Anime Expo weekend is the weekend that a lot of the news I planned on reporting gets set aside for more urgent announcements. ^_^;

Yuri Anime

Top story already from Anime Expo, Sentai Filmworks has licensed the Morning Glories and Kase-san OVA! I’ve got requests in to them for a timeline on that release, although since the subtitles are already in existence, I hope for a 2019 premier. I’m also hoping that we can coordinate a release event, whether it be a streaming event or a contest, or…something. I’ll let you know if I hear back.

The 8-Bit panel announced that they’ll be handling the animation for Hirao Auri’s Oshi ga Budōkan Ittekuretara Shinu (If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die) anime, with a 2020 television debut. (See, Sentai, that’s how a timeline works..) I’ve reviewed Volume 1, Volume 2,  Volume 3, Volume 4, and  Volume 5 of the manga here on Okazu.

Funimation and Nozomi RightStuf have entered a streaming agreement, which means that  Revolutionary Girl Utena and Aoi Hana/ Sweet Blue Flowers will be available on Funimation.

Viz has released a follow-up statement about the Sailor Moon Stars (Season 5) booklet. Read it carefully and remember, the Japanese publisher gets the final say as to what we see. The relationship indicator probably came from them originally…and we could be asking for a change to something that was not there in Japanese. Could be interesting. ^_^

Yuri Light Novel

Also from Anime Expo, Seven Seas announced that they have licensed the Bloom Into You: Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite light novels! Woot! I reviewed Volume 1 and Volume 2…and am awaiting Volume 3 with baited breath. ^_^

Yuri Manga

Big news for lovers of classic Yuri via Yuri Navi, Himitsu no Hanazono (秘密の花園) Fujii Mihona’s 1999 Cinderella fantasy is now available on JP Kindle and Bookwalker Global! I reviewed this book back in 2004 – it was one my foundational Yuri series, so I’m feeling positive about the news. ^_^

Last week, in conjunction with Tsukino Usagi’s birthday bash, Kodansha announced a world-wide digital release of the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition manga in 10 languages. I give you the details over at The Comics Beat.

Not quite Yuri, but in our wheelhouse, this May Seven Seas licensed the Penguindrum manga by Ikuhara Kunihiko, Shibata Isuzu and Hoshino Lily. tr Expo, they announced the license of Citrus+ for fans of that series. Super exciting news, they’ll also be publishing Morishima Akiko’s Rakuen no Jouken, as The Conditions of Paradise! This is a lovely little adult-life one-shot. Click the Japanese title link to read my 2008 review.

A few new items up on the Yuricon Store!

Canelé Souer Yuri Anthology (カヌレ スール百合アンソロジー)  – we haven’t had a “souer” collection in years. Fun, huh?

Watashi Igai Jinrui Zennin Yuri, Volume 1 (私以外人類全員百合) is a alternative world science-fiction Yuri manga in which a girl who loves ordinary things, finds herself in a world of women where love between women is ordinary.

Dekisokonai no Hime-tachi, Volume 2 (できそこないの姫君たち), Kaede and Nanaki find themselves being drawn together, despite not actually being friends.

Hentai publisher FAKKU has announced a “LGBTQ” imprint of manga, Kuma. I put quotes around “LGBTQ” for what I consider obvious reasons. Japanese porn is not ever intended as representation and I think they are stretching the truth quite a bit to consider what they publish “LGBTQ” in any meaningful sense. ^_^

Yuri Events

100 Years of Yuri Tour of Japan is happening in Sept, 2019 and there’s still room for you to join us! The dead-dog last day to sign up is July 9th, so please don’t miss this opportunity!

I’ll be making my only west coast appearance at Crunchyroll Expo. If you’re planning on being there, let me know in the comments. I’m looking for a roommate.

Our Lily is a Yuri event being held in Seoul, Korea in 2020. How cool!

