Yuri Light Novels

A couple of new Yuri Light Novels on the Yuricon Store!

Adachi and Shimamura continues with Volume 3. I’m re-reading Volume 1 now in English and I will say this…the translation is very good.

Both print volume and digital edition of Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress! Vol. 2 are now on the Yuricon Store.

Since I was catching up on the LNs, I’ve added in Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Volume 3. The print volume will be here in November!

Yuri Manga

Both “urban folklore” horror fantasy game Kundan Folklore and Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou (licensed in English as I Fell in Love With the Villainess!) have manga serializations beginning in the August issue of Comic Yuri Hime.

Yuri Anime

My Next Life As A Villainess, All Routes Lead to Doom! is getting a second season to begin in winter 2021. Egan Loo has the details on ANN.

Other News

Via YNN Correspondent Mariko S,  here is a tweet from Farran Nehme about 1951 French lesbian movie Olivia with trailer. This looks amazing and it’s on the Criterion Channel for those of you who would like to watch it.

Online used bookstore Thriftbooks has curated a Pride month list of mostly non-comic reading for you to browse.

QFX Events is a queer multi-fandom event scheduled for next spring in Tampa, FL (presuming Florida exists next by spring.)

Via David Walker on Twitter, I learned about ALL-NEGRO COMICS #1 – a 48-page anthology published in 1947. Rachel Thorn noted that it iss in the public domain, so you too can read the whole issue for free, just scroll down the page this link goes to.

To wrap up this week, Komatsu-san over at Crunchyroll shares the festive image of YuruYuri-wrapped trains running around Kyoto this summer. He shares some of the art and goodies that will be available on the YuruYuri x Eizandensha collaboration. ^_^

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Special thanks to Okazu Patrons for being an essential part of the team!

We have officially reached the tipping point, I can no longer keep up with all the Yuri coming out in either Japanese or English. Yay! (I mean, “Boo!”, but you know what I mean. ^_^) Today I’m playing catch up from a couple of week’s worth of being busy with the Yuri Panel.

Yuri Manga

YNN Senior Correspondent Eric P. wants you to know that Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution is now available for pre-order. This print volume is slated for an October release and follows the Student Council members 20 years after the events at Ohtori. I reviewed the Japanese edition here in 2018.

Speaking of Utena, Comic Natalie reports that director and co-creator Ikuhara Kunihiko has some commentary on the obi of the upcoming Mayu, Matou, Volume 3 (繭、纏う) Hara Yuriko. That seems right up his alley! ^_^

Lilyka has announced their first print book and…it’s not one of their doujinshi at all, but a print volume of Love To LIE Angle, the “comedy” manga from Comic Yuri Hime.  I’m sincerely disappointed in this choice.  I was actually hoping we’d be getting a collection of Ruri Hazuki‘s stuff, or SWHD.

Via Yurimother, we have news of a Yuri collaboration on Webtoon Canvas between 15 artists, called A Girl’s Love Collaboration.

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On the Yuricon Store we have a lot of new items!

Tamifull’s How Do We Relationship? Volume 1 is out now from Viz Media. I just started Volume 4 in Japanese last night. I have complicated feelings about this series. Check out my 2019 review of Volume 1 in Japanese.

Éclair Rouge: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart (Book 4 of the Éclair anthology series) is hitting bookshelves in September. I reviewed Éclair Bleue this week, if you missed it. ^_^

tMnR’s If I Could Reach You, Volume 5 is available for pre-order, looking forward to a September print release.

Chiri Yuino’s bloody fantasy Scarlet, Volume 2 concludes this October in English from Seven Seas.

Sailor Moon, Eternal Edition, Volume 9 begins the Galaxia arc.

Shimura Takako’s new adult Yuri series about a woman falling for a married woman, Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 2 (おとなになっても) is out now in Japan.

And Ohsawa Yayoi’s Hello Melancholic!, Volume 2 (ハロー、メランコリック!) is hitting shelves this week.

