Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 15, 2021

May 15th, 2021

There is so much news this week and I have an opinion at the end, so strap in!

Yuri Manga

Nagata Kabi’s new book My Alcoholic Escape From Reality is out, she did an interview with Deb Aoki for TCAF which will stay on Youtube until May 21, so don’t miss it! and Seven Seas has announced the license of her next book, Nagata Kabi’s My Wandering Warrior Existence!

Rafael Antonia Pineda has the news that Hara Yukiko’s Mayu, Matou (released by Yen Press as Cocoon, Entwined) is going on a 4-month hiatus in Comic Beam due to the creator’s illness.

Seven Seas has released Syrup: An Anthology, Volume 3, which covers couple’s first nights together.

Galette WORKS has some good news and some bad news. The good news, is that Galette No. 18 (ガレット) is coming out next month and Galette MEETS 15 is on sale as well.  The bad news is that the website Galette Online, is shutting down, so all the short stories and voice comics will be going away at the end of this month. The magazine is thus far still in publication. You can still support the creation of Galette on Fantia or Pixiv Fanbox.

Ajiichi’s Dekisokonai Hime-tachi, Volume 5 (できそこないの姫君たち), continues this emotional rollercoaster for a group of of girls in high school.

Shakaijin Yuri foodish manga Minna Watashi no Hara no Naka, Volume 1 (みんな私のはらのなか) is available in print or you can check it out on Takeshobo’s Storia Dash online in Japanese.

Eden no Shoujo, Volume 1 (エデンの処女) is a science fiction story about a world with no men.

Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 8 (私の百合はお仕事です!) comes to a climactic moment, and Mitsuki is not ready…

 

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Yuri Events Online

If you have ever wanted to attend an academic conference on anime and manga and were unable to…this year is your year! Mechademia is going online and has a non-academic/student rate for attendees. Videos are going live today for panelists, while public registration opens up tomorrow. Please enjoy presentations by myself, James Welker and Verena Maser on Transporting Yuri Across Borders and join us for a panel on June 5th!

This weekend is also the Queer Comics Expo Online, which includes the PRISM Comics Award.

You can also join me and a other panelists at CasaCon, free on Discord, from June 25-27th.

TCAF 2021 has a wonderful panel, LGBT + Micro and Macro Perspectives, that is available for you to watch now on Youtube!

And don’t forget to watch the newest Yuri Studio episode, Yuri: How It Began – How It’s Going, in which I take a look at a couple of the key Yuri tropes and how they change over time. Subscribe to Yuri Studio for a nice mini-course on Yuri!

 

LGBTQ News

Alison Bechdel is working on an animated Dykes to Watch Out For series! This is absolutely the right time and place for this.

With Pride month just around the corner, Companies are gearing up to rainbow wash everything from NFL jerseys to Twitter’s logo. Comics companies, dragged reluctantly into the 21st century and reckoning with decades of suppressing non-white, non-male, non-straight voices are doing…things…to fix this. I am 100% supportive of these companies and their pride branding, but it is also always business first, statement second. My opinion of efforts to present these non-white, non-male, non-straight, non-abled voices – the very efforts most hated by the mediocre men of *.*gate – is that I think they have power despite themselves.  When a company fronts a non-white, non-male, non-straight, non-abled person and actually gives that person tools to succeed, that person becomes a role model…even if the original intent was merely to pretend to be woke enough to convince investors to stick around. I won’t pretend that Conde Nast putting a black woman in charge of Bon Appetit wasn’t a calculated move, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t the right mov or that she isn’t the right person for the job. Dawn Davis has already had a visibly positive impact on the magazine.

The point is that there is a position that companies can take that isn’t tokenizing – it can invest in lifting up diverse voices, centering them, letting them be heard and seen and appreciated. I make fun of gay cereal and cookies, but both Oreos and General Mills are real-world allies to LGBTQ folks, too, supporting inclusive legislation and policies.

Which brings me to Marvel and DC. I could probably talk about why I think that both companies are choking on their own bullshit here, but that isn’t the point. The point is…they are doing something and they are doing it publicly and I think they may actually be doing it okay this time, ish at least. Better than usual.

