Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – November 5, 2022

November 5th, 2022

Yuri Interview

I have been interviewed in the November/December issue of L-Mag, Germany’s lesbian magazine! “Schwärmen für Sailor Uranus” is completely accurate. ^_^  Thanks to Theresa and the L-Mag staff for the great interview. ^_^

 

Yuri Anime

SugoiLITE is an anime industry rumor feed…that we all agree has a very good track record of being correct. With that in mind, they announced on Twitter today that production for an I’m in Love With the Villaness anime has begun. Feel free to scream about it on their feed. But do be kind and recognize that if the news is not official, people involved canNOT say anything and don’t hammer inori-sensei with questions. When it’s official, we’ll be sure to tell you. ^_^

 

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Yuri Manga

We had a plethora of technical fun with Okazu and Yuricon this week, SSL certs and CSS failures (that one was, admittedly, my fault. ^_^;) In the middle of the hurly burly, we have a lot of new stuff up on the Yuricon Store, with a variety of many places you may purchase them. I want to make this as easy for you to find things as possible.

SHWD, Volume 1 in English hit shelves last month. I’ll get a review of it out asap. SHWD, Volume 2 (シュード) in Japanese is also up on the store, as I reviewed it this week.

Catch These Hands!, Volume 3 is headed our way this month. Don’t miss this post girl-gang life, low-key Yuri romance.

AAAAAHHH! Hello Melancholic!, Volume 3 is headed our way in December. If you like this, please ask Seven Seas for 2DK, GPen Mezmashitokei by the same author. We’re ready for it now.

Asumi-chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels!, Volume 1 is serialized in Comic Yuri Hime. This is an 18+ story about sex and love, kinda, but mostly sex. I am not interested in brothels that much, so if anyone picks this up and would like to review for Okazu, let me know!

Volume 2 of the The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady manga was really good. I managed to review it this week here on Okazu!

 

Kimi to Shiranai Natsu ni Naru, Volume 2 (君としらない夏になる) hit shelves last month in Japan. I’d like to see this one licensed. It’ll resonate, I think, for 20-somethings.

Akuyaku Reijou ga Sei Heroine o Kudokiotosu Hanashi. (  悪役令嬢が正ヒロインを口説き落とす話。) is on my to-get list. No idea how I’ll feel about a story of a Princess who seduces the Heroine, but I might like it, so why not? ^_^

Onaji Tokoro de Nemuru made Matte (同じ所で眠るまで待って) follows the meeting of two women who had met as children, but circumstances now seem completely different. I bought this on a lark, I’ll let you know how it goes. ^_^

If you like messy/manipulative relationships, you may like Uso to Kiss ha Houkago ni (嘘とキスは放課後に), which is about…well a pretty manipulative relationship.

Via YNN Correspondent Cryssoberyl, we have news that Rokoko’s Yuri manga Hokenshitsu ha Futarikiri (保健室はふたりきり) has begun in Comic Flapper with the November issue as an omnibus series.

 

Yuri Events

Join me at AnimeNYC on November 18-20 in Javits Convention Center in NYC. I really hope you’ll all make plans to be there…it’s a great convention for fans of anime and manga. I’ll be in the Artist Alley (with the gaming machines…that’ll be loud) with copies of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga to sign and whatever other stuff I can drag with me. I’ll also be on two panels on Sunday, November 20 – no reservations required!

Defending Manga, 11:00 am–11:45 on the Community Stage (River Pavilion)
Writing About Japan, 1:30 pm–2:30 in Panel Room 3 (1E16)

 

Girls Love Fest is being held in the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center in Hamamatsuchō on November 23.

Comitia will be held once again at Tokyo Big Sight on November 27

 

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Yuri VNs/Games/Voice Drama

Studio Élan announced the release of their new Yuri VN Please Be Happy for November 21! You can play the fully-voiced first chapter on Steam. This is a story about “love and friendship, and about understanding not just how to be happy, but how to be human.” Check out the official trailer on YouTube.

The Revue Starlight Re: LIVE gatcha game is currently running a Rose of Versailles event, says YNN correspondent Roxie on our Okazu Discord.

SukeraSparo/SukeraSomero announces two voice dramas Hatsukoi Returns!~ Hajirau Gyaru Wa Kokuhaku Dekinai ~ (はつこいリターンズ!～恥じらうギャルは告白できない～) and Maid in Dream 〜 Hime-sama to meido no amaama seikatsu 〜 (メイドインドリーム〜姫様とメイドの甘々生活〜) … maid in dream/made in dream/ maiden dream… nicely done if that is the intent. These are both available on DL Site in Japanese only.

