Yuri Light Novel

The first of the Sayaka Light Novels from Seven Seas has arrived. ^_^ Bloom Into You : Regarding Saeki Sayaka Volume 1 is exactly as good as I remember it to be. For a really insightful exploration of a character who really resonates (with me, for oh-so-many reasons,) this is a truly excellent English edition and well worth your time and money! Review to follow this week.

Yuri Manga

Big news! Seven Seas has added two manga from Akiko Morishima to their catalog! Along with Rakuen no Jouken, which is now named Conditions of Paradise: Our First Time, they have added the short story collection Ruri-iro no Yume, which will be released as Conditions of Paradise: Azure Dream! I’m very excited for you all to have her work in English…and hope we’ll get the Joshikka series next. For an overview of her works, Ariel ‘Solowi’ Nakandakare has a great article up on AnimeFeminist, Beyond the Bear Storm: Morishima Akiko, yuri mangaka.

We’ve got a pile of new stuff up on the Yuricon Store:

Goodbye, My Rose Garden, Volume 1, which fittingly will see a spring release from Seven Seas, is Dr. Pepperco’s Victorian fantasy about an English girl and her Japanese maid.

Global Bookwalker has all of Akiyama Haru’s Octave, (オクターヴ) available in Japanese digitally. I’m just glad to see this available outside Japan again. It was really quite excellent.

MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 16 (ムルシエラゴ ) hit shelves in Japan last month. I’m so behind~~~.

I’m ever further behind on MURCIÉLAGO BYPRODUCT Arania, Volume 2 (ムルシエラゴ- BYPRODUCT -アラーニァ). More Reiko please. ^_^

Ari North’s beautiful ALWAYS HUMAN is indeed modified from Webtoon format for a print run and is available in hardcover and soft. Amaryllis wants you to know that Little Bee, the publisher always does a pre-order special, so there will be extras, if you buy it and submit proof of pre-order! I’m going to get this in hardcover because it’s so beautiful.

Nicki “YuriMother” Bauman, wrote up a terrific analysis of the Yuri audience  in answer to the often-stated, and rarely true assumption that Yuri is “for men” in Yuri is for Everyone: An analysis of yuri demographics and readership over on Anime Feminist.

The Yuri Network News report is made possible by Okazu Patrons. Your support funds reviews, interviews, news and helps pay writers. As little as $5/month can make a huge difference!

Yuri Doujinshi

Lilyka is running a time-sale on translated Yuri doujinshi. Grab the coupon code on their Twitter feed and head over to their store.

Briana Lawrence is the creator of a magical girl comic she describes as “a queer as hell book featuring a team of black queer girls.” Check out Magnifiquenoir!

Yuri(?) Anime

The Tamayomi baseball anime trailer is out and Alex Mateo over on ANN has the details. It’s going to be Yuri-ish, as it’s a MangaTime Kirara baby. Some of you will caution me pointlessly to not consider it Yuri, others of you will gush about how awesome it is. Few to none of you understand will why this is still not the sports Yuri series I seek. ^_^

Yuri Game

Brianna Lei’s Butterfly Soup, a Visual Novel about Asian queer girls and baseball has been added to the Store! (And is probably more interesting than Tamayomi, tbh.

Studio Élan has revealed what looks to be an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful new “solarpunk lesbian” Visual Novel, Summer at the Edge of the Universe. From the Press release, this voiced VN “features three routes, each centered around one of Summer’s friends. Every route contains both romantic and platonic endings. More fantasy than sci-fi, Summer aims to be a positive and uplifting experience, with one of the core tenets for the game being ‘good vibes only.'” The game will be coming to PC, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation 4 and is expected to be released in 2021. 

Yuri Goods

I know, I know, it’s $300, but I added the Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune wicca x collaboration watch to the Store, too. ^_^ Because I can.

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Yuri Manga

Via YNN Senior Correspondent Eric P. we have news of Love Me For Who I Am, Volume 1, a “An LGBT+ manga about finding friendship and common ground at an untraditional maid café.” This story, which is very moe in art style, will be hitting shelves in June.

