Archive for the Yuricon Category


A Yuricon Outing in NYC

January 16th, 2010

No news today, because we’re going to be out having some fun – and you’re welcome to join us!

I plan on dragging my suburban ass into to New York City for a day of otaku-ing hardcore. Anyone who wants to join me is welcome to do so.

12PM – Meet Kinokuniya on 6th Ave/Bryant Park. We’ll be shopping *without* squeeing with our outside voices.

After that, we’ll wander over to Book-off, for our used manga, j-pop and other random media fix.

Then we’re going to ride the subway downtown to 9th street where depending on the size of the crowd, we’ll find a nice Japanese restaurant or a dive, if you all embarrass me. :-)

And for the piece de resistance, we’re going to show up at Drom, 85 Avenue A Between 5 & 6th at 4:30PM for a performance of Promise, a home-grown J-pop idol group that is composed of Friend of Yuri Leanne F. and her sisters. (You may remember them as the excruciatingly adorable Maria-sama ga Miteru cosplayers from Otakon a few years ago.) They’ve launched themselves as a j-pop idol group “Promise” and have been performing as the opening act for Akihabara moe idol Reni, who is working NYC these days. Reni will also be performing, but I don’t care. I’ll be there for Promise. This show has a $10 cover charge.

There’s no RSVP necessary, just nab my attention at Kino at noon. If you don’t know me, look for Sean – he’s the tall guy in the hat. Trust me, you’ll find us no problem. We’ll be hovering in the vicinity of the cafe.

If you do come, try and bring a sign that says “I heart Promise!!!!!!!” or something equally girly, so we’re all on board with the uber-cute ness there. :-)

I hope to see you there, and we’ll be back with the news next week!





Yuri News Network – January 2, 2010

January 2nd, 2010

Woah….2010. Wow, does *that* feel weird. It’s been almost 10 years since I decided that world needed a community specifically for fans of Yuri that celebrated lesbian love and life, as opposed to lesbian porn. What a crazy, unbelievable decade it’s been, let me tell you!

I don’t know what 2010 will bring us, of course; whether we’ll be scraping the bottom of the barrel for our Yuri, or climbing to new heights. I do know that I *hope* to be able to hold a 2010 Yuricon event – but don’t expect a “con” as you know it. You must know by know that I encourage thoughtful discussion and critical thinking, but not running around the halls screaming. :-) Think Yuri-conference, rather than Yuri-convention.

There are a lot of things going on behind the curtains at Yuricon & ALC Publishing. Sometimes things we’re working on never make it to the light of day and so it looks like we’re going nowhere, but I promise you that that is not true. Right now we’re working on a long-overdue update for the Yuricon site. Because so many things have changed since we last redesigned it and because we’re trying to make the new site sustainable for some time to come, it’s not an overnight process. We just finished one contest (2009 AMVs) and will shortly be announcing a new one – one that will quite literally change the image of Yuricon. :-) And there are some other things I just can’t tell you about, although I wish I could. If, when, these projects come to fruition, you’ll know.

I do want to share this – today, to my shock, I learned that the founding of Yuricon made Afterellen’s Best. Lesbian. Decade. Ever. list. Of course I started to bawl immediately. I’ve received way more kicks than kudos in this past decade, so that, along with a number of other things recently, made me feel really good about starting off on another decade of trying my damndest to bring Yuri to America in a sustainable, intelligent and empowering way.

As I said, I don’t know what the next decade will bring – but if it’s as rewarding, frustrating, amazing and challenging as this last decade, it’s going to absolutely kick ass.

So Happy New Year my friends, my Yuri Network. Welcome to a whole new decade, just waiting to be filled with good thoughts, creative work, original ideas and Yuri love. :-)

***

Yuri Manga

The new year gets off to a thoroughly average start with announcement of a new franchise extender, Mai HiMe EXA. The manga has shifted out of Champion Red to Dengeki Daioh, so I might start picking it up again. Of course I’ll let you know what I think.

For those of you who like pink-cheeked women who bathe a lot, Cassiopeia Dolce, Volume 2 is just around the corner, and will hit the shelves on the 18th.

Also on the 18th, Ichinjinsha will release Yuru Yuri, Volume 2 and Konohanatei Kitan.

Comics212 reports that “The dude who does the fun and porny colour manga series MAKA MAKA and animation studio Madhouse have teamed up to do a full colour miniseries exclusive to America. That’s…pretty awesome. Apparently it involves a new take on vampires, wicked looking guns, and disaffected badasses. For people who like this sort of thing, this is the single best thing of the year.” Well put, Comics212, well put.