 

Other News

Kinda big news here in the anime/manga journalism world…. Kadokawa has bought Anime News Network. They also own Bookwalker and Bookwalker Global and have shares in Yen Press and J-Novel Club. ANN has made a couple of statements about the acquisition, but here is the formal announcement. No staff or policy changes are expected at this time.

 

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SHWD (シュード), Volume 2

November 2nd, 2022

In Volume 1, we met Kouga, a new recruit to the Fukuoka branch of the Special Hazardous Waste Disposal team – an elite force that fights Dynamis, inhuman beings that poison human minds and drive people mad. Kouga is taken under the wing of Sawada, a jaded veteran with a mysterious (to us) past. SHWD (シュード), Volume 2 begins with our two large, muscular women, training…hard. When they take a break, we can see the beginnings of something building between them.

But the bulk of the book follows our cover couple – team leader Nonaka and the American transfer, Leone. Leo and Nonaka have worked together before and understand each other’s weaknesses and strengths. When Leo breaks down, Nonaka is there to stop her from causing herself a harm, and when Nonaka allows the Dynamis influence in her to get too strong, Leo offers her her body to consume while she’s taken into custody. We get Nonaka’s tragic backstory. The two of them have a deep relationship that, by the end of the volume, they tentatively allow to become something more.  They obviously understand one another.

The volume then turns back to Kouga and Sawada. Sawada mentions that different levels of access are given different colors in SHWD. But Kouga notices that Sawada is given a security clearance color that isn’t on the list. When Sawada returns from a disposal, Kouga is sure that she sees a Dynamis draped over Sawada’s head…but a second later, it’s gone and Sawada looks the same as usual. Who…or what…is Sawada?

This a solid action series, with powerful backstories and a pretty thin plot so far. One hopes that it will be given time to develop, so we get a current timeline story along with the puzzle pieces of the backstories. I just hope it doesn’t devolve into break up the team/get the team back together/the end. Here’s hoping this series gets the time it needs to work itself through.

As I said in Volume 1, “this series is a love letter to huge, muscular woman. ” Kouga, Sawada and Leo are massive, muscular body types and Nonaka is – for story reasons, of course – an adult in a child’s body.  There is some very mild nudity, but the service is muscled arms, torsos and legs. Not to everyone’s taste, but I find it a refreshing change of pace from willowy women.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Honestly great, despite kind of being exaggerated in a bunch of different ways.
Story – 7 Solid action story storytelling
Characters – 8 Tragic backstories ahoy!
Service – 5 Anatomy is fun
Yuri – Both couples are taking tentative steps forward, one more tentative than the other

Overall – 8

Volume 1 is available in English from Seven Seas!

Posted in Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Volume 2

October 31st, 2022

In Volume 1, of the manga we met Princess Anisphia, a princess with no magic, but the memory of a scientific world who studies magic as if it were a science. We also met Euphyllia, blessed by the spirits with great magic, born and raised to be a Queen, but cast off and spurned by her fiance’…and no one truly understands why.

In The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Volume 2  Anisphia is thrilled to have a powerful assistant, but volume 2 is really about repairing Euphyllia’s sense of self-worth. This is not an easy job, as everything she has trained for is in ruins and she is wholly reliant on the kindness of strangers. Thankfully for her, they don’t come any stranger or kinder than Anisphia.

And, so, as the news of a monster stampede arrives at the royal palace, Anisphia sees her chance to prove her theories, use her magic tools, gain materiel and money for experiments and sort out Euphyllia’s reputation all at once.

This is a very good volume of this series, covering the middle part of the first volume of the light novel. The fanservice which marred the first volume of the manga has been jettisoned. (I have long wondered if there is any real value in that kind of thing. Do the few people whose attention were captured, rather than repulsed by, an extremely close up-skirt panel make up enough of a paying audience to keep doing that, when it doesn’t serve the story well and is dropped almost immediately? I wish someone would do real market research on this.)

What is left is Anisphia’s sincerity, Euphyllia’s new commitment, and a rollicking fantasy adventure worth your time.  The story picks up speed as the Reincarnated Princess and The Magical Genius rush off to fight a dragon and save the kingdom.

I look forward to this arc finishing up in Volume 3 (which came out in February of this year in Japan), because it was a very strong ending for the arc. I’m not sure Volume 2 of the Light Novel (which I have read, but apparently, not reviewed) would make a good manga, as it consists mostly of people talking to one another. I enjoyed it, but does it have the hysteria needed to carry a manga? I guess we’ll see, as Volume 4 of the manga clearly jumps right into the new arc.

Ratings:

Art – 7 The sword just gets better and better
Story – 7 Solid
Characters – 8 Euphyllia comes in to her own here
Service – Thankfully, none
Yuri – 1 The door is open

Overall – 8

I’m a little surprised at myself not being done with Isekai yet, but I was reading fantasy from the early 70s, so perhaps this has just forced me to go back to my roots. ^_^ In any case, this story is less about Isekai and more about kindness and consideration being tremendously powerful – a magical tool we can all use.

