Yuri Web & Digital Comics

Via her Facebook page, Kuru, aka Color_LES, has announced that Mage & Demon Queen will conclude this year. Of course I will miss this wonderful Yuri comic. I’m thrilled for Kuru that she’ll be see it through a final arc – and I’m looking forward to what she does next!

Elise Schuenke wants you to know about her comic Love Rumble, a rival to lovers comic that has been submitted to the Bitter x Sweet artzine.

Via Natsuo Mutsumi, the host of the Boyish² butch x butch anthology, we have news of Electro Magnetic Bottle Rocket, which they praised as “Aliens, Mysterious Technology, and Childhood Memories: …… I’m so excited! Here was the romance I was looking for!” This is available on Gumroad.

Which brings me to two things I need to say, given some stuff that has happened in the past weeks in the comics industry:

In order to support comics creators that still use Kickstarter, I will continue to linking to projects, but I will no longer be supporting Kickstarters myself. I genuinely believe blockchain is wasteful and stupid, NFTs are exploitative, harmful to the environment and only appeal to suckers or the con men who rip them off.

Likewise, I will not be purchasing work on Gumroad, after the handler for their Twitter account attacked NFT critics with some deeply unpleasant comments and what came very close to doxxing.

Comics are hard enough and right now we need people who are not exploitative or harassing at the top of the systems we use. I will not condemn anyone for using what they use (I know I’m worried about Patreon going crypto, as they have been threatening to do for a while now,) but I can choose to not support it. Spike Trottman, founder of Iron Circus Comics  pulled all her content from Gumroad, and resolved to not use Kickstarter (a system she largely validated with her hugely successful campaigns.) Going forward, she’s created her own crowdfunding platform.

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Yuri Manga

Seven Seas is doing their annual #yuriVday giveaway on Twitter. Drop them a tweet about your fave Yuri, use the hashtag #yuriVday and be entered to win some of their new titles! They are also running a giveaway on TikTok, if that’s more your style. ^_^ They’ve got a lot to celebrate, too, as there are 9 new Yuri titles out just this month from Seven Seas, 5 ongoing series *and* RightStuf is running a sale on all their titles.

Yuri Light Novel

Seven Seas continues their domination of Yuri licensing with both the manga and the light novels of a decade old series, Qualia the Purple  – about a girl who has the ability to “evaluate” the bodies of the people around her. I never read any of this originally, although I remember being told about it. To be perfectly honest, those people who were most into it had tastes that did not align with mine, so I gave it a pass.

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Yuri Anime

Via Senior YNN Correspondent Mariko Shinobu, we have a fun tidbit – Paste Magazine published a list of their “30 Greatest Anime.” Mariko wants you to note that Utena is #4 and Sailor Moon is #11. I also notice that a few other Okazu classics are in the list, notably Serial Experiments Lain, Wandering Son, and .hack/Sign.

Egan Loo at ANN has the news that Black Rock Shooter is returning with a new anime, Black Rock Shooter Dawn Fall. I doubt it will go back to it’s Yuri(ish) roots, but I can hope. ^_^ Looks like we’ll get Mato, Yomi and Yu, but a whole different set-up. Check out the trailer on Youtube!  Komatsu-san has a related report about Kanako Takatsuki (a member of Love Live!‘ s Aquors) who is singing the ED for the new BRS anime.

Egan also has the news of a new anime by Tsuzuki Masaki, creator of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Extreme Hearts, which looks like a serious sports anime. I’m…hopeful, primarily because of this quote, “This is the story about how we met our greatest friends.”  Sports and yuujo and girls. I’m in. ^_^

Kara Dennison over at Crunchyroll News has the very scoop that GKIDS is teaming up with Tubi to release great anime. Among the first batch is Liz and the Blue Bird, so if you haven’t yet seen it, do! You may recall that I thought it outstanding.

Other News

Crunchyroll is doing a series for Black History Month, in which they are highlighting black talent in the anime industry. I hope you take a look! Week 1 | Week 2. Week 2 includes a profile of our own Okazu family member, Meru Clewis, who has recently become part of the LN staff at Seven Seas. We’re so proud of her!