Akashi’s Still Sick, Volume 3 is on shelves in Japan (at last!)

Yuri Light Novels

I’m in Love With the Villianess, Volume 1 is hitting us in print in November (digitally in September,)  with Volume 2 heading our way in February 2021. If you don’t want to wait, or would like to practice your Japanese, you can find Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) Volume 1 and Volume 2 in Japanese on US Kindle! (Oddly, the GL Bunko series I’m reading hasn’t been licensed yet!)

Villainess is also getting a manga adaptation which begins in the August issue of Comic Yuri Hime. ^_^

ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!,Volume 1 will be out in print in October and available in August digitally.

Ameco Kaeruda’s overtly feminist Yuri isekai light novel, Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress! Volume 1 is now available in print! Volume 2 will be available in print in September. I loved both Volume 1 and Volume 2 when I read them in digital format.

Yuri Interactive Novels

Studio Élan’s Yuri Visual Novel Highway Blossoms was very pleasant and now it’s officially getting an sequel/DLC, Highway Blossoms Next Exit on Steam this year! It really looks like they are pulling out the sops with multiple perspectives and several stories.

Creator Natalie Cannon has written in to let us know that she’s created an interactive Text Yuri Novel, Moonrise. Available for the low price of $1.99, Moonrise has multiple player routes and romance options. You can play the first two chapters for free, so give it a try!

Other News

Kodansha in Japan is launching a new COVID-19 themed manga project with over 50 artists contributing to Manga Day to Day.

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Special thanks to Okazu Patrons for being an essential part of the team!

Hello and welcome to this week’s Yuri Network News Report. I want to start with some news from within our community. Please take a look at this logo for YNN. The artist behind it is Mari Kurisato, a queer, indigenous artist, writer and activist…and Yuri lover. She’s one of the folks we support on Patreon.  She needs some help. Her computer is dying and lucky her, she’s here in the US where we don’t have a reasonable healthcare system. If you have even $5 to toss her way, you’ll help get her out of a hole of medical debt and computer problems. I know we’re all tapped out. I know we’re all being asked to give every second. But there are folks who really need help and Mari is one of us. I’m not asking you to give up money you need. But if you have the money for a couple of Ventis at Starbucks, maybe give one up for her. Thank you.

Yuri Manga

Have a bunch of stuff today that I’m not entirely sure will end up on the Yuricon Store or not, but you should know about!

Tadokoro-san (田所さん) is a school life story by TATSUBON, that looks nice. If you want to check out a few pages or take a look at the doujinshi that it sprang from, Lilyka has you covered. ^_^

Ichinjinsha has another adult drunk Yuri anthology, Alcohol Yuri Anthology Strong! (アルコール百合アンソロジー・ストロング! ) I have found this current series of Ichijinsha anthologies to be lackluster, YMMV of course.

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Today on the Yuricon Store!

Goodbye , My Rose Garden Volume 2 is on the way in print and on Kindle next month from Seven Seas.

I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 1 will be available in in print in November and on Kindle in September.
 
Éclair Bleue: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart has arrived on my doorstep and will arrive on yours in two weeks. ^_^ The Kindle edition of Éclair Rouge is already up on Amazon for a September release.

This seems a good time to remind you that most, if not every, Yuri book coming out in English, is also available digitally on Kindle and Bookwalker  – and often sooner than the print. So if you, like me, are neck deep in books, this is great way to keep supporting and reading Yuri manga that may not actually be something you want to keep.

I also want to note that, while I am promoting Kindle and Bookwalker, I am aware that many of these titles are also available on Nook. Barnes & Noble recently announced that they are stopping support for their Nook app, rendering the ecosystem for Nook readership back down to people who own a physical Nook. And, you might guess, I don’t have a referral account with B&N, since they have a history of resisting both manga and y’know, readers, being able to access their digital offerings. So if you have a Nook, do check for those titles, I’m just not linking to them.

