Yuri and LGBTQ+ Manga

She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat by Sakaomi Yuzaki is available from Yen Press! This story is about food, and learning to like one’s self, dealing with traumatic past events and the way intimacies can develop between adults. I have loved Volume 1 and Volume 2 and look forward to your comments on this series in English. ^_^

Crystalynn Hodgkins has the news on ANN that Card Captor Sakura Clear Card Arc will end with Volume 14.

Viz Media announced the license of Until I Love Myself: The Journey of a Nonbinary Manga Artist this weekend.

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Yuri Light Novel

I’m In Love With the Villainess, Volume 5 is coming out in print format in English this week. If you haven’t read it, please do….it’s an amazing and unpredictable ending to an amazing and unpredictable series. Inori-sensei says that the manga volumes are getting reprints, and that you can help her by voting for the light novel in the Kadokawa’s Next Light Novel Awards. Check out Sensei’s post here (scroll down for English) to find out how. Voting is open until October 14.

Yuri Anime

By now, you’ve probably heard that Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury is Utena in Space. Well, it is, and you should at least watch Episode 1. ^_^ ANN’s Kim Morrissey has words from Gundam manga artist Koichi Tokita, in Gundam Manga Illustrator Recalls An Earlier Time When Sexism Prevented A Female Protagonist. It is all well and good that Gundam has a Yuri couple as the main pair, but…can I be honest? How much cooler might it have been if they didn’t just borrow from Utena and created an actual new couple? Like with their own creativity and imagination. Who am I kidding… these are the folks who have used Char Aznable’s style in a dozen different iterations. ^_^;

Speaking of imitation, Kim also has this amazing article: Lycoris Recoil Anime Changes Episode 11 Eyecatch Illustrations to Discourage Fans from Imitating the Poses in Real Life. We should not have to tell people to not put poisonous plants in their mouths, but here we are.

Via Comic Natalie and Yuri Navi, Hoshizuku Telepath manga from Mangatime Kirara magazine is getting an anime! This is a school club story in which a girl with social anxiety meets a self-professed alien in a rocket-building club.

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Yuri Live-Action

Komatsu-san over at Crunchyroll News has the details and promotional video for If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It To The Budokan, I Would Die, live action series. Have to say, this looks pretty solid.

Other News

Crunchyroll News’ Kara Dennison wants you to know that ZOMBIE LAND SAGA‘s Franchouchou Announces First 3D Virtual Concert! If this goes streaming, I can easily be convinced to buy a ticket. We genuinely loved their songs.

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Yuri Manga

Volume 3 of the I’m in Love With the Villainess manga has hit shelves this week from Seven Seas. Rae and Claire will face each other in their fight to join the Academy Knights!

Also out this week from Seven Seas is Tsukiko’s 18+ collection Cats and Sugar Bowls.

We’ve also added Mieri Hiranashi’s The Girl Who Can’t Get a Girlfriend. This began life as an online comic and will now be collected into a revised volume from Viz Originals!

She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat, Volume 1 hit shelves this month from Yen Press. This is a very interesting series and I’m looking forward to everyone’s opinions of it. ^_^

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Via Yuri Navi, we have news of a new series starting in Comic Yuri Hime, “Aishitabun Dake Aishite Hoshi i~tsu!” (愛したぶんだけ愛してほしいっ！) about a college drop-out and a hot-head.

Also via Yuri Navi, Lily & Ivy  ~ Kenka Couple Yuri x Seiai Anthology (リリー&アイビー ～ケンカップル百合×性愛アンソロジー～) includes stories by Sakura Trick creator Tachi,  NTR creator Kodama Naoko and others!

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Yuri Light Novel

The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Volume 5 is available now from Yen Press, pitting Menou against her mentor, Flare.

Yuri Anime

Via Senior YNN Correspondent Sean G, we have some recommended reading. Lycoris Recoil And Shingo Adachi: Turning Original Anime Production Chaos In Your Favor,by kViN on Sakuga Blog, is an interesting  – if uncritical – look at the behind the scenes changes that helped make Lycoris Recoil a barnburner this season.

