Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – June 4, 2022

June 4th, 2022

Yuri Studies

I want to start by thanking everyone who has bought By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga so far. I wake up every day to see it back up at #1 on Amazon in it’s category and am filled with pride for all our work! ANN’s Rebecca Silverman has given By Your Side a lovely review. ^_^

If you’ve enjoyed By Your Side, please feel free to review it at Amazon or Goodreads – your reviews can make a difference.

I will be doing an author talk with Under the Umbrella, a fabulous queer community bookstore in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 8, 8-9PM Eastern US time by Zoom. Your can register on their website, or directly on Zoom!

This week I was very honored to be able to write for John Scalzi’s blog Whatever, as part of his The Big Idea series. I took the opportunity to write about my love of and hopes for fandom. Here’s my article on The Big Idea.

If you have written anything about Yuri, please let me know! I’d love to add your work to the Yuricon Essays page!

 

Yuri Manga

My Next Life as a Villainess Side Story: Girls Patch is now out from Seven Seas. They have also released a 4th Volume of Syrup: A Yuri Anthology.

I’ll finally take some time this week and start updating the Yuricon Store, promise. ^_^; I’ve been kinda busy.

Whether this is actually Yuri remains to be seen, but Assault Lily: Bouquet (the anime based on a line of dolls, reviewed here by Day) is getting a spin-off manga, Assault Lily Last Bullet: Secret Garden Sweet Memoria. Check out Crystalynn Hodgkins’ article on ANN for more details.

Take a moment to watch this video of an absolutely beautiful, queer, flipbook comic by shinranshinge on Twitter.

 

Yuri Webtoons

Mage & Demon Queen will return to Webtoons on June 22 – COLOR Les made the announcement and we’re all bouncing out of our seats for the climax of this epic webtoon.

 

Okazu needs your support –
Become an Okazu Patron today!

Yuri Games

YNN Corresponent Patricia B writes in to say that the “Queer Games Bundle for this year has launched. Just like last year, it is a collection of over 500 games made by LGBTQ+ game developers for the price of one AAA game.”  This is always a great way to find lots of fun Yuri to play and read.

Tabletop RPG Thirsty Sword Lesbians won the Nebula Award this year for best game writing! How exciting for the creative team. Congrats to them.

Check out YuriSoft Games, an indie studio making games about lesbian romance.

A beautiful immersive game/story came across my feed last night, via YNN Correspondent Prairie Rose – The Blooming Bounty Apothecary is available for 50% all month with the code “I love lesbians.”

 

Anime Collaboration News

Sailor Moon Vans? Yes, finally this collaboration has reached the US. Sailor Moon Fandom News has all of the relevant links. Thanks to ANN Correspondent Amy M for this!

You can get (and presumably wear on the links) the golf gear featured in the end credits of Birdie Wing! Kim Morrisey has the details on ANN.

I refuse to make any jokes about the collaboration between The Executioner and Her Way of Life anime and a ramen shop that is creating themed bowls, but luckily I don’t have to. Check out Kim Morrisey’s  article on ANN for the punny ramen names.

 

Other News

Inori-sensei posted a pretty great conversation between herself, hanagata-sensei and Aonoshimo-sensei on her Pixiv account. If you support her there, you can read it in full.

Speaking of Pixiv. Last week a Japanese trans employee of Pixiv went public with horrific treatment by a male boss. As a result, a number of queer users of Pixiv have canceled their accounts and are looking for replacements for their Booth.pm stores. I’ve pulled the paid plans off Pixiv Fanbox for Okazu, as well, but am leaving Fanbox account as a free news feed. If you’d like to support Okazu, we still have our Patreon and Ko-fi (which really seems to walk the walk, at least so far.)

Support Okazu on Ko-fi! We’re building a community!

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

 

Berkely Hermann has a lovely article on The Geekiary about Examining Socially Awkward Anime Characters that was worth a read.

Grumpycroc’s Strength Unsaid: How Moribito’s Main Characters Normalize Gender Equality for Anime Feminist, is also very worth reading. This series is so under-appreciated. I love this anime a great deal for this and many other reasons.

My review of Summer Time Rendering, Volume 2 is live on Anime News Network. This is a great manga, even with a lot of fanservice. I’m definitely going to keep reading (and, I hope. reviewing it for ANN. It’s nice to have a writing credit there that isn’t Yuri, just to prove that, seriously I *do* read other stuff. ^_^)

 

Thanks to our Okazu Patrons who make the YNN weekly report possible! Support us on Patreon or Ko-Fi to help us give Guest Reviewers a raise and to help us support Yuri creators!