Other News

Via YNN Correspondent Sean G. Yuri Made me Human, part 2, an interview with Iori Miyazawa and Gengen Kusano (Part 1 can be found here) has been translated and put online. This is connected to the publication of the Yuri issue of SF Magazine and the current Science Fiction Yuri boom in Japan.

For UK fans who love Japanese pop culture, summer 2019 is fairly awesome. The British Museum’s Manga Exhibit is wowing crowds and HYPER JAPAN event is coming your way, as well!

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast, 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!

Yuri Manga

We’ve added a few new things to the Yuricon Store:

Still Sick, Volume 1 by Akaishi, in English from Tokyopop has a November release date.

Tamifly’s super popular online hit Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 2 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな ) is out now, review coming soon.

The delightful school life romance from Takashima Eku, Sasayakuyouni Koi o Utau, Volume 1 (ささやくように恋を唄う) is also on shelves now.

Do I keep mentioning that Yamada to Kase-san (山田と加瀬さん) by Takashima Hiromi is hitting shelves at the end of next month? Good. I’m going to keep mentioning it.

BOOKWALKER is running a special coin-back Yuri sale until July 1st in celebration of “Yuri Day” which was apparently June 25th.(We’re not entirely sure why. I did find a flower calendar that said June 25th’s birth flower is the lily, so…?

With permission from the publisher, yesterday I announced the Special Project I’ve been working on is …I’m editing Rose of Versailles for Udon Press! I plan on writing about the project from my point of view because to say it is blind luck that I ended up doing that is an understatement.  ^_^ In the meantime, I can assure you that it is going to be *amazing.* Also, I am ready to defend the translation in a duel, so when people start whining and griping (and they will because if they can’t, they don’t know how to engage,) come at me, I will be ready with swords any time you want. ^_^ In related news, I may have collected dozens of screencaps of Oscar’s eyes over the 3000 pages I read.

Rafael Antonio Pineda over at ANN reports that Yagate Kimi ni Naru/Bloom Into You will end in three chapters (we knew from previous reporting that it was going to wrap up at 8 volumes.)

100 Years of Yuri

We’re running an Okazu Patreon special this month! If you subscribe to Okazu at the $5 month level between now and July 6th, you will receive a sticker with the Okazu 100 Years of Yuri logo!

July 9th is the last day to sign up for the 100 Years of Yuri Tour of Tokyo with Yuricon and Pac-Set Travel. We’re still a few people short of the number we need to make this happen. Please join us for this once-in-a-lifetime chance!

Yuri Anime

Via YNN Correspondent Super, ANN reports Tamayomi baseball manga from Mangatime Kirara is getting an anime. Whether it will in actual fact have Yuri, I don’t know, but all the JP Yuri news outlets keep mentioning it.

Super also wants you to know about Mamoru Oshii’s newest project, a “Girl-Meets-Girl” anime show, Vladlove Vampire.

LGBTQ News

There is so much this week to talk about.

This year as we approach World Pride weekend in this 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, let us remember that we have have so much left to do to protect ourselves and the generations to come. There are important elections in your local districts every year – know who is running and what they stand for! Everyday should be an uprising right now. If you’ve ever thought “I woulda done…” in regards to Stonewall, or civil rights or even World War 2, well, now is your time to do that thing.

Last night, on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall at Stonewall, a black trans woman was threatened with being removed forcibly and having the cops called on her because the partiers lacked any sense of historical perspective. This is unacceptable at any time, but this weekend it’s especially critical for us to do better. Black Trans Lives Matter. This must matter to all of us every day.

You may remember that this week, Viz Media had a chance to stand up and correct some past and present editorial decisions that combined to feel a bit like LGBTQ erasure…and they did it. I was very vociferous in noting that there was no malice intended, because fans do tend to become unhinged by this kind of thing and imagine all sorts of conspiracies….