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Yuri Manga

We’re starting off with some truly wonderful news – Seven Seas has licensed a title from Galette magazine! Intelligently, they have picked up Morinaga Milk’s Watashi no Kawaii Neko-chan, which they will release in December as My Cute Little Kitten, Volume 1. I hope this means we’ll be able to see some other titles from Galette Works as well.

Out this week from Seven Seas is Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 1. This story is 3 volumes of high school redemption. Girls, bands, and love and at last a Ohsawa Yayoi title in English!  This series made my Top Yuri list in 2020, so I’m really excited to see it in English!

The Kase-san series continues with Kase-san and Yamada, Volume 2, which brings us up to date with JP tankoubon releases.

Also out this week from Seven Seas are: 

Monologue Woven For You, Volume 1 a college life story. I reviewed Volume 1 in Japanese last year.

I Can’t Believe I Slept With You! Volume 1, a story about a tenant who strikes an uncomfortable bargain with her female landlord.

5 Seconds Before a Witch Falls in Love, a one volume story that follows a witch, a witch-hunter and hijinks ensuing.

Heading our way this week from Viz is How Do We Relationship, Volume 5.  You’ll have to trust me on this – things change a lot after this volume. ^_^

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Galette magazine is celebrating a 5th anniversary with upcoming Issue 21! To celebrate they are running a campaign on digital platform Booklive, where you can read Issues 1-10 for free in Japanese! They will be doing multiple campaigns and a 2nd Yuri Matsuri in March.

Hana ni Arashi, Volume 10 ( はなにあらし) is up on the Yuricon store. This first love story is very slow and very sweet, but looks like it’s building towards an end.

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From Gangan Online, we have Tokuwotsumu’s newest series, Haru Tsuzuru, Sakurasaku Kono Heya de, a college life story. Sample chapters are available on Gangan Online for free, or all of them with the Gangan app!

Ichijinsha has another entry in the “anthologies I cannot get too enthusiastic about, but you may like” with Nakigao Yuri Anthology (泣き顔百合アンソロジー) an anthology around the theme of crying.

Via Comic Natalie, we have some more details about Canno’s new series, Koudou Ryou no Seizana Hibi (黄道寮の星座な日々). The story takes place in the Ecliptic Dormitory where residents refer to each other by the names of the Zodiac. The protagonist has a reason she wants in, but needs to be accepted as the new ‘Virgo.’ This series will debut in the March issue of Comic Flapper. Links aren’t available for that yet, but I’ll add the Bookwalker links when it goes live.

Also from Comic Natalie, they polled the editors-in-chief of 26 manga magazines to come up with a list of their suggested manga. This 2021 Recommended Manga List includes dark Yuri fantasy Watashi o Tabetai, Hito de Nashi (私を喰べたい、ひとでなし).

Anime News

Bodacious Space Pirates is getting a 10th anniversary Blu-Ray set in Japan. Humberto Saabedra has the info on Crunchyroll News.

The Zombieland Saga live event in 2021 now has a digest video up for your enjoyment. Check out Kim Morrisey’s article on ANN for details!

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Other News

Shueisha’s Manga Plus app is releasing ALL of their English language chapters for free for the next year. Download the app on on your iOS or Android device and read away it really is that easy. The only catch is that you must read a full chapter at once, because when you close the app, that chapter is marked “read.” and you may only read it once. It’s a stellar way to catch up on manga you’ve been meaning to read but never had a chance. I’m finally reading Spy x Family now and it is as good as everyone says. ^_^

I’m running a translation workshop with the fine folks of Michigan State University right now and, therefore have localization on my mind. This Twitter thread by localizer Cassiel really struck home how many moving parts there are to a translated work. Translation is an art, not a science and there are many stakeholders who have input.

Last up this week, here’s an interesting piece of news, via the Comics Beat, Graphic Novel sales were up overall 65% in 2021. This, even with a logistics and supply chain nightmare scenario. But here’s the wow moment. Manga, which is up 171%, accounts for more then 3/4ths of all comic sales.

Check out this whole article. It’s interesting reading. LGBTQ+ comics were up 40%, which is outstanding.

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Yuri Manga
Kodansha has announced the license of  Is Love the Answer? by Uta Isaki.This book, which is slated for a Autumn 2022 release is “A poignant coming-of-age story about a young woman coming into her own as she discovers her identity as aromantic asexual.” Isaki is the creator of Mine-kun is Asexual. 

Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, Volume 3 hit shelves this week, from Kodansha.

I’m in Love With the Villianess manga, Volume 2 has a digital release this week and will be out in print next week. 

Kase-san and Yamada, Volume 2 is headed our way in February! This is the 7th volume of the Kase-san and… series by Takashima Hiromi.

The American Library Association has released their 2021 Best Graphic Novels for Adults Reading List, and this year it includes Kabi Nagata’s My Alcoholic Escape From Reality.

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Hayate x Blade creator Hayashiya Shizuru has put a number of Volume 1s of her other series up online to read for free in Japanese on Mangaz.

Via Yuri Navi on Twitter, the Horse Racing x Yuri manga we had no idea we were waiting for! Kimi to Mitai Race ga Aru (きみと観たいレースがある) is available in Japnese, free on Comip.jp.

Yuri Visual Novel News

Lilyka is running a Valentine’s Day sale on Yuri VNs purchased through their shop! You have a choice of 20%OFF for each with discount code: GAME20, or 33% OFF – buy 2 get 1 free – with discount code: GAME33 on The Curse of Kudan, OshiRabu, or OshiRabu Love・or・die.

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Other News

This week marked the birthday of the most popular Senshi! according to last year’s poll, Sailor Uranus, Tenoh Haruka. I had a lot of fun tracking the hashtag on Twitter for fanart. And OG Haruka voice actress Ogata Megumi drew a picture of Haruka and recorded a message about her upcoming anime and game song festival on her Instagram.

This past week, I had the incredible honor of moderating a panel  for Bonham’s Auction House on nime cel collecting, featuring Helen McCarthy, Susain Napier and Darren Ashmore as our panel of experts. I learned a lot and had a great time. You can watch the video, Inside the World of Anime, at your leisure on Bonham’s YouTube channel.

And it was again my sincere pleasure to speak with Thomas Maluk over at Secret Stacks about Yuri, being a librarian and doing the thing. Take a listen!

Ahhhh! Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir has a cover!

On a completely different tack, I’ve recently discovered a service for pan-Asian shopping that delivers, Weee!. We placed an order from their Japanese store and we’re really pleased with the service, the price and the condition of the food (which included perishables.) If you’d like to give them a try, here is my referrer code for Weee!, use it when you sign up and we both get discounts.

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Yuri Manga

We have a bunch of new stuff up on the Yuricon Store today!

Teren Mikami’s If You Could See Love, Volume 1 is out now as a digital manga from Yen Press. Mei can actually see who loves who in school, but now, there are arrows of love pointing at herself!

Yen Press also has Catch These Hands!, Volume 1 by murata coming up. This is a fun not-quite-romance between two former rival high school gang leaders. I reviewed this series in Japanese, Watashi no Kobushi wo Uketomete!.

Seven Seas has the Bloom Into You Anthology, Volume 2, the final piece of this series, with stories by popular artists and a new work by series creator Nakatani Nio. I also reviewed this in Japanese.

Up for pre-order now is Monologue Woven for You, Volume 1, a pleasant story about two college students with a shared dream. Again, I’ve reviewed this full-color volume in Japanese.

Coming in March from Seven Seas is GUNBRED SISTERS, Volume 1, a fantasy about a vampire and a nun vampire hunter and guns, so you know exactly what you’re in for. This time it was one of our senior guest reviewers, Mariko Shinobu, with the Japanese volume review.

Our Teachers Are Dating,  Volume 4 – the final volume of Pikachi Ohi’s lovely story is heading our way in April!

Superwomen in Love! Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit, Volume 3 is out now from Seven Seas!

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Comic Yuri Hime, March 2022 (コミック百合姫2022年3月号) is on Japanese shelves now!

The 20th issue of Galette (ガレット) magazine is also out in Japan now. This marks the completion of 5 full years for this magazine!

Via Manga Mogura on Twitter we have news of a one-shot, Good Morning Ladies, about 3 middle-aged women in a post-apocalyptic world. Can’t get to a Japanese book store? No need, you can get the February issue of Ultra Jump on Bookwalker Global!