Become a YNN Correspondent: Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share and be part of the Yuri Network. ^_^

Posted in Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau, Volume 6 (ささやくように恋を唄う)

June 3rd, 2022

It’s summer! It’s time for one last gasp of wholesome fun, hanging with your friends, eating ice cream, going on dates. Both Yori and Himari are very interested in going out on dates together. But, sadly, Shiho’s deal has pulled them apart. Himari is acting as manager for the SS Girl’s #1 rival band, Lorelei and it’s eating at Yori.

Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau, Volume 6 is filled to the brim with emotional conflict and tension, but done so cutely and with such sincerity, it doesn’t feel like…well, it doesn’t feel like conflict. It feels like a bunch of young people living their best lives and heading towards what they will one day think of the best battle of the bands of their lives. ^_^

Yori is torn. She’s thrilled to see Himari learning about band stuff and being a great manager, but the fact that she’s doing it for someone else’s band hurts. Himari is torn. She’s thrilled to be learning so much and hanging with talented musicians, but it’s killed her time to be with Yori and summer isn’t that long…

The week of the local summer festival arrives. Himari and Yori are determined to eke out time together and just enjoy each other’s company. A date to a karaoke booth ends up making things awkward between them, but as the fireworks at the festival go up, they finally have their first serious kiss. Were happy for them. This series is so completely lacking in anything prurient that we can just be the old ladies on the bench who are happy for them, while we hold hands and kiss, out of sight and not feel anything other than how lucky they are to be young and together. ^_^

My summer has yet to begin. I’m pounding the boards all month flogging my book. (Hey! Did you know I have a book about Yuri? I do! You should buy it!) Next month I am rewarding myself with fireworks and ice cream and all the kisses I can get. In the meantime, I’ll watch with elder joy at the young people kissing, parading and throwing bricks at cops this Pride Month. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 0 Still so adorable
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

Volume 5 of Whisper Me a Love Song is out now in English from Kodansha!

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Okazu Schedule of Events for Pride Month!

June 1st, 2022

We’re super proud to welcome By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anima and Manga to the world for it’s official birthday! Yaaay~~~!

To celebrate, we’ve got a lot of events on tap – all of them virtual, so you can join us wherever you are. Here’s where you can find me this June:

Geekdom Empowers Podcast – The episode should be out this week!

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast  – The episode should be out this month. It was a hoot talking with Heather about lesbian history in Japanese manga!

John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever, will be featuring a piece on By Your Side on June 4th.

I’ll be doing recordings this month with Castle Talk Podcast and Third Impact Anime Podcast.

Articles on Yaoi, Yuri and Queer Manga written for one of the oldest queer bookstores in the United States, Giovanni’s Room, will post on their site on June 8th, 15th and 22nd.

I’m doing an Author Talk for Under the Umbrella on June 8th. This is free, registration-required: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwode-vrD0iGNWQduj71u_M97stJ3pXU_ub

There’s more to come, so check back for more chances to hear or read me talk about Yuri, BL queer manga and about her book, By Your Side!

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Okazu Stands With the United Workers of Seven Seas

May 31st, 2022

This week has seen it’s share of excitement. TCAF has walked back a questionable choice of guest, (without yet addressing any of the issues around why the guest was chosen or the damage done.) But today, I want to address something very serious – the well-being of the people who make the manga we love. 

This month, employees of Seven Seas declared intent to unionize. They were asking for absolutely reasonable things, like fair pay, time off and healthcare.  I honestly expected management to engage reasonably, because of course one would assume that. Management chose not engage. And still, I hoped that management was making sure the union would be formed fairly. The United Workers of Seven Seas have announced that they have a 78% supermajority in favor of a union.

Seven Seas called for a formal vote and said they will abide by the result of the election, but, ahead of that election has hired the second-largest union-busting law firm in the United States. This is a law firm hired by the worst people to stop employees from doing a thing they are legally entitled to do. (Click that link above to see just how awful a choice of law firm it is) This is an act of war against the union. As of now, UW7S is not asking for a boycott, but they are completely aware of their situation. They suggest you follow them on Twitter, tweet your support, use their hashtags and mascots.

#makingwaves
#ourflagmeansunion
#isekaiispossible
#SevenSeizeTheMeansOfProduction

I’m appalled. I honestly cannot imagine treating employees this way. Seven Seas has grown so much, so fast, and has such hard-working, decent folks. All they want is the company which is making a lot of money to fairly reward the employees who make it profitable. 