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 3 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – October 29, 2022

October 29th, 2022

Yuri Visual Novels & Games

Via Audrey on Twitter, who subbed the game, Square Enix is releasing Towatsugai, a Yuri VN about a couple finding each other over and over after death. This will be released on iOS and Android. Check out the trailer on YouTube!

Via YNN Correspondent Cryssoberyl, here’s a video featuring the seiyuu’s reactions to Yuri scenes in D4DJ’s first canon lesbian couple is so cute, subbed by ruolan.

Via Yuri Navi, Watashi-tachi no Marriage 2 (私たちマリアージュ) is being worked on.

On Twitter, Niina Shinjou announced some new Yuri voice work, including Prussian Blue and Meruya no Shujin.These are available at DLSite.

Again via Yuri Navi, we have the OP for the upcoming game Samurai Maiden, in which kisses will occur.

 

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Yuri Manga

I know I’m hopelessly behind on getting items on the Yuricon Store, life has been unremittingly complicated recently. I’m hoping to make some time this month to play catch up.

Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!, Volume 11 (私の百合はお仕事です！) will be hitting shelves in Japan next month.

Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou, Volume 5 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) of the manga, will be out in Japan in December.

 

Yuri Webtoon & Doujinshi

I’m very late on this piece of news, but Ari North, creator of Always Human, has a new webtoon, Seven Days in Silverglen.  Ari’s work is always lovely, so definitely give this a read!

Lilyka is running a 20% off all items Halloween sale.

 

Yuri Anime

The second season of Birdie Wing has been delayed until April according to the official Twitter account.

This Week in Anime on ANN takes on Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury and ask, Could Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Be The Best Alternative Universe Gundam Yet?

Realistically not Yuri, but Aim for the Ace was license by Diskotek and it does have some solid intense relationships on the court between female rivals.

 

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Yuri Light Novel

Sean Gaffney has reviewed J-Novel’s Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta on his A Case Suitable For Treatment blog, so you can decide for yourself whether it’s your style. It sounds like it is not mine, so thank you Sean!

 

Other News

Autostraddle’s Lily Alvarado offers up this seasonal thriller of 40 Female Horror Protagonists, Ranked by Lesbianism

Galette magazine is revamping their crowdfunding benefits. You can check out their page on Fantia to see what the new levels are!

Seven Seas has opened their own public-facing manga store. There’s some limited time deals available!

 

 

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Posted in Yuri Network News | No Comments »


The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Volume 5: The Promised Land

October 26th, 2022

In Volume 4, we left everyone in this series rushing towards “The Holy Land,” about which we have been told very little. In The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Volume 5: The Promised Land, we are convinced that this is because there is very little to say about it.  It is small, white, has no hotels or restaurants, just some churches that may house pilgrims and is, in every sense of the word…a complete flim flam. The Holy Land is a distraction to hide the two secrets of this world.

Nonetheless, everyone in this story has arrived at the Holy Land. And, dull as it is, it is playing host to the prelude to the climax of this series. A climax that has not so much as been hinted as as, well, basically the narrative has giant pointing fingers, in case you didn’t pick up on things.

Menou has a first round against her master, Flare. More than one Human Error is involved in this volume and by the end, and in the middle of the hurley and burley, Momo’s scenes were the most interesting. Because this volume was mostly focused on reveals of things that were fairly obvious, the only thing I demanded of the story was that one of the priestesses, Hooseyard, be alive by the end. Killing her off would have been been like killing a dog – unacceptable collateral damage. The only spoiler I will give you is that Hooseyard lives. At least this time.

There are no more secrets now. The next volume will have to wrap this arc up, or it will be annoying. ^_^

As with previous volumes, Mato Sato spends a lot of time re-describing things already described and, as previously mentioned, the Holy Land is very dull, so details tend to sort of fade into the word count. I did very much like the extended scene in which Flare lit and smoked a cigarette merely to irritate herself. That’s some dedication to purgatorial description.

nilitsu’s art is much less mannerist in this volume, which is kind of nice. Jenny McKeon does her absolute best with the translation, props to her wading through a lot of simplistic declarative phrases.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 5
Characters – 7
Service – Implied more than actual, but lingering on the edges
Yuri – Akari loves Menou, Momo loves Menou…

Overall – 7

All the pieces are on the board, all of us know who is where, and what they can do. It remains to be seen what the author envisions as the grand finale. I know what *I* envision it as, we’ll see if there is any overlap. ^_^ And whether, in the end, this is indeed, Yuri.

 

Posted in Light Novel | 1 Comment »