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Yuri Doujinshi

Way back in 2020, I did a Yuri Studio video titled Are There Queer Creators Creating Yuri? In that video, I mention an artist who identifies as lesbian, Hanakage Alt. She does a lot of boyish, masculine women comics. One of her school-life comics has just been picked up by Lilyka. I plan on asking them to pick up some of the tougher women stuff when I buy Senpai no Kouhai by Alt Hanakage on Lilyka…as soon as I’m done here. ^_^

Yuri VNs & Games

Via Studio Élan, Yuri VN First Snow has gotten a partial voice over update, with more to come. This college love story is playable now – available on Steam and itch.io.

Queerty is offering a grant to help developers work on their queer games! Check out the details of the Queerty Gamers Grant and apply soon, application close Jan 31!

Yuri Research

I’ve added En el Jardín de Lirios. El Amor Entre Mujeres en la Cultura Pop Asiática, Alexandra Arana’s Spanish-language look at Yuri in Asian pop fulture to the Yuricon Store. This is a free download from the publisher. If you are a Spanish fluent reader here and would like to review this for us, please contact me!

Other News

Please join Susan Napier, Helen McCarthy, Darren Ashmore, Helen Hall and myself as moderator for a panel on anime cels as art and artifact for Bonham’s auction house. This panel Inside The World of Anime is ahead of their art auction of anime cels, The World of Anime. Registration for the panel is free on Zoom. January 25, 8:00 AM Eastern US time. I can tell you right now, that this is going to be a fantastic panel.

Check back tomorrow, when we are premiering our first Yuri Studio Season 3 video! In the mean time, I’ve created some play list on Yuri Studio, so you can find Season 1 and Season 2, the Recommendations videos and our Lectures & Panels more easily, as the main timeline get fuller. ^_^

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Yuri Light Novels

Top news this week is the digital release of Volume 4 of I’m in Love With the Villainess, by inori, with illustrations by hanagata. The print volume will be hitting shelves in February.

This penultimate volume throws a *lot* at the wall, but wait, because Volume 5 is going to blow your socks off. ^_^

Yuri Manga

The Girl I Want is So Handsome Complete Collection is out now digitally and will be released shortly in print from Seven Seas. I reviewed both volumes of Ikemen-sugi desu Shiki-sempai! (Volume 1 and Volume 2) and found it to be extremely sweet.

Comic Yuri Hime, February 2022 is out and available in print and digital formats on the Yuricon Store.

Creator of the series Kiss & White Lily For My Dearest Girl, Canno, is launching a new series, Koudou-ryou no Seiza na Hibi, about girls in a dorm who represent the animals of the zodiac. Rafael Antonio Pineda has the details on ANN.

Via Twitter, Naoimai has a one shot Yuri manga in the February issue of Comic Beam magazine, Otome game no Akuyaku Raibaru Joshi ni Tensei Shitanode, In kara Oshi (Heroine) o Sasaetai to Omoimasu! (乙女ゲームの悪役ライバル女子に転生したので、陰から推し(ヒロイン)を支えたいと思います！) which works out to something like, the self-explanatory, “I was reincarnated as the rival villainess in an otome game, so I think I’ll support my favorite (the heroine) from the behind the scenes!  Luckily for those of us outside Japan, we can read Comic Beam on Bookwalker!

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Yuri VNs & Games

I’m a little late on this, but hopefully the offer is still good. According to Studio Élan’s Twitter, Heart of the Woods is 30% off on Nintendo Switch!

Melonbooks has a new Yuri doujinshi game, Tsuyuchiru Letter -Umi to Shiori ni Amaoto wo- (ユチル・レター～海と栞に雨音を～. It looks sweet, but it’s about a twisted three way relationship.

Kim Morrisy over at ANN has the news that the Alice Closet dress-up game will be holding a limited-time crossover event with characters from Revolutionary Girl Utena. I cannot think of a better choice, frankly. ^_^

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Other News

Thanks very much to Alexandra Arana from Peru, for letting us know about her book on “how GL is represented in some Asian pop narratives,”  En el jardín de lirios. El amor entre mujeres en la cultura pop asiática; the book is in Spanish with an English version of an interview with me and it is available as a free download from ISSUU or from the publisher, Cronicasdeladiversidad. I’m looking forward to making my way through it!

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

Become a YNN Correspondent: Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share and be part of the Yuri Network. ^_^