…which brings me to the Netflix release of Neon Genesis Evangelion. As you probably know by now, the translation on the Netflix release is different than the 20-year old version and for a lot of reasons, people are not happy about it. The thing is… 1) the new translation does nothing to unqueer Kaworu’s and Shinji’s relationship and; 2) it does accurately translate what was said. The new translation actually adds nuance to a complicated relationship. As I noted on Facebook,

“The whole point of the Shinji/Kaworu thing is that Shinji had never experienced *affection* of any kind ever before. Kaworu’s affection is profound…and meant to be unsettling, even inappropriate. The ambiguity of “suki” makes much more sense in that context.

Kaworu’s emotive affection was never ever supposed to be “Look, Shinji has a boyfriend but they can’t *say* it.” It was always supposed to be what we think of as queerbaiting, just as every other relationship in the series is equally as disturbing.”

Nothing in this new, more accurate and layered, translation is telling you that you cannot slash the barely-functioning dissociative human boy with the alien attempt at a human. It is merely saying “We have no idea what is actually happening. Does Kaworu know what he is doing? Is it malicious or kind or affectionate or…what? We cannot tell. Neither, to some extent, can Shinji…or Kaworu.”

You are of course welcome to disagree with this or any interpretation, but the point I am making here is not that this interpretation is either right or another wrong, but that the anger, the doxing, the death threats and other completely irrational reactions to some words being changed are not okay. It is not normal or healthy for anyone to respond to a editorial choice by harassing the translator, creating a conspiracy theory or imagining some kind of malicious intent. It’s just not okay.

If Viz had indeed come back to me and said “we are sticking by our editorial decisions,” I guarantee I would not have tracked down the editors and sent threatening emails. I would have definitely positively simply not bought the thing I was unhappy with. I would have written another letter expressing my disappointment and hope that at some future date the decisions would be reviewed and a different conclusion reached. That is my right and responsibility as a consumer. Harassment is never a reasonable or, I dare say, normal response. If you know someone angry about the translation, feel free to point them here. Even better, if they are sliding into irrational anger, look ’em in the proverbial or literal eye and say, “This is not cool. Translation is an art and the creators approved this translation. You can still have your OTP. No one is taking them away from you.”

For a balanced look at the issue, I refer you to ANN’s discussion of the differences, with input from the translator…and some comments by Japanese fans confused at the negative reaction.

Last item, so we end on a positive note! The Japanese prefecture of Ibaraki will begin issuing same-sex partnership certificates. This is pretty closely an equivalent of Iowa recognizing same-sex marriage in 2009. Like Iowa, Ibaraki is a agricultural prefecture and represents a very “heartland” image. There’s a lot of politics behind this decision and the ruling party, the LDP, did as much as it could to stop this, so don’t think they are softening. But there you go. Progress. The first of 47 prefectures has taken the plunge.

However you choose to celebrate Pride this year, enjoy. And on Monday, get back to work, calling your legislators and making them work for you. Happy World Pride Week!

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast 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!

Yuri Manga

We’ve got a few new items up on the Yuricon Store:

Garasu no Kutsu o Nugisutete (ガラスの靴を脱ぎ捨てて) tells five short stories of working women finding love. ^_^

Goodbye Dystopia, Volume 3 (グッバイ・ディストピア) wraps up one of my favorite manga, boo.

Yuri Bear Storm Volume 2, the English-language edition of Yurikuma Arashi continues as Ginko and Kureha’s story unfolds.

We’ve got a veritable Miman festival going with Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume ５ (私の百合はお仕事です!) and Yuri Is My Job, Volume 3 and Volume 4!

I was on Shodensha’s Manga Jam site looking up Akegata Yuu’s Tsuki to Suppin (月とすっぴん) Yuri web comic, when I learned that last year there was a new-new Hana no Asuka-gumi series called Hana No Asuka-gumi BS  Volume 1 and Volume 2. But even more importantly, there is a new-new-NEW Hana no Asuka-gumi series, Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity (花のあすか組！∞インフィニティ), the first chapter of which is up on Shodensha’s Manga Jam. It begins with a “who’s who” of characters and the various pieces of the Zenchuu-Ura and upon seeing that, I yelled at it, “How can I be expected to read this if you EXPLAIN it to me!?!” 

