Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – March 26, 2022

March 26th, 2022

Yuri Manga

Catch These Hands! by murata is out now from Yen Press and extremely entertaining. I’m glad to have at least one gang girl manga out, since all the ones I truly love would be  massive suckhole of time and money. ^_^

AHHHHHHH!!!! I’m so very excited to announce that Yen Press has licensed Tsuriktai Onna to Tabetai Onna as She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat! I’ve reviewed Volume 1 and Volume 2 here and I love this manga so much. It’s charming and sweet, with solid queer representation and it makes me hungry. As a good manga ought to. ^_^

Seven Seas has licensed Futari Escape, which is a goofy, harmless, story that is one-third travelogue, one-third food and one-third fucking around. This runs in Comic Yuri Hime and is enjoyably weird.

Back to Yen Press for a sec. They will be releasing the whole Mizuno and Chayama series as one volume. 384 pages to tell a modern Romeo and Juliet story about the secret relationship between the daughters of a massive tea-making concern and the family that controls the town’s water. Content Warning here for serious violent bullying in school. I reviewed both volumes on Okazu if you want to know what you’re getting in to.

Yen has also licensed the Executioner and Her Way of Life manga, Alex Mateo has details on ANN.

Taifu Comics announced the third volume of Akili’s Still Sick Shakaijin Yuri series. I’m sorry that series kind of slid by people. I enjoyed it. You can find all three volumes in French at Pointmanga.

 

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A name we’ve seen in many Yuri anthologies, Yodogawa, has a collected series, Maitsuki Niwatsuki Ooyatsuki (毎月庭つき大家つき). A woman suffering after a breakup with a long time partner moves into a new home. The landlord turns out to be a former idol. This looks like another nice slice of adult life manga – a trend I’m really grooving on right now.

I mentioned this previously, but really want you all to read Hana Mongatari (はなものがたり), a very sweet story about a widow who rediscovers life when she visits a cosmetics boutique.

Hirao Auri has a new collection of shorts Joushi ni ha Reikishi ga Arimashita Hirao Auri Short Story Collection (女子には歴史がありまして 平尾アウリ短編集). This collection includes stories from previous anthologies, about idols and and other awkward relationships.

Via Comic Natalie, Comic Cune magazine is, quite unusually for them, starting a story about adult women, “Kayakushimai” (ケイヤクシマイ). A closet otaku meets her crush and asks her to be her “onee-sama.”

Also via Comic Natalie, LN series Shimekiri mae ni wa Yuri ga Hakadoru (〆切前には百合が捗る) is getting a manga version. I tried reading this story of a runaway who falls for a mangaka and becomes her assistant. But there were too many bath scenes per chapter for me to find it worth continuing.

 

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Legend of Korra: Patterns in Time is up on the Yuricon Store.

Flung Out of Space is a new graphic novel biography of novelist Patricia Highsmith, author of the very first lesbian novels in English to have a happy ending, The Price of Salt. Mey Rude has a review on The Advocate.

While we’re talking lesbian classics from the last century, the Kate Delafield novels are getting the audiobook treatment, starting with Amateur City. This series is a blast from a much more homophobic past, if you want to know what life in the 1980s really was like for lesbians in the workplace.

 

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Anime News

My Master Has No Tail anime has a new promo and more cast and staff, according to Crystalin Hodgkins on ANN.

 

Other News

Yomuco announced on Twitter that Akiko Morishima has a new manga going up on the LINE webtoon platform:  Morishima Akiko’s Sloppy Fungal Activity (森島明子のずぼらな菌活) about pickling and fermenting foods. ^_^

 

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Posted in Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


Catch These Hands, Volume 1

March 25th, 2022

Takebe used to be the toughest girl in school, but all her old friends have moved on, are getting married, having babies. She can’t even keep a real job. She’s stuck in her delinquent lifestyle and doesn’t know how to get out, in Catch These Hands!, Volume 1, by murata. While shopping for an outfit for a school friend’s wedding, she meets the one person she could never beat, her old rival the ridiculously-named Soramori Kirara.

Soramori also recognizes Takebe and asks her for a strange favor. Will Takebe go out with her? Taking this as a some kind of back-handed challenge, Takebe does. It immediately becomes apparent that neither them have much in the way of humaning skills. Takebe choses dates as a form of hazing, Soramori chooses things that are supposed to be fun, but she doesn’t understand why. ^_^ The chapter of the two of them snapping photos for Onstegram had me giggling out loud.

They are awkward and charming as heck and immediately, you want it all to work out, somehow. As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese, “I don’t know that we’ll ever see the scowl leave Takebe’s face or the two of them get any less awkward with each other, nonetheless, this series tickled my funny bone.”

