write me about a guest review!

While we’re piling on the moe with questionable Yuri, don’t forget that the anime A-channel will begin this spring. It’s based on a 4-koma comic, so you’ve already seen this one…a hundred times. ^_^

***

Maria-sama ga Miteru News 

New Novel,  Maria-sama ga Miteru: Private Teacher  is already getting high Yuri ratings on Japanese Yuri blogs and juicy snorts of amusement from fans. A Japanese acquaintance on Twitter said, “It sounds like a fan doujinshi!” It really does….

…and, at last! YNN Correspondent Simon gets in first with the news that the Maria-sama ga Miteru Live-Action movie BD and DVD will be seeing a late July release. Want Nozomi/RightStuf to license it? Ask them politely to do so.

***

Yuri Manga 

YNN Correspondent Komatsu-san is pleased to share the news that Himawari-san manga has had successful sales and is going to a second printing. Even better, the creator is looking to do a second volume and the publisher is willing to back it. Whee!

From random tweets, Morinaga Milk has intimated that there may be a new edition and possibly continuation of Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakura-iro.  When more details are released I’ll let you know. Or, conversely, when one of you learns details, you’ll let me know! You’re not shy! ^_^ (Also, please don’t bothering to respond to this news with “Yay! I can’t wait to read scans!” because I will not approve comments like that.)

Aoii Hana’s got a new collection of Comic Yuri Hime stories called called Twin Kick (ツインケイク).

There is a charity doujinshi for Earthquake rescue and relief that has contributing artists from a number of magazines including the creator of Nobara no Mori no otome-tachi.

***

Other News

If you’re looking to practice your Japanese, but don’t want to risk being treated like a weirdo for liking Yuri, then consider joining the new Yuri GL Community.

***
That’s a wrap for this week.

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!





Guest Lecturing at UBC in Vancover…in 47 minutes

March 17th, 2011

File this under “kinda cool”:

I’m going to be guest lecturing today at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. By Skype. Nice, huh?

Prof. James Welker’s “Cultures of Manga an Anime” class has provided a slew of great questions about Yuri that I will bravely attempt to answer coherently.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we can record this and you can at some point in the future amuse yourself by listening to me flail. ^_^

Watch this space for a post-mortem report!