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!

Events

Normally around this time of year, this segment of the news report would be filled with Yuri panels and appearances. To be honest, I am not planning on attending a live event for the rest of 2020 at the absolutely minimum. (Honestly, I’m still iffy about 2021, because I know history and expect a second wave of COVID-19, as with the Spanish Flu. Not to be a downer, but I’d expect this to be ongoing well into 2022.) But this year events are going online and showing some success already. Air Comiket (which I was following closely on Twitter) was really quite wonderful. The Comiket twitter feed made the usual announcements, directing people to places and cautioning folks against running. They paged people and shared videos of previous years so we could applaud when the event opened and “walk up” the stairs to Big Sight. Artists set up tables in their homes and promoted their work online. Kim Morrissy over at ANN says that I was among the 440,000 people who enjoyed the AirComi experience together from their computer screens. I thought it absolutely delightful.

San Diego Comic Con has announced an online Comic-Con@Home event. ANN’s Crystalyn Hodgkins has the details.

The Cartoon Art Museum is holding the Queer Comics Expo this weekend on Discord!

I will be holding an Online Yuri Panel on May 31 on Youtube. (link will be forthcoming.) I’ll also be holding an Okazu Patron Backstage Event on May 27, where they can post questions I’ll answer at the panel and get to watch (and laugh) as I set up my “studio.” Support Yuri reviews, news and interviews – and get “backstage” access –  become an Okazu Patron today and help us support the Yuri ecosystem!

Yuri Manga

We have a bunch of new titles up on the Yuricon Store:

tMnR’s If I Could Reach You, Volume 4 is already available. This story is perfect if you like relationship angst and unresolved sexual tension.

Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Volume 8, in which the combined Senshi defeat Neherenia and free Helios.

Galette, No. 14 (ガレット) has been released in print through direct sale only in limited quantities, but is available for the JP Kjndle in Japan, and on Global Bookwalker next week for folks outside of Japan.

Speaking of Galette, they’ve released a bunch of free sample chapters, including Hakamada Mera’s Sekai ga Owaru Sono Mae ni (世界が終わるそのまえに), Hamano Ringo’s Sora-iro Melancholic (空色メランコリック) and Yatosaki Haru’s Ami-chan no Nikki (あみちゃんの日記).

Comic Walker offers a free sample chapter of Kyuuketsuki to Yobaretai (吸血鬼と呼ばれたい) by Pyaa, about vampire girls who attend Vlad Gakuen, and I mention this primarily because my wife immediately said, “What? Not Saint Vlad Gakuen? Missed opportunity.” and I want you to have that stuck in your head as it is in mine. ^_^

Yuri Light Novels

Hitomi Iruma’s Adachi to Shimamura, Volume 2 is slated for a September release in print, but will be getting an end-of-May release on Kindle!

Yuri Doujinshi

Also on Kindle is Ruri Hazuki’s REFACTORS 1: Nana  & Kanon, a workplace romance doujinshi we encountered at Girl Love Festival during the 100 Years of Yuri Tour.

If you like Hazuki’s work, Lilyka has just also added her -3.25 Hazy World Saturday – Lunch Menu – 2, a continuation of her office romance series named after days of the week.

Minamoto Hisanari, creator of the delightful Fu~Fu (ふ～ふ) manga, has released a Fu~Fu 10th anniversary doujinshi for Air Comiket that is available on Melonbooks. This is Act 1, and an Act 2 is supposed to follow later. There are sample pages on the Melonbooks site. 

Hayate x Blade creator Hayashiya Shizuru, has a new doujinshi series out that combines two of my favorite things: Yanki girls and food. Yan  Koi Shokudo (ヤン恋食堂) Set A (which offers some sample pages) and Set B look amazing. Hayashiya-sensei said on Twitter there will be a Set C and she apologizes, but she hasn’t gotten to the Yuri part yet…. ^_^

I’ll take this opportunity to tell you that, despite the fact that Japan Post has had to suspend shipments to the USA and other  countries, because of the slow-down of commercial flighst, proxy service Tenso has added DHL shipping as an option.  I’ve used Tenso before (and am using them now for these and a bunch of other doujinshi) and can recommend them as a buying service. Signing up is free, you just prove you identity. You are assigned a Japanese address, to which you can ship your items. Tenso will hold the items for a time, if you need to combine orders. And when you ship from Tenso to you, there are multiple shipping options. I was willing to let these go by sea, but since DHL is available, why wait? ^_^ (Tenso also has a proxy buying service, if you don’t read Japanese and don’t want to figure out their almost-always exhausting hoops to buy stuff. I don’t know why, but my goodness buying from a Japanese site has so many steps!

Lesbian Anthology

One more Kindle item of note! Silk & Steel: An adventure anthology of queer sf&f with high femmes & dashing women pre-order on Kindle is now available. And I gotta say that the lineup they’ve got is genuinely fantastic. Aliette de Bodard, Ellen Kushner, Yoon Ha Lee, Django Wexler and more. I have already pre-ordered this and cannot wait to read it. ^_^

Queer Cartoons

Via Dinah Frost on Twitter, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are now officially a couple in the Harley Quinn cartoon.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Season 5 has dropped on Netflix and it’s everything we could have hoped.

Other News

I was deeply honored and delighted to be asked to contribute to the British Film Institute‘s Sight and Sound magazine‘s Anime Special: 50 Essential Films summer issue. I can’t wait for you all to read it. It looks amazing!

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!