Snatches of Yuri

Looking for crazy hijinx in a manga club that never draws any manga, but does a lot of cosplay, with a little light Yuri yearning? Then you’ll be happy to hear that Manken Volume 3 is out!

Somewhat subsumed by the noise of the Marimite movie, another live-action movie based on a Margaret manga hit all the corners of the Yurisphere. Bushido Sixteen, which has pretty much all the bells and whistles of classic Yuri-ish material. Girls, sports, swords, high tension, attraction/desire/rivalry, etc. Volume 1 of the manga was supposed to have have potential, in Volume 2 of the manga it ignites. Ish. Is it just me, or is Margaret a totally passive-aggressive magazine? Every time it gets a really good GL-themed thing, it starts to kill it off. I’m not sure what the deal is.

Running in Renai Paradise magazine, one of those teens have sex too-type magazines that are scattered around Japanese bookstores, is a series called Warui Onna, which one Japanese Yuri blog hailed as a “real-life teen Yuri romance.” Only, not so much. :-) Sample pictures from the creator’s blog here and here (NSFW, which is the point I’m making!) say its more like “yet another lesbian porn story.” That’s not fair – it might really be a love story with lesbians and everything. :-) I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt until I see it for myself. But it does run in a magazine for teens in which everyone has sex in pretty much every chapter.

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Yuri Manga

Morinaga Milk’s Girl Friends, Volume 4 will be hitting the shelves on June 11.

On June 18th, we’ll be getting Takemiya Jin’s Yuri Hime stories collected in Love Breaker and Yuri Hime Selection 3, the third volume of collected one- and two-shot stories from previous issues of the magazine.

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Yuri Light Novel

Itsuwari no Hime ha Kishi to Odoru Double Engage is both a new Bunko Iris Light Novel from Ichijinsha and a candidate for one of the silliest titles I’ve seen this year. A glimpse at the cover with basically tell you everything you need to know about it.

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Yuri Anime

The new “adult” anime based on the popular Yuri ero-game Sono hanabira ni kuchizuke wo anata to koibito tsunagi will be making its debut in Japan on July 30.

Anime News Network reports that the So Ra No Wo To website has a 132-second trailer for a bonus episode that will be packaged with the upcoming Japanese Blu-Ray release.

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Maria-sama ga Miteru News

Thanks to YNN correspondent Erin S for clarification on this news: The Maria-sama ga Miteru manga is starting up again in The Margaret magazine, picking up with with “Cherry Blossom,” when Noriko sees Shimako for the first time. We’ve already reported that the previous volumes of manga are being reissued as omnibus volumes and, with the movie coming out in the fall, this is great timing to stimulate interest.

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Other News

This is unrelated to Yuri, but it is totally worth reading. Takashima Misako, an artist who draws manga for children  and teaches art workshops to kids under the name Misako Rocks! (and who has been a guest at a number of anime/manga events across the country) recently did an interview with Mainichi about the differences in culture in terms of what is considered “appropriate” in the US and Japan, among other things.

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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!

Shortish report today. I’m feeling kinda crappy and got stuff to do. But I promise you something extra good tomorrow in return! An interview with Fujieda Miyabi, creator of Iono-sama Fanatics and Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan! Now on to the report:

Yuri Anime

Via @giapet on Twitter, our friends at Media Blasters have relaunched their website with streaming for Ikkitousen and Queen’s Blade. For you old-school anime fans, Media Blasters sort of forgot to mention to anyone that they also have released the entirety of Magic Knight Rayearth – season 1 and 2 as a set. I’m watching Season 1 right now for the first time all the way through. I’ll let you know what I think when I’m done.

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Yuri Manga

Shoujo Hakumei~ Nekomedou Kokoro-tan collects a bunch of the Black Cat Mansion tales from Yuri Hime and is out this week from Ichijinsha.

Also out this week from Yuri Hime is Shoujo-Holic and Yuri Hime Selection, Volume 2. If you recall, the “Selection” books are collections of the random one- and two-shots that appear in earlier issues of the magazine.

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Yuri Artbook

Speaking of Ichijinsha, you gotta love how they are wringing every drop of money they can from their IP. Along with a pile of manga, they are also putting out Yuri Hime Artworks – CHRONICLE, an artbook of the color illustrations from the magazine (and, I’d presume from YHS, as well.) This is slated for July, so plan yourself a summer gift. :-)

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Snatches of Yuri

Comic Lo has a series which may or may not have Yuri, but the Japanese bloggers seem to think so, anyway. Probably because the title is Hajimete no Yuri. :-)

This piece of news is for Bruce, really. God help us, but there’s a 5th volume of Mikarun X. Can you believe it?

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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!

Yuri Manga

Anonymous wrote to let us know that Rakka Ryuusui, Volume 5 is soon to be out. Also, Anon points that a booklet for Shitsuji Shoujo to Ojou-sama is available – the PDF on the website tells you how to get it.

This month is going to see a pile of Yuri Hime comics released, so I’ll do a few at a time, so we can savor the list.

Soulfege ~ Sweet Harmony is among the group this time, with a mild story about a girl who faces adversity when she comes to a private school to find her beloved onee-sama.

Orange Yellow is another collection of shorts and Mizu-iro Cinema is a collection of the story of common girl Tae as she becomes involved with a film superstar, both by the quietly wonderful Hiyori Otsu.

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Snatches of Yuri

Nonnonbyoriatto is full of dorm hijinks and a super cool sempai beloved by her kouhai. And stuff that passes for Yuri.

Hidamari Sketch Volume 5 is full of dorm hijinks…and stuff that passes for Yuri.

