Upright Women Wanted, by Sarah Gailey

March 15th, 2020

Yesterday, I mentioned that there is so much queer fic right now that it’s absolutely overwhelming – in a good way. So today I wanted to tell you about a fun novella I just read. And when I do, you are free to laugh at me. ^_^

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey tells the story of runaway Esther. Set in a post apocalyptic Southwestern United States, where machinery and communications still exists, but on a limited basis, and life looks awfully a lot like it did in the 19th century, Esther runs away from her overbearing father, when he has her best friend and lover hung for the crime of possessing Unapproved Materials.

Esther runs from Beatrice’s corpse to find the Librarians, the women who travel from town to town distributing Approved Materials. The advertisement says “Upright Women Wanted” and Esther wants desperately to leave the woman-loving-woman she is behind. Maybe the Librarians can help her.

Only, when Esther is found by the Librarians, it turns out that they aren’t at all what they seem! Subversive, sapphic, gender non-conforming, with no fucks to give, but plenty of Unapproved Materials in their pouches, they travel the land sowing discord and resistance to The State.

Yes, this is a book about queer librarians. On horseback. Who fuck asshole men up. So, naturally, I really enjoyed it. ^_^

Being a novella , this is a quick read, and a pretty fun one. I wasn’t invested enough to ever really worry about anyone specific, but Esther’s eventual love interest, nonbinary Cye, the Head Librarian and her lover, Bet and Leda, and the women they “deliver” to freedom, are all people I want out there on the open road, making sure young folks get the queer fiction they need to thrive.

If the future looks like it does in this novel, I will volunteer myself to this cause. I’m a librarian too, after all. ^_^

Ratings:

Story – 9
Characters – 9
LGBTQ – 10

Overall – 9

Apropos of nothing this is the third book I have read recently (including the one I’m reading now) that features someone named Esther.

Posted in Queer Fiction | 2 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – March 14, 2020

March 14th, 2020

Yuri Events

As you might have guessed, all the spring and many of the summer events have been – or ought to be – canceled. My appearances are officially postponed until further notice. My apologies if you had made plans to see me at Anime Boston or elsewhere. Hopefully we’ll make it happen next year.

The Yuriten Yuri Fair has been postponed also until further notice. I’ll hope this means I’m more likely to be able to make it there once again.

A series of YuruYuri collaboration with Princess Cafes in Japan have been announced. They seem to be still happening at this time, but check the website for details.

To salve our unhappiness, Takashima Hiromi-sensei has posted this adorable picture of Yamada and Kase-san celebrating White Day on Twitter.

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Yuri Visual Novels

Noodletub Games wants you to know about it’s Kickstarter for LOVE BAKUDAN, an 18+ Yuri Visual Novel where you run an erotic bookstore. Cleverly, you’ll be able to read some of the actual books within the game. The Kickstarter has already hit it’s goal, and the first stretch, but could use help reaching the later stretch goals with about a week to go. I love reporting on successful, still-running Kickstarters. You know you’ll get what you’re backing and you can feel extra good about pushing it forward!

YuriMother has some very cool news about A Summer’s End – Hong Kong 1986 being released on PC, Mac and Linux. This Yuri Visual novel is rooted in LGBTQ history of Hong Kong in the 1980s, which I think makes it especially interesting. Check out the link above for YuriMother’s post with screencaps and details.

 

Yuri Anime

Mamoru Oshi’s Vlad Love trailer is a 4-minute long music video with theme by BlooDye. Don’t worry, I’m already working on the limerick. ^_^ Crystalyn Hodgkins has the full details and visuals over at ANN.

 

Queer Film

One more Kickstarter today because this looks so amazing I can’t not tell you about it:  AND THEN, a “short film about two women who meet and grow closer to each other through insomnia, exploring a new city, and art.” This short blew threw its initial goal on the first day and 4 of its stretch goals already! I’m kinda hoping we can push this baby through the final stretch goal to give the crew a chance to film scenes that had to be cut for budget’s sake. 

 

Queer Novels

My gods, there are so many novels with sexual and gender minorities right now, I’m inundated! Tor.com contributes more to the piles with Joel Cunningham’s look  at Six Recent SFF Novels That Give No Effs About Genre Distinctions and Lee Mandelo’s Ten Years of Queering SFF: Five Series From the Last Decade That Can’t Be Missed.

I’ll have a review of one of my recent good reads for you tomorrow. ^_^

 

Other News

YuriMother has this terrific interview with Shilin Huang, creator of Amongst Us and Carciphona on her site.

We’re going to be inside for a while and, although I imagine most of us have our anime streaming and manga ebook accounts all ready to go, one of the things I’m always hoping is to encourage you to listen and read and enjoy art widely. To that end, here are three ways to enjoy fine art and music during the current plague year:

The Metropolitan Opera is streaming a free Opera every night during its closure. The opening choices are the Opera Pops, with Carmen, Il Tavatori, La Boheme, La Traviata and other instantly recognizable shows.

The Berlin Philharmonic is opening its  Digital Concert Hall for free to anyone who wants to enjoy it. That’s more than 600 concerts for you to enjoy from this world-class orchestra.

And last for this week, Travel and Leisure lists 12 Museums from around the world that you can tour for free online.

These are trying times, but what an opportunity to catch up on all this reading and watching and VNs and concerts and more. ^_^

 

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Special thanks to Okazu Patrons for being an essential part of the team!