***

Yuri Anime

Not content with announcing a new TV series, Shin Koihime Musou also announces a new OVA which, like the previous OVA, is an alt-fic of this alternate universe.

***

Quiet week this week, but you have to expect that.

I’ll spend the next few days be catching up on some of the new anime that’s come out recently – reviews to come.

Thank you all for your support, your help and here’s wishing us all a great decade of Great Yuri!





Finding Yuricon & ALC at AnimeNEXT

June 13th, 2009

Con Row at AnimeNEXT is past registration and around the corner, in from of the back door to the Expo Center – where the shuttle bus lets off. the Yuricon table is on the left as you walk in.

Yuri Panel is at 6PM on Saturday, June 13 – see you there!





Yuri News This Week – December 13, 2008

December 13th, 2008

Strap yourselves in, we have a *lot* of news this week.

Yuri Live Action

I have been forgetting to tell you about this for *ever, so I’m putting it first so I can’t forget this time.lol Yoshida Akemi, mangaka of Lover’s Kiss and many other classic manga, also wrote a story called Sakura no Sono (The Cherry Orchard.) It was made into a movie a long while back, but earlier this year, a remake of the movie was made. There are two trailers, one from the original version and the second from the new version – you can see how the tone changed. Here is the original trailer, here is the new trailer. The basic plot is that a new girl transfers to a private girls school and runs up against the usual stereotypes (bullying ojousoama and henchicks, girl who falls for her, etc…), and then learns it used to be traditional to perform Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard every year until tragedy put an end to it. She decides to revive the tradition – melodrama happens. Aside from the fact that it once again allows me to mention Chekhov on this blog, this story is an eary Yuri classic. Keep an eye out for this movie.

While I’m on live-action, I discovered an incredibly good way to waste chunks of time with Afterellen.com’s short lesbian detective web series BJ Fletcher, Private Eye. It’s hammily written and hammily overacted and the protagonist is not the hero, but it’s a great way to blow a half hour here and there watching a couple of episodes. (Episodes are about 15 minutes long.) :-)

***

Yuri Anime

It’s busty women in battle bikinis! The Queens’ Blade trailer is up for your viewing…erm, pleasure.

AND the 4th season trailer for Maria-sama ga Miteru is up on Animate TV, along with a list of the cast (which gives us on the irc channel #[email protected] a good idea of how far this season is going to go through the novels. Join us if you want the low down.) Here are the narrowband and the broadband trailers. Extra points if you can tell what story all that comes from. :-)

***

Yuri Manga

Erin wants us to not be sad, but the second volume of Strawberry Shake Sweet will be delayed until January.

In the meantime, the next Yuri Hime S is out in 5 days, so no crying. :-)

And please don’t forget that Yuri Monogatari 6 is in the December Previews and that pre-ordering really *does* make a difference!

***

Yuri Light Novels

On December 26th, the next Maria-sama ga Miteru novel, Hello Goodbye hits the streets. In case the title is too subtle, this is likely to be the *last* novel in the series. Fans all over the world are smiling through their tears.

***

Yuri Drama CDs

Through the kindness of Okazu superhero Ana, I just recently received a copy of the fifth Ichigo Mashimaro Drama CD. It’s crazy, and just slightly beyond my ability to follow, but as it’s the typical IM setup you have Nobue perving over Anna and Matsuri, and Miu fighting for Nobue’s attention. I’m kind of sympathetic to Chika when she says, “Are you really my sister?” lol

Katherine wants you to know about the Maria-sama ga Miteru Christmas CD, and I want you to know about the Maria-sama ga MiteruSpecial DCD, which comes out on Christmas.

***

Yuricon News

Members of Facebook, you can now ‘Become a Fan’ of Yuricon & ALC Publishing! Just visit the Yuricon & ALC page on Facebook and become a fan!

Not on Facebook? You can friend Yuricon & ALC publishing on LiveJournal, MySpace or follow us on Twitter, too!

Also – Yuricon is looking for, well…a new look. The website is four years old now and it’s time for a new design. This is a paid contract job, I’m looking for someone with good design skills, excellent communication skills and a strong sense of deadline and responsibility. You will be responsible for creating the design and assisting with the migration of the site. Students of design are welcome to apply.