It was a genuine pleasure to speak with Evan and David over at Ani-Gamers Podcast about Nagata Kabi’s autobiographical comic essays, My Lesbian Experience With Lonleliness and My Solo Exhange Diary Volume 1 and Volume 2!

Yuri Anime

Via ANN, Midnight Pulp anime streaming service has added Devil Lady and if you can, I recommend this anime so very highly. It’s the Go Nagai we need right now.

Yuri Drama CD

Via YuriNavi, we learn about original Yuri Drama CD Himitsu no Hanataba (秘密の花束) which is holding a Talk-show event in July at the Asgaya Loft.

Yuri Game

To celebrate the upcoming release of PS4 game Jinrui no Mina-sama e (じんるいのみなさまへ), this week also sees the release of a companion manga, Jinrui no Minasama e -Watashi-tachi no bassho- (じんるいのみなさまへ ―わたしたちの場所―).

Other News

The Yurikuzu Youtube Channel has posted an interview (in Japanese) with Tamilfly, creator of Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, ( 付き合ってあげてもいいかな). I’ve reviewed Volume 1 and Volume 2 is available now in Japan and waiting to be read by me. ^_^

I had the great pleasure of reviewing MangaClassics’ edition of Shakespeare’s Macbeth for School Library Journal.  I’m really enjoying the Manga Classics editions. Right now I’m working on Count of Monte Cristo (from which Eugénie Danglars has been cut, boo.)

I’m working on an updated piece on how to not comment on blog posts. If you as a writer have any pet peeves, drop them in the comments or on this thread on Twitter!

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast (I know I owe you all one!) 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 News

For Pride Month, Seven Seas is teaming up with Yuricon & ALC Publishing to give away prize packs of LGBTQ books to libraries! Three library systems PLUS three individual libraries will win free books. Library staff need to fill out this form by June 30 to enter! Please share this news with your local library. Let’s get some great LGBTQ manga on your library’s shelves!

There are 3 weeks to sign up for the 100th Anniversary Yuri Tour of Japan. We need 4 more people to join this tour to make it happen. Okazu Patrons will get a discount off the deposit and a special 100th anniversary design T-shirt! I’ve made you a (really) short video to try and convince you to sign up!

Yuri Anime

ANN reports on the upcoming Yuri Theatrical OVA Fragtime teaser video, main visuals and staff and that it will have a November debut.

LGBTQ Cartoon

The team behind Steven Universe posted a tweet that sent my heart all a-flutter, with the announcement of the folks working on music for the Steven Universe Movie. Chance the Rapper is co-producing. How awesome is that? It also leaves me with questions. Is Bismuth getting a song? Will we see Opal again? When will I get a Peridot x Lapis fusion?! ^_^

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic debuted a same-sex couple this month! Aunty Holiday and Auntie Lofty are Scootaloo’s guardians. Taimur Dar writes about this, Arthur, Doc McStuffins and LGBTQ representation in kids cartoons on The Comics Beat.

Yuri Manga

Nikurashii hodo Aishiteru  (憎らしいほど愛してる) is a story about an office affair between a married woman and a woman who loves her maybe too possessively?

Hayakawa publishing (publisher of the popular Yuri issue of SF magazine) is about to release a Yuri science fiction short story anthology, Asterism ni Hanataba o Yuri (アステリズムに花束を 百合).

Yuri Doujinshi

DMP’s Lilyka imprint has a bunch of new Yuri doujinshi including SHWD an action Yuri series full of beefy women that I picked up last winter at Comiket!

Yuri VN

Mangagamers has released Yuri VN Amrilato: The Expression. Enjoy Yuri romance and learn Esperanto at the same time!

LGBTQ Comics

Comixology has added LGBTQ superhero comic series The Pride Season Two.

Over on School Library Journal, Brigid Alverson looks at LGBTQIA+ Graphic Novels for Young Readers.