Marvel is celebrating Pride Month with a series of variant covers by out artist Phil Jimenez for characters being featured in the Marvel Voices: Pride #1, which also features queer writers and artists.

DC is also releasing DC Pride #1, with contributions by queer actors from the DCU and artists (including Phil Jimenez), as well as variant covers of relevant titles. Check out a preview of these on the DC blog. Sneak peak of some pages here, and variant covers here.

I’ve linked to Amazon and Comixology here, but you know…what a great time to call up your local comic store and give them some business! I’ll be doing that as soon as I finish this report. ^_^ Check out Comicshoplocator.com to find a store near you!

 

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Posted in Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »


My Alcoholic Escape from Reality by Nagata Kabi

May 14th, 2021

Right now the first Virtual Toronto Comic Arts Festival is underway on Youtube and this week we had the pleasure of watching Deb Aoki doing a pre-recorded interview with Nagata Kabi, the creator of comic essay My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, and its sequels. This interview will be available online until May 21, so definitely watch it while its available – its not often we North Americans get a chance to see our favorite manga artists.

This month also saw the release of Nagata-sensei’s newest work in English, My Alcoholic Escape From Reality, detailing her bout with alcohol-induced pancreatitis. As with her previous works, this book covers a number of personal details, physical and emotional. She made it very clear in the interview that she has regrets about the way she talked about her family in previous books and she addresses that in the book, as well.

In my review of this book in Japanese, I said, “We’ve watched Nagata-sensei struggle with food, with alcohol, with depression, and now with her pancreas. It’s all very heavy going, but as a reader I don’t feel like I have the luxury of wallowing since, for any bleak feelings I might have, I have to believe that it’s harder for her. To some extent, the only thing we can do is be distant, abstract cheerleaders on the sidelines of the parts of her life she chooses to share with us. We have to know were not getting the whole story – and we have to be okay with that. So we mentally pull for her and send good thoughts.”

And, indeed, we do mentally pull for her and send her good thoughts and she could see that in the interview chat, if she was interested. Especially now that we’ve put a face to the name, I imagine fans will care about her even more. Which makes this book harder to read, not easier, honestly! But there are two things I want to note – one, the second half of the book is less about her struggle with her physical body and more about the creative struggle…which I interpret as a very positive thing. The creative struggle, while no less real, is also much more abstract and requires the ability to think about something other than the pain in one’s abdomen. I’m sure we can all identify with how difficult it is to work when we don’t feel good. It’s a testament to her strength of will that she could work in such circumstances.

The second thing I noted in my review of the Japanese volume was that she’s back with East Press for this book. They aren’t the biggest publisher she’s worked with, but I’m kind of happy that she’s with them again. They are a very pro LGBTQ content company. Her newest book series is with Futabasha, another company that has been really positive for queer manga creators and content, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing what they do together!

Following this all up, Seven Seas announced the license of her next book, Meisou Senshi・Nagata Kabi(迷走戦士・永田カビ) as My Wandering Warrior Existence. You can read this online in Japanese on Web Action. This has a projected release date in English of March 2022. But wait, Nagata-sensei is working on *another* series now, Meisou Senshi・Nagata Kabi Gourmet De GO!  (迷走戦士・永田カビ グルメでGO！) the first chapter is also available on Web Action in Japanese. This is the story she alludes to in this volume – a food manga. I am really looking forward to this, as it’s an audacious and amazing concept having a food manga written by a woman with eating disorder and a contentious relationship with food. It should be fascinating.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Her style has really grown and visibly become more confident
Story – 8, by which I mean it can be gut-wrenching
Character – 9 ^_^;
Service – ? There’s some details in there.
LGBTQ – N/A, but wait. The next book is about her gender and sexuality

Overall – 8

Watch her TCAF interview and then take a look at this book translated ably by Jocelyn Allen. I also want to nod in the direction of the lettering and retouch folks, Karis Page and Gwen Silver, since Nagata’s pretty heavy on the in-art sound effects here. Thanks to the entire Seven Seas Team for their work on this book, and to TCAF staff, Jocelyne Allen for her delightful translation and interpretation and Deb Aoki for another great interview.