The art is simplistic, which works fine here, as the awkwardness and the resulting gags are the entirety of the plot. ^_^

Amanda Haley’s translation is wonderful, giving Takebe a rough edge, without making her vulgar, and allowing Soramori to be over-formal and extremely awkward at the same time. Bianca Pistillo does a good job on lettering, establishing tone where she can. Yen’s policy of not doing full lettering of s/fx is kind of noticeable here where there is a lot of free space. It would have been a nice touch that would have added just one more ounce of immersion. Nonetheless, an excellent job all around for the Yen team.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0 Although I agree with Soramori, and do think Takebe looks good in that leather jacket
Comedy – 10 Gags that work in translation are precious and rare and should be treasured
Yuri – Yes? I mean they are going out. So, yes.

Overall – 8

One of the too-many projects I’m working on right now is a video of girl gang anime and manga as an intro for this series. I hope to get that up on Yuri Studio soon!

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Short Break from Okazu

March 23rd, 2022

Hello Okazu Readers and Commenters, Patrons and Fans!

I’m taking a short break from Okazu this week for a few days, to 1) proofread my book; 2) catch up on my reading and 3) give my brain a rest. I’m juggling one project too many right now and this time, Okazu is falling off the bottom for a couple of days until I’m caught up. 

In the mean time, I’m reading some fun western comics that I’m looking forward to telling you about later! Let us know what you’re reading, watching and playing in the comments and I’ll be back in at the end of the week with a new review. ^_^

Posted in Okazu News | 1 Comment »


My Wandering Warrior Existence

March 21st, 2022

Kabi Nagata is back once again with a volume of her comic essay work. My Wandering Warrior Existence is quite possibly her best work to date.

To begin with, let me provide a Content Warning of some significance, Nagata talks about a sexual assault she experienced as a child, and the retraumatizing consequences. This was not sugarcoated in any way and was rough to read, so be warned. The experience is not presented out of context however, and it comes not as the point of the story, buy a jumping off point for a comic essay that will make you feel many things. Horror and anger, yes, but also triumph and, dare I say it, joy.

The volume begins with a search for joy in fact. That search takes Nagata-sensei into her own past and out again, as she talks about her relationship with her body, her sexuality, her gender, building a habit of self-care and self-love. There are many deeply moving moments including one key moment when a fan letter explains something that she had not been able to understand and, as a result, is for the first time to see those things she was missing in her understanding of relationships.

Of all her works, this one feels the most crafted to reach an audience. Her first books were diaries and there was a sense that a reading audience was a nice to have. There are some many things in this book that indicate that, for the first time, this book was meant to be read, by us and our reactions are accounted for. This becomes even more obvious as we approach the end of the book and are assured that Nagata-sensei is finding joy in her life these days. And much of the content is constructed to be far more relatable than previous volumes, which focused on her personal struggles.

When I read this book in Japanese, I laughed out loud at this image of the thing that brought her a lot of happiness….a giant fridge! I had also gotten a new fridge not too long before I read this and let me tell you – you cannot overestimate the power of a new fridge to bring joy. ^_^

We’re left, as a result, thinking, if small things like this can make her happy, then maybe there is hope for her…and by extension, there is hope for us. ^_^

Once again, ratings seem pointless. But, both narrative and art here are more confident and there is humor, along with the harrowing.

As always,the care an attention from the gang at Seven Seas, means we have all the right tools to work through this book. Thanks to everyone who made this such a great reading experience!

I joined the Lum and Colton of the lovely Manga Mavericks team to discuss this book on their podcast this weekend, so keep an eye out for that when it is hits their website. It’s always fun to dissect a book with them. ^_^

Posted in Comic Essay, English Manga, LGBTQ, Nagata Kabi | 2 Comments »


Translators, Editors and Letterer Roundtable on Youtube

March 20th, 2022

This past winter I facilitated a 4-week workshop for Michigan State University on Japanese Pop Culture and Transmedia translation. Thanks to our sponsor Catherine Ryu and the incredible talent we gathered as workshop leaders, it was a raging success and we hope to be running it again next winter.

This workshop featured Zack Davisson, Louise Heal Kawai, Mari Morimoto, Sara Linsley, Sarah Moon, Jennifer O’Donnell, Jennifer Sherman and myself as speakers. Links to all of their public sites and contacts are in the show notes.

Because all of the workshop leaders had so much fun learning from one another and chatting online and on Zoom, we decided to do a post-workshop roundtable so we could sum up things we learned from each other and the lessons we wanted to share with everyone. That roundtable is now up on Youtube, where you can watch it at your convenience.

 

 

 

This was so much fun, I hope you’ll watch it and join us on our Discord and share your experiences in publishing manga! Don’t forget to give this video a like on Youtube.

We’re working on the next Yuri Studio video right now, so see you soon!  ^_^

Posted in Events, Yuri Studio | No Comments »