Yuri Manga

Spring boarding off yesterday’s review of Kiss & White Lily Volume 10, we have news via Yuri Navi and CW about Canno-sensei’s next series, a story about 3 girls in a “triangle love story.” According to her Twitter announcement, details will be announced when the series premier approaches. Since I actually liked the three-person relationship best in Kiss and White Lily, I’m hopeful about this new series!

We’ve got some new items on the Yuricon Store!

Ohsawa Yayoi’s Hello, Melancholic, Volume 1 (ハロー、メランコリック!) is turning out to be delightful. I’m all for redemption stories when the person has been hurt and just needs to love life.  (Trombones are like the bass clarinet of the brass section. Everyone needs them, but no one gives them any attention. Trombones deserve love, too!)

Mudakun reminded me to remind you of Sore ha, Haru no Arashi no You ni, Volume 1 (それは、春の嵐のように), an opposites-attract story about an “ordinary” Office Lady and a writer who wants to be “free.” ^_^

Yoru to Umi, Volume 2 ( 夜と海) continues a school love story.

I was quoted in the Rose of Versailles, Volume 1 page on Udon Entertainment’s website, how fun. ^_^

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Yuri Anime

Via Yuri Navi, to celebrate the upcoming Fragtime anime, the staff is appearing at a free screening of Asagao to Kase-san on November 4th at The Tokyo International Forum, Hall A.

Welp, it looks like I’m going to have to watch Queen’s Blade Unlimited OVA, too, as the promotional video makes it clear that along with the usual tits and crotch fetishizing there will be Yuri. Sasuga Nanzaki-sensei. Sigh.

Yuri Live Action

ANN ‘s Crystalyn Hodgkin’s has the details on the upcoming Cutey Honey Live-Action Stage Play coming in February.

Yuri Novels

Sexiled creator Kaeruda Ameco announced on her twitter feed that she’s going to be participating a Yuri novel anthology for winter Comiket. Her story will be about a prostitute who does not want to be held by a man but also will do whatever she needs to survive.

LGBTQ News

YNN Correspondent Eric P notes that a My Brother’s Husband Omnibus is available for pre-order at RightStuf. Get all 704 pages of this heart-warming manga in one volume.

I picked up a copy of the Dead Beats anthology at FIT Diversity ComicCon and am loving this oddball collection of super-short horror comics, with a fair amout of queerness and a lot of blood – perfect reading for the Halloween season. ^_^ (Added bonus, for every copy sold a *.*gater loses his shit.)

Caly’s Breath of Flowers, Volume 2, will be seeing a release from Tokyopop in English this month.

I strongly recommend you read Dee’s delightful Nonconforming in the ‘90s: How Pokemon’s gender variance caught the hearts of generation on AnimeFeminist. It has made me desperately want to write about Haruka and Michiru in excruciating detail. Again.^_^

I found an LGBT Japanese series on Youtube called Day by Day. It’s low-budget, but definitely LGBTQ, not Yuri.

Other News

Via YNN Correspondent Jeyl, the Hazbin Hotel Pilot is available to watch on Youtube. Jeyl notes “This pilot follows the exploits of Charlie, the Demon Princess of Hell who is on a quest to rehabilitate other demons with a hotel. The Yuri comes from her relationship with Vaggie, her supportive and often overprotective girlfriend.”

Phaidon is putting out a new book Great Women Artists, featuring 400 women artists.  This is definitely going on my shelves.

The Yuri Times web page has launched! This group translates Japanese language Yuri tweets, news and other fun things of note.

In case you have nothing to do this post-Halloween weekend, here is a live-tweet of a Sailor Moon musical that took place in Transylvania and had vampires. ^_^

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! Write me with any questions you have, and I’ll do my best to answer them on my YNN podcast, when I revive it this winter!

Special thanks to all of our Okazu Patrons on Patreon, who make this report possible!

Yuri Manga and Novels

Big news this week is that The Rose of Versailles, Volume 1, by Riyoko Ikeda, from Udon Entertainment, is now available for pre-order! It’s real…and it’s gorgeous. I can’t wait to hold it in my hands. (As an added bonus, check out these photos by Yuri photographer Takahashi Minori on Twitter which are a Berubara collaboration.)

Seven Seas announced in September that they licensed Syrup Yuri Anthology. Futabasha has announced a third Syrup anthology volume, Syrup NIGHT, First Night Yuri Anthology, (シロップ NIGHT 初夜百合アンソロジー ).

More new anthologies are on the way from Kadokawa. Aoharu Band Yuri Anthology ( 青春バンド百合アンソロジー) looks fun. ^_^

Viz is putting out Makoto Hagino’s charming aquarium-focused  A Tropical Fish Years for Snow, and we’ve got Volume 1 and Volume 2 up on the Yuricon Store.

