Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – June 12, 2021

June 12th, 2021

Yuri Manga

Tamifull’s How Do We Relationship?, Volume 3 hit US shelves this week. Now we can talk.

Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 2 by Takako Shimura is hitting bookstores this week.

 

We have a few new items on the Yuricon Store!

Polarity Toumeiki (ポラリティ透明期) is a scifi story in which homosexuality is punishable by “re-education.” Good timing for Pride month, there Erica. /eyeroll/

Ienai Himitsu no Aishikata, Volume 1 (いえない秘密の愛し方) Kazuo, a teacher, learns that her favorite doujinshi artist is one of her students.

Doukyuusei no Oshi Sakka ni Yuri Mousou ga Bareta Kekka, Volume 1 (同級生の推し作家に百合妄想がバレた結果) is about a girl who finds her classmate is her favorite Yuri author.

The folks at Manga Mavericks have posted our chat about My Alcoholic Escape From Reality, by Nagata Kabi. It was a great conversation. I love talking to Lum and Colton about stuff.

A new collection of stories about Yuri couples by Akiyama Enma, Sayonara ja ne yo, Baka (さよならじゃねーよ、ばか).

Anemone wa Netsu wo Obiru (アネモネは熱を帯びる) about two girls whose lives are entwined, but in ways one of them does not remember.

And last from Comic Natalie this week, Onna-doushi to ka ariena idesho to Iiharu Onna no ko wo, Hyaku-kakan de Tetteiteki ni Otosu Yuri no Ohanashi, Volume 1 (女同士とかありえないでしょと言い張る女の子を、百日間で徹底的に落とす百合のお話) is a comedy about a girl who is so taken with a classmate that she wants to “buy” her for a day in order to see if relationships between girls can exist.

 

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Yuri Anime

Kathleeen Townsend has written The Pride and Power of Revolutionary Girl Utena for Funimation’s blog as part of their Pride month series.

RetroCrush has added Princess Knight to their line-up, so if you haven’t ever had the chance to see the original anime Girl Prince Sapphire, definitely give that a watch! ANN’s Rafael Antonia Pineda has the details on this.

YNN Correspondent David M wants you to know you can stream Princess Principal Crown Handler on HIDIVE.

 

Yuri Event

Flamecon is back in NYC, on August 21-22 as a virtual event.

Lilyka has a new manga event coming up – manga artist Mintaro is doing a live event on June 25. For $5, you can see a Yuri artist do a live drawing, ask them questions and be there for a special Yuri announcement!

 

Yuri Doujinshi

While we’re talking Lilyka, they’ve released Whisper, My Button by EMODELAS. 

 

Yuri Visual Novel

MangaGamer has licensed Distant Memoraĵo: The Expression Amrilato, the continuation of Sukerasparo’s Esperanto-teaching Yuri VN.

 

Other News

Michael Nava has started a lovely series, Creating a Literary Culture: A Short, Selective, and Incomplete History of LGBT Publishing, Part I for the LA Review of Books.

I missed this a while back. Manga Planet has licensed Kia Asamiya’s Silent Moebius.  While it’s not Yuri, there’s some very kick ass adult women.

Jennifer Sherman over at ANN has the details on the new Sailor Moon Musical, in which they are covering Luna’s love story, Kaguya-hime.

 

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Posted in Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »


Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, Volume 1

June 11th, 2021

Sahoko shows up at a reunion for her high school class. As she greets people she hasn’t seen in a while, she’s on the look out for someone else who is not there. and isn’t expected to attend. Adult Sahoko casts her mind back to her school days, when she was always looking out for the other girl…

In school, Sahoko is popular. She wants to be popular. It’s pretty much the most important thing to her. So her own uncomfortable obsession with Aoi Koshiba really annoys her. Koshiba’s athletic and popular, but doesn’t care at all about anything that passes for important in high school. She quits her clubs and team and heads home every day. Sahoko cannot put her finger on why it’s important to her, but suddenly becoming Aoi’s friend seems…critical. And when she learns Aoi’s secret, it’s suddenly become more important than anything, even her other friends.

Back in the present, Sahoko’s school friend Anna wistfully proposes that maybe it would be best if Aoi never comes.

So….there’s some very good things in this story and some not good things, and mostly I think the not-good things are stuff that was put in before the story kind of gelled. On the good side, I love Fly’s art generally and it was that art that got me to pick this book up in the first place, as you may remember from my review of Volume 1 in Japanese. Thumbs up to the Kodansha team for a good looking volume of manga, as well.