Queer Media Reference Tools

So let’s say you’re listening to me at a panel and I say, “read queer comics, too, not just manga,” and you think, “But, where do I go to learn what queer comics there are and what they are about?” Start with the Queer Comic Database. Via YNN Correspondent, Victoria R, this was begun as a project out of University of Washington and has plenty of useful filters. You can find online comics, print, even free comics and yes, they take suggestions!

The Complete Yuri Movie Guide (「百合映画」完全ガイド) definitely looks like something…this Japanese-language book says it looks at 300 “Yuri” movies and asks questions like “How did this movie describe women?” Sadly, it is not shipping to my location, so if you get a copy hit me up and write a review for us.

Other News

A number of manga and manga studies books have been nominated for an Eisner Award this year, including Kabi Nagata’s My Solo Exchange Diary. Jennifer Sherman does the breakdown on ANN.

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Special thanks to Okazu Patrons for being an essential part of the team!

Editorial: Online Events, Representation and Accessibility

This will be a summer of virtual events in the anime world and I want you to think about this before we do any thing else:  Because panels and guests are moving online, there will be a tendency for event programming to have less diversity than usual, as organizers talk to people they already know about, for content. Take a moment and write organizers to remind them to seek out panelists and presenters from marginalized groups. Representation and accessibility ought not to be afterthoughts.

If you’ve been following me anywhere, you saw the most amazing thing over the last couple of days. I’ve been trying to ensure that the Online Yuri Panel will have automatically generated closed captions available. YouTube does not offer these for Livestreams unless an account has 1000 subscribers. I had no idea how many subscribers we had on Yuri Studio, for many reasons. Back in 2009, I was just uploading some of the Yuri AMVs we had from our events, and then a few of my lectures and presentations. As it turned out we had 420 subscribers.

So I asked the Internets for 600 more subscribers so YouTube might listen to me and grant me auto captioning. In two days, and people clicked that button. I’m very mindful of the reason *why* they clicked that button – not for me, but so people can get closed captioning. I don’t trust YouTube to turn on that feature for me, so I found a good option, Webcaptioner. It only works in Chrome but it works and it’s free (donations welcome on the site, click and you’ll see.) I tested it to see if it works while watching a Youtube stream and even with an accented voice speaking at normal speed it did well enough.

My point here is, please write these online events and gently remind them to seek out queer and PoC and disabled folks for their panels online and to make sure that closed captioning is available.

I’ve written to Funimation and Anime Expo to ask that they consider these issues for their upcoming events. I hope you’ll write the events you plan on attending. As fans we can and ought to make fandom more welcoming and open every chance we can. ^_^

Having said that, I invite you all to join me tomorrow, Sunday May 31, 2020 at 5PM Eastern US time (with my apologies to folks in Japan for who it will be 6AM)  for the 2020 Online Yuri Panel Livestream on Youtube. I hope to see you all there.

Yuri Manga

Kaishaku’s Kannazuki no Miko spin-off manga Himegami no Miko (姫神の巫女), is beginning serialization,.Yuri Navi has sample pages from the first chapter in the July issue of Dengeki Mao. You can get it digitally on Global Bookwalker.

ANN’s Rafael Antonio Pineda has the news that spin-off manga Murciélago Byproduct Araña will be coming to an end with the 5th volume. I’ve reviewed Volume 1 and Volume 2 here.

Other News

In one of the few delightful moments of a dark week, Stjepan Seijic offered up this piece of fanart of Color_LES’s webtoon Mage and Demon Queen. ^_^

Global Bookwalker is doing a huge “Stay Home, Stay Safe and Read” campaign with up to 50% coin backon loads of J-Novel Club and Seven Seas Titles.

You may remember my adoration for the novel Gideon the Ninth. A free e-book preview of the upcoming sequel Harrow the Ninth is available on Kindle. /jubilant shouts of joy/ I’m re-reading Gideon right now, because holy heck it’s a brilliant book.

