As Yuricon is about to turn 9 years old, and Okazu 7, I’ve been thinking about what we’ve accomplished so far and what there is still yet to do.

In many ways we have no influence over what happens in Japan, of course. Other than perhaps buying so much Yuri that we actually become a blip on their market radar. In subtle ways, however, we are making some changes. How Yuri is (or is not) marketed, how well it does here and how likely a company is to pick it up – these things are still up to us.

Most importantly, we’ve changed how the anime world perceives us, Yuri fans. We’ve been covered by The Advocate, Afterellen, Curve, The Blade, The Examiner and countless blogs and online magazines. We’ve run events in two countries and presented on three continents.

All of this is because of you – my readers, my Heroes and Superheroes, my friends and the YNN Correspondents and reviewers from all over the world who have made these past nine years been the most amazing of my life. August 5th is Yuricon’s and Okazu’s birthday. Happy Birthday to us. Happy birthday to you. Let’s head into Year 10 knowing that we’re going to do some incredible things in the days ahead!

Before I forget – I’ll be keeping the YNN logo contest open until August 20th. So send in your logo ideas for our Yuri Network News!

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Yuri Anime

Katherine has been sending weekly updates from the website about the Sasamekikoto anime to the Yuricon Mailing List. Seiyuu have been announced, and the date for the premiere of the anime is now listed as October 7th, at 26:20. She also was excited to report that the theme song will be performed by Kiyoura Natsumi, who performed the opening themes for Spice and Wolf and Sketchbook ~full color’S~.

The new anime Canaan will be getting a series of three “movies” this fall, which will simply be a rehash of the anime season, sans credits, I’m thinking. Read the ANN article and decided for yourself. ^_^

New Queen’s Blade Second Season Trailer is up for your viewing “pleasure.”

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Yuri Manga

Not only is the second volume of Hanjuku Joshi, Morishima Akiko’s cell-phone manga series coming out this month, so is a collection of her Yuri Hime stories, called Ruri-iro Yume. Of course we should buy both, since Morishima-san is a really awesome person.

And at last, we have links to Kimochi no Katachi, the new name for the two-volume collected set of the Tact doujinshi by circle Sakuraike. These were some of my very first ever original Yuri doujinshi and, despite the fact that some of it may seem a bit dated now, I think the series will hold up well as a collection.

Speaking of the Yuricon Store, I’m trying to add books as they come out now, since Japan is popping them out faster than I can mention here.

And finally! Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan shipped and it is quite wonderful.

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Other News

A new Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha game for the PSP has been announced, as has the fact that it will be set in the As time frame, so the lolicon won’t whine.

New York Anime Festival is coming up and I’ll be there, wandering around talking to folks and generally avoiding the programming (as I do) wearing a “Women Make Comics” t-shirt. A number of the anime/manga bloggers from the Twitter scene will also be wearing these. Join us~ Join us~! Support women in comics, with money to good causes and with a statement that is incontrovertibly true – Women Make Comics!

I also want to thank everyone who subscribed to Crunchyroll for Aoi Hana – the numbers are good, and that and that alone, will convince them to get more Yuri. So spread the word and spread the Yuri love!

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We’ll wrap this up for the week – as always, to become a YNN correspondent, you need only send us news items at yuriconat gmail dot com. It’s that easy! Thanks to everyone who does send us news – you’re our priceless Yuri Network. ^_^

This is the first week in a while that there hasn’t been loads of Yuri news.

Everyone is at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, and while there are tons of announcements coming out in manga, none of it has been Yuri. It’s interesting to note that while Yuri manga is exploding in Japan, it has become nearly moribund here in the US. Lack of sales is a factor, of course. There’s just nothing we can do about being a buying audience of 2000 people. When we’re a buying audience of ten times larger, we’ll be able to see more, I have no doubt. Luckily for us, Yuri anime is doing reasonable well right now here in the west and we can look forward to more on the way this year!

