Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – July 4, 2020

July 4th, 2020

Yuri Manga

Everything old is new again! Ninin ga Shinobuden returns in a sequel. Crystalyn Hodgkins has the scoop over at ANN. You can take a look at a sample in Japanese on Comic Newtype.

Also over at ANN, Jennifer Sherman reports that Battle Athletes Daiundōkai ReSTART! getting an anime and a manga on Comic Ruelle & Comic Jardin’s website. The story will include returning and new characters.

Speaking of Comic Ruelle, YNN Correspondent Patricia B wants you to know that Sono.N’s doujinshi series SHWD has been picked up for serialization. This series about beefy women in a special forces section is currently licensed for translation by Lilyka which is very conveniently having a special 20% off sale this weekend! Basically, if you buy all 5 issue, you’ll be getting one for free.

We have a lot of new license announcements this week, thank you very much to Senior YNN Corrspondent Sean G and Yurimother for their efforts to keep us all up to date:

Yen Press has announced two Yuri licenses – Kujira’s Sekai Owari to Majou no Koi (世界の終わりと魔女の恋), as A Witch’s Love at the End of the World and Strawberry Fields Once Again by Kazura Kinosaki. You can read my reviews of Strawberry Fields wo Mou Ichido ( ストロベリー・フィールズをもう一度 ) here on Okazu.

Seven Seas has also announced two Yuri licenses. Asumiko Nakamura’s A White Rose in Bloom. You can read my review of this in Japanese as Mejirobana no Saku (メジロバナの咲く). Interestingly, Rakuen Le Paradis magazine just posted on Twitter that this series is continuing in Volume 33. Yay! I want to know what will happen to Ruby and Steph.

I’m very pleased that Seven Seas has announced the license for Shio Usui’s Donuts Under a Crescent Moon, which I have reviewed here as Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 1 (欠けた月とドーナッツ) and which I really like. ^_^
 

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Via Comic Natalie, Arata Iri’s “painful high school love comedy” Amedemo, Haredemo (雨でも晴れでも) Volume 1, sounds awfully like a nod to classic Yuri, Futtemo, Harettemo (降っても晴れっても).

Volume 3 of Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteiru, (山先生と寺野先生は付き合っている) is out and up on the Yuricon Store!

 

Yuri Light Novel

Via Yurimother, J-Novel Club has announced a new series by Ameco Kaeruda, author of Sexiled,  A Lily Blooms in Another World. I started reading this, but have only gotten a little way in. ^_^

 

LGBTQ News

I finally sat down and listened to Dr. Grace Ting’s lecture for Waseda University, Building a Queer Feminist Life: Research and Community Across Borders. I recommend it, especially if you are currently seeking to find the truth of your self and work right now. This would have been very powerful to a younger me and was, to me now, a very inspiring look at creating a queer identity.

Brad Krautwurst on Twitter created this informative thread of trans/non-binary sci-fi/fantasy authors. There’s some great stuff on this list.

Via the Official Godzilla Twitter account from TOHO, here is a lovely short video by beeragon, called”Coming Out for Pride month. ^_^ It’s fabulous, give it a watch. (Everything about this sentence is absolutely amazing and wonderful, when you think about it!)

 

Other News

Via Geocities Shrine Maiden on Twitter, Riyoko Ikeda admitted that she based Oscar’s unearthly beauty in The Rose of Versailles on David Bowie. ^_^

You too can smell like the Sailor Senshi! Take a look at the scents for the Outers and Starlights, and Sailor Moon and the Inners.

A bunch of online events of happening this weekend, Anime Expo Lite and Funimation Con among them. Helen has put together a comprehensive spreadsheet with all this weekend’s event schedules. This is a brilliant resource, thanks Helen!

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 important part of the Okazu family. I couldn’t do it without you!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 7 Comments »


Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 4 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)

July 2nd, 2020

In Tamifull’s Yuri drama Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 4 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな), we are confronted with something we don’t see very often at all in Yuri…two people who may just not be compatible sexually.

When we met Saeko and Miwa, we guessed that they each had some less than wonderful sexual experiences when they were young, (as so many gay people do, if we were trying to have straight sex,) but that does not explain what is going on with Saeko and Miwa now. Yes, their timing is bad and yes, they are both busy. But when they have the time and are in the mood, they still don’t seem to be matching up well…and it’s poisoning their relationship. What’s worse is that they genuinely like and probably love one another.