Sahoko awkwardly chasing after Aoi wasn’t bad, but their “accidental kiss” was inexcusably tropey. In Volume 1, it’s almost impossible for me to actually like Sahoko, or no, like isn’t the right word…sympathize, or empathize maybe is closer.  Nor are we given much to work with for Aoi, until her entire story is dumped on us in like 4 pages. So this whole volume left me a bit cold when I first read it, and I haven’t read past Volume 2 in Japanese,but…

…re-reading this made me think I want to pick up Volume 3 in Japanese now, when it comes out this summer. Seems like something to get on Bookwalker and keep in my pocket. (Although re-reading my V2 review, I know why it dropped down on my to-read list.) I keep foolishly wanting stories about high school reunions to be about the present…not the past. As Volume 2 is now out in English, you can read it for yourself, then get back to me and let me know what you think!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 2 some random underwear for no reason
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

And now I’ll just wait get V3 and see if it goes where I hope it might, or it just circles the giant drain of lost high school loves. ^_^

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 8 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる)

June 10th, 2021

As we reach Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 8 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる), we’ve hit what I tend to call the “storm before the calm.” Summer is winding down and Koyuki and Konatsu haven’t really been able to get any time to be together. When Kaede shows up at Koyuki’s house as part of her job, a sudden opportunity appears! Konatsu’s been down, since her father left and with the prospect of losing Koyuki. Koyuki’s been breaking out of her shell, but still doesn’t quite have the confidence she needs.

After a bunch of hits and misses, Koyuki and Konatsu finally get to talk a little. They still don’t quite know what to think about each other, but it’s obvious, at last, that they understand that each of them thinks the other one is important to them. And when I say they are flailing –  the plot of the series finale is “What do I call you?”  I mean that it’s super obvious to me that they are more than mere friends, I don’t know what conclusion they plan on coming to.

As they flail a bit, we watch Fuyuki flailing himself. It’s pretty obvious to everyone that he likes Kaede, but he’s not quite there yet.

For a book in which very little happens, it seemed to all go by so quickly. It felt exactly like those final weeks of summer after camp or whatever, before school,  when you had a short time to just do kid things.

And just as suddenly as it was in real life, the world comes back, and we see Koyuki overwhelmed in the big city and at her limit. What will become of her and Konatsu, what are they to each other? Tune into Volume 9, the final volume of the series to find out when it hits Japanese bookshelves at the end of this month!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0 not really
Yuri – 3

Overall – 7

Volume 7 of A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow is out now and Volume 8 will head your way at the end of this year.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Perfect Gold Visual Novel, Guest Review by Eleanor W.

June 9th, 2021

Welcome back to Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu! Today we welcome back Eleanor, who has graciously offered to cover a new Yuri Visual Novel. You all know the rules – please give her a warm welcome and take it away, Eleanor, you have the mic. ^_^

It’s nice to be back. This time I’m reviewing Perfect Gold, a Yuri visual novel from Filipino developers Yangyang Mobile. Quite the contrast from my last Okazu review, which took me all the way to London to review the British Museum manga exhibition. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @st_owly. I mostly post about anime and manga, but also some silly stuff too, especially on Twitter.

“In this short, coming-of-age yuri visual novel, play as Marion LaRue and Audrey Clary as they explore the magical city of Castlecoast and get a second chance at love and friendship.” – Description of the game on Steam.

I don’t remember exactly how I ended up backing the Perfect Gold Kickstarter, I probably saw it, thought “that looks cute” and backed it. It’s also really nice to have a visual novel that isn’t 18+, and is instead just completely adorable. Now that it’s been released, I’m very glad I did support it, and I’m going to keep an eye on the developer to see what they do next.

The gameplay alternates between the points of view of the two main characters, Audrey LaRue, an enthusiastic country girl who’s come to the big city of Castlecoast to study at the prestigious LeFay Academy, a school of magic and alchemy. Marion’s rival/love interest is Audrey Clary, aka “Princess”, a girl from a noble family who’s expected to be top of the class, follow her parents into the alchemy business, and to marry a suitable boy her parents have picked out once she’s graduated from the Academy. That is, until Marion comes along and changes all of that.

The game is set in a medieval Europe-ish inspired world with alchemy and magic, but also has some modern concepts like magazines and photography. Background art of the various areas is neatly done, the music is Celtic folk inspired and perfectly pleasant to listen to. The characters are very nicely designed and their facial expressions are lively and interesting, particularly Marion’s. I especially enjoyed her surprised/embarrassed face. The voice acting is polished and each character is distinct. My only (very minor) gripe, being British myself, is Audrey’s posh British accent isn’t quite right, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the game too much.

Playing through the game, I found the story in the first half a bit slow, but towards the end I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. The story utilises a lot of flashbacks to show how the relationship between Audrey and Marion evolved to what it is in the present, and the way the characters react to certain situations certainly seems believable for teenagers who aren’t quite sure how love works yet. Audrey’s inner conflict between what’s expected of her by her family and what she wants to do is especially well done and the highlight of the game for me.

The other thing I really liked about the game is that LGBT+ people and same sex relationships seem completely normal to most people (apart from the rich alchemist families). One of the professors at the academy uses they/them pronouns, and it isn’t commented on at all by anyone, other people just use “them” perfectly naturally to talk about the character. Another minor character calls Marion and Audrey a cute couple with no judgement attached.