In the meantime, let us wallow in the wave of Yuri manga coming from Japan. :-)

Yuri Manga

First and foremost, Ichijinsha’s email newsletter insists that Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan hits the streets today. (Last night my time.) We’ll see if Amazon JP agrees. ;-) If so, expect to get your Manga only edition or Deluxe edition with Drama CD shortly.

Slated for an August 18th release, look forward to the second volume of cellphone manga, Hanjuku Joshi by Morishima Akiko. No link is available to a pre-order through the Yuricon Shop, but I’ll get that up as soon as it is available.

And it looks like there’ll be a Yuri Wildrose 4 coming up in September.

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Snatches of Yuri

Although I have glanced through Tenbin ha Hana to Asobu the internal jury is still out on whether it’s Yuri, or just vampire-y. Schoolgirls, vampire-ishness, Yuri-ishness, Mangatime CR.

Watashi no Taisetsuna Tomodachi by Hakamada Mera is, simply by being about schoolgirl friends and being by Hakamada Mera, going to have at least a *little* Yuri. Anything else is inconceivable!

Another Action Comics comic (the same company that does Mera’s work and brings you Morinaga’s Girl Friends) is Minna Musical! which at first glance looks typical fannish tropes that pass for Yuri (female teacher drooling over those long-gone gym bloomers) and general wackiness. The cover’s probably closer to truth in advertising than most. ^_^

For those of you who loved Manatsu Labyrinth, Volume 2 is now out. More sweaty mostly-obscured female bodies not quite being Yuri, I imagine.

To end this on a low note, try Roku Injima no Ero-Neko. It’s porn. You want a plot, you’re on your own.

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Yuricon News

A much-delayed redesign of the Yuricon website is underway at last. I’m sorry it has gone so long without one, there’s just only so many things a person can do in a day.

One of the first things that had to be done was that Yuri Studios has now been moved over to YouTube. It is not a perfect solution. Some music is embargoed, some countries can’t see all the videos, but we really had to do it. It had gotten too large to manage with the current structure. And now it will be easier to add/favorite AMVs made by you, the Yuri AMV makers of the world. :-)

If you are making a Yuri AMV, I hope you’ll consider adding “Yuri Studios” to the credits, and letting us add it to our current line-up! We’ve already gotten a new Strike Witches AMV since this AM when it went live. ^_^

Please don’t send links to videos you don’t own – and if you own any of the ones we do have up and have a better version than the one we linked to, or would like it to live directly on our channel, or want us to link to your version of it, please let me know!

My apologies for any inconvenience in viewing or listening. It’s the best solution for the moment, and I hope you’ll support it.

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That wraps up the Yuri Network report this week. As always, you’re welcome to become a Yuri Network correspondent by sending in reports of new Yuri manga, anime, and related news to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. We’ll look forward to sharing your Yuri news with everyone!

Welcome to the relaunch of the News Report as Yuri Network News. YNN correspondents have reported in from around the world! I just whacked together this logo, so I’m officially announcing a YNN logo contest. Send in your YNN logo to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com and I’ll come up with something fun as a prize, along with sincere gratitude and the approbation of your peers.

Yuri Anime

darkchibi wants you all to know that the first episodes of El Cazador de la bruja are available for viewing on the Funimation Channel. We’re not sure if this is a reguarly placed series or a DVD teaser, but as soon as I know, I’ll let you know.

This hasn’t gotten too much mention anywhere, but Needless will have some Yuri. It’s not really a good series, unless you like magic fightin’ school-lolis. If that’s your schtick then you’ll *love* it. For anyone else, I want to warn you, I’ve been reading the manga in Ultra Jump magazine and while it has some good elements, I often feel like my brain needs a sandpaper shower afterwards. (As I expressed to the wife, it’s not that I *have* a soul anymore, its just that sometimes the hole where it used to be aches. lol)

I know no one but me cares, but Air Master is now on Crunchyroll. Let me be plain, this is mostly important because CR’s streaming sucks less than Funimation’s. I can’t stand streaming video myself. I hate sitting still that long and when I’m halfway along and lose the stream I want to KILL someone. Funi’s stream was loading extra super-duper slow for the wife and I and we got tired of waiting.

