Yuri Events

Join me on Discord for CasaCon on June 26-27:

June 26 8PM EST US for What Goes Into Manga Licensing and Translating?
June 27, 2PM EST US time for the “Secret” History of Yaoi and Yuri.

Not Yuri, per se, but adjacent, The Japan Foundation in NY is hosting No Friend to Girls: Kawabata Yasunari and Appropriation of Girls’ Culture, with Deborah Shamoon and Melek Ortabasi. From the JF site, “This lecture reevaluates Kawabata’s fiction in terms of his involvement with and appropriation of girls’ culture, through analysis of the novels Otome no minato (The Girl’s Harbor, 1937-1938) and Utsukushii tabi (Beautiful Journey, 1939-1941). Kawabata’s use of the idealized shōjo is consistent in his writing for girls and adults, and is a parallel to the fascist aesthetics and colonial ideology in his work of this time period.”

Also adjacent is this fun post by WikiVictorian on Twitter about Modern Girls (モダンガール) in Japan after WW1, which are also relevant to Otome no Minato and to mid-century proto Yuri manga Sakura Namiki.

Keep your eyes peeled for my appearance at virtual event Anime Lockdown in July.

August 14th, on Zoom, we’ll be doing a Yuricon 20th anniversary event with myself, Verena Maser and James Welker. Okazu Patrons will get early registration, so if you don’t want to miss this – and want to assist our efforts to give financial support directly to queer creators, become an Okazu Patron today!

Girls Love Fest is returning to the Pio Building on September 4, 2021 in the Tokyo Metropolitan area!

I’ll be sticking to online appearances for a while longer, so if you have a virtual event happening and would like me to participate, drop me a line and we’ll talk!

Yuri Manga

BOOK☆WALKER Yuri Festival 2021 is on! Purchase eligible volume 1-2 eBooks through the Bookwalker Global platform for a 40% Coin Back and sequel volumes for a 25% Coin Back. Plus, BOOK☆WALKER members can download a “I Love Yuri” bookshelf cover image for free – all until June 26th 11:59 PM, 2021 PT. This offer is not valid for volumes purchased through the Japanese BOOK☆WALKER portal. Thanks to YNN Correspondent Luce for the heads up!

Yuri Visual Novels

Studio Élan has some great news. Their newest Yuri VN, Please Be Happy demo is out now with full voice acting. You can grab that on Steam or itch.io.This feel-good story is described on their site:

“Born as a fox in the forest of Korea, Miho carries with her the memory of a traveler who showed her kindness and spoke of home. Now more human than fox, Miho has spent a long, long time searching for her person. She arrives by airship to Wellington Skyport, one of the jewels of the floating island of New Zealand.

Despite her years spent observing humans, she still has a lot to learn about their culture and society. She’s made a living so far as a thief, her heightened senses allowing her to easily take advantage of people. She’s also seen a lot of the worst of what mankind has to offer.

It’s only after meeting Juliet, the owner of a small library, and Aspen, an aspiring novelist, that Miho starts to understand what kindness is, and that there’s more than just the bad stuff when it comes to people.”

And happy 5th anniversary to Studio Élan’s breakout hit Highway Blossoms! To celebrate, Élan is releasing the original VN and the DLC together to current gen consoles as Highway Blossoms Gold Rush! Which consoles haven’t yet been specified, I’ll keep you informed. According to their twitter account, they’ve sold 50,000 copies of Highway Blossoms on Steam. That is an amazing milestone. Happy birthday and congratulations to everyone at Studio Élan!

Via YNN Correspondent Eleanor, Steam is running a 65% off sale on A Little Lily Princess, a Yuri VN adaptation of A Little Princess through the 21st of June. We had a guest review of the VN by Brian a while back – you can read the review here on on Okazu!

YNN Correspondent Patricia Baxter has two exciting pieces of news for us! First up is A Year of Springs by npckc. This is, Patricia writes, a “remastered version of their previous three games of a visual novel trilogy focusing on three queer women, with updated visuals and a new epilogue. It follows the lives of a transgender woman, two lesbian women, and an aromantic asexual woman living in Japan, and covers heavy issues that queer women encounter (transphobia and heteronormativity) respectfully and with empathy while still having a positive ending for all three protagonists.”  This is $5 USD, so give it some love!

