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!

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I foolishly took New Year’s Day off, so we have a LOT of news to get through today. Ready? Let’s have at it!

Yuri Manga

Seven Seas has announced the license of Ratana Satis’ Yuri webtoon, Pulse. And they seem to be specifically launching a new Seven Seas Webtoon‘s section of their website.

Via YNN Correspondent Laurent L, French manga publisher Taifu Comics has licensed Takeshima Eku’s Sasayakuyouni Koi o Utau as Whispering You a Love Song. This was among my top series for 2021, so yay French readers!

While I’m gathering up some amazing news about the international licensing scene, I want to add this piece of non-Yuri news: Webtoons is publishing a comic by Princess Jellyfish creator Higashimura Akiko. Alex Mateo has the news on ANN.

Tokyopop has licensed a new title, this one from Comic Ryu – Yuri Espoir. The OASG broke the news on Twitter. I think Ryu titles suit them and hope to see them pick up some others.

The Adachi and Shimamura light novel series will reach Volume 8 next month, with a release from Seven Seas and, based on the summary alone – will have not moved forward at all as a plot. Reminder kids, being obsessed with someone to the point that you are incapable of handling anything else or them interacting with anyone else, is super duper unhealthy and not at all romantic.

We have a few titles in Japanese and English that are on the Yuricon Store!

Heading our way soon is Miyako Miyahara’s I Can’t Believe I Slept With You!, Volume 1, from Seven Seas (originally known as Even If It Was Just Once, I Regret It).

Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, Volume 3 is now fully loaded with affiliate links to various print and digital vendors. No clue why, but Bookwalker just wasn’t coming through with that.

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Also on the Store:

Yuzaki Sakomi’s Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 2 (作りたい女と食べたい女), which I just finished reading, is so good. ^_^ YNN Correspondent Patricia B has written in to let us know that this series was voted #2 in manga for female readers by “Kono Manga ga Sugoi!.” Look Back, which I reviewed recently, turned up at #1 on the list for male readers. Alex Mateo has the whole list over on ANN.

We have Inui Ayu’s adorable autobiographical comic Kyou mo Hitotsu Yane no Shita, Volume 1 (今日もひとつ屋根の下) in print or digital format on the Store. It’s just so charming. ^_^

From webnovel to light novel to manga and back to revised light novel, Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. -Revolution-, Volume 1 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。-Revolution-) is Ichijinsha’s rebooted light novel for inori’s series, now with illustrations by Aonishimo-sensei, who does the art for the manga. My copy should be arriving today! Can’t wait to see it.

Ane no Shinyuu, Watashi no Koibito. (姉の親友、私の恋人。) by Fujimatsu Mei is a complicated story of a woman with a siscon who falls for her sister’s friend. Via Yuri Navi, there is a 18-minute long voice comic on Youtube for this story. Having listened to it, I am really waffling on how I feel about the whole thing. ^_^;

Akuyaku Reijou to Ai No Tamenara Nan Demo Suru Onna – Ane Ido Hyaku Go Sakuhinshu (悪役令嬢と愛のためならなんでもする女 姉井戸・百合作品集). This collection of work by Ane Ido has a title story of a woman summoned to another world to meet her favorite character, the “villainess.” I love the cover art and plan on giving it a try.

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Via Comic Natalie, the first volume of Yuri love comedy, Oshi V ga Oshiego de Watashi ga Mama de!? (推しVが教え子で私がママで!?) Volume 1, is available for those who may enjoy the hijinks between a student teacher and her student Vtuber.

Also via Comic Natalie we have news of Volume 1 of Anata ga Watashi wo Terasu kara. (あなたが私を照らすから。) from Comic Cune, by Muku. In this cute-by-design story, the school holds a “best couple” contest to determine the Student Council President and VP. Akie has fallen for Yuki, will they be the next best couple?

Yuri Anime

Egan Loo at ANN reports on new details of cast, staff, music and more for the spring debut of The Executioner and Her Way of Life.

Via YNN Correspondent dm, Kodansha’s series My Master Has No Tail is getting an anime! This is a great choice. I have no doubt it will make a fun anime. Egan again has the report on ANN. I’ve reviewed Volume 1 and Volume 2 in Japanese here on Okazu. Check out the trailer on Youtube. The novels are available from Yen Press, and I have reviewed Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Yuri VNs

Bad Faith is a “solo-developed psychological horror/drama visual novel about sanctuaries, secrets, and serious consequences.” This new Yuri VN looks like a pretty dark take on the private school trope. It comes with content warning as soon as you hit the page, so they ain’t playing around. Still, it looks interesting if that’s your cup of tea. If you are giving it a whirl, let me know, I’d love a review.

Yuri Doujinshi

Lilyka has a new title, A Manga About An All Girls’ College Student by Yuriemon. “Miwa Wakamatsu is a female college student who is interested in studying psychology…? and LIKES GIRLS! One day she goes out to casually confess her love but is immediately turned down, which makes things very awkward.”

Other News

It was a week of mergers and acquisitions in the anime world. AMC has acquired Sentai Filmworks and HIDIVE, and Cinedigm has purchased RetrocrushTV. I expect that to kill the free-with-ads model for Retrocrush, so watch what you want to see now if you’re opposed to paying for anime. As Justin Sevakis noted on Twitter, this makes Discotek the only independent anime distributor now.

If you’re looking for something to read with no pictures, check out this list of 10 LGBTQ Mystery Books by CJ Connor on Book Riot.

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