Saeko is obsessed with this, but can’t see her way through it. Miwa is aware that there is a problem, but every time they get close to talking about it, something comes up. And again, they are busy and there are exams and  live performances and past regrets and million other things that get in the way. Saeko can only see one alternative, so she suggests that they break up.

And…while Saeko and Miwa are trying to balance all of this with their club, and friends, and work, they are not the only people who have complicated lives. This story is much less a romance now, and much more a survey of the infinite complexity of human emotions.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8 More complicated with every volume
Characters – 7 I’m still rooting for everyone, but not sure I actually like anyone
Yuri – 7 / LGBTQ – 6 It’s getting queerer
Service – 4

Overall – 8

I find myself no longer rooting for them as a couple, although I am rooting for them as individuals. Maybe, if we and they are to be honest, they shouldn’t be together. I’ve certainly known plenty of people like that in real life. They make great friends – even friends who have sex – but aren’t a great couple. What if their individual pathologies just…clash? What if they just aren’t compatible?  What if the “might have been”s and the “well, maybe”s are keeping them from moving on? You can tune in to Shogakukan’s webcomic site UraSunday to keep up with current chapters in Japanese and find out..

This series has been licensed in English – How Do We Relationship?, Volume 1 is on sale now from Viz Media!

Posted in Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Fujyourina Atashi-tachi, Volume 2 ( 不条理なあたし達)

July 1st, 2020

Yamanaka is, for lack of a better term, a jerk. In Volume 1, we meet her teasing her colleague Taneda mercilessly. When Taneda invite Yamanaka to a lesbian bar, Yamanaka thinks “this’ll be fun.” Jok’es on her, because Taneda turns the tables on her and their relationship becomes an amusing tale of two people jerking each others’ chains.

Fujyourina Atashi-tachi, Volume 2 ( 不条理なあたし達) begins with the two of them as a fairly happy couple. Their friends at the lesbian bar still can’t quite get their heads around Taneda being gay, until her ex shows up and Yamanaka’s feathers get all puffed. More interestingly, Taneda’s do as well and they quickly assert their mutual property rights. ^_^

Work is getting heavy so Taneda steps up and asks to be relied upon and, unusually for her, Yamanaka lets herself lean on her lover. So when she gets news that her mother is in the hospital, she can just run off.  Yamanaka is forced to confront her complicated feelings about her family’s relationship to her and her own feelings about being out to them.

Yamanaka discovers a number of truths that many of us discover as we age – things that drove rifts between us and our families when we were younger become not less urgent, but less complicated, as we get older. Yamanaka’s mother signals acceptance and Yamanaka is left thinking that she might actually be able to introduce her lover to her family…something she had clearly given up on.

What began as two people who couldn;t be less suited to one another is now clearly a couple with their own vibe that suits them very well.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Lesbian – 10

Overall – 9

I’m always a huge fan of Takemiya-sensei’s work and this story especially hits the spot for me  – adult women teasing each other and the people around them, those complicated expressions she draws so well, and real life concerns of being out and even being “lesbian enough” to be accepted in queer circles. Taneda and Yamanak may have an absurd relationship, but it’s one I enjoyed watching develop.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Always Human by Ari North

June 29th, 2020

Some years back, I received an email about a comic on Webtoons that I might find interesting. And indeed, when I had a chance to check out Always Human, by Ari North, I did indeed find it interesting. I originally reviewed the webcomic in 2017.

Always Human is about Sunati and Austen, two young women who meet, fall in love and have to make the kinds of decisions all young people developing their careers and lives have to make. In a future where people’s appearance can be changed with “mods,” Austen is unable to use mods, and is unwilling to be seen as special or have her condition seen as the sum of who she is. This is a story that folks with many kinds of conditions can relate to.

Both Austen and Sunati have obstacles to overcome in their own lives, and in their relationship, but we’re rooting for them all the way. Set in a future when society does not appear to be one of those obstacles, the story lets us settle in and just enjoy the human aspect.

What really captures the reader instantly is the vibrant color palette North uses, and how the color is more than just background or tone. Tied into Sunati’s look, the color scheme adds as much depth of meaning to scenes as the words and shapes used do….something we’re used to seeing in fine art, not comic art.

When I heard it was to be made into a book, I wondered how it was going to look, since Webtoons is so specifically designed for phone consumption, with vertical format. I’m ecstatic to tell you that here in 2020, Always Human has been made into an absolutely magnificent book. North has reworked the layout completely, so the reader can be transported wholly into the story without having to adjust for the vertical layout on the print page. I love the extra touch of the hardcover book being the cover design for the webcomic underneath the dust jacket. Every detail is so well thought out.