Patricia also reminds us that Queer Games Bundle is a collection of over 200 indie games developed by and focusing on, queer people for the price of a single AAA video game ($60 US) on itchi.io There’s also a “Pay what you can” version of the bundle! Thanks Patricia. ^_^

If you’ve got an idea for a Yuri game, don’t miss this year’s Yuri Game Jam, which will begin in October of this year. Get ready….

Queer Comics News

I had a chance to watch No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics streaming on the Tribeca Film Festival’s website and I am so glad I did! I hope you will, too. Learning about the history of queer comics in the USA was a perfect way to celebrate Pride month… . Shoutout to Jennifer Camper, Justin Hall and Vivian Kleiman and everyone involved, for such a fantastic piece of history.

WeHo Pride ran a series on LGBTQ+ History in Comics with Prism Comics, which is now on Youtube. Check their full list for all the videos readings by comics creators!

George Gene Gustines has written up 8 Comic Books in Honor of Pride for the NYTimes. Paywalled, but I believe in you. ^_^

I’ve ordered Marvel Voices #1 and DC Pride anthologies from my Local Comic Store (click the link to find your LCS!)….we’ll see what I think when they both get in. ^_^ YNN Correspondent Shannon L found this post by Lucciano Vecchio, one of the contributors to the DC Pride book and I loved reading how passionate and happy he was about his story! ^_^

Other News

We have a new digital manga subscription service on the scene – Azuki Manga App  launches late this month with offerings from Kodansha. Alex Mateo has the full list at ANN. If you’re trying to divorce yourself from Amazon/Comixology, why not take a look at Azuki? Congratulations to Evan, who sent out Azuki’s press release this week. I’ve known Evan since he was a young, and I’m super proud of his accomplishments!

Which lead me to something I’ve been thinking about a lot these days. Popular culture fandom and industry is so very much a group effort and I’m honestly blown away by all the people out there I have met that have pursued their interest and turned it into a thing. A blog, a site, a company, an event, work as writers and artists and producers and managers. So, if you are working in the industry you love as a translator, or editor, production manager, press person, or whatever, if you writer for or run or are EiC of a news site or service, if you contributed to a game or an animation, congratulations! You’re doing important and amazing work. On behalf of everyone who enjoys your work – thank you and great job. ^_^

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Yuri Manga

Tamifull’s How Do We Relationship?, Volume 3 hit US shelves this week. Now we can talk.

Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 2 by Takako Shimura is hitting bookstores this week.

We have a few new items on the Yuricon Store!

Polarity Toumeiki (ポラリティ透明期) is a scifi story in which homosexuality is punishable by “re-education.” Good timing for Pride month, there Erica. /eyeroll/

Ienai Himitsu no Aishikata, Volume 1 (いえない秘密の愛し方) Kazuo, a teacher, learns that her favorite doujinshi artist is one of her students.

Doukyuusei no Oshi Sakka ni Yuri Mousou ga Bareta Kekka, Volume 1 (同級生の推し作家に百合妄想がバレた結果) is about a girl who finds her classmate is her favorite Yuri author.

The folks at Manga Mavericks have posted our chat about My Alcoholic Escape From Reality, by Nagata Kabi. It was a great conversation. I love talking to Lum and Colton about stuff.

A new collection of stories about Yuri couples by Akiyama Enma, Sayonara ja ne yo, Baka (さよならじゃねーよ、ばか).

Anemone wa Netsu wo Obiru (アネモネは熱を帯びる) about two girls whose lives are entwined, but in ways one of them does not remember.

And last from Comic Natalie this week, Onna-doushi to ka ariena idesho to Iiharu Onna no ko wo, Hyaku-kakan de Tetteiteki ni Otosu Yuri no Ohanashi, Volume 1 (女同士とかありえないでしょと言い張る女の子を、百日間で徹底的に落とす百合のお話) is a comedy about a girl who is so taken with a classmate that she wants to “buy” her for a day in order to see if relationships between girls can exist.

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Yuri Anime

Kathleeen Townsend has written The Pride and Power of Revolutionary Girl Utena for Funimation’s blog as part of their Pride month series.

RetroCrush has added Princess Knight to their line-up, so if you haven’t ever had the chance to see the original anime Girl Prince Sapphire, definitely give that a watch! ANN’s Rafael Antonia Pineda has the details on this.

YNN Correspondent David M wants you to know you can stream Princess Principal Crown Handler on HIDIVE.

Yuri Event

Flamecon is back in NYC, on August 21-22 as a virtual event.

