Archive for the Okazu News Category


Thank You, Okazu Heros!

November 25th, 2014

Thanks to your support, Okazu Heros and Superheroes, today we hit our first goal on Patreon – going ad-free.

Effective immediately, and hopefully forever more, no ads on Okazu posts. Phew. They always made me feel a little guilty. ^_^;

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I thought about using a traditional congratulations image, but this one seemed so much more appropriate for us. ^_^

Thank you for your subscriptions, your sponsorships of English and Japanese language items, your support, your passion and most of all – thank you for being an important part of the Okazu family!

 





Supporting Okazu by Shopping for Stuff

November 3rd, 2014

Hi all, I know I’ve been away a number of times recently and I have one more week of crazy ahead.  I just want to do some quick housekeeping, as requested by Okazu Reader Alison (sorry for the delay Alison! Thanks for your patience. ^_^). We’re moving into the holiday season and some of you will be buying gifts for your love ones on Amazon or RightStuf. I know a lot of you want to support Okazu, and don’t always have the money to subscribe. If you’d like to make sure Okazu gets a penny or two of your purchases, you can do this one of several ways:

On Amazon:

The easiest wait to throw an affiliate fee my way is to simply click through a link on Okazu. Purchases made through the Yuricon Shop are also affiliate links, but that site is a bit of a mess and horribly outdated. I need to update that, I know, I know. I kept hoping Amazon would update their shop interface, but nope. It’s on the to-do list.

You can also bookmark this page and shop through this clunky and unappealing search feature. The default here is “Yuri Manga” but you can search for anything:


 

On RightStuf.com:

We added Right Stuf affiliate links this year by popular demand. Interestingly, while a number of you used these right away, there’s been a lot of clicking, but very little buying on these. (This is not a judgement, I just found it sort of fascinating that more of you click on those links than on Amazon links, but for buying the percentages are flipped.)

As it turns out, practically everything I link to on TRSI is excluded from affiliate promotions, which is annoying, but understandable, as their discounts are crazy. ^_^;

To search for items on Right Stuf’s website through my affiliate account, please use this SEARCH on Rightstuf.com link.

Here’s a link if you want to use the Table of Contents on RightStuf.com.

Since Alison specifically wanted the Sailor Moon DVD set, here’s the links to those specific items:

Sailor Moon Blu-ray/DVD Set 1 (Hyb)

Sailor Moon Blu-ray/DVD Set 1 (Hyb) Limited Edition

Sailor Moon Blu-ray/DVD Set 2 (Hyb) Limited Edition w/GWP

Sailor Moon Blu-ray/DVD Sets 1-2 (Hyb) Limited Edition + 2nd GWP

As we’ve done for the last couple of years, I’ll put together a Okazu Gift Guide in the days ahead and it’ll have a lot for fans, new and old. ^_^ If you are looking for a particular link and haven’t seen it listed, just ask in thee comments and I’ll do my best to get it to you! And thanks for your support!





What Your Patronage Means to Okazu

October 1st, 2014

PatreonAt the end of August, I initiated the first ever Patreon campaign for Okazu to get content sponsors.  You, my dear readers, responded with typical generosity and enthusiasm.

The difference between Patreon and other crowdfunding platforms is that your money is funding the existence of Okazu, rather than one small fixed-point project. In effect, you are subscribing to the web magazine “Okazu,” that gives you feature articles, event reports, reviews of Yuri anime and Yuri manga and even interviews with top-name Yuri manga artists. For your contribution, you get 20-30 (depending on the time I have) articles a month, for as little as a few cents per article.

So, our first month of this new, rather exciting process, arrived and I wanted you to see what you have wrought. This arrived yesterday:

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Two boxes from Amazon Japan, purchased by…you. It is entirely due to you that for the next several months I will be reading these manga, thinking about them, reviewing them and writing them up for your reading pleasure.

 

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This month is exceptionally exciting as I am taking you with me, figuratively (and in a few cases, literally!) to Girls Love Festival in Yokohama, Japan, where you will be contributing directly to the economic well-being of  some amazing Yuri manga artists.

