Yuri Events

Anime Lockdown was a lot of fun and you can still watch my panel on Youtube (and lol at my wife’s interjection.) Yuri: How It Began, How It’s Going. ^_^ Honestly, Anime Lockdown was 9/10. I’d participate with them and Casacon again any time!

On July 26, join me at HYPER JAPAN for a “LGBT+ in Japan” panel on which I will likely to have nothing to say, as it’s about LGBTQ life in, y’know Japan. ^_^

Keep August 14th, 8AM Eastern US time clear, because I’m being joined by James Welker and Verena Maser for our Yuricon 20th anniversary event! We’ll be talking Global Yuri fandom. Registration is currently open to Okazu Patrons only, and there are limited spots, so please register asap!

August 20-26, you can watch the 2019 Nogizaka 46 Sailor Moon Musical online on Japan 2.5 Stage World. I already have my ticket, of course. Sure, let’s rehash that same story one more time from the top! ^_^

Make a note for November 2022, when German Yaoi and Yuri focused event, YaYuCo will return. With luck – and the ongoing efforts of our own Okazu Hero Karin – you’ll see some edifying Yuri content!

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Yuri Manga

Bookwalker is running a 30% back coin event. Grab some of your favorite manga and light novels in English today!

We’ll start off with a pile of new titles on the Yuricon Store! We’re still working through updating everything, almost all the English translated anime and manga have been updated, with expanded purchasing links.

Hara Yukiko’s, Cocoon, Entwined, Volume 3 hits shelves later this month from the folks at Yen Press. I’ve got V4 next up in Japanese and I’m pretty sure it’s going to end just right. ^_^

Nakatani Nio’s Farewell, My Alter, also from Yen Press, is out now. This is her short story collection from the Éclair anthologies and some originals.

Kodama Naoko’s Day of Love At Seagull Villa, Volume 3, wraps up the series in early August.

Via Comic Natalie, Galette WORKS has released a new collection, Anoko no Hana ga Hoshi (あのこの花が欲しい), by Asuba Yui. As I mentioned yesterday, every collected volume that come out of Galette is a mark of perseverance and effort in trying times!  Galette No. 19 (ガレット No.19) in paper has gone up for order on Galette’s Fantia site.

Also from Comic Natalie an android x human story is staring up in Comic Yuri Hime, Android ha Keiken Ninzuu ni Hairimasuka?? (アンドロイドは経験人数に入りますか？？)

Wada Shinji is spinning in his grave, as Sukeban Deka is getting a spin-off manga. He killed Saki off at the end of the manga, but cannot kill off corporate greed. ^_^; Rafael Antonia Pineda at ANN gives us the news of who and what the new manga will be.

Yuri Webcomics  & Doujinshi

In Yuri online comic news, YNN Correspondent Evie Starcross wants you to know that “Ratana Satis’s “Soul Drifters” has only 2 chapters left & they just released info about their next upcoming webcomic titled “Beast Knights” & the 3 new main characters are Lunar (Bunny Woman), Akela (Wolf Woman), & Synne (?). ” Thanks, Evie!

Lilyka has a new Yuri doujinshi for sale, The Story of Inhuman Girls, by Siu Yosiujima. “From fairies and mermaids to witches and zombies, The Story of Inhuman Girls, is sure to have a little of something for everyone.”

Yuri Light Novels

Otherside Picnic, Volume 5 is headed our way next month! Since Bookwalker’s running a sale, I’ve linked to it there. ^_^

The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Volume 2 is on Global Bookwalker, with coin boost this week!

I’m reading End Blue (エンドブルー) by Iruma Hitoma with illustrations by Nakatani Nio and stumbled across this voiced ad for it on Youtube!