Lilyka has a new manga event coming up – manga artist Mintaro is doing a live event on June 25. For $5, you can see a Yuri artist do a live drawing, ask them questions and be there for a special Yuri announcement!

Yuri Doujinshi

While we’re talking Lilyka, they’ve released Whisper, My Button by EMODELAS. 

Yuri Visual Novel

MangaGamer has licensed Distant Memoraĵo: The Expression Amrilato, the continuation of Sukerasparo’s Esperanto-teaching Yuri VN.

Other News

Michael Nava has started a lovely series, Creating a Literary Culture: A Short, Selective, and Incomplete History of LGBT Publishing, Part I for the LA Review of Books.

I missed this a while back. Manga Planet has licensed Kia Asamiya’s Silent Moebius.  While it’s not Yuri, there’s some very kick ass adult women.

Jennifer Sherman over at ANN has the details on the new Sailor Moon Musical, in which they are covering Luna’s love story, Kaguya-hime.

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Thank you everyone who came to the Mechademia panel at too-effin’-early today! And my very sincere thanks to James and Verena for being fabulous panelists. As a result of our conversation (because we had so little time and we could talk about this for hours!) we’re going to try and arrange a panel for Yuri Studio sometime so you all can watch us natter on about Yuri…and we’ll record it this time.

So, stay tuned for that. I’m super excited about the idea, but timing will be the issue.

Yuri Manga

Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 2 drops this month. What will become of Yukari and Ayano, now that Ayano told her husband how she feels about the other woman?

Via Yuri Navi, Atsui Hifuu (あつい皮膚) is about a girl with atopy (a disease in which a body’s immune system triggers extreme allergic responses to common stimuli) and a girl who she meets in a library. It’s a kind of sweet story, with fairly grotesque (both figuratively and the other figuratively) art that you can read for free in Japanese on Kurage Bunch.

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Yuri Light Novels

I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 3 is here! If you’re in Japan and get a chance, next week will see a WataOshi pop-op shop and yes, they are doing online sales. Woot woot.

ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!, Volume 4 is on it’s way at the end of the month.  I’m so backlogged, I still haven’t cracked open Volume 3.

Adachi and Shimamura, Volume 5 hit shelves this week, as well.

Yuri Anime

Racing to the front in the “perfomative Pride” category is HIDIVE, who reminds you that they now have a LGBT genre category on their platform.

Coming in a close second is Funimation, with Essential Anime That Expands LGBTQ+ Representation by Aedan Juvet.

It’s rough for anime companies, honestly, since most anime is trash entertainment and I don’t want to harsh anyone’s joy, but once more for the folks in the back – if you want to show support, drop the rainbow logos, don’t make us beg for appropriate tags…just support your queer staff with inclusive policies, promote your queer content, defend it against assholes. Thank you.

Speaking of Funimation, Magic Knight Rayearth is aliiiiive~~~!!! After you finish up Sailor Moon Eternal and want to find something next to eat those Planter Cheez Balls while watching, Magic Knight Rayearth is the CLAMP you need.

Yuri Games

Yuri Empire has done a damned comprehensive roundup of all the Yuri games and news for June.

Queer Comics

Hazel Newlevant has a terrific comic on The Nib, Before Stonewall… about acts of queer (most often trans) protest before the famous NYC Stonewall Uprising.

Via YNN Correspondent Laurent, Volume 1-6 of Stjepan Šejić’s very queer, beautifully drawn BDSM comic, Sunstone is available by the author for free right now, while he works on Volume 7.

Ren at Bring The Tea has written a perspective piece on anime and manga, titled The shifting landscape of queer narratives -with a focus in the 2010s.

Superstar lesbian comic artist Jennifer Camper has interviewed superstar lesbian comic artist Alison Bechdel in When Alison Bechdel says comics are her ‘other girlfriend,’ you’d better believe it for Xtra* magazine.

Superstar Queer Comics Artists, The Movie, No Straight Lines, is making its way around film festivals, with a premier at the acclaimed Tribeca Film Festival. You can get it at home to watch on June 13th. (I will definitely be doing that. For $15, it’s a steal.)

Other News

Oh. My. God. Someone has made the perfect movie for me. Jigoku no Hanazono (地獄の花園) about Office “Ladies” and if that pun doesn’t make sense to you then the whole thing will be befuddling, but trust me, it’s hilarious.