Watashi no Kobushi wo Uketomete, Volume 3 (私の拳をうけとめて) continues the relationship between two former gang girls as they try and figure out who they are in the adult world.

Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Volume 4 joins its siblings on the Yuricon Store.

Via Yuri Mother, we have the encouraging report that Mieri Hiranishi will release English print editions of her online lesbian life comics. Hiranishi became popular for her bilingual essay The Moment I Realized I Wasn’t Straight. The artist also noted this week that a Thai edition of her comic is up on Pixiv.

Very interesting news via Comic Natalie. Creator of Kiss & White LIly For My Dearest Girl, Canno has a new series  in Dengeki Daioh magazine! The series, titled, “Goukaku no Tameni! Yasashi Sankaku Kankei Nyuumon” (合格のための！やさしい三角関係入門) is a story about three-way relationship. Since, IMHO, her three-person story was among the strongest of the arcs in Kiss & White Lily, I’m looking forward to this new series.

Via YNN Correspondent Dash on Twitter – Seven Seas has 6 Yuri/BL/LGBTQ manga out this week, including Kase-san and Yamada!

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Other News

Via ANN’s Kim Morrisy, a retrospective of French art in Kyuushu will also be selling Rose of Versailles goods. How fun!

Huge news for LGBTQ marriage equality in Japan, Osaka City began recognizing same-sex partnerships at the end of last month and via Melon on Twitter, Hamamatsu City announced that on April 1st, it will begin registering same-sex partners. Melon also reports that Hiroshima is hoping to add partnerships for the new fiscal year. If this is of interest to you, definitely follow Melon, who does great work on the topic in Japanese and English.

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!

Yuri Manga
Couple of new items on the Yuricon Store!

MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 15 (ムルシエラゴ) came out this past autumn in Japan. Volume 16 hit shelves in Japan this week, it’ll be added shortly.

Hero-san to Moto Onna Kanbu-san, Volume 2 (ヒーローさんと元女幹部さん) has some fun with tokusatsu series and their real-world parodies. ^_^ I reviewed Volume 1 over the summer last year.

Cocoon, Entwined, Volume 2 by Yuriko Hara will be available in English from Yen Press in the middle of March. Pre-order is up, I reviewed Volume 2 of Mayu, Matou last October.

Kimi no tame ni Sekai ha Aru (きみのために世界はある) is a collection of shorts by Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts creator Usio Shio. I really like their art.

Via Yuri Navi, a new Yuri omnibus, Yurizukushi no Kyoshitsu (ゆりづくしの教室で) is advertised in the April issue of Comic Yuri Hime.

Yuri Webcomics

Great news via Yuri Mother – Webcomic platform Tapas has added Yuri and LGBTQ+ category tags. Now, if we could just get Amazon to add Yuri…. write them and ask politely. It can’t hurt.

Licensed by Kadokawa from Chinese online platform weibo, Tanjiu’s school life romantic comedy about super-awkward Sun Jin, who falls for a beautiful girl Aki Hitomi, SQ 1 Kimi no Namae kara Hajimaru (SQ 1 君の名前から始まる) is now up on the Store.

Ari North’s beautiful webtoon Always Human, is coming to print! I hope they find a way to preserve the scan (which is often a real problem, when taking comics meant to be read vertically to horizontal print format. In any case, the art was gorgeous and the story excellent. I reviewed this back in 2017 and I’ll be sure to get a copy for myself.

Majoccoid’s Ikemen Girl to Hakoiri Musume (イケメン女(ガール)と箱入り娘) is a Pixiv comic that I can absolutely imagine Kadokawa picking up for print release. A woman falls for an attractive, masculine woman in her college class. As they date, the two of them end up taking stock of what they think “being a woman” ought to look like.

ANN’s Jennifer Sherman reports that Futabasha is launching Web Action Comics, and will include some of your fave creators, Kabi Nagata, Tagame Gengoroh and Coolkyoushinja.