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Special thanks to Okazu Patrons for being an essential part of the team!

Online Yuri Panel

Just a bit over a week until our 2020 Online Yuri Panel. Patrons of Okazu will get special backstage access on Wednesday, May 27th as I do set up!

Yuri Light Novels

Via Senior YNN Correspondent Sean G., Roll Over and Die, Volume 1, Adachi and Shimamura. Volume 3 and I’m in Love with the Villainess, Volume 1 all from Seven Seas, have early digital pre-orders. I’m looking forward to reading some of these. ^_^

Kasucchi on Twitter recommends 101 Meter Hanareta Koi, (101メートル離れた恋), describing it as a “yuri science fiction work that explores gender (including trans themes), sexual exploitation, and human/robot relationships in a very neat mystery structure.”

Yuri Manga

Galette Magazine has found it’s new normal, and Galette, No. 14 (ガレット) is now available as a digital release on Global Bookwalker or on Amazon US Kindle in Japanese!

Volume 3 of Mayu, Matou is slated for a June 2020 release in Japan and creator Hara Tsukiko revealed the cover image on their twitter feed. Not gonna lie, I really hope the school Prince is saved from her hopeless obsession by this plucky younger student and her hair. ^_^

Via YuriMother,Yuri VN Kundan Folklore is getting a manga serialization in Comic Yuri Hime. Also via YuriMother, Seven Seas has licensed the manga adaptation of I’m in Love With the Villainess Light Novel.

Via Comic Natalie, we have news of Kuwabara Tamotsu’s Anata to Watashi Shuuhatsu, (あなたと私の周波数)  collection from Yuri Hime Comics, which includes a story about two women attempting to bury a corpse late at night, so there’s that. ^_^ (It wasn’t a terrible story, honestly.)

Also via Comic Natalie, the June issue of Sunday GX Comics (サンデーGX」6月号) has an addition – a  live-action Vampeerz Special Yuri Photo Book  in which live models are “recreating the world” of Akili’s Vampeerz. So, basically, its a cosplay photo shoot. Vampeerz,  Volume 3 (ヴァンピアーズ) is also available as of last week.

Yuri Visual Novel

Studio Élan has announced Highway Blossoms Next Exit: a DLC for Highway Blossoms. The link will lead you to Steam, where you can wishlist it.

Via Senior YNN Correspondent Yeo, we learn of GirlJail which creator Alexander Ocis describes as a “bullet-hell minigame” with an average play time of 3 minutes. ^_^

Yuri Anime

YNN Correspondent Megan wants you to know that Mamoru Oshii’s VLADLove anime has announced a second set of key visuals. They added a character type and a voice actress I cannot resist and I hate them for it. ^_^ (I looked at the character design and instantly thought, “/bleep/ers hired Paku Romi, didn’t they?” And yes, yes they did.)

LGBTQ News

Via Melon on Twitter, “On May 30, the first lecture of「レインボー大学ＳＡＩＴＡＭＡ」will take place via Zoom. This first session will feature discussions of the manga “Love My Life”, in order to explore the situation of lesbians. Attendance seems to be open to everyone.” Check the thread on how to get tickets. The lecture will be in Japanese.

On June 3rd, grand damme of lesbian fiction, Katherine V. Forrest, will be running a zoom lecture on her classic lesbian novel Curious Wine and the history of modern lesbian fiction.

Other News

Check out #Sailormoonredraw on Twitter for some fun, delightful and amazing re-workings of Sailor Moon art. It’s an endless bag of sweets. ^_^

Speaking of something sweet, stjepan sejic posted a piece of Mage and Demon Queen fanart today and the Internets lost their collective mind, as you might imagine.  I just sat there grinning like a loon for Kuru/ Color_LES. ^_^

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Special thanks to Okazu Patrons for being an essential part of the team!