From my perspective, LycoReco was less a masterwork of finesse than a really fun handwave – Noir with jokes. Most of the emotional impact was set dressing and wasn’t going to have real meaning right from the beginning, as we all recognized on the Okazu Discord. Fun, but not smart, or deep, with a million plot holes festooned about the narrative like balloons.

Yuri Doujinshi

New on Irodori Sakura 18+ is Pikachi’s Girlfriends Club, described thusly, “The Girlfriends Club: A mysterious association at Yamayuri Girls’ Academy and its sister schools that essentially pays you to spend time deepening your relationships with other club members. The catch? Your interactions are livestreamed to an audience of very wealthy viewers!”

If you’re fans of Our Teachers Are Dating by Pikachi Ohi, don’t miss Irodori’s translated version of Ohi-sensei’s own doujinshi about Kiyattou-sensei and her girlfriend, in Romance for Teachers.

Other News

Always popular with the fandom and never really Yuri, the K-ON! manga by Kakifly is now available as a single-volume omnibus collection from Yen Press!

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Yuri Event

Rica Takashima and I will be at Women in Comics at the Bronx Library Center on October 29! If you missed us at FlameCon, here’s your chance! The link shows last year’s info. I’ll give you more details as I get them.

I will be at AnimeNYC, November 16-18 in New York City, with a table in the Artist’s Alley, as well as doing a few panels. I’ll be signing copies of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga and I’ll have some of the Yuri from ALC Publishing with me, and bookplates, pins and stickers for you to proclaim your love of Yuri.  Definitely drop by to say hello – it’s been a very long time since I have tabled and would love the company. ^_^ If you’re going to be there are would like to help out, drop me a line.

Not Yuri specifically, but I want to share Manga in Libraries tweet that they will be hosting three panels at New York Comic Con, October 6-9! Camp out in the room with us and let’s talk manga all day. ^_^

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Yuri Manga

How about Akuyaku Rejiou ga Sei-Heroin o Kudokiotosu Hanashi. (悪役令嬢が正ヒロインを口説き落とす話。) in which a villainess tries to seduce the heroine, who is beloved for her wisdom and cuteness? Sure, why not. ^_^

Yuri Games and VNs

Via YNN Correspondent Cryssoberyl, who wants you to know about GrimGrimoire Once More, for PS4, PS5 and Switch. Cryssoberyl says, “Important yuri game news. This is an updated remaster of the 2007 release, which features a canon yuri romance as part of its main story.” Check out the trailer on Youtube.

Via YNN Corespondent Xan, we learn that Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life will have queer romance options and the ability to play as a non-binary character.

Also via Cryssoberyl, SUCCESS Corporation has announced the HD remastering of classic Yuri VNs Akai Ito and Aoi Shiro for Switch and Steam! These both came out in the early 00s just before the big Yuri boom. In 2009, Mara reviewed Aoi Shiro for us here on Okazu!

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Other News

The Volks company is releasing a set of Rose of Versailles dolls. Check out their Twitter feed for images of Oscar and Antoinette!

Colleen’s Manga Recs has a pretty solid video on on the larger issues of Misogyny in the Manga Community. It’s just another popular feature of Patriarchy ^TM!

Eike Exner has written an article for The Comics Journal of interest: Laying the Groundwork for Japanese Comics: Imaizumi Ippyō’s Establishment of Euro-American Narrative Cartoons in the Jiji Shinpō between 1890 and 1899.

I’m currently reading Queer Transfigurations: Boy’s Love Media in Asia, edited by our good friend James Welker. As you know, BL isn’t my area of study, but fandom is of significant interest to me, and I am interested in the parallels and differences in BL and Yuri fandoms. Reading about how different BL fandoms react to real-world LGBTQ issues is interesting, and I have a lot of thoughts about the many ways that “gatekeeping” manifests…some protective, some exclusive. I’m freer than most scholars as I write here on topics of interest to me because I can have an opinion as well as just quoting other people’s opinions. In a lot of ways, I think it gives me the ability to recognize more nuance, since I’m not confined to one specific focus. Maybe. We’ll see where this book takes me. ^_^ It’s been honestly interesting so far, so if you are interested in BL, I give this one a thumbs up.

