Archive for the Yuri Network News Category


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 27, 2014

September 27th, 2014

YNN_MariKToday’s a news dump kind of day. ^_^

Have one of the old-fangled iPhone 5s and want to hide your despair at existence? Try these nifty Mucha-esque Sailor Moon covers and enjoy the schadenfreude of knowing your phone isn’t bending. Also note the delightful use of the word “sundries” in the URL. That just about made my morning. No, wait, these earphone plug Henshin wand charms did. Sailor Moon, Chibi Moon, Sailors Uranus, Pluto and Neptune, thank you *very* much!

I told you about – NSM48 (Nagoya Sexual Minority 48) back in 2012. They a girl group out of Nagoya, with inclusive lyrics and members. Well, they’ve renamed themselves NSM= (Nagoya Sexual Minority Equal) and have been recording their first album. Here’s a sample, the song Happiness, on Soundcloud. Enjoy! I love that they have morphed from being a parody to a real group. ^_^

This past week, I reviewed Obentou to Kase-san, the second volume by Takashima Hiromi. Well, I was poking around her blog, Takashimaya, and found that she has released some Yamada and Kase-san doujinshi digitally through DLsite. This is not a free site, but the cost is like a buck per doujinshi, and there are PC, Android and iOS options. Seriously, I’m going to be getting “Natsu to Kase-san” and “Chocolate to Kase-san”. If I could purchase all doujinshi digitally from the authors directly, I might die of happiness. No more cartons of books, just tons of great content.

Another option for getting doujinshi is Comic Zin. (Here’s Momono Moto’s page, for instance.) There does not appear to be overseas shipping, but if you have a buying service or a friend in Japan willing to ship them to you, it’s an option.

OMG! OMG! Molly Ostertag and Brendan Lee Mulligan’s Strong Female Protagonist is being collected into a volume published by Top Shelf, as the result of an incredibly successful kickstarter by the creators. Definitely going on my must-get list.

Kat Callahan listed her thoughts on the 7 Best Lesbian Anime Ever Made over at Jezebel. What do you think of her list? Let her know you thought in the article comments!

Molly Brooks has created what we’ve all been waiting for – a post-apocalytpic lesbian comic. Sweet. Check out Post on her website.

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Over on The Mary Sue, Dee Hogan has summed up all the current legal options for watching anime and digital and print options for reading manga. She lets you know if there are free and/or paid versions,  but doesn’t get in to regional restrictions. Good stuff, worth bookmarking.

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Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? 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 cool YNN correspondent’s badge. Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!





Upcoming LGBTQ Comic/Yuri Manga Events

September 21st, 2014

DSCN5321For folks on the East and West Coasts of the USA or in and around Tokyo, Japan, there are a number of events of interest coming up and I *hate* reports that start “Oh, hey, I did the coolest thing this year and forgot to mention it was happening in time for you to plan to be there!” So, in order for some of you to make plans to be at these events, here are several upcoming events that I think you might want to make an effort to attend!

 

GLFes 

October 19, 2014, Yokohama, Japan, Yokohama Minato Mirai, Hall Marineria (横浜みなとみらい・横浜産貿ホールマリネリア)

This is the 12th Girls Love Festival event and it looks fantastic this year.  I think this is their first time in Yokohama, and next year it appears to be back in the Tokyo area. I actually changed my plans this year to attend, because under the GLFes umbrella, one of the events is “Onaji Hoshi ni Umareta Futari” an all-Yuri Sailor Moon doujinshi event. Amano Shuninta-sensei (Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na) did the cover art and I felt almost obliged to be there for the first-ever all-Yuri Sailor Moon event, y’know?  ^_^

The way GLFes works is that there are a bunch of thematically-organized sections. There will be a KanColle “event”, the above-mentioned Sailor Moon section, Sakura Trick, Yuru Yuri, PreCure and whatever other series are popular will get their own sections. Tucked in between are original works which, as you may be aware, is what I like best. ^_^

There are no panels, but I will be with a few folks with coherent Japanese and hope that I can speak to a few of the folks there interviewy-like. Fingers crossed.

 

Geek Girl Con

October 11-12, 2014, Seattle WA, Washington Convention Center

The reason I will not be at NYCC this year is because I am going to Geek Girl Con. This year is the 4th GGC and I wanted to at least experience it once.  Pretty much the entire Panel Schedule is of interest to and focused on Women in fandom, gaming, media, comics, etc. What I’m not seeing a whole lot of is LGBTQ-themed stuff, which sort of surprises me.