I’m reading Hara Yuriko’s Mayu, Matou, Volume 2 (繭、纏う) ahead of Cocoon, Entwined, Volume 2 from Yen coming in spring 2020.

Hayakawa Publishing, having decided that Yuri is a growth market in science fiction (from which J-Novel Club is drawing its so-far excellent Yuri novel choices,) is branching out into Yuri mystery with the collection Yuki ga Shiroi Toki, Katsu Sono Toki Kagiri (雪が白いとき、かつそのときに限り). If their mystery is as good as their sci-fi, this should be great.

In related, but not specifically Yuri, news, Seven Seas has previously licensed the Penguindrum manga, and this week they announced the license of both the Penguindrum novels and a Sarazanmai spin-off manga. ANN has the details.

LGBTQ Cartoons

SheRa and the Princesses of Power, Season 4 is on the way! Check out the trailer. This season will see the introduction of a nonbinary character, voiced by a nonbinary voice actor.

Yuri Events

Via Twitter, Animate has announced a Nakatani Nio-sensei autograph session in Akihabara in December to celebrate the 8th and final volume of Yagate Kimi ni Naru (やがて君になる,) which will be released in Japan in November.

Via James Welker, we have a couple of pictures from Comic Horizon 7, a Yuri comic market held in Taipei, Taiwan this month. If we’re lucky we’ll get a short write up of the event, as well. It certainly seemed very well-attended.

Don’t miss learning about 100 Years of Yuri at AnimeNYC, November 15, at Javits Convention Center in New York City.

There’s just about a month in 2019 left to book me at your school, university, organization, or convention to celebrate 100 years of Yuri, so feel free to contact me and we’ll make it happen!

Yuri Live-Action

Check out this Korean short film call Family Plan on Youtube. Once again, the camera is way, way too close, making it nearly impossible for me to watch it, but despite the absurdly pandering YT headline, the movie is interesting and full of ambiguity.

Yuri Visual Novel

This news popped into my email box literally JUST as I was about to hit Publish on today’s report!
Studio Élan Announces that their charming Yuri Visual Novel, Highway Blossoms will be getting a DLC coming in early 2020 called Highway Blossoms: Next Exit! This DLC will be fully voiced by the original cast. It’ll all ages, with art from moekki and kamifish.

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! Write me with any questions you have, and I’ll do my best to answer them on my YNN podcast, when I revive it this winter!

Special thanks to all of our Okazu Patrons on Patreon, who make this report possible!

Yuri Manga

Via YNN Senior Correspondent Verso S, Haruyama Aki’s LGBTQ manga Octave (オクターヴ) has been licensed in French by Taifu Comics, and in Spanish by Planeta Comic. It does not yet have an English release, but I think it’s not unreasonable to suggest it to some of the companies who are already licensing Yuri here, to see if that can change. In the meantime, you can read all 6 volumes of the original Japanese manga on Bookwalker Global.

Via Yurimother, we learn that the Princess Principal series will be adapted into a web manga. 

Yuri Anime

We’ve added the Bloom Into You Premium Blu-Ray Box set to the Yuricon Store.

Yuri Anime Fragtime is being premiered at AnimeNYC and both voice actress Miku Ito and Producer Yuusuke Terada will be there!

Yuri Events

I’m a Guest at FIT Diversity Comic Con on October 25, at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Update: I am on a panel – “SuperQueeroes: Representation in Comics,” 10:30 AM at John E. Greeves Great Hall (Conference Center) at Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC, on the corner of 28th Street & 7th Avenue!

I will be presenting my 100 Years of Yuri Panel at 3PM in Room 1E17 and will be joining translator Zack Davisson for !? vs !s: The Great Debate at 6PM in the same room for Anime NYC on Friday, November 15 at Javits Convention Center. These are my final appearances for 2019, unless you get me invited to an event near you! ^_^

Yuri Light Novels

This morning, I woke up to a “sempai noticed me!” moment when I found that Kaeruda Ameko-sensei had retweeted my review of her book Sexiled. Far more importantly, she has a new Yuri light novel coming out in 2020 from GL Bunko – who were responsible for Girls Kingdom, which I reviewed last year – called (deep breath) Issekai ni Saku ha Yuri no hana ~ Kon’yaku hakisaretanode Honmei no Akuyaku Reijō to Onna Futari de Tanoshiku Kurashimasu!~  (異世界に咲くは百合の花～婚約破棄されたので本命の悪役令嬢と女ふたりで楽しく暮らします！～) Let’s see if I can translate this on the fly: A Lily Flower Blooms in Another World~ Since the Engagement was Broken, I Live Happily Together with The Villianess! ~ (Thanks, CW for the clarification.) Ask me how much I want to read this book. Be prepared for a long answer. ^_^

Other News

Via Loryn Stone on Twitter, Tokyo Toys has launched a new line of Tezuka canon dolls, including a lovely Sapphire figurine that is now up for pre-order.

