Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – August 21, 2021

August 21st, 2021

Thanks very much to every one who came to last week’s Yuricon anniversary event and thank you all for your patience as I made my way through this busy month. Here is a gigantic news report as your reward!

Yuri Events

Sailor Moon fans, here’s a chance you don’t get that often – the Nogizaka 46 Sailor Moon Live-Action Musical is streaming online from the 20th through August 26th. Tickets are available on Japan 2.5D Stage Play World online now along with a couple of other anime stage plays!

Flamecon starts today as a virtual con. Admission is free, but you’ll need to register. Donation and VP packages are also available.

 

Yuri Light Novels

The fifth Watashi no Oshi ga Akuyaku Reijou. (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) noveI is now available for pre-order in Japanese, on US Kindle, and of course on JP Kindle. The cover is boss.

(Speaking of inori’s series, I played through fa- created I’m in Love with the Villainess visual short, Revolution Lily!? ~Claire’s Birthday Party by wataoshi. It was sweet (and short!) ^_^ Queued up for my next break is Revolution Lily? ~Desert Island where can’t escape without ?? by the same team. ^_^)

Otherside Picnic, Volume 5 has just released and Otherside Picnic, Volume 6 is on the way next month!

And, for something lighter, Girls Kingdom, Volume 4 is headed our way at the end of this month.

Not sure what you’re in the mood for? Bookwalker Global is doing another Coin Boost Promotion with a number of Yuri titles included. So pre-order these and get extra coins!

 

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Yuri Manga

New licensing announcements from Yen Press! They have licensed Watashi no Kobushi wo Uketomete as Catch These Hands!, a post-girl gang life romance. And they’ve gotten Mizuno and Chayama, the two volume Romeo & Juliet story by Nishio Yuhta, creator of After Hours.

 

We have some new items up on the Yuricon Store!

Superwomen in Love! Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit, Volume 2 is out now from Seven Seas.

Also from Seven Seas, the My Next Life as a Villainess Side Story: Girls Patch.

Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 3, Shimura Takako’s new and very excellent series.

Makoto Hagino’s A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 8, is still a lovely girl-meets-girl story.

Monologue Woven For You, Volume 1 is a full-color story about two women who meet and change each other’ life.

Galette No. 19 (ガレット) is available in print and digitally, with new chapters by Morinaga Milk and Morita Miyuki among others!

Ookami no Kawa o Kabutta Hitsuji Hime (狼の皮をかぶった羊姫) is an animal-ear Yuri manga about a wolf butler who falls in love with the Princess of the the land of sheep.

 

Via YuriMother, we have some fascinating news. Kadokawa’s Bookwalker platform is launching a new infinite scroll, Webtoon-style format. Among the titles being launched on the service is Nakatani Nio’s Yagate Kimi ni Naru (やがて君になる).

Comic Yuri Hime on Pixiv has a new manga, Yandere Meruko-chan Loves Senpai (ヤンデレめる子ちゃんはせんぱいがお好き), you can read a sample in JP on Pixiv.

Via YNN Correspondent Megan on Twitter,” A new LGBT+ manga out in Japan today,” Kikon Starters, (既婚ステータスだけいただきます！)…”about a lesbian couple and a gay couple that enter into fake hetero marriages so they can stay closeted to their families, the 4 of them end up living together in a flatshare.” I remember the Mist magazine version of this… ^_^

 

Yuri Doujinshi

Lilyka has a new interview with their Arabic translator, Jamila, as part of their “Yuri Save the World” project.

They also have a new title, The Gathering of Love by Toriniwa.

Lilyka also has an artbook collection now, Ｌ∴Ｋ∴Ｒ：La Lilio kaj la Rozo Illustration Book / Shirahime Lilio (White Princess) & Kuro’oujo Rozo (Black Princess) and an interview with the creator.

 

Yuri Anime

I’m super excited to have Stellvia: The Complete TV Series from Diskotek up on the Yuricon Store.It’s a solid scifi school story.

 

Other News

ICYMI, this week I published a fanfic that kind of got away me, from as a novella on Amazon Kindle. For a brief moment, it was the #1 Bestseller in its category, so that was fun. ^_^ You can get A/CI Case File: An Inside Job for only $2.99 if you want to see what series it started as a fanfic of. ^_^

We have new Yuri research on the Yuricon Essays page! Tales of lilies and girls’ love. The depiction of female/ female relationships in yuri manga – by Marta Fanasca, from Tracing Pathways 雲路 Interdisciplinary Studies on Modern and Contemporary East Asia, Firenze University Press, 2021.