Queerbaiting in Genre Television: Representation or Exploitation?

Gaylaxy Quest: Exploring Queer Fantasy and Science Fiction

are the only things I see on the schedule. There is a BL-focused panel. No Yuri, but I wasn’t applying to run one, and there are, as I always say, way more straight girls than gay ones.  There are some “Female Gaze” panels, but from experience I know that those tend to be very straight (and usually pretty objectifying men-focused) and not my cup of tea.

I know The Legend of Bold Riley‘s creator Leia Weathington is supposed to be there and I hope to hang with her and a couple of Friends of Yuri. If you’re gonna be there, do let me know and we’ll make time to catch up and say hi!

 

New York Comic Con 

October 9-12, 2014, Javits Convention Center, New York City, NY

New York Comic Con has gone back and forth on Queer presence and equity of representation, but this year they seem to be making a special effort to have a number of panels on Women in Comics and Geek Media. Here are few you probably don’t want to miss:

Prism Comics Presents: Women in Queer Comics

Women of Color in Comics: Race, Gender and the Comic Book Medium

The Mary Sue Presents – Strong Female Characters: The Women Shining in Geek Media

Because I will be on the other side of the country for the weekend, if you do attend NYCC, (especially any of these panels) and would like to do a write-up of your impressions, please let me know and I’ll give you a quick tutorial on how to write something up! Industry panels are written up by every blogger in the universe, but far fewer people cover the meaty topic-oriented ones. I’d love to have eyes and ears at NYCC. You’ll get a colorful YNN Correspondent badge to display on your webpage or social profile in thanks. ^_^

 

International Manga Festival

November 23, 2014,Ariake, Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Big Sight

The International Manga Festival, aka the Kaigai Fes, is held as a part of Comitia, the biannual all-original doujinshi event. Begun just a few years ago, the Kaigai event is getting larger and more exciting every year. A bit like the opposite side of the TCAF card, the Kaigai Fes has comic artists from outside Japan, and it’s a lot of fun, seeing folks who are bridging the oceans to communicate about comics and comicking.

Comitia itself is a very cool event. Because it focuses on all-original doujinshi, I’ve found some good LGBTQ narratives and some straight-up Yuri as well. Next year I plan on revisiting the Kaigai and Comitia and seeing how far they’ve come. ^_^ If you can’t make it, rest assured, a number of manga bloggers will be covering this event. Keep your eyes especially on Deb Aoki’s Manga Comics Manga site for news and reporting.

 

Winter Comiket

December 28,29,30, Ariake, Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Big Sight

World’s biggest small press and self-published comic show. Makes SDCC look like a baby event. It’s huge, intimidating and electrifying. Everyone who loves comics should do this once. ^_^ There are Yuri parody and original circles, but you have to work at it a bit to find them all.

 

And while this is 6 months out, I want to give you all a heads up for these 2015 events:

Queers & Comics – LGBT Cartoonists’ Conference

May 7-8, 2015, New York, NYC, Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS)
The Graduate Center, CUNY – 365 Fifth Avenue, NYC

The Keynote speakers will be Howard Cruse and Alison Bechdel.  More information can be found on their website or their Facebook page. I’m hoping to be there, although it means I will probably miss TCAF, because the world is like that, but I don’t want to miss it!

 

Toronto Comic Arts Festival

TBA, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I can’t rave enough about TCAF. It’s got a strong manga presence, a strong LGBTQ presence and it’s generally the most fun I have at a North American event. The 2015 dates and location(s) have not yet been announced, but if you can make it, do!

 

So there’s a few vacation ideas for you coming up in the next half year or so. If you’re going to be at Geek Girl Con or GLFes, let me know so I can say hi!

 

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Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 20, 2014

September 20th, 2014

YNN_MariKYuri Anime

ANN reports that the Yuri Kuma Arashi anime created by Ikuhara Kunihiko and featuring character designs by Morishima Akiko will have a January debut. There is now a teaser site for the anime.

YNN Senior Correspondent Griznak reports that the Yuru Yuri OAV designs are now up on Crunchyroll News.

ANN tells us that Psycho-Pass 2 cast and staff lists are complete. Yayoi and Shion are on the list, woot. Now let’s see how much more horrible and violent the second series is…orz. ^_^;

Also from ANN, the first Sailor Moon Crystal Blu-ray “Digest” streams, with glimpses of extras.