Via the Lilyka Blog, I learned that while I was in Japan I missed this one-day Taisho Yuri concept cafe, Partier! How vexing, even though we did a ton of stuff, this would have been damned cool. Click the link and check out what we missed.

Bitch Media has this seasonal article for your reading entertainment: Vampires, Psychics, and Ghosts: A Look at Queer Women in Horror

Cartoon Network twitter shared this lovely animation of DC heroines transforming in Sailor Moon style. It’s cute and grin-making.

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 all of our Okazu Patrons on Patreon, who make this report possible!

Sailor Moon News

Yesterday was National Coming Out Day here in the United States – as a result, many of my friends were musing on how coming out is a process that happens over and over in a life, coming out to many people, in many ways. For instance, every time I meet a new client and we’re discussing our lives, I end up saying “My wife and I…” at some point in the course of that discussion.

As fans of media, many of us understand that the media we love has inspired folks to come out, and has put us, both on- and offline, in the middle of discussions of queerness and representation. This sometimes leads to a call for the companies that make /distribute that media to recognize and accept the queerness of characters who we, the audience, feel have represented us.

When Sailor Moon first picked up popularity on Cartoon Network, and the characters Sailors Uranus and Neptune became known there were, predictably, some viewers who went to great pains to explain why they weren’t a couple – explanations that did not work and were dismissed by the creator who said they are lovers. Also predictably, this did not stop those people from creating even more complicated scenarios that still did not take away the fact that Uranus and Neptune were a couple.

After the anime and manga were over, the live-action musicals would periodically revive the story and every single version I have seen of these, really pushed Haruka and Michiru more openly as lovers over time. Their relationship has now been enshrined as “partners,” which is a terrific way to give people who want acknowledgement of their couplehood an adult way to refer to it.  (In pre-marriage equality societies, “Partner” was/is a popular and common choice for making a point and, as many other people have noted, “wife” and “husband” are uniquely gendered in Japan as ideograms, making even wife and wife uncomfortable for some.)  This was why the kerfuffle with Viz inexplicably changing Haruka and Michiru’s relationship from “partner” to “friend” in the Stars booklet was puzzling. It was a step backwards from where Japan had put them. Luckily Viz was on the side of right and good here and that has been fixed – they are partners once again.

In the last 25+ years, we have seen Haruka and Michiru come closer and closer to being out. In recent years, official goods have made the point of pairing them as a couple in whole lines of goods and as the usually male/female dolls for girls’ day. I’d like to think there’s someone at Sailor Moon Official just pushing them inexorably out of the closet. (I’d like to believe it’s Takeuchi-sensei herself.)

But. ^_^ You know what we have never once gotten? “Love.” Haruka and Michiru have not said they love each other on page or panel, in song or dialogue. They’ve gotten close…and in symbolic ways they have, but romantic love, “ai” 愛, the word that Usagi says constantly,  is not something that has been given to Haruka and Michiru.

Until now.

Sailor Moon Official has announced a new series of Sailor Moon Girls Night Out cafes in six cities. Among the offerings is this parfait, the Haruka and Michiru Night Drive Parfait, the description of which says “A parfait filled with the love of Haruka and Michiru. In the image of these two, this is a refreshing sweet with chamomile, pistachio ice cream and mint jelly.“

So, as far as I’m concerned, this is the first time we’ve seen this so openly stated by the official Sailor Moon channel. On National Coming Out Day 2019, Haruka and Michiru have come out once again, one more step out of the closet. When you remember how many people were motivated the first time they saw this partnership on their television, it’s not absurd to imagine that this, too, will have positive effect. That someone in one of those cafes will read that description and have that last wall on their own personal closet come down.

And may those comings out be sweet. ^_^

Also in Sailor Moon News, ANN reports on the details of the new-new-new-(echoing into the distance) Sailor Moon musical starring Nogizaka46 running this autumn. The story is starting from the beginning, as usual.

Other News

In other wonderful Coming Out Day x Comics news Archie Comics and It Gets Better Project partnered to create a series of genuinely lovely comic strips in which the folks of Riverdale respond to various coming out scenarios with support. Check these comic strips for Coming Out Day on Bleeding Cool, it’ll do your heart good.