Here’s something fun to enjoy, an original song about “enemies to lovers,” on Youtube  Vices & Virtues by Reinaeiry.

Since the Age of Keisuke Kinoshita and Yasujiro Ozu: The Journey of Japan’s Queer Films is a fascinating article, from Japanese Film Festival Plus.

Seven Seas has announced a collaboration with Hiveworks, “the charming, full-color LGBT+ graphic novel LIFE OF MELODY by Mari Costa.”

 

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Posted in Yuri Network News | No Comments »


I Am Not Starfire, by Mariko Tamaki and Yoshi Yoshitani

August 20th, 2021

In DC’s I Am Not Starfire, Mandy is a young woman trying to make her way in life, under the constant pressure of being a celebrity superhero’s daughter with a mystery father, and no powers to speak of. It’s probably not that surprising that’s she’s got an attitude.

Typical teenager, Mandy is whatever her mother is not. In fact, she thinks herself of the “anti-Starfire.” What’s worse, there are fans of her mom at school, just to drive home how much not her mother she is She’s got a goth look and a dark outlook. More importantly, like generations of adolescents before her, Mandy is keeping secrets from the people around her. The only person Mandy can stand is her friend, Lincoln.

Mandy’s doing the normal balancing act of school, life and, of course, love. She’s got a crush, but there’s a lot of things between her and happiness. Her crush is the uber-popular girl in class, Claire. Claire seems nice, but man, her friends are jerks. So what’s a not-cool, not outgoing, not-superpowered girl to do?

Nothing in this YA title is going to come as a surprise, I think, to a sophisticated reading audience. Nonetheless, I think we can all completely feel where Mandy is at… (even if, as an adult, it feels a bit irritating.) Mandy’s secret is absolutely something that a high school student and their parent might find very relevant to their life. Her crush might even like her back, but Mandy is really not receptive to anyone actually liking her, which makes this more complicated that it otherwise might be. However, like the rest of the plot complications, this has a happy ending for both girls and us. ^_^

Mariko Tamaki’s writing is approachable and Yoshi Yoshitani’s art is colorful, fun and very simple to follow. What works best here is that this works well as a YA story. There’s nothing here that is creepy, or condescending, as is so often a problem with YA works. (I’m still salty about DC’s “Minx” line which had great content and the creepiest old-dudes-talking-about-young-girls name ever.) Aditya Bidikar’s lettering is readable, and adds flavor where needed…like flavor boost icing on a very decent cake. ^_^

I’ve talked about how much I am not a DC fan here many times, and even though I really like Tamaki’s work, I probably wasn’t going to get this, but for two things. The puling of the *.*gaters was enough to make me put this on my to-get list and Okazu family member Chris L. mentioned that it was suitable for Okazu…and so it was.

The girl gets the girl, YA comics fans get something for them and everyone is happy except the over-sensitive manbabies who think everything has to be about them…and that, frankly is also good news for us. Because if it makes them unhappy, that means it’s ever so much more likely to be interesting and diverse. It’s like a big “Read This!” sign. Thank you, puling man babies for making it much easier to find good stuff to read. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7 More like YA than like DC.
Story – 7 Same
Characters – 7 Oddly, I really liked Claire.
Queer – 7
Service – 0

Overall – 7

A fun read, and I guess I’m going to have to stop saying I don’t like DC, because they are so vastly much better than Marvel right now at making puling manbabies unhappy.

Posted in Western Comic/Comix | 3 Comments »


Yuri is My Job, Volume 7

August 19th, 2021

In Volume 6, Mituski poured her hear out to Hime and instead of bringing them closer, as she hoped, it may have separated them forever.

In Yuri is My Job, Volume 7, everyone at Liebe Café is trying to patch up the rift between Hime and Mitsuki. Except one. Kanako has absolutely had it with what she sees as Mitsuki’s self-indulgent attitude to Hime. She’s not wrong…but she’s not right, either.

Hime has come up against a wall that she has long wanted to avoid. There are only two people in the world she has trusted with her truth and they each need something from her she can’t give them. Hime’s decided to take herself out of the story, in order to keep anyone from being hurt…and thereby hurting them both.

Sumika wants things to stay the same, Kanako’s ready to be there for Hime, Mitsuki wants someone to understand her for once, and Mai, attempting to smooth over the rough areas, causes cracks to appear elsewhere.

This is an extraordinary volume in what initially appeared to be merely a Marimite parody. We are full on in deep emotional drama and although I read this with every issue of Comic Yuri Hime, I have absolutely no idea where it might take us or how we will get there! That’s always very exciting.