I can only imagine how arduous a process reworking the layout must have been, so my kudos to artist North, editor Rachel Gluckstern, Rob Wall on layout  and all the folks at Little Bee, who made this a beautiful, book, a seamless reading experience and a charming story.

I picked up the hardcover and will be very glad to have this visually rich book on my shelves.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Characters – 10
Story – 10
LGBTQ – 10
Service -1 on principle only

Overall – 10

Always Human is a radiant story of love, of life and of a hopeful future.

Posted in LGBTQ, Western Comic/Comix, Yuri Webcomics | 8 Comments »


Steven Universe the Movie and Steven Universe Future

June 28th, 2020

2013 seems a lifetime ago now, doesn’t it? Steven Universe was created in a whole different era, practically. The series’ message of hope and growth and love has resonated widely…possibly even more so, as our future turned less hopeful and more dystopic. I’ve reviewed all of the “seasons” as they came out on Amazon Prime, so the numbering is vastly different than the seasons on disk or by CN’s reckoning.

If you aren’t familiar with the show or why I think it’s worth watching, here are my previous reviews:
Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6 | Season 7

Steven Universe is ultimately a story about personal growth, and it includes arcs about love and acceptance, about parenting, about working through dysfunctional family dynamic and toxic and abusive relationships. It includes a queer wedding and some very catchy music.

In a year, we went from a government that finally accepted our relationship, and was working towards broader inclusivity, to a nightmare dystopia. In 2016, my wife and I started to watch an episode or two every night before bed, as a kind of anti-anxiety medicine. Not gonna lie…it worked. We still do “take” two episodes most nights. We reach the end, then start over.

Mild spoilers and major links to music videos to follow. ^_^

In Steven Universe the Movie, Steven and the Gems have a similar experience. The future looks very bright for them and the possibilities are endless…until yet another relic from Pink Diamond’s past pops up and takes revenge for how she was treated. It is, maybe, a little too on the money for those of us in 2020, thinking back with nostalgia, but it’s not nostalgia that saves them, it’s acknowledging the sins of the past, and repairing the hurt, so everyone can grow. Still, way too close for comfort, but critically important to remember.

The music in this movie is both incredibly catchy, ridiculously sticky and in several cases, deeply painful. What made this movie worth watching is that once again, we are reminded that Steven Universe was never a story about a magical boy fighting monsters, it was always a story about personal growth. Watching the Gems recalling who they had been and how they became who they are, was masterfully done. With a musical bonus. The fusion Opal was voiced by Aimee Mann (whose hit song as ‘Til Tuesday, Voices Carry I remember playing – and watching on MTV – on a loop as a teen). I was delighted that she and her musical partner, Ted Leo, get a powerful song during a climactic scene here.

One of the overall themes of Steven Universe as a series has been that choices have consequences…and if you’re not dealing with the consequences of your choices…then someone else is.

The end of the movie is the most spectacular Takarazuka reference. We literally screamed our lungs out when we saw it the first time. Just…..wowowowow, holy crow wow.

 

Steven Universe Future is about what happens when you keep pushing off the consequences of your decisions.

The entire season is focused on Steven coming to grips with a future that he helped build, but which may not actually include him. Like every hero returning from their journey to the underworld, he’s paid a price and like all the heroes before him, that price is normality. Or…is it? Sure Frodo couldn’t stay in Hobbiton, but…he was oozing out of that place long before he left. We all do. I liked the community I grew up in, but I’ve never wanted to return. Part of growing up in the USA has traditionally been leaving your home behind. And just because you’ve returned from the heroes journey doesn’t have to mean you’re done.  Maybe journeying is what you’ll always be doing, and maybe a hero could make an amazing psychopomp because they’ve been there and done that.

Future has one last Utena reference for us and it’s a doozy, so get your roses out and get ready to duel. ^_^ (Also a side-eye to Sailor Moon.)

We cannot fix the past by ignoring it. We can only admit the truth, be the best possible people we are now and allow people to find their own way forward. It’s not an idealist vision of the future, it’s a realist’s vision. The future may or may not look bright, but we’ve still got to put the work in, no matter what.

Once more I want to thank Rebecca Sugar and all the folks on the SU team, with my eternal gratitude for the amazing writing, animation, music and voice acting. I am endlessly surprised by this series, no matter how many times I watch it. And I’ve watched it a lot of times.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

Steven Universe has given us a process by which we may move forward towards the future. It’s up to us to build the future we want.

Posted in Steven Universe, Western Cartoons | No Comments »