 

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Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 6 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ )

March 13th, 2020

In Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 6 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ ), we meet another local idol group, the Starlights, when the two groups end up in a double show out in the Starlights’ home, Kagawa, across the Mizushima Gulf from Cham Jam’s home base in Okayama. The Starlights are a perfect foil for Cham Jam.

As the Cham Jam members start to do some research, they wistfully notice that the Starlights have a lot of female fans. It turns out that two of the members, Ryoka and Kana, are an apparent couple. On stage they are all love-love, but it’s an act, it’s business Yuri.

Eri bribes a coworker to attend a show with her, in response to a canned request from Maina. At the Kagawa,show  Eri pretends to be from Kagawa in order to shake Maina’s hands for free, at which point something occurred to me. A great deal of manga and anime – especially what passes for romantic comedy in anime and manga – is predicated upon the idea that two people just never have the conversation they need to have. This series is exactly like that, obviously. But it also is complicated by the fact that both Eri and Maina overthink things in oddball kind of way. It reminds me a lot of National Lampoon’s Doon.*

“Then-”
“Yes,” he said.
“So therefore-”
“Exactly, Mother.”
Her eyes widened in horror. “You cannot!” she hissed.

Every conversation sounds exactly like this to me. Maina says something banal and Eri misinterprets it, then vice versa.

That aside, this book is the closest to being a reasonable facsimile of a mockumentary about provincial idol groups. And! For the very first time, I laughed out loud at a joke in a Hirao Auri manga. The top three of the Starlights get all bent out of shape at the Momotarou connection in Okayama, and when during the post-performance Q&A Yumeri mentions that Okayama has a Momotarou festival, I actually laughed at “wtf” expressions on the faces of the Starlights top three. It’s a single panel buried way deep in the book and the page, but I laughed.

The trip to Kagawa makes everyone appreciate Okayama more. Reo is really an outstanding character. Surrounded by everyone else’s issues, she just gets more and more solid. There’s no doubt why she’s the lead.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Character – I really like Kumasa. He seems like a decent dude, Motoi is beginning to worry me. Eri is Eri.
Service – 1
Yuri – 4 Ryo-chan and Kana are “yuriple” (ゆりプル)

Overall – 8

* This book is the greatest parody of all time, far surpassing its better known sibling, Bored of the Rings and if you have not read it, you will never get any of my references about “being a bicycle” and quite probably 57% of all my other references. It’s super way out of print, but if you have ever read Dune, you will howl like a hyena at Doon.

 

Posted in Hirao Auri, Yuri Manga | 3 Comments »


Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 6 (私の百合はお仕事です!)

March 12th, 2020

Liebe Academy is a “concept cafe” set in the world of a popular series of Yuri novels. When cafe manager Mai broke her arm, high school student Hime ends up filling in as one of the “student”-waitresses at the cafe where, she ends up in a contentious sister relationship with her former best friend from elementary school, Yano. In Volume 5, we get a deep look at Yano’s fraught history of rejection and ostracism and we learn her perspective on Hime’s betrayal, and about the ideal self she is striving to become.

In Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 6 (私の百合はお仕事です!) by Miman, Hime and Kanako express an interest in staying on the roster, now that Mai’s arm is healed. The cafe is gearing up to celebrate Yano/Ayanokouji’s birthday, but Mitsuki is sick. Hime is given the task to visit Mitsuki at home and what follows is a veritable lancing of the various festering wounds in Yano’s psyche. Hime’s desire to understand Yano’s real self isn’t helping and she pours out her pain…and once again, offers Hime her heart. All of Yano’s behavior is now explicable. What Hime will do with her new knowledge is key.

When they are all gathered once again at the cafe, Hime makes a sudden announcement…she’ll be leaving after all.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 4 Mitsuki’s cleavage is its own character
Yuri – 7 When it lands, it lands hard

This was not an easy set of chapters to read either in the magazine or as a collected volume. Yano’s experiences are something I imagine many of us will resonate with. And I cannot be the only one reading the moment Yano confesses her feelings, screaming “No, Don’t do it! You’ll only get your heart broken!” Yes, yes, we all know that Hime and Yano will very probably end up together, but once again, I am not copacetic with this choice. Yano deserves someone who will treasure her.

Volume 6 of Yuri is My Job will be released in English in June, and so will, quite probably Volume 7 in Japanese but we don’t have a link for that, yet. ^_^

Posted in Miman, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Cocoon Entwined, Volume 2

March 11th, 2020

Yuriko Hara’s Yuri manga Cocoon Entwined, Volume 2, continues a story of unspoken longing and deep emotion at a girl’s school. And hair.

When I reviewed Volume 2 in Japanese, I said, “To be honest, I did not think that hair could play more of a role than it did [in Volume 1].

I was wrong.”

And indeed I was wrong, as it is the hair itself that provides us the opening narrative.

From there we move on to meet a fourth piece on this complicated chessboard, Kujou, who is the White queen to Hoshimiya’s Black Queen. We now find ourselves looking back and forth at these two, wondering if the game they are caught up in has any meaning for the school, the girls who go there, or us.

What is relevant for me is what will happen between Saeki and Yokozawa. Will Yokozawa be able to disentangle the school prince from whatever binds her and Hoshimiya? I kind of hope so.

Kudos to Yen Press’s production folks for making the grey type visible on the black background. So much better than the JP volume, where it was close to unreadably dark.
 
Ratings:

Art – Hair
Characters – Yokozawa is a 10
Story – Hair
Service – Absolutely still hair
Yuri – 7, a love triangle, a chess game and hair

Overall – 8

I really wanted to just post this as the whole review.

 

Posted in English Anime, Yuri Manga | No Comments »