Yuri Doujinshi

I picked up a bunch of Yuri doujinshi at Girls Love Festival last month and among them are the continuing adventures of adult women who do things like work, and eat and play. Among these are two series by Hazuki Ruri, whose art appeals to me very much. It’s very for and about adult women. These series go under the names of Wednesday and Saturday, and you can read some of the various stories in English through Lilyka, DMP’s Yuri digital doujinshi online shop. Check out Saturday – Luna Chikai’s Hands-On Yuri Company or Wednesday – Maybe I Love You among others.

(I haven’t gotten there yet, but there are a few doujinshi I picked up on that trip that I will be reviewing.)

Yuri Manga

We have a couple of new items on the Yuricon Store this week!

Kase-san and Yamada, the 6th volume of Takashima Hiromi’s Kase-san series will be hitting shelves in English this February. Kase-san and Yamada have made it to Tokyo and college life together!

At last, weve got the first volume of Sweet Blue Flowers creator Shimura Takako’s newest series about two women in a bitter(!) lesbian love story, with Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 1 (おとなになっても).

Yuri Anime

Anime News Network reports on details for three upcoming anime:

The Princess Princess sequel film Princess Principal: Crown Handler now has cast, staff and delays. We have more cast info and a new trailer for Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu and details on cast and line art for Adachi to Shimamura.

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 all of our Okazu Patrons on Patreon, who make this report possible!

Yuri Manga

Via Senior YNN Correspondent Sean G, we have some news out of New York Comic Con. Viz Media has announced the license of Tamifly’sTsukiatte Agetemo Iikana? (links to reviews of Volumes 1 & 2) as How Do We Relationship? for Summer 2020. The title translation is not in any way literal, but it really suits the tone of the story. ^_^

Via ANN, Blue Drop creator Yoshitomi Akihito is launching a new Yuri manga this month. Kyou Kara Mirai will be on HEROS Flat website on October 18th.

ANN has the full layout of the post-manga series projects for Bloom Into You. I just read the final chapter/epilogue in Dengeki Daioh, and have some thoughts about that. Will write them down in a future review. ^_^

Now that the damn has broken with Yuri Kuma Arashi being licensed by Tokyopop as Yuri Bear Storm, it looks like we are getting more work by Morishima Akiko-sensei. We can look forward to Conditions of Paradise, the English-language release of Rakuen no Joken in February 2020 from Seven Seas! This is excellent news.

Yuri Anime

ANN has the promotional video by Yuri anime Fragtime leads Misuzu and Haruka, prompting people to order their tickets for this theatrical release through online ordering app Kinepass.

LGBTQ Comics News

Also out of NYCC, Heidi Macdonald on the Comics Beat reports that LGBTQ comic Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me (link to review) won in the Best Children’s or Young Adult Book Category. Check out all of the Harvey Awards winners,  because if you want to see the changes for the better that are going on in comics right now….here it is in list form.

Amanda Steele on The Comics Beat is taking a look at some key LGBTQ artists in NYCC’s Artist Alley for your reading pleasure!

Yuri Visual Novel News

 Studio Élan is holding a Kickstarter to do a fully-voiced version of the Heart of the Woods, their stunning first Yuri VN release.

Yuri Events

This Sunday, October 6, at New York Comic-Con, I will be on the Comixology Panel Manga Ikimashou! – LET’S GO MANGA! in which I and a number of illustrious panelists do the one thing I always swear I will not do – recommend manga to you! ^_^ You can catch us 2:30 – 3:30 PM in Room 1A02.

I’ll be doing two lectures at Michigan State University, October 15-16. Both these lectures are free and open to the public.

October 15, 5PM, B122 Wells Hall, MSU Campus
I will be talking about about Rose of Versailles and Sailor Moon to a class on translation. They each pose a significant set of challenges to translators and adapters. This is free and open to the public (check with the school for registration.)

Wednesday, October 16, 5PM, Rom 301 International Center, MSU Campus
We’ll be talking about 100 Years of Yuri!

Oct. 25, I’ll be at Diversity Con, Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, NY.

And rounding out my 2019, I’ll be presenting 100 Years of Yuri and verbally sparring with translator Zack Davisson at AnimeNYC, November 15-17, at Javits in New York City.

Other News

Add this to your morning reading – Brigid Alverson interviews George Takei on his new comic memoir, They Called Us Enemy, about his life in an internment camp during World War Two. Read it, if only as a reminder that the last time we put people in concentration camps was within a lifespan and here we are, as a nation, doing it again.

Speaking of NYCC, I took a look at this year’s AnimeFest and laid out some of the anime and manga-related events and panels you can expect this weekend at The Comics Beat.

To round out this week on a positive note, we can report a couple of steps forward in Japan. Akita held its first-ever Rainbow Pride festival this past month. Love the parade poster. ^_^ And even more importantly the Kanagawa city of Zushi has added same-sex partnerships.

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 all of our Okazu Patrons, who make this report possible!