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Yuri Events

My autumn schedule is filling up. I’m very excited to be part of so many great events in the next few months. These are all NYC-based. If you’d like me at your local event, school or organization, tell them to invite me. ^_^ I can be reached through the Yuricon Contact Form.

October 6-9 – New York Comic Con. I’ll be part of the Defending Manga in Libraries panel. 

October 24 – Hunter College, NYC. I’ll be talking about Yuri and the manga industry.

October 29  – Women in Comics Con, Bronx Library Center, NYC. This event is open to the public with a focus on teens and younger readers of comics. Details TBA.

AnimeNYC, Nov 18-20, NYC. I’m on two panels, Defending Manga in Libraries and Writing About Japan and will be signing books! Details TBA. I’ll be at this event all weekend, so check back for my full schedule.

The next Girls Love Fest will be held on November 11, 2022, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center in Asakusa. I liked that location, it’s right near the Senso-ji. ^_^

Comitia 142 will be held on November 27, 2022 at Big Sight in Tokyo. I’m really hoping to get there for next year’s November Comitia. 

Yuri Manga

Seven Seas has licensed an 18+ title from Comic Yuri Hime, Does It Count If You Lose Your Virginity To An Android? By Yakinikuteishoku, this manga is about a woman and her android housekeeper having sex. I am going to be a little salty here about equating “android” with “robot,” in their description, because Seven Seas does that with Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou as well and I find it an odd choice.

Via YNN Correspondent Scarlet Queen, Mahô Éditions has announced the French-language Roll Over and Die manga on their Twitter feed. Check out the announcement for a fantastic trailer for the series.

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This week on the  Yuricon Store!

I cannot WAIT for you to be able to read Sal Jiang’s Black & White: Tough Love at the Office. This shakaijin Yuri is as explosive and violent as dynamite, with two women who are rivals in everything.

We’ve also added Shimekiri Mae ni ha Yuri ga Hakadoru ( 〆切前には百合が捗る) This is a story about a young runaway, who gets taken in by a manga artist.

Yuri Anime

As reported last week on YNN, the Rose of Versailles series is getting a new anime for its 50th anniversary! Woo~~~ Egan Loo has all the details over at ANN. Check out the trailer on Youtube!

ANN’s Kim Morrisy has the scoop on My Master Has No Tail and a look at the key visual for this upcoming rakugo comedy. I’ve reviewed the first two volumes of the manga in Japanese, here on Okazu.

Yuri Studio

We have a new video on Yuri Studio! I have been watching the Yuri genre change and grow for 20 years now. Check out the Top 10 Changes In Yuri From 20 Years of Okazu! Your kind comments and, likes help a lot, as does you subscribing and clicking the notification bell, so thank you!

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Yuri Novel

Komatsu-san on Crunchyroll reports that the Lycoris Recoil spin-off novel passed 100,000 sales, before it was released yesterday in Japan. According to Komatsu-san, the novel includes scenes that weren’t in the anime. Check his article for images and more information!

Yuri Live-Action

Komatsu-san also has the scoop on the cast and key visual for the live-action Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu (If My Favorite Idol Made It To The Budokan I would Die.) The casting looks great.

Yuri Doujinshi

Yuni, creator of I Love You So Much, I Hate You, (which is available from Yen Press) has a new doujinshi from this month’s Comitia. Because Comitia is for original work, it gets a lot of good original doujinshi…which I why I always include it under Yuri events!) You can buy FAKE IT, and tons of other doujinshi on Melonbooks, through a buying service like Tenso.

Other News

Ogata Megumi, voice of Tenoh Haruka/Sailor Uranus, has a role as the voice of an AI named Solon, in the live-action drama Teen Regime, now on NHK. You can watch Episode 1 in dub or sub on NHK’s site for the series. It’s pretty intriguing and M, is spot on for Solon’s voice, as her range allows her to be a lot of things.

Tamsyn Muir’s Nona the Ninth is hitting shelves soon, so, Meet the Real-World Rude Lesbian Swordfighter Behind Gideon the Ninth.

Via ramonzinger on Twitter, check out these concepts images by Anno Moyoco for the Cutie Honey movies!

Thanks to our Okazu Patrons who make the YNN weekly report possible! Support us on Patreon or Ko-fi to help us give Guest Reviewers a raise and to help us support Yuri creators!

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