Which brings me to today’s random observation. What we need is a POD (Print on Demand) system for DVDs. Let’s say I watch Aoi Hana and would like to buy it. I might, eventually, be able to download it and burn it to my own DVDs. Or, the licensor could come up with a system by which I could download it for a fee (say $2/episode) *or* for extra $ download it to a system that will burn it to a DVD with a cute, branded design on the disk, and stick it in a jewel case with a cover. I would totally spend the extra $, but if you didn’t want to, you wouldn’t have to.

As I said, I don’t much care for streaming anything. I want to pause and walk away, Fast Forward!!!! and other things that streaming isn’t happy with. I would be very glad to pay per episode a fee to allow me to get a disk of Ep. 1-4 so I can watch it again not on my computer. POD is just getting running, really ,for print and e-books. What do you think about a POD for DVDs?

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Yuri Manga

French correspondent Karin would like you and “especially our French readers to know that the French publisher Asuka is releasing the manga Aoi Hana. They’re releasing it under the name of Fleurs Bleues (Blue Flowers) and it seems that the first volume has already appeared on June 11. Futhermore, Asuka will be releasing Oniisama E under the name of Très Cher Frère (Very dear brother) in September. As far as I see it, they will publish all three volumes in one volume. Sounds like very good news for French and French knowing Yuri fans, doesn’t it?”

Yes, Karin, it does! France has always been josei-friendly in a way that the US has never really managed. I am very saddened that I don’t read French, because I would love to see these. Thank you so much for the exciting news. Ryoko Ikeda loves your country best. :-D

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Snatches of Yuri

Katherine is excited about a new manga, Shitsurakuen. She describes is a kind of Utena clone, with girl Prince, who saves girl princesses, and Yuri.

About a million people have written in to suggest we all watch Taisho Yakyuu Musume, a story set at the end of the Taisho period, about 9 girls who will struggle against social and gender perceptions to create a baseball team. Any “Yuri” is probably going to be akogare and not much more, but it’s a cute sports story and refreshingly service-free.

Also, I have has a number of folks mention new season anime Umi Monogatari as having Yuri. I can only asume they think the opening credits mean something. I’m not that innocent. There is no “truth in advertising” in manga covers or anime Openings. Word of warning, some folks are calling this series a mahou shoujo series. It is not. It is a magical girl for guys series, like Nanoha, not an actual shoujo series. The amount of time we spend looking at their asses really ought to be an indicator, folks. It feels to me much like Kaleido Star, sort of for girls, but not really, so when I checked out the opening credits, it was no surprise to see Sato Junichi’s name there.

Lastly, another series that a number of folks suggested to me a while back that it just took me *forever* to make myself watch that you ought to know about is Live-Action series Mendol Ikemen. This low comedy about three girls that will do *anything* to become idols, even become boys, is not hardly high art. BUT, it’s got Yuri. I’ll probably do a review in detail on it later, but in short – the one girl who reads the most likely to ever even remotely be gay does in fact get the girl, among other suprisingly open-minded things. Otherwise, it’s a silly, slapstick comedy.

And for the crowd that thinks that moe is all about the adorable innocence, and wouldn’t it be even better if there was some nudity, we have Hana no Palette.

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Other Yuri News

Right Stuf/Nozomi announces “The Art of ARIA Lithographs” series. They have created a Fan vote to determine which print will be produced first; Poll now open at aria.rightstuf.com. Get started on this process by which Right Stuf takes all our money today! ;-)

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It’s been a crazy week, so I’ll wrap it up here. Thanks again to everyone who comprises our “Yuri Network!” Please feel free to be part of our Yuri Network and email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with any Yuri News you’d like to share!