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Yuri Kinetic Novel

Grisznak also wants you to know about a new Yuri, free, English-language kinetic novel titled Tunnel Vision. It sure seems like something we’ll all be interested in! ^_^

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Queer Comics

YNN Senior Correspondent Erin S. has suggested a few Yuri webcomics of interest:

Like a Shark In A Swimming Pool by Verity Hall. A coming of age story (warning: homophobic language)

Elias Ericson’s Super Queer Artsy Blog, looks like it’d be a heck of a timesink. ^_^

And this Korra x Asami fancomic series Songs of Evela, which is apparently ongoing. ^_^

Liz Prince’s Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir is now available on Amazon in print and on Kindle.

You may have heard that Alison Bechdel, creator of Dykes to Watch Out For and Fun Home has won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant. Her next work is another comic memoir, on her obsession with fitness. Congrats to Alison, who has changed the way we talk about female representation in media forever.

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Yuri Live Action

Edge of Normal is described by Diverse Media as “cute girls with superpowers crush on other cute girls with superpowers”. Okay, it’s on my to-watch list now. ^_^

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Other News

Anime destination touring is really heating up in Japan. The Kanagawa prefecture is launching Kanamoe, a prefecture-wide tour of popular anime locations.

If you’re attending New York Comic Con, don’t miss the Women of Color In Comics panel.

Absolutely do read this article: The Greatest Black Women In Superhero Comics (Who Aren’t Storm)

Also The Most Feminist Moments in Sci-Fi History.

Must Read: Women Who Conquered the Comics World

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Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? 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!

 





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 13, 2014

September 13th, 2014

YNN_MariKYuri Manga

Top News (for me) this week: Hayate x Blade 2, Volume 1 (はやて×ブレード2), by Hayashiya Shizuru-sensei is a thing that exists right now in the universe! Whee! Hijinks and idiots at the new Tenchi Academy.

Sweet Blue Flowers (Aoi Hana) by Shimura Takako is available from DMP in Kindle format! Grab a copy while you can!

Hopefully by now, you’ve all had a chance to read Morinaga Milk’s Gakuen Polizi, Volume 1 in English (Amazon/ RightStuf), out from Seven Seas. Volume 2 is now available in Japanese, and for pre-order in English on Amazon.

Ikeda Takashi’s Yuri dramedy Whispered Words Volume 2 (Amazon/RightStuf) and Volume 3 (Amazon) are both available for pre-order!)

This coming week brings us a pile of Yuri Hime Comics: Kimi-iro Shoujo (キミイロ少女),  Pastel Days (ぱすてるディズ), Himitsu no Kakera (秘密のカケラ), and Hakkou Snowflake (薄光スノウフレーク).

Not Yuri, but of interest, ANN has the news that Dark Horse has licensed the Fate/Zero manga. I’ve read the first three volumes and its pretty much exactly like the anime, so we’ll get Fate being all cool and courtly to Irisviel at the very least. ^_^

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Yuri Anime

ANN writes that there’s a new Ikkitousen series in the making. Ikkitousen: Extravaganza Epoch will be an OVA, going direct to Blu-Ray sometime soon presumably, as the official site says 2014.

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Sailor Moon

Premium Bandai knows you’re sitting around wishing you had a cute little cosplay set of your fave Senshi…so thye went ahead and made you one of each. Sets include neckband, collar, pantiy and skirt. You’re on your own for a white leotard.

Footage from the second Sailor Moon Musical, Petite Étrangère is aavailableon the official Sailor Moon You Tube channel. ANN has the write-up!

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LGBTQ News

The Smithsonian Museum has added a LGBTQ History collection to their Museum of American History which includes media of all kinds, from campaign buttons to protest posters to episodes of Will and Grace. (Don’t laugh, if you think about it, that sitcom, Ellen and other TV show were some people’s firsts exposure to LGBTQ people!)

The new DC TV show Gotham is slated to have Renee Montoya as the Latina lesbian detective we all know and love. Victoria Cartagena will play Renee and the actress is totally aware of what a positive representation means to viewers.

CBR put together a terrific look at LGBTQ comics for young readers that were present at SDCC.

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Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? 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 cool YNN correspondent’s badge. Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!





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

August 30th, 2014

YNN_MariK

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. ^_^

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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!