Posted in English Manga, Nagata Kabi | 5 Comments »


New Episode on Yuri Studio!

May 13th, 2021

I saw a Twitter meme and decided to make a Yuri video! ^_^ In this episode I look at a few key tropes of Yuri and how the genre is evolving.

S02 E02 Yuri: How it Began – How It’s Going

 

Here’s the value-add for today’s post: Why You Should Click “Like” on Every Video You Watch and Actually Like

If you’ve watched any videos on Youtube, you’ll see folks exorting you to click “like” and subscribe. There’s a reason why. Youtube-oniisan judges all videos pretty harshly. If a video goes up and doesn’t get likes along with its views, YT-oniisan thinks the video is a loser. It won’t tell it’s cool friends about it, and even if you tell folks, it won’t share the news.

I’ll give Youtube props, all creators get links to their explanation of the algorithm, so it’s not like this info is buried. The bottom line is, if you watch a video, but don’t also “like” it, YT considers that a “meh.” If you react and comment, YT considers that a thumbs up and your video gets on that queue of suggested videos on the right on a watcher’s list. If you watch tons of videos on a topic, the other videos by the people you have already liked are bumped up onto your suggestions. If folks click on your videos from their suggested video list, they get more like that. (It is true that if you click often enough you’ll start to see angry shouty men and weird kiddy cartoon snuff, but if you carefully cultivate your actual clicks and block that shit it will continue to give you the Sailor Moon theme Moonlight Desetsu on koto.

When you click like on a video – and, even better, add a comment – Youtube-oniisan grudgingly admits that, for a kid, you’re not bad. That’s why YT doesn’t care if the “comments” are high quality or not. It’s your bro, a grunt of acknowledgment is as good as a well-thought out response.

Youtube validates that video in the algorithm, more people see it. And here’s the point  – to make money on Youtube folks need a minimum number of subscribers and watch hours, so people who do YT for money need those new eyeballs. I had asked for subscribers last year to enable auto-subtitling. Once I got it, I don’t care so much how many subscribers I have. (Of course, if I ever do have 6 figures worth of subscribers, that’ll be a whole new story.) Right now Yuri Studio has about 1/8th the number of watch hours it needs to be monetized so that’s also not super high priority, but one day, maybe, who knows.

All of this is to explain to you just why, when I ask you to please “Like” a video on Youtube, it’s because that really makes a difference! Subscribe to the channel if you want notifications of new videos, obviously and support us on Patreon, because our Patrons make these videos possible!

Thank you for your watches and your likes, and your questions and comments! I’ve got the next video topic all lined up so I’ll see you next time on Yuri Studio!

Posted in Yuri Studio | 3 Comments »


Dear Noman, Volume 1 – Guest Review by Luce

May 12th, 2021

Welcome to another Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu! Today we have a new Guest Reviewer, Luce, who is going to take us through a series I haven’t even had a chance to look at, so yay, I’m totally ready to learn something new. ^_^ Please give Luce you attention and consideration!

I’m Luce, long-time follower of this blog, and I own too many Yuri manga. Not that that’s much of a bad thing, though… I can be found as silverliningslurk on Tumblr, and farfetched #1235 on discord. Anyway, on with the review!

Mashiro is ostensibly a normal school girl—except she can see ghosts and spirits. After a terrifying encounter with one, she meets Bazu, a crow Noman (the name this series gives to anything not living) and Nelly, who both work for the Border Preservation Society. Due to an accidental bond (read: kiss) with the vitriolic Bazu, Mashiro ends up deciding to work with them to bring Nomans to peace and prevent them eating souls.

There are likely a good many series that deal with a supernaturally gifted human teaming up with a supernatural being to fight monsters, and I doubt this series will do anything new, per se. We have the initial monster, the one the new girl manages to talk around from violence, and the more obviously sentient one. I haven’t read too many of these, so it’s not a tired trope for me. It’s interesting enough, even if the grading system the Society uses for these monsters confuses me somewhat. I hope future volumes will shed some light on it.