Inori-sensei noted in a recent Pixiv fanbox post that there are now two free indy-developed browser scenario games for I’m in Love With the Villainess:
Revolution Lily!? ~Claire-sama’s Birthday Party~  and Revolution Lily!? ~Desert Island where can’t escape without ??~.  I started the first one and was awed by it’s wholesomeness. I hope to finish it up this week. ^_^

Yuri Anime

While we’re talking Executioner and Her Way of Life, let’s not forget that an anime of this grim, yet interestingly built world, is headed our way in 2022. YNN’s Rafael Antonia Pineda has the details and trailer. Thanks to everyone who kept me abreast of this news! (Yeah, pun intended.)

CR New’s Paul Chapman invites us to watch the Blue Reflection Ray creditless ED for some quiet time between the characters.

Komatsu-san has a trailer for the Tropical Rouge Precure movie that brings back some old friends from Heartcatch Precure! Amazingly, I am still watching Tropical Rouge Precure…. ^_^

Other News

I want to shout out to Kaelan Ramos on Twitter who deftly noted that memes about Takeuchi Naoko being a starving, lonely artist when she drew Sailor Moon is incorrect, and that “celebrating” women by not actually crediting them for their and work is a bullshitty and demeaning thing to do.

And, to that end, why not listen to the recorded session for No Friend to Girls: Kawabata Yasunari, Shōjo no tomo and the Appropriation of Girls’ Culture, to see how Kawabata Yasunari took Nakazato Tsuneko’s work and put his name on it.

In happier news, Zombieland Saga Revenge is getting an exhibit (and pop-up shop, of course) in Harajuku. Choo Sum Lee has the scoop on ANN!

Last, but not least, Takarazuka’s never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down. ^_^

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Yuri Events

Today at 3:30 PM Eastern US time, I will be talking about Yuri at Anime Lockdown!  Join me for “How It Began – How It’s Going: 100 Years of Yuri.” And don’t miss, when it’s posted, Emma Wolfe’s panel on Rose of Versailles and the French Revolution

On July 26, HYPER JAPAN is doing LGBT+Japan, on Monday July 26 at 16:00 BST (please check your local time) Broadcast via YouTube/Twitch or join us live on Zoom! I’ll be mostly listening to the other panelists, since they have experience of, y’know, LGBT life in Japan. ^_^;

And, get ready for the Yuricon 20th Anniversary event. Registration will go live in the next week, so keep your eyes on the Okazu Patreon and Yuricon for announcements. Put August 14th, 8AM Eastern US Time, 9PM Japan Time on your calendar!

Flamecon is back as a Virtual Event on August 21-22. Get your queer fandom on!

Sailor Moon Original Anime dub Cast Reunion Panel happened last night and you can watch the video on Geektainment TV on YouTube.

Yuri Manga

JK to Tomodachi no Okan (JKとともだちのオカン) is clearly a comedy, about young woman who is in love with her male friend’s mother. But here’s something fun – you can get it in hardcover. Why? I have no idea, so I might just….. ^_^

Via Comic Natalie, Yuri ni Hasamarete, Esper!, Volume 1, (百合に挟まれて、エスパー！) is another comedy manga, this one about a girl who can read the Yuri-ful thoughts of her classmates.

Via Yurimother, Aquatope of White Sand manga will be drawn by Sakuragi Ren. The anime has already premiered on Crunchyroll.

Via Comic Natalie, Spica wo Tsukumaete (スピカをつかまえて) has begun in Comic Yuri Hime. It’s a disciplinary committee president x gal story drawn by Iwami Kyouko. I really like Iwami’s work and hold hope that this will exceed its opener.

Just gonna busk – again for Odoriba ni Skirt ga Naru (踊り場にスカートが鳴る) because this is an outstandingly lovely story about dancing and body shame.

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Yuri Visual Novels

Studio Élan has announced that Heart of the Woods is now available, fully voiced, on Nintendo Switch. How exciting for them!

Anime News

Crunchyroll New’s Humberto Sabeedra has the OP and ED videos and news for Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S.