For an evening’s escapism and something cute to make you squee, it’s worth getting. It’s currently £5.79 on Steam ($7.19 through June 14th, $7.99 normally) for just the game, or you can get a deluxe bundle pack with the soundtrack and a digital art book for £14.79. ($19.69 on sale, $23.99 normally.)

Ratings:

Art – 8. Nothing revolutionary but perfectly pleasant and well put together with nicely styled character designs.
Story – 7. Took a while to get going, but a very cute first love story once it did.
Characters – 9. The characters were my favourite part of this game. Marion and Audrey were realistic awkward teenagers, and having been an awkward closeted teenager myself once upon a time I found them very relatable. The other minor/side characters were well written and helped the story flow along nicely too.
Service (level of salaciousness) 2. Marion’s big sister Simone makes an appearance towards the end, and she gave me a lot of “oooh tall pretty goddess lady” vibes, but there’s not even any cleavage anywhere and the most you see on screen is a kiss between Marion and Audrey. I would have no problems whatsoever letting a young teenager play this.
Yuri/LGBT+ – 9. Major points for casual non binary inclusion and homophobia not really being a thing in this world.

Overall – 8. A cute way to spend an evening.

Erica here: Thank you very much Eleanor, for the lovely review. How excellent that the game is on sale right, so people can  enjoy it even more. Happy Yuri VNing  for Pride month.^_^

Posted in Guest Review, Yuri Game, Yuri Visual Novel | 1 Comment »


I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 3

June 8th, 2021

As I said of the Japanese edition of  I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 3, “We’ve already established that all norms are off the table in this series, so the plot here is a little bit of everything – school drama, romance, socio-political drama, and some other things and then the demons arrive. From this point on the book is spinning plates and juggling balls and then an axe or two on a high-wire.”

And indeed, we are handwaved into an idyll that will be shattered, trod upon, and sliced and diced and none of it – not one word – hit me as hard as the final scene in a throwaway side story. (T_T)

Former daughter of the nobility and school villainess, Claire Francois and her wife, the supernaturally powerful and gifted protagonist of the game Revolution, Rae Taylor, are living a reasonably comfortable life. Given that this life was built in the ruins of a revolution to take down a monarchy, it’s a very sweet life. Their adopted daughters are energetic and precocious. They have jobs. Why would anyone give up all that they have carved out for themselves?

The answer is of course that Claire believes in her upbringing – that, as a (former) noble, she has standards  and serving her country is the core of her beliefs. That her country is, maybe less worthy than she hoped, is a given. Instead of rethinking society into a more equal structure, all the government wants to do is create a new kind of second-class citizen of women and queer folks. That’s only just about 100% likely.

But instead of wrestling with rich men’s refusal to share power, we head off to the Nur Kingdom. At which point, I would like to digress and discuss my personal interpretation of the country names. As I see it, they are as follows: Bauer is kind of Germany; Alpes is Austria; Sousse is Switzerland. That’s kind of straightforward.

Okay let’s do Nur. In Japanese its written as ナー, so more like “Naa”

What country might that be? Hm, I wonder what aggressive militaristic country is threatening to Japan right now. It’s not hard to see that Nur is China, and Rusha (Russia) is “north” of that.

I want to note that Frieda, who affects a fake French accent here is from Melica, or, as I think of it, ‘Merika. Because ‘Xico and Nacada (or something like that) will get a mention next book and there will be reasons. So, while this is my interpretation and not at ALL a criticism of the translation, I think of Frieda as a really annoying American. For reasons.

As I thought of all this, I realized that, in the smallest and most tedious way possible, I’m kind of in Rae’s position. I know what’s coming, but I don’t know how it might turn out, only how it has turned out, when it’s over.  So gosh, how irritating for Rae. ^_^;

In any case, as with Volume 1, Volume 3 is mostly introduction and set up and I will also say that not every question posed here will be answered in V4. Which is why I stare with longing at GL Bunko’s listings waiting for a V5 to be listed.  inori-sensei has also posted all the final chapters of this arc and her story from Claire’s perspective on pixiv fanbox and I hope that will bring up the page count enough for the next volume soon.

Now I will return to reading the manga for my fix. And waiting for V5 in Japanese or V4 in English, neither of which have a date as of yet. In the meantime, we may enjoy the sweet scenes of domestic bliss, holidays and celebrations and what will pass (for now, eff you new government) as their wedding. And that’s still not the queerest part of the book.

I mentioned that the emotional impact here for me was, rather than the childrens’ trials, the final chapter where Claire experiences a Rae who does not love her and how bereft her life becomes. That one got me in the gut.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – Kind of, but I’m alright with any and all of it.
Yuri – 10
Queer – 10

Overall – 10

There are STILL questions I have even after Volume 4. In the meantime, I have one question for you – what did you think of Dorothea? I adored her, as you might imagine and need a lot of fanart of her. ^_^ Sadly she’s too cool and competent (and adult /eyeroll/) for most fan artists, who seem to prefer Lily or Philene. Sigh. Poor me.

Posted in I'm in Love With the Villainess, inori, LGBTQ, Light Novel, Light Novels | 1 Comment »