Yuri Visual Novel

We’ve got the details for the new fully-voiced edition of the blockbuster VN, Kindred Spirits on the Roof Full Chorus from Mangagamer. This is available as a first-time purchase for $44.95 on their website, or on Steam. Folks who have purchased the previous version will be able to download the full voiced version as an extension for $9.95. I liked this enough that I am actually going to download this and don’t think I’m not rolling my eyes at myself. ^_^;; 

Yuri Manga

Enjoy Takemiya Jin-sensei’s Omoi no Kakera as a voiced comic on a-koe! Registration is needed. This is such an awesome idea. And her newest collection, Itoshi Koishi (いとしこいし), Volume 1, which will hit shelves in Japan this month!

Poland is getting My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, Sabishisugite Lesbian Fuzoku Ni Ikimashita Report. Preorder link is on the Yatta.pl page.

YNN Correspondent Brunilde F tells us that this record-breaking book, as La Mia Prima Volta, will be out in Italy this month! (Changed the title a bit there, huh? ^_^)

We have a few new items on the Yuricon Store, including the Éclair Special Sukinano ha Onnonoko Kitao Taki Yuri Sakuhin Kessakusen (エクレアSpecial 好きなのは女の子 北尾タキ百合作品傑作選) about which I am very excited, as I love Kitao-sensei’s work. This is the first Éclair volume that takes a look at one author’s work.

We also have volume 2 of the sci-fi android Yuri manga ROID, by shiroshi.

Yuri Manga artist Chisako is posting pages of her new high school girl x OL Yuri romance manga, Ima doki Joshikousei wo Kangaeteruka Wakanakute Tsurai. on Twitter. Check out the hastag, #今どきの女子高生が何を考えてるかわからなくてつらい. ^_^

Manga Jam is premiering Inui Ayu’s adult life Yuri webcomic Teiji ni Agaretara (定時にあがれたら) for free online in Japanese.

Kickstarter Watch 

You have just about a week left to back the collected volume of Yuri comic Before You Go by Denise Schroeder from Chromatic Press. I really hope this Kickstarter make its goal, I’d like to see it collected into one print volume!

Bedside Press is kickstarting a GN  by Amanda Deibert and Selena Goulding adapted from Eve Zaremba’s ground-breaking lesbian detective novel Work for a Million.

In case you’ve ever wondered exactly what it might take to run a crowdfunding campaign for a graphic novel, Bedside Press’ Hope Nicholson has helpfully produced a guide to this with her Guide to Budgeting for a Graphic Novel Kickstarter.

Events

Via YNN Correspondent Jocelyne A, a Shimura Takako pop-up store and event will be held Valentine’s week in the Yurakucho Marui in Tokyo.

Also happening that week is Comitia, keep an eye out for me there!

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!

Yoshiya Nobuko’s Yaneura no Nishojo was published in 1919-1920 which, by my reckoning, makes 2019-2020 the 100th anniversary of Yuri! 

To celebrate I am going to get some of the Yuri essays I’m working on done and at the end of the month, I’ll be unveiling a really special anniversary celebration! Keep your eyes on this space.  This is going to be amazing.

But let’s start with Happy 100th Anniversary, Yuri!

Yuri Manga

We’re going to start our week with two new licenses! From Seven Seas, Tsurezure Biyori has been licensed as Our Wonderful Days.

Via YNN Correspondent Sean G., we learn that  Mayu, Matou has been licensed by Yen Press as Cocoon, Entwined. I haven’t read this yet, but I think it’s the next thing on the to-read pile, so stay tuned!

We’ve got Nari x Yuki Living, Volume 2 (なり×ゆきリビング ) on the Yuricon Store. Volume 1 was a goofy set up about coworkers cohabitating. Now there’s a Volume 2! Why?! We’ll have to read it to find out!

To celebrate the release of Tamufuru’s Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana (付き合ってあげてもいいかな) the creator has been interviewed at Comic Natalie and over at Shogagakukan Comic;’s Creator Lounge! (Both interviews in Japanese….but stick a translation plugin on your browser and you can at least understand the basics.)

Available in part on Comic Walker, Risou to Koi ~ Otona Yuri Omnibus~ (理想と恋 ～大人百合オムニバス～) is another Yuri featuring adults collection! No, I am not yet sick of these, but I look forward to the day, ten years from now, when I am. ^_^

Yuri Anime

Via YNN Correspondent Mudakun, in the anime Himote House, Episode 7, the residents play “The Yuri Game” with predictable hijinks.