If you would like to apply for this position, please email me at yuricon at hotmail dotcom with an introductory email and if possible a link to your portfolio or an example of your work.

***

Yuri Doujinshi

Winter Comiket is right around the corner. If you are going to be in Japan for New Year’s Eve, drop by Tokyo Big Sight on 12/30 and stock up on Yuri doujinshi! Use Small Call’s List of Yuri Circles to plan your purchases. (The List is in Japanese, but if you can’t even read the list, then there’s basically no way you’ll be able to make it around Comiket without a guide, lol.) Visit the West Hall, Row Mi (in hiragana), Table 36a for Office Mono, our own Eriko Tadeno’s newest Yuri doujinshi! (yay!!)

***

Yuri 3-D Worlds

Lastly. You may remember that I mentioned a Rose Mansion event on Second Life this week. Well, due to other resposibilities I did not make it (I’m still hoping to make the event on 12/19 11PM Japan time…) but someone did! (And, after only a little verbal abuse from me, wrote up a nice little report for us) Let me turn this over to Rei:

This morning I visited the Rose Mansion open house on Second Life. I have to say I was impressed. The entire SIM is really quite amazing – it’s apparent that someone spent a lot of time painstakingly recreating the setting of Maria-sama ga Miteru. As you approach the gate you’re given a free change of clothes for your avatar into a Lillian uniform (or Hanadera uniform for the guys) and from there on it only gets cuter. If you explore far enough you’ll discover there are Photography Club and Newspaper Club branch offices in the Rose Mansion. Here you’ll find free armbands for your avatar. I chose to adorn myself with the Photography Club arm band. There’s also a church on the premises that features pictures from past MARIASAMA group events, and of course, the ever-serene Maria-sama’s garden, replete with statue.

The visitors are also very charming: chatting away in Japanese about everything under the sun, but mostly fashion. I met two locals who were very encouraging and helpful. MAO Amaterasu seems to be a Linden Millionaire who has various gorgeous avatar costumes to change into, hair that never stops flowing and walks like she’s on imported air (thank you Blondie). Her cute rosary-toting soeur, Sakurako Ceriano, gave me some toast to carry around in my avatar’s mouth and told me all about Hatsumoude at her local shrine. I think there were games and stuff but I arrived too late to for the party-favors. Anyway, it was a blast.

For anyone interested, the SIM is located in Sonima, but just so you know, you can’t fly within school grounds: walking slowly so as not to disturb the pleats in your skirts is the preferred mode of travel here. Have fun exploring and be sure to bring your parasol. ~Rei (Known on Second Life as Kohime Matsuri)

Thanks Rei, that was fabulous and now I really want to make it to the next event…!

Oh, btw, Rei also told me that when you arrive at the Rose Mansion, the light shines through the stained glass above the stairs and rains three colors of light down upon you. LF heaven.

***

That’s all there is for this week, except for the stuff I forgot. Oh well, there’s always next week!





Yuri News This Week – April 25, 2008

April 26th, 2008

The top story this weekend – ALC Publishing is teaming up with award-winning lesbian novelist J.D. Glass for a special American Goth side story in Yuri Monogatari 6! We’re very excited to have J.D. joining Eriko Tadeno, Rica Takashima and Circle UKOZ as part of our next 100% Yuri anthology.

New titles to watch out for – Sasamekikoto, Volume 2 (review of Volume 1 coming shortly, promise!) and the third Hayate x Blade Drama CD – along with a host of other great Yuri – are now available on the Yuricon Shop.

We’ve also got some new Yuri Events up! Although it’s not Yuri, I will be doing a lecture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art on June 14, as part of their Japanese art programming. Along with their heavily promoted Murakami and Utagawa exhibits, they’ll be showing Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell: Innoncence, and I’ll be talking about, erm, something related to that. LOL Should be interesting, anyway. :-)

Speaking of related events, Afterellen.com has asked their NYC-area lesbian readership to hold May 18 for a get-together. I’m going to try and be there, so if any of you women need a reason to get off the couch and meet people, this seems like a darn good one.

And in the “series to keep an eye out for” file, Okazu reader Gareas reminds us that Young Gun Carnaval aka YGC, the Light Novel, Drama CD and manga series, has lesbians in it. :-) I know a few folks have pointed me in the direction of this series, so i promise to take a look and report back. :-)

As always, if you know of any Yuri-related news, please feel free to drop me a line at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. It’s always appreciated!