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Yuri Reviews

I don’t usually point to other people’s reviews of books, but Jason Thompson had a two-for-one this week with a review of Maka-Maka on his 365 Days of Manga site and an overview of Rose of Versailles on his new column for Anime News Network, House of 1000 Manga.

Other News

I thought this worth passing on. Simon Jones of Icarus Publishing mentions an article on Tsurupeta about a semi-official Strike Witches bi-lingual doujinshi. I think this is worth mentioning, because you’re going to see more and more of this. There is a desire on the part of creators to reach their audience and frustration on their part with those fans who don’t respect their ownership of their work. More importantly, now that readers are starting to assign the power of choice of what is published not to publishers, but to hardware providers like Apple and Amazon, who are wielding that power haphazardly and unfairly, I think creators are smart to take as much control of their work as possible.

Which leads me to something else Simon links to – a report that 30% of books submitted to Apple’s iTunes on behalf of Kodansha have been rejected. Other publishers have commented that even when a first volume of a series is accepted, later volumes might not be. I know everyone’s blown away by the shiny iPad, but with the inconsistency and hypocrisy rampant in regards to iTunes, are the users going to tolerate this? Wield your money wisely when you purchase.

LGBT News

Kansasa City.com gives a short, incomplete and (not-surprisingly) American-comics biased history of gay characters in comics. It’s full of holes, but not done with malice.

And while I’m here, I might as well just mention that Batwoman is going to get her own series over at DC. I finally had a chance to read Detective and I can guarantee my impressions are not in line with everyone else’s. :-) Nonetheless, I’m glad DC’s giving the green signal to keep her and not just shelving her now that Rucka’s leaving.

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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.

While I enjoy the delights of Pittsburgh’s Comic Con, you can enjoy the delights of *not* being at Pittsburgh’s Comic-Con!

Yuri Manga

YNN Correspondent Erin S. wants us all to know that Comic Yuri Hime will be going bimonthly. (Insert obligatory “bi” jokes” here.) This is excellent news on all levels.

And YNN correspondent Sean G gleefully points out that Adam Arnold of Seven Seas wrote about plans for Hayate x Blade and why Strawberry Shake Sweet never got over here on the Shoujoai-Archive Forums.

I’d like to take this opportunity to once again address the issue of fan paranoia. Companies are NOT out to get you, screw you or otherwise do you in. Please, I beg you all, stop assuming the worst of every company. There is no company in the western manga industry that is doing anything other than doing their *very* best – with exceedingly limited resources – to bring you manga to read. Support them, stand by them, give them encouragement. Assuming the worst of them all the time is horribly disheartening to the people who are trying hard to do the best they can. Seven Seas has been honest, friendly, approachable and their quality has been top notch from beginning to end. They are also a business, so of course sometimes they will make decisions you don’t like, but I can guarantee that are doing their best to publish what they think you want to buy. Making them your enemy is weird and delusional. (Note to the extra frothy commenters that will follow this statement – seriously, it’s you. If you are getting THAT worked up about being denied something that is a comic book…it’s you.)

I completely forget to mention that a new series started in Ultra Jump that has some Yuri-service. It’s called “Sayonara Summer” and I think the service will be a regular feature, as the female protagonist professes to like girls. And she has some serious issues with baseball, as well. It looks interesting – if it becomes something worth watching, I’ll make sure to point it out.

Erin S. also want to make sure you know that Yotsuhara Furiko’s Sleeping Beauty is available for your reading pleasure.

The third volume of Watashi no Taisetsuna Tomodachi by Hakamada Mera is also out. One of the odd things about Mera’s work is that I always forget that she’s got all these series out there and then am surprised all over again when they pop pack into the news report. :-)

And I’m sure that someone is interested in knowing that the third volume of Creo the Crimson Crisis is available.

And I’m not sure if I told you that the Shoujo Yuri anthology will be getting a second volume or not. Well, it is. And this one will include stories by Kitao Taki and Mitou Kana, also known as Sakuraike, so at least two stories will definitely be good. :-) If there was anything that might tempt me to buy another volume – that was it.

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Yuri Anime

Media Blasters is streaming dubbed episodes of Magic Knight Rayearth on Hulu. They already have Ikkitousen available on the video streaming service. Go Media Blasters! Work those properties, you sexy thangs.

I started to watch Seikon no Kwaser, but when I started tasting bile, I stopped. Guest Review fodder if ever there was.

Yuri has also reared it’s gothic head in the newest Precure property, Heartcatch PreCure. There’s definitely *something* between Dark Cure and Cure Moonlight. I like to pretend it’s a relationship. :-)

A new anime for this year, called Tamayura, has some serious potential, as well. It’s been on all the Yuri lists, has the staff that worked on Aria and Satou Junichi for a director. In a waterfront town, a girl who loves taking pictures, ends up taking a picture of a fairy-like girl and her life is changed. It sounds sweet, and the buzz is that the Yuri will be a major-ish part of the story.

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Snatches of Yuri

In Literary – Mikaze High School Literary Club, the Belles Letters club of a school includes and encourages all genres – including BL and GL. The art kind of put me off, but I think I’m going to give this one a try.

YuyuShiki, Volume 2, is a 4-koma with skinship and possible actual Yuri interest. Volume 2 seems to up the level somewhat.

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Other LGBT News

In what I think surely must win the “Whuh…?” Award this week, Archie Comics has introduced a gay character, Kevin. Just to add to the “Whuh…?” factor, he comes out first to Jughead. In my childhood, Jughead would have responded to a comment like, ‘I’m gay” with something high-larious like, “Well you sure seem happy to me!” but that’s an ancient Jughead. This one cleverly plans to use disinformation to shame Veronica. How 90210 of him.

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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!