Yuri Event Reports

I just wanted to take a quick look back and thank all of our intrepid YNN Correspondents reporting from spring 2019’s Yuriten events in Osaka, Sendai and Fukuoka! Thanks Zoey, Meru and Jenn!

Here’s a lovely account from Takashima Hiromi-sensei’s panel at the Japan Foundation in Toronto in conjunction with TCAF.  I can’t see it when I’m in it, so it was really nice to see what the impression from the audience was. ^_^

I’ll be posting a new appearance schedule this week on Yuricon, so look out for that!

Other News

I’ll now put myself out of business when I point you to Yuri Times, a Twitter feed that covers Yuri news in English. ^_^

Comic Historian Carol Tilley presents this brilliant history piece – Jane Krom Grammer: A Golden-Age Comic Book Artist Finally Receives Credit for Her Work.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC’s Tale of Genji : A Japanese Classic Illuminated was very interesting! In effect, it was Muromachi and Edo period fanart and fanfic of Genji. ^_^

Gentleman Jack’s Finale Was One of the Finest Hours in Lesbian Cinematic History article by Heather Hogan on Autostraddle neatly summarizes everything I thought and felt about the end of the first season of this terrific show.

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast (I know I owe you all one!) 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!

100 Years of Yuri

I hope I’ll see you at 12:30 today at AnimeNEXT in Atlantic City for the 100 Years of Yuri! I’ll only be there for the panel, but I’ll have a great wopping box of things to give away for good questions!

And if you can’t make it, be sure to take a look at Anime Feminist, on which I ask a question that we don’t often occasion to ask…Is Yuri Queer? I get some Yuri mangaka to weigh in on this as part of their Pride month articles.

And, as part of this series, definite check out Alex Henderson’s look at Bloom Into You on Anime Feminist in Not “Just a Phase”: How Bloom Into You challenges common yuri tropes. (It would also be easy enough to also note how it doesn’t challenge the tropes,  but the perspective is valid and excellent, as always. ^_^)

Yuri Manga

Via YNN Correspondent  Alice D., French-language “manga” Hana no Breath: Scent of Flowers by Caly is available in English on RightStuf. You can find the French language edition out from H2T.

Yen Press’s Yuri Life hits shelves in mid-July. If you’re looking for a slice-of-life manga about two adult women in love, this is the  book for you!

Also hitting shelves in in July is Miman’s Yuri is My Job!, Volume 4.

MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 10 is available in English, while Katakura Ako’s Hiru Shitagari, Mata, Volume 2 (昼下がりに、また) is now available in Japanese.

DMP’s Lilyka imprint of Yuri doujinshi has released Boat of Reeds, “A high school girl struggles with the loss of her parents, and is on the verge of just letting it all go. Her friend is puzzled by her strange question at first, but soon realizes the pain she is in…”

Galette, No. 10 (ガレット ) is also now available in print and digital (on Amazon JP and Amazon.)

Via YNN Correspondent Ash, Mag Comic’s Pixiv vehicle, Magxiv is offering School Zone, (スクールゾーン), a “devilish” Yuri gag comic.

Yuri Anime

Diskotek is putting out the New Cutey Honey OVA on Blu-Ray. Now if we can get Re: Cutey Honey, I’ll be happy. ^_^

Yuri Events

Via James W, Comic Horizon 7 is Yuri doujinshi event being held in October in Taiwan. How cool!

Yuri Photographer

You can now stay on top of  Yuri photographer Takahashi Minori’s (whose work is featrured in every issue of Galette and in the Yuriten exhibit),  photos which can be seen on this dedicated Twitter account.  Her work is not salacious, but it is intimate. I quite like it.

Yuri Live Action

I was a bit surprised when I was followed on Twitter by Happy Days a “Yuri Short Drama” on Youtube. These short films follow two women who live together. They eat candy, they argue about dirty clothes on the floor. It’s pretty low budget, but well-acted and kinda sweet.

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast, 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!