The Yuri Network News report is made possible by Okazu Patrons. Your support funds reviews, interviews, news and helps pay writers. As little as $5/month can make a huge difference!

Yuri Events

Our Lily Festival, a Yuri festival in Seoul Korea is planned for February 22. They have a list of the participating circles up on the website and you can follow them on Twitter. Both are in Korean.

The very same day, February 22 in Japan, Girls Love Fest 28 will be held in Tokyo!

I’ll be making a few appearances later this spring, and have a couple of podcasts I’ll be part of this month, all TBA. If you’d like me to speak on your podcast, or at your event, school or organization, please contact me to set something up!

Creator News

Anime New Network’s Kim Morrissy has an interview with Ameko Kaeruda, creator of Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Sexy Sorceress!.

Blue Drop creator Yoshitomi Akihito has posted dozens of Youtube videos of himself working on his newest Yuri series Kyou kara Shourai (今日から未来). You can check the series out (in Japanese) on Heros-web. (If you are only familiar with the Blue Drop anime, be warned that his work tends to be lolicon. I am not a fan, generally. At least this series is about friends, not sisters.)

Trina Robbins tell her story of ground-breaking comics making in this YT interview.

Yuri Games and VN News

While I was looking for something else, I came across this website that posts the release schedule of “Yuri Games.” Their interpretation of Yuri and mine differ, but as I don’t play games, that’s perfectly fine. Hope this helps you!

Studio Élan has released their second Voice at the Edge of the Universe teaser!

Other News

Today in things I would totally buy and never wear, this handsome Sailor Uranus x Sailor Neptune watch from Wicca, for a mere $300. I can’t wear watches because…they stop working. Something about my magnetic field kills watches dead. But it is pretty. ^_^

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!

Yuri Anime

 Via Senior YNN Correspondent Eric P., Sentai is reissuing Maria Watches Over Us as a complete collection on Blu-Ray. So all four seasons and the shorts in one collection. This has a March 2020 release date, so if you missed this modern remake of classic ‘S’ tropes, definitely take a look now! Also via Eric, there is a sale on the Aria The Animation Season 1 Blu-Ray set over at RightStuf.

HIDIVE is excited to announce that they premiered Kase-san and Morning Glories this week on the HIDIVE streaming service. The press release includes a strong list of territories and subtitle language choices with, you may note, a lack of Asian countries. Hrm.

While we’re talking Kase-san, listen to me talk about Kase-san and Morning Glories with the gentlemen at Oldtaku no Radio! We had a lovely chat about this wonderful series.

Via Twitter, Ishikawa Sachi-san comments on an interview with Toei Animation Producer Takashi Washio by the Huffington Post, as he discusses PreCure and his desire to “protect safe spaces for minorities.” This was very heartening.

Via ANN’s Lynzee Loveridge, Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu‘s (streaming on Funimation) featured pop idol group, ChamJam has a custom-made AMV, complete with creepy male gaze. ^_^; Lynzee doesn’t say that last bit, btw..I did.

Rafael Antonio Pineda has the news at ANN about the Starlight Revue compilation film which is scheduled for a late spring theatrical release in Japan.

The Yuri Network News report is made possible by Okazu Patrons. Your support funds reviews, interviews, news and helps pay writers. As little as $5/month can make a huge difference!

Yuri Manga

Seven Seas announces the preorder for Ajiichi’s Failed Princesses, which has been given a Summer 2020 release date!

The final volume of Takemiya Jin’s Itoshi Koishi,(いとしこいし) hit shelves this week in Japan.

Mimoto’s Koisuru Meiga (恋する名画) pairs Yuri and fine art. ^_^

Kodama Naoko’s newest, Uminekosou days Volume 2 (海猫荘 days) hit Japanese bookshelves shelves this month, as did Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau, Volume 2 (ささやくように恋を唄う) by Takashima Eku.

Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 6 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる) by Hagino Makoto hit shelves last month in Japan. Volume 2 of A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow will be arriving on our shores in English in February!

We have to wait for March, but Tokyopop is delivering Akashi’s Still Sick, Volume 2 in English.

Volume 3 of the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition is up on the Yuricon Store. I’m woefully behind on these. I’ll be caught up shortly. ^_^

Via Twitter, jena is posting a new Yuri comic on tapas, Where The Flowers Lead.

Our old Yuricon friend Kat has her Yuri comic Inside OUT – A Queer Tale on Webtoons. This is a redrawn and remastered version of the comic that she launched in the late oughts. ^_^

The first chapter of Okafuji Mai’s nostalgic Forget Me Not (フォーゲット・ミー・ノット) is up on Shodensha’s Manga Jam (in Japanese) to read for free.

Yuri Light Novel News

This took a few moments to dig up: GL Novels, the folks that put out GIRL’S KINGDOM 1&2, have put out a bunch of their titles on US Kindle in Japanese. This one, Kunoichi Bette-gumi Satsuki Igarashi, Volume 1 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月ー) is available as kunoitibettegumi. I was all excited to see that it was a kunoichi (female ninja) story….but it’s also a vampire story, so, YMMV. ^_^ This e-book includes Volume 1 and 2 of the Japanese series, which seems to be at Volume 4 now.

Yuri Visual Novel News

Studio Élan has posted a video teaser for a new Yuri VN, Voice at the Edge of the Universe. Everything they do is so beautiful, I really wished I liked VNs….

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!

Starting the week off with a bunch of new items on the Yuricon Store!

Yuri Light Novel

Via ach on  Twitter, Inori’s Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) is available in Japanese on US Kindle. The author is comfortable sharing the English fan translations on her Twitter, so I can feel free to share Jingle Translation’s link, this as well. I cannot vouch that they have permission for their other translations, so you’ll have to use your own moral compass for those.

Via Senior YNN Correspondent Sean G, a new volume of Iori Miyazawa’s scifi thriller Otherside Picnic has been released by J-Novel Club, so we’ve put Volume 1 and Volume 2 up on the store.

Yuri Manga

We’re still reading Hana ni Arashi ( はなにあらし) so Volume 3 is up on the store. ^_^

Éclair Blanche: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart, the second of  the Éclair anthology series from Yen Press, has a March release date.

In Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 6 (私の百合はお仕事です!) by Miman, we turn full-on to dealing with what is going on with Mitsuki.

I’m really digging Usui Shio’s adult life drama Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 1 (欠けた月とドーナッツ) from Comic Yuri Hime.

Akili’s Vampeerz, Volume 1 (ヴァンピアーズ ) is a vampire Yuri romance, falling somewhere between goofy and erotic.

Pocket Shonen Magazine online has Magnum Lily, (マグナムリリィ) a manga about a girl discovering boxing, if that is your boom. ^_^

Yuri Anime

Jennifer Sherman at ANN reports that Asteroid in Love (streaming on Crunchyroll) episodes are being paired weekly with a series of educational shorts, which is a nice bonus. ^_^

Oshi ga Budokan Ittekureta Shinu is up on Funimation.com raw for non-subscribers. I will have thoughts about it that I will share, after I do my usual post-series read meditation to get my blood pressure back under control.

The Yuri Network News report is made possible by Okazu Patrons. Your support funds reviews, interviews, news and helps pay writers. As little as $5/month can make a huge difference!

Other News

Time Out magazine has this hopeful article on Minato Ward in Tokyo passing a “freedom of expression” policy to protect LGBTQ people, and allow for school uniform of choice for students.

Cynthia Medina at Rutgers Today takes a look at Why Are Manga Outselling Superhero Comics?

The great Torsten Adair has a brilliant article over at the Comics Beat, that I hope you will read past the somewhat aggressive headline: We are not in a “golden age” of comics. He’s right – and he’s right about what age we are in. Totally worth the read. ^_^

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!