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

Yuri Manga

This week Yen Press announced the cover release for the upcoming Strawberry Fields Once Again, Vol. 3, which is hitting bookstores at the end of June! This volume is an absolute whirlwind of a final volume.

Aya-chan wa Rezu Fuuzoku ni Kyoumi ga arimasu!, Volume 1 (彩純ちゃんはレズ風俗に興味があります!) is about a young women who hires a companion for the evening and finds herself becoming a sex worker because it interests her.  There’s also a love story plot in there, but I won’t spoil. ^_^

Doukyuusei no Oshi Sakka ni Yuri Mousou ga Bareta Kekka, Volume 1 (同級生の推し作家に百合妄想がバレた結果) is the story of a true Yuri fan (believer) who finds that her favorite Yuri author (god) is her classmate.

Meijou shigatai Kanojo to, ano goro Okubyō datta Watashi no Hanashi, Volume 1 (名状しがたい彼女と、あの頃臆病だった私の話), is a horror manga about a girl who is rescued by and falls in love with a girl who manipulates monsters….and you can just about hear the creak of the dartboard being spun on that plot. ^_^

Via Comic Natalie, we have something for the animal-ear girls fans among us, Ookami no Kawa o Kabutta Hitsuji Hime (狼の皮をかぶった羊姫), which I am totally translating in my head as The Sheep Princess in Wolf’s Clothing, which looks totally not applicable to the story as far as I read. ^_^

And, while we’re spinning the wheel and throwing darts art plots points, Check out Bookwalker for Kabunshou kara Hajimaru Yuri (花粉症からはじまる百合). After all, we all know that hayfever is totally romantic. ^_^;

Via Yuri Navi, one-shot Hi no Ataranai sono Heya de,(日の当たらないその部屋で), is a “sad” story of a teacher who looks back at her youth to find love. You can read the whole thing in Japanese on Web Ace.

Starting in the July issue of Comic Yuri Hime in a new school girls love story, “Spica wo Tsukamaete” (スピカをつかまえて), also via Yuri Navi, who completely gave up on even trying to guess the plot and basically just says, “We have no idea what it’s about, all we know is that it’s a schoolgirl Yuri.”

Yuri Doujinshi

Yuri Doujinshi Website Lilyka is celebrating a second birthday, with 20% off most items on the site until June 3rd, with the code YURIMY21.

Yuri Light Novel

J-Novel Club has just released the first chapter of Girls Kingdom, Volume 4 for free on their website. This volume is slated for an August release.

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Yuri Online Events & Podcasts

Reminder that on June 5 at 21:00 JST (8 AM US EST, 1PM BST), James Welker, Verena Maser and myself will be paneling Transporting Yuri Across Borders at Mechademia! Registration is 1000￥, so about $10 USD for you to watch the presentations and join the panels (which will not be recorded for later viewing, I have been informed.)  I’ve been watching a few of the presentations every day and they have been amazing.

I spoke with Kate Fitzsimons at Publisher’s Weekly about The Rose of Versailles this week on More to Come.  I also had a lovely conversation with Sullivan and Tori at Third Impact Anime this past week, but there were many technical problems on my side, I hope they’ll be able to put that together for Pride month.   I have another podcast with Manga Mavericks coming up about Nagata Kabi’s newest book out in English, My Alcoholic Escape From Reality, and I’ve just finished up her Meisou Senshi Nagata Kabi (迷走戦士・永田カビ) in Japanese.

To wrap my June up, join me at the all-at home, all-free CasaCon on Discord.

I’m cutting this close, but in about 8 hours in Japan, you can visit Yuri doujinshi market Girls Love Fest, live once again in the Ota City Industrial Plaza PIO building on May 30.

And June 6 will give you a chance to visit Comitia, once again live in Tokyo Big Site. Check your favorite circles’ feeds for their location.

In celebration of the release of Sailor Moon Eternal Parts 1 and 2 on Netflix on June 3, the cast took some time to answer questions in Beautiful Dreams, Part 1 and Part 2 on Netflix’s Youtube channel!