I and everyone at Okazu stand in solidarity with the United Workers of Seven Seas. I hope you stand with me.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 8 Comments »


Anime Boston 2022 Report

May 30th, 2022

Well…wow.

Anime Boston 2022, was my first return to being a Featured Panelist at a convention since 2019 and it was a fantastic experience. First of all, my very sincere thanks to the entire staff of Anime Boston, who really went out of their way to make the event a true “Welcome Home” experience for everyone. Special thanks to Doug Wilder for being the very best of anime con staffing. He was thoughtful and kind and organized – just exactly the kind of person you want running a piece of your programming.

This weekend was so genuinely busy that I hardly had time to do anything, because I was so busy. ^_^

Firstly, I met Yuri Mother! Nicki is super awesome and fun and we hung out the entire weekend. It was an absolute blast to spend so much time bullshitting about Yuri stuff. ^_^ Made my con just that much better.

My con began on Friday AM, with the Featured Panelist panel. I joined Charles Dunbar, Xan Villaneuva, Haru Menna and George Horvath as Doug asked us about about paneling; what makes a good panel and how to keep folks engaged and having a good time. Importantly, since the con this year was bentou themed, we also talked food. It was fun all around.

Then, the sprint really began. I had two more panels on Friday. First up, the “Secret” History of Yaoi and Yuri. So much has changed since I did that last in 2019, it has a bunch of new slides. ^_^ We followed that up with my wife and I discussing how to get to, stay, and shop for Yuri stuff in Japan! Everything in the slide deck is currently untrue as Japan is not letting tourists in unless they are part of specific tour groups. But…one day soon, hopefully.

We wrapped up with a nice dinner out at Wagamama for Nicki, my wife and self and honest to god, I crashed. I was asleep by 10PM, something I never, ever do. 3 panels in one day is a LOT of work.

Saturday was great. Nicki and I had a full room on the Must-Read/Must-Watch Yuri. We slammed at high speed through a pile of stuff and even squeezed in some great questions. From there, I signed some copies of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri! Waaaahhh~~ It was so much fun, I honestly wish I had nice handwriting for everyone. (By the way, we’ve added RightStuf to the vendors carrying BYS on the Yuricon Store, so you have a really great selection of vendors including a local bookstore through Bookshop.org!)

Made some new friends, had a lot of fun. So many thanks to Sue from Cheapmanga.com for letting me use her table as HQ. It’s always a delight to sit with her, because she wants to feed me snacks. ^_^ I appreciate that.

Then Nicki, my wife and I all went to Yuri Court. There was another court game panel, Yuri Approved! on Sunday, which I wasn’t able to get to. It apparently was based on Yuri Kuma Arashi‘s Yuri Court. How fun for Yuri fans that there were two goofy Yuri panels?! My game is a riff on RenFaire “court” games. Anime Boston was the least contentious so far. Hardly anyone wanted to accuse any series of being bad. ^_^ Everyone was defending their favorite series, and I had to recuse myself left and right. LOL Our winner, Rose, gave us an enthusiastic defense of Hyakko. It was a prize-winning performance!

Of course we walked the Dealer’s Room and the Artist’s Alley. I’m going to say, it’s a much harder world for dealers and a much easier world for artists right now. Dealers are competing against the entire Internet. Some companies get how to do that, or integrate it well. Others, it’s such a crap shoot as to whether they’ll sell that figurine or someone will just go online. The big vendors at AB were streaming services, trying to get sign ups.

The artist alley is filled with more things, as well as tons of fan art and a nice amount of original work, for a fun environment. Rica Takashima’s art work was being sold in the Artist’s Alley, as well! It was nice to say hello to old friends and online folks as we walked around.

People selling manga were selling out like crazy, so reading is cool again, clearly.

Sunday I had one panel and honestly did not expect it to fill a room, but it filled a room! I talked about translating pop culture media and all the things no one thinks about when they start thinking about translation. There’s a lot you don’t know that you don’t know…and that’s where skill and practice make a difference.

6 panels over 3 days, a lot of prizes given away, a carton of books signed and a great time was had by all.

Thanks again to Doug and the AB Staff, to my wonderful wife who is always a blast as a co-panelist and is cute as a button and to Nicki for hanging for a weekend. And to everyone who came to our panels – you all helped make my first Anime Boston in over a decade a great one. I sincerely hope I will be back soon.

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