Blue Reflection Ray anime will continue with a second cour, Blue Reflection Ray/Mio this week. Joseph Luster has the details over at CR News. Check out the new ED, as well! On ANN, Crystalynn Hodges reports that a Blue Reflection Ray/Tie game  for Playstation 4 and Switch is on the way

The Re:Cycle of Penguindrum compilation project will be 2 movies. Egan Loo has the details on ANN.

Other News

Komatsu-san over at CR News tells us about KADOKAWA’s Manga & Light Novel Library in Saitama Prefecture, which has reopened with 35,000 Books, making it the largest light novel collection in the world.

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Yuri Manga

We had a bunch of new license this week from Seven Seas!

Monologue Woven for You by Syu Yasaka, is “a full-color manga series about two young women falling in love despite their conflicting experiences with the stage.” This was a fast license, I hadn’t even had a chance to read this yet! I’ll bump it up on the to-read pile. ^_^

Gunbured x Sisters about a vampire and warrior nun, by Wataru Mitogawa, creator of  Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet.

I had a look at this in Japanese last year, but now you’ll be able to read the My Next Life As A Villainess Side Story: Girl’s Patch. This came out from Ichijinsha and while the Yuri doesn’t burn the pages or anything, it was still a really nice book. ^_^

From Comic Yuri Hime comes this one-shot, 5 Seconds Before a Witch Falls in Love by Zeniko Sumiya about enemies who make a nice couple. ^_^

And my favorite license of the bunch, Hello, Melancholic! by Ohsawa Yayoi. I loved this series and am thrilled we’re getting some of Ohsawa-sensei’s work.

Late yesterday they licensed Even If It Was Just Once, I Regret It by Miyahara Miyako, about a landlady trading rent for favors, and the relationship that develops between her tenant.

Kodansha is re-releasing Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka on Kindle. A new chance to get the first manga Girl Prince!

ANN’s Crystalyn Hodgkin’s wants you to know that FLOWERCHILD’s Warikitta Kankei Desu kara (割り切った関係ですから。) is coming to an end in Comic Yuri Hime.

We’ve added Yen Press’s The Whole of Humanity Has Gone Yuri Except For Me to the Yuricon Store. This alternate-world scifi hits shelves later this month.

Some folks expressed interest, so I added the Galette Illustration Book 01 to the digital listings on the Yuricon Store, with links to it on Amazon and Amazon JP.

Whisper Me A Love Song, Volume 3 hit shelves this week. Give me all the girl band Yuri!

Yuri Doujinshi

Lilika is running a July 4th weekend event. 20% off selected items with the code US21. And they’ve uploaded the video of the Mintaro live event, so catch that at your leisure for $4.95. ^_^

Anime News

Funimation has picked up Kageki Shoujo, Alex Mateo on ANN has the scoop on this Takarazuka-inspired anime. Crunchyroll is streaming The Aquatope on the White Sand and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S, says CR’s Kyle Cardine.

Crunchyroll will be also streaming My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X.

There’s a diminishing chance of Yuri, but Rafael Antonio Pineda at ANN has news that Shin Ikki Tousen will be getting an anime next year.

Paul Chapman at CR News wants you to know that the anime spin-off of a game spin-off of a line of dolls has a new short form web anime spin-off, Assault Lily FRUITS.

Yuri Visual Novel

Letters From a Rainy Day -Oceans and Lace- a “bittersweet sapphic story of a romance that begins with blackmail” has launched and is on sale this week on Steam.

Other News

Molly Ostertag looked at the value queer readings of stories offer in Queer readings of The Lord of the Rings are not accidents for Polygon.

Leslie Feinberg’s ground-breaking queer book Stone Butch Blues is available for free on her website as a pdf, or in print from Lulu at cost.

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Yuri Events

I’ll be hitting the virtual con circuit in the next few weeks, catch me on Discord this weekend for CasaCon:

8PM EST June 26 for What Goes Into Manga Editing and Translating?