Yuri Visual Novel

Yuri VN Creative Team SukeraSparo have announced a June wedding-themed extension to their Oshirabu series, Oshi no Love yori Koi no Love~ Love or Die (推しのラブより恋のラブ～ラブ・オア・ダイ～). Oshirabu or Die appears to be about a otaku Office Lady who ends up in a sham-to-real marriage with her favorite idol. Eh, why not. ^_^

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

Yuri Manga

Senior YNN Correspondent Sean G. wants you to know that Seven Seas has a couple of license announcements for us this week. Topping the list is The Girl I Want is So Handsome, by Yuama. I have reviewed this in Japanese – you can read my thoughts on Ikemen-sugi Shiki-sempai! Volume 1 and Volume 2 here (Tl;dr – it was cute.)  Volume 1 is getting a end of year release.

Seven Seas has also announced the license of Jun Ogino’s semelparous, and Double Your Pleasure – A Twin Yuri Anthology, neither of which I am ever likely to mention again.

Via ANN’s Rafael Antonia Pineda, Transparent Light Blue creator Iwami Kyouko is starting up a new series, “Today, She is Not Here.” Get the details on ANN!

On their twitter account, MICRO Magazine announced the serialization of the ROLL OVER AND DIE manga!

We have a couple of volumes that have been added to to Yuricon Store:

Mikanuji, creator of Now Loading….! and Fuzoroi no Renri has a short story collection out from Kadokawa, Mukanuji Short Story Collection Happy End Iranai (みかん氏短編集 ハッピーエンドはいらない).

Kujira’s A Witch’s Love at the End of the World, Volume 3 is headed our way in just over a week, to finish up this story.

Volume 2 of Superwomen in Love: Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit will be coming at you at the end of the summer.

Yoru to Umi, Volume 3, by Goumoto wraps up that magical tale.

Amano Shuninta has a new collection, Aisarete mo Iindayo (愛されてもいいんだよ) about an unhappy woman who finds happiness during her experience with a sex worker.

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YNN Correspondent Megan wants you to know about Ienai Himitsu no Aishikata (いえない秘密の愛し方). A teacher meets her favorite dounjinshi artist, who turns out to be a student in their school. You can read some sample chapters in Japanese on Takeshobo’s Story Dash.

Also via Megan, is Cosmic Lily (コズミック・リリィ), a one-shot scifi story set in space, by Yoshitaka Nao. You can read this in Japanese on Comic Days website.

Kawashima Suzu offers this sweet little Yuri tidbit in Japanese on Comic Zenon, Kanojo to Shuumatsu Afternoon Tea  (彼女と週末アフタヌーンティー). Thanks again to Megan for spotting this on Yuri Navi – I had read and bookmarked it, but hadn’t added it yet. Sometimes I hold items for a later report. ^_^

Yuri Interview

The lovely folks at Yuri Times are pleased to present a 2-part interview with Yuri manga artist Inui Ayu, creator of If We Leave on the Dot, which is being serialized in English on Mangaplanet. Part 1 and Part 2 are up for you to read and enjoy! Thanks to the staff of Yuri Times for bring out this interview in English and Japanese!

Yuri Anime

Rafael Antonia Pineda has the news on ANN about new cast and staff for upcoming anime Aquatope of White Sand.

And Rafael is our go-to guy today, because he’s also noted that the first 4 minutes of the new Revue Starlight movie is being streamed right now for you to watch!

Yuri Visual Novel

YNN Correspondent Patricia B.r writes in with the news about Korean Yuri VN that looks fun! “Lady in Mystery is a mystery/romance visual novel set in 1700s Korea, where the protagonist can romance four potential love interests, who are all women. It was originally released in South Korea in 2014, and I believe this is the first time the game has been translated into English.”

MangaGamer announces Distant Memoraĵo – a Return to the World of The Expression: Amrilato. Distant Memoraĵo contains two new chapters in the tale of Rin and Ruka and their desire to communicate. Check out the trailer on Youtube.

Other News

Not Yuri, but this is big – all 44 volumes of fine wine battle manga Drops of God are available on Comixology. I read this all the way through in Japanese and it was absolutely ridiculous and amazing and informative. Imagine Kaiba and Yu-Gi-Oh rambling on about wine instead of a card game and you’d be very close. Also I learned a LOT, but the focus of the manga is always about enjoying wine first and understanding it second.

Gentlewoman and scholar Rachel Thorn tweeted a 3-part NHK series on how Japanese girls magazine cover art changed and maybe you’re not as into this as I am, but I am very into this! Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3. Thank you Rachel! Its especially relevant as I am watching the evolution of Rica Takashima’s art for the cover of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga, which is coming out next summer and I am very excited for you all to see it. ^_^

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