Other News

It might seem anachronistic or even a relief to today’s generation that gay bars and gay magazines aren’t the only way for queer folks to interact, but there was a certain intimacy about them. My generation was the last for whom that was the only real way to meet other folks. I can’t tell you how many newsletters and magazines I got when I was younger, just to see what other lesbians were doing. On ANN, out gay artist Gengoroh Tagame mourns the loss of the last of the gay print magazines in Japan and with it, an era.

Via Jacquelin Berndt, the papers for the conference, Manga, Comics and Japan (Stockholm University, September 2018) are available online for your reading and research.

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!

Happy New Year to all of you in the Yuri Network! There’s a ton  of news to get to today, so away we go…!

Yuri Manga

All of Nakamura Kiyo’s (aka Nakamura Ching’s) manga is available digitally on Bookwalker.jp! That makes all her work available to those of us both inside and outside Japan, including GUNJO, and her self-published work. This is great news, as Nakamura-sensei’s work is both openly gay and utterly unique.

Kumosuzume’s Shiori wo Sagasu Page-tachi (しおりを探すページたち) concludes in Volume 2.

Another Office Yuri story from Pixiv, Still Sick, Volume 1, tells the story of a closeted otaku and her coworker.

From Yuri Navi, we learn that After Hours creator Nishio Yuhta’s newest manga, Mizuno to Sayama, (水野と茶山) started in Comic Beam magazine. Read a sample (in Japanese) on Bookwalker.

From YNN Correspondent Verso S. “A German translation of [Shimanami Tasogare] will be added to the growing list of Western publications for this series…. Wer bist du zur blauen Stunde?, will be joining しまなみ誰そ彼; Oltre le Onde – Shimanami Tasogare; Sombras sobre Shimanami and Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare starting in July.”  Check out the link to see the Carlsen edition. Great news for LGBTQ manga.

Yuri Anime

Via Chris Beveridge  at Fandom Post, TC Entertainment is planning a 20th anniversary Blu-Ray edition of Go Nagai’s Devilman Lady. I cannot wait. This series is not nearly as well-known, even in Yuri circles, as it ought to be. It is so good and so very gay.

 Yuri Visual Novel

Found through Twitter, Apple Cider’s free to download DoraKone, seems adorable. Here’s the description from the website: “Follow along with the adventures of Dulce as she finds new friends, new fun, and maybe even romance in the world of Dragon Connection, a hot new augmented reality mobile game.

A, short, sweet free all-ages GxG visual novel featuring cute girls, friendship, and romance!” 

Other News

Recommended reading; Game Studies Special Issue: Queerness and Video Games 

Recommended with reservations is Ryan Khosravi’s ‘Sailor Moon’ And The Queer History Of Anime Transformations. This article is a decent overview of anime transformation history, but a rather personal reading of the femininity and queerness of same. Unsurprisingly, my queer reading of anime transformations is rather different. ^_^

Submissions for The 2019 Prism Awards and the Prism Comic Queer Press Grant are open! Get your art and nominations in!

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!

The new WordPress Gutenberg editor bites. My apologies if things look really messed up for a while as I try to wrestle this all into shape. (So much cursing…)

Okazu News

The invitations for the Okazu Patron Holiday Party have gone out! If you are an Okazu Patron and did not receive an invitation by email or Patreon post, please contact me and I’ll shoot you the invite!

I know I’ve been iffy about podcasting, but I plan on doing a big 2018 round up /2019 anticipatory podcast at the end of the year. Bear with me, we’ll have a lot to talk about!

I will be doing a humongous pile of Lucky Boxes for the New Year as well. I have so much cool stuff laying around this house. Clearfiles and postcards and Yuri manga and video box sets and artbooks and cels and stuff. So save a few bucks up to get yourself a box full of 100% pure stuff! Because they will be special. (And I’m going back to Japan in February, so there’ll be more 100% pure stuff for spring! ^_^)

Yuri Manga

Via YNN Correspondent Christian L, Comic Alive is reporting that volume 10 of Anoko no Kiss to Shirayuri wo (Kiss and White Lily For My Dearest Girl) will be the final volume. The final volume will be given a deluxe edition with a special booklet. I just want to take a moment to note that Canno-sensei now has two remarkable and successful series under her belt and I am very interested to see what she’s going to do next.)

I’m super excited to tell you about a special Éclair volume that’s being released this month! Éclair Special Sukinanoha Onna no ko ~ Kitao Taki Sakuhin Kessakusen (エクレアSpecial 好きなのは女の子 北尾タキ百合作品傑作選) is a collection by Kitao Taki, aka circle BQ, formerly of Sakuraike, an artist I have followed for almost twenty years.  I’m very happy for Kitao-sensei and wish her great success!