What is probably slightly more novel is a canon lesbian. Well, at least one. It’s not the happiest of stories though, as she is a Noman… But it is possible it could take a turn for the better. Another character states that her death happened at least a few years ago, and says that things have ‘changed for the better’. Not that that helps her much, at the moment. This volume leaves that story on something of a cliffhanger, albeit a low stakes one, so we’ll have to find out in the next volume. As for being yuri between the main characters, it has potential. The only problem is the visual age gap. I say visual because Bazu, being a crow Noman, doesn’t have a stated age, and clearly didn’t age by human standards whilst alive, so it’s hard to tell. Her body is most definitely adult, while Mashiro says she is fourteen, and looks younger partly because she’s small, and partly because she’s drawn to look young. Age is a funny thing in manga anyway.

Quite a lot happens here, although the pacing didn’t feel rushed to me. I’m curious to see what happens with the lesbian noman, and with what I imagine to be foreshadowing, in that Mashiro frequently writes letters to her deceased older sister. I also want to see Bazu and Mashiro evolve and grow, regardless of whatever it will turn into a relationship or not. Bazu is pretty harsh and aggressive initially, although we see later than she has a good reason for her hatred. Mashiro is a little naive, and perhaps blunt, but she does genuinely care about Bazu, and wants to learn more about her. I’m intrigued to see the effect they have on each other.

All in all, for a series that looks like it could be quite light, it gets surprisingly dark, but it balances these quite well. I like it, and I’m looking forward to the second volume, slated to come out in English from Yen Press in June.

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – Bazu has, to borrow another character’s comment from a different series, ‘some mad cleavage’. It is, thankfully, not used in a servicey way, and there aren’t many lingering close ups. I’d say 3.
Yuri – there are kisses between women. They don’t mean a great lot emotionally… Until they do? We shall see. Canon lesbian puts it up to 5.

Overall – 7

Erica here: Sounds like it could be worth a read. Thank you very much for the fab review! This series reminds me a bit of Ghost Talker’s Daydream, with it’s tragic lesbians. ^_^;

You can find Dear Noman, Volume 1 on Amazon, Comixology/Kindle, RightStuf, Global Bookwalker and manga stores near you!

Posted in English Manga, Guest Review, Luce | 1 Comment »


Yuri Events of Note for May and June

May 11th, 2021

As “con season” opens on this second pandemic year, some cons are still virtual, others are giving virtual a try (and we’re all side-eyeing creepy cons who think we’re going to go to a big public in-person gathering this year. I’ll be staying in for a while, then avoiding big crowds for longer, thank you.) But even if you’re staying in, you can enjoy yourself with some incredible Yuri events. Put these on your calendar!

 

Toronto Comic Arts Festival:

Wednesday, May 12 at 7PM (Eastern NA Time) Deb Aoki will be hosting a discussion with the creator of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness and My Alcoholic Escape for Reality. Watch the interview with Kabi Nagata on the TCAF Youtube channel! (I also highly recommend the Loop Sessions panel with DJs doing live mixes as artists do live drawing online. I would 10000% subscribe to a channel of just this. It was brilliant.

 

Mechademia:

June 5 21:00 JST (8 AM US EST, 1PM BST) Join myself, Verena Maser and James Welker at our Mechademia panel, Transporting Yuri Across Borders. As far as I can tell this is the first Yuri-focused panel at the Mechademia conference. The presentations are all going to be available by video after May 15, so when you register, you can watch them any time. Our panel will be for Q&A and I really hope I’ll see some familiar faces in the online crowd.  I will be pie-eyed. I am NOT a morning person. ^_^ This conference costs $30 for non-academic/student participants; it looks pretty amazing. Register here. Registration opens to the public on May 16.

 

CasaCon:

June 25-27 Stay home and join me at CasaCon!
The event is free on Discord. We’ll be talking about inspiring things in pop culture! I’ll be doing my “Secret” History of Yaoi and Yuri panel! Register here.

If you’d like me to be part of your online event, drop me a line! I’d love to join you virtually. ^_^

 

Posted in Events | No Comments »