2PM EST US June 27 for the “Secret History” of Yaoi and Yuri.

and I’ll be joining Anime Lockdown on July 10, at 3:30 PM for the first Yuri panel I have done since 2019, How It Began, How It’s Going 100 Years of Yuri Anime. I’m super excited, and wow has a lot changed in 2 years.

Anime Lockdown has a bunch of great stuff – don’t miss Emma Wolfe at 11am when she talks about The Rose of Versailles!

And speaking of Rose of Versailles, I had a chance to chat with the delightful folks of Third Impact Anime about Pride and RoV!

And I’m not the only one out there, Saturday Dentition talked with the lovely Kit and Sarah from Tomochoco on their Yuricast this week! If you’re looking for some fun, take a look at this Yuri trivia game created by Tomochoco’s Kit and YuriMother Niki. ^_^

One more piece of excellent Tomochoco news….they’ve announced an upcoming interview with I’m in Love With the Villainess creator inori-sensei. How awesome is that? Send them questions and they’ll do their best. In any case, make sure you tune in when that is posted. I’m super stoked for them.

August 14th will give you a chance to talk with me, James Welker and Verena Maser about global Yuri fandoms on our upcoming Yuricon anniversary event.  Details TBA next month.

If you’re in or near the Tokyo area on September 20, 2021, you’ll have a busy day, with two great comic events happening. Girls Love Festival will be back in Asakusa, and Comitia will be at Big Site. Both those will be in-person, but I’m a good while out from being inside a building with other people. ^_^;

The winners of the 3rd Pixiv Yuri Short Story Contest are online and available for you to read (in Japanese) for free! You may remember I reviewed the 1st contest winners collected volume and was honestly impressed.

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Yuri Manga

By popular demand, we’ve got a few new titles up on the Yuricon Store!

Odoriba ni Skirt ga Naru (踊り場にスカートが鳴る) is a lovely and delightful manga by Uttan Yuu, from Comic Yuri Hime about ballroom dancing, body image and self-esteem. Honestly, I love it so far.

I’ve had a number of folks ask me if I’ll be reviewing Kakeochi Girl, Volume 1 (かけおちガール) and the answer is…I really don’t know. My to-read piles are way backed up. So if you have purchased the book from a legitimate source – not reading scanlations – and you want to do a review, contact me and let me know. This story is about a grad student who encounters her high school love who broke her heart and, their relationship picks up once again.

Watashi no Oshi ha Akujyaku Reijou., Volume 2 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) is out in Japanese! Claire and Rae throw down during exam time. Will Claire beat Rae? Hahaha, no…Rae is the protagonist of the game!

There’s a ton of Yuri manga news from Japan, but I’ve got a blistering weekend of work ahead of me, so here’s a thing I really want you to take a look at – Uyanotsuki by Kuzushiro  – you can read the first three parts in Japanese on Comic-Days.com!

COLOR_Les’s Mage & Demon Queen is back for a Season 3! Check out the Season 3 Trailer on Webtoons and catch up with where we all left off.

Yuri Anime

Netflix has picked up the first three seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal, with a premier date of July 1.

ANN’s Alex Mateo has the news that Blue Reflection Ray anime will not be getting a physical release in Japan. Funimation is streaming it for an English-language audience.

Also from ANN, Kim Morrissy, has a roundup of a panel with Junichi Sato at Annecy 2021 about making anime for girls and women. He’s got some serious street cred in that regard, so give it a read!

Kara Dennison wants us to Feel the Drama with These Takarazuka Inspired Anime Series on Otakusa Magazine.

Other News

If you frequent the Japanese Bookwalker digital manga site, you’re in luck! Bookwalker is running a Yuri Day special through July 1! Eligible items are available for up to 20% off and up to 30% coin back!

Irodori doujinshi site is also participating in Yuri Day Festivities with up to 50% off selected titles.

Latoya Pennington has a look at The Transformative Legacy of Magical Girl Manga over at Games Radar’s GR+.

Hikaru Utada came out as non-binary with an extremely touching video to celebrate this Pride Month. Lynzee Loveridge drops the details on ANN.

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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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