Comic Natalie gives us something new online to read, Kujira’s Sekai no Owari to Majyou no Koi (世界の終わりと魔女の恋) is free (in Japanese) on Comic Walker.

Also from Comic Natalie, Kadokawa Webmanga Site Young Ace has another new digital comic (in Japanese) for us to try out, Akamaru’s Watashi-tachi ha Koi wo Kakenai (私たちは恋を描けない) about a high school girl who is interested in a female manga artist. The description called it a “pseudo-love affair” so YMMV.

Yuri Visual Novel 

Little Viktoria wrote me on Twitter to tell me of the new Yuri VN,  A Beautiful Ride to Carlisle. “Dana’s summer vacation has just started and she’s on her way to volunteer on an organic  farm. But she’s not expecting something wonderful to happen on the train…” It looks sweet and pretty and apparently, I am more interested in road trip stories than school stories. ^_^

Sukera Sparo has a teaser up for a new Yuri VN called Kudano Folklore. The little text on the page reads Girl + Yuri + Urban Legend = Kudano Folklore. Coming Spring 2019, we’ll keep our eyes open for this.

Other News

Animate News has an interview (in Japanese) with Takada Yuuki and Kotobuki Minako who play, respectively, Yuu and Touko in Bloom Into You (streaming on HIDIVE.) They talk about what they think is the best scene in the first six episodes.

You know how sometimes the universe snorts with amusement in your general direction? Well here’s this week’s snort. There will be a Maria-sama ga Miteru 20th anniversary collaboration cafe in Ikebukuro at the Animate Cafe and it will end about a week before I arrive. Doesn’t it make you just want to scream? Thanks, universe. (-_-); I’m gonna just hope that some of the leftover goods make their way over to the store. But really, boo.

Anime Feminist launched a major crowdfunding effort this week and it sailed through the their first goal in mere days. They’ve got a very clear plan for where the money is going (mostly to pay people who work on/for the site) and I hope you’ll take a look!

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 to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with your name and an email I can reply to! Our YNN podcast is now available, in which I take a look at some key news items this week..

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri Manga

YuriNavi markes the second Toile Web Anthology (WEB百合アンソロジー トワールvol.2). You can read the short stories online in Japanese for free!

Atashi no Sempai (アタシのセンパイ) by Shaoya Teruko looks like a lovely Yuri school drama. Check out sample pages on Comic Natalie.

Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 4 (私の百合はお仕事です! 4)and Shoujo² (少女² 完全版), both by Miman, hit shelves in November.

According to manga artist Fly’s Twitter account, they are beginning a new Yuri manga in Ichijinsha’s Comic Rex magazine. Kyou, Koshiba Aoi ni Aetara. (今日、小柴葵に会えたら。) will begin in this month’s issue of the magazine, so something to look forward to! Yuri Navi has the magazine cover for you to use as ID.

LINE Webtoons has posted an animated trailer for Color-LES‘s Mage & Demon Queen comic. The trailer is kind of fun, if a little jerky, since it’s basically comic panels that have been animated. Take a look and then go read the comic!

Other News

You may recall the Love is Love comic, collaboration between IDW Publishing and DC Comics, which was created in 2016 to raise money for families of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shootings. Well, sales of the anthology have continued and so, this year the anthology donated $51,000 to The Trevor Project, a crisis intervention group for LGBTQ youth. The New York Times has an article on this that’s worth reading.

Crunchyroll News has the news that the pandering Yuri ecchi-comedy I Like Oppai Best in the World! (that I have never once mentioned because uggghhhhh) is getting a Drama CD. If breast-groping is something that falls under your definition of Yuri, enjoy! We won’t be reviewing it here. ^_^

If you’re looking for something different with which to celebrate the end of the year in Tokyo, take a look at the gaku-GAY-kai 2018 being held in Shinjuku. Festivities include a recitation of an original Yuri story by my friend, Yuri manga artist Mizuki Monica. ^_^ I’m so very excited and happy for her for so many reasons.

Hiiragi Hiyori put up an entry on their Youtube series (in Japanese) on the differences between “Yuri” and “Lesbian.” I don’t agree with his definitions, but it was interesting. His definition of “Lesbian” equials “sex.” Which is, for a lot of  reasons as far from mine (i.e., stories with lesbian identity”) as possible, but it’s not surprising that he’s not intersted in/noticing/or caring about lesbian identity, for obvious reasons. It does clearly outline the problem we have with defining Yuri, when lesbians who create/read/watch Yuri are looking for one thing and other chunks of the audience are looking for others. Heterogeniety ahoy!

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 to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with your name and an email I can reply to! Our YNN podcast is now available, in which I take a look at some key news items this week..

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!