Extra chapters here take us a little into Miman-sensei’s life last year and character and café trivia. Everything about this book kept me on my seat. Lots of emotional moments and I’m just so interested to find out what happens!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 1
Yuri – 7

Overall – 8

Wrapped in old-fashioned school uniforms and Yuri tropes, Yuri is My Job is a compelling Yuri drama, wholly grounded in the present.

Posted in English Manga, Miman, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Speaking of Fanfic…I’ve Published a Kindle Novel

August 17th, 2021

This weekend I wrapped reading Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology. It was a really fun read and I highly recommend it. One of the stories is, to readers of Okazu, instantly recognizable as a fanfic on a series we have been enjoying for a good 20 years.  It was so obviously a fanfic, that it put me in mind of a fanfic I had started some 20 years ago as well, that grew into an original novella and I had never done a damn thing with. It took me 14 years to write the story. I started it in the late 1990s and kept putting it aside. It came with me to 4 jobs that I can think of, where I occasionally pulled it out and wrote another paragraph or two. I had thought it would work for a particular publication, but by the time I finished it, that publication had moved on and wanted something different than what I wanted for the story.

A few years ago, on a lark, I created a cover for it – a cover, it turned out, that had a typo. D’oh ^_^

This week I dragged it out, gave it a dust off and found I didn’t hate it. So while I was thinking about fanfic, I put it up on Kindle. It’s not a magnum opus, it’s a fanfic that outgrew it’s skin. (This is a pun and about as funny as puns usually are.) Here’s the synopsis:

Claudia Moreno was a good soldier, but the military saw her as a problem to be disappeared. Now she has a second chance as an Investigator for A/CINet and she’s determined to make her life work.

On her first solo case, she finds herself caught up in security for the most powerful corporation in the worlds; and its beautiful, charismatic leader, Lyrin Hayasu. Who is infiltrating this mysterious Artificial/Created Intelligence’s network…? Can Claudia save Lyrin from the intruder? And, can she save herself from Lyrin?

It’s a hardboiled-ish, science fictiony, cyberpunkesque, lesbian story. A/CINet Case File: An Inside Job is available for $2.99 on Kindle.I hope you’ll read it and, if you find some interesting bits in it, drop a review.

 

Posted in Novel, Queer Fiction | 2 Comments »


Whisper Me a Love Song, Volume 1

August 16th, 2021

Himari is suuuper excited to be in high school and suuuper happy to see the different clubs, but when she sees Yori on stage performing with a band, it’s just too much for her. Moved by the performance, she seeks out Yori to tell her that she’s fallen in love with her!

Yori’s not usually the kind of person to perform in public, but when a really cute girls says this to her, she can’t not feel something, right? Indeed, Yori does feel something. But what Himari feels isn’t love for Yori, she was just so moved by the music. And so, despite the initial misunderstanding, Yori and Himari start to build a relationship. Where it will go or what will happen is still unknown, but the possibilities in Whisper Me a Love Song, Volume 1 by Eku Takeshima are endless.

If you’ve got the print volume of Volume 1 in front of you, you know what I think of this series, it’s right there on the back cover. ^_^ I was indeed charmed from the very first pages. I absolutely adore this series. It is among the several I head straight for when new issue of Comic Yuri Hime has arrived. Yori’s slight introversion, and how adorable she is when she’s trying to be cool, and Himari’s enthusiasm for just about everything, is just too cute to dislike. I love Takeshima-sensei’s art. When she wants Yori to look cool, she looks very cool indeed. The characters have layers, and sometimes you get a glimpse of the adults they will become.

I’m somewhere in what will be Volume 4 in Japanese and I love this series as much now as I did back in Volume 1. For a first-love, high school girl-meets-girl story, that’s pretty amazing.

Before I forget, I think the cover design on this edition is fab. Love the rough background and the spot-gloss image. Well- done Matt Akuginow! Translation by Kevin Steinbach is on point. At one point, Yori said something and I just shouted, “Yed, that was absolutely it!” Great lettering by Jennifer Skarupa and editing by Tiff Ferentini is invisible, which is exactly what one wants in an editor. ^_^ Great work by Team Kodansha on this, one of my favorite series right now.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8 There is none. It’s very nice.
Characters – 9
Service – 10000 where the “service” is two girls who are having a great time as they learn to love one another
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

Keep your drama to yourself, this series doesn’t need it. ^_^

Whisper Me a Love Song by Eku Takeshima hits just the right notes for a light-hearted sweet Yuri romance. Volume 2 and Volume 3 are out now from Kodansha!

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | No Comments »