If you are not subscribing to Okazu, no worries! Feel free to read and comment and participate here as you always have. There is no tiered access, no members-only spaces. But for those of you who have contributed a few bucks a month, you have my sincere gratitude. For those of you who committed at our higher levels, the Okazu no Mikos, I especially thank you from the bottom of my heart. (Note to Bruce: Anytime you want to eat at Casa, let me know. I owe you ^_^)

Now, back to the readin’ and writin’ – made possible by you.

Want to know more about supporting Okazu on Patreon? Check out the Okazu Campaign!





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – August 30, 2014

August 30th, 2014

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Okazu News

Our top news this week is the grand opening of subscriptions to Okazu.

If you love reading weekly news round-ups,  reviews of Yuri manga, anime and related media, special features such as Event Reports,  Interviews with Yuri Creators, Opinion pieces and Articles on the cultural and literary History of Yuri, then please support Okazu and help us maintain the quality and quantity of our content. For an overview of our our goals and rewards, and to subscribe, please visit Okazu on Patreon!

I’ll back off beating this drum now, but you’ll see links at the bottom of most posts going forward and I expect I’ll do awareness -raising again towards the end of the year. Don”t worry if you can’t doing anything now – this is not a race. Subscriptions links will remain live and I plan on doing Okazu for  long, long time. ^_^

***

YNN Correspondent Roundup

From YNN Correspondent Ellen K, news that Takarazuka is working on another anime/manga -related character show, this time the infamous thief Lupin the Third.

YNN Senior European Correspondent Grisznak reports that Polish doujinshi company, The Cold Desire, is looking for a authors for the second edition of their Yuri fiction anthology. They have previously released a Yuri manga anthology with Polish authors and a volume of Yuri fiction. Great news that they’ve found enough creators and readers to go a second volume. Good luck to them. ^_^

YNN Correspondent Jin notes that ANN has reported amazing news – Yuri Kuma Arashi, a joint project with Utena and Penguindrun director Ikuhara Kunihiko, with character designs by Morishima Akiko is being made into an anime. This should be interesting, at the very least. ^_^

YNN Senior Correspondent Erin S has a massive pile of lovely queer webcomics that she wanted to share with you all:

Her Wings by Kat Leyh (available as a download for the incredibly low price of $2)

Once Upon A Time There Was A Prince from the Crispy Fish Tumblr

A  little love story about mermaids and tattoos – from the Charmingly Antiquated Tumblr

From The Great  Experiment: The Hand of a Princess. This was fantastic. ^_^

Bethany Parker’s  sobering Day In the Life of  Queer Black Woman and an equally sobering look at how bisexuals are not always welcome at LGBTQ events, from EmpathizeThis.com

Just a note on Tumblr – Tumblr has great mechanics for sharing within Tumblr, but exceedingly poor mechanics to rtain attribution and credit. If you have a Tumblr thing to share, if you can send me the link to the actual real original, that’d be great. Creators – put your damn name on your comics!

To this list of fantastic social commentary in comic form I want to add Karine Charlebois‘  Illustrated Guide to Issues of Harassment, Representation, And Media Criticism, written up on The Mary Sue. This was just a lovely little conversation with readers who still aren’t quite cluing in.  I suggest bookmarking it, it will probably come in handy at some point. ^_^

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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!





Subscribe to Okazu and Be a Hero !

August 25th, 2014

okazu-idYou love the uniqueness of the Yuri Network News report, you enjoy the comprehensive reviews of Yuri manga, anime and related media. You know that Okazu is your best source of interviews with Yuri manga artists. You love being part of the Yuri Network – now here’s your chance to show your support and subscribe to this unique community.

Okazu has been the Internet’s oldest and most comprehensive source for news, reviews, interviews and articles about lesbian-themed animation and comics since 2002. Help Okazu continue the good work for the next decade and become a subscriber through our Patreon campaign!

Become an Okazu Hero or Okazu Superhero and nab one of our coveted Okazu badges, or be one of the first to get one of our new badges for levels yet unattained. We’ve got a number of goals on tap for Okazu in the next year and we can really use your help to meet them. Our first goal is to make and keep Okazu ad-free for now and ever more.

We’re really hoping to be able to pay Guest Reviewers and keep Okazu’s  selection of Yuri Anime, Manga and related media updated for a more comprehensive all-Yuri online shop.

You,my dear readers, YNN correspondents and Guest Reviewers are the team that makes Okazu thrive. Thanks for all your support through the last 12 years and here’s to the next 12!