“100 Year of Yuri” T-Shirt on the Yuricon Store

May 7th, 2019

Join the folks at Yuricon and Okazu as we spend a year celebrating the Yuri genre’s 100th Anniversary with our “100 Years of Yuri” T-shirt.

From Yoshiya Nobuko’s “S” novels of the early 20th century, to stories of lesbian life and love, Yuri has changed lives and brought a fandom together. This t-shirt include the Okazu mascots, sharing a moment over their favorite Yuri! We hope you will join then…and us in this anniversary year!

Check out Yuricon News for 100th Anniversary events.

(Women’s shirts view on Redbubble are currently defaulting to white, we are hoping to change that going forward. The design is white and will work on a color shirt only.)

Posted in Yuricon | 2 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Tsurezure Biyori, Volume 2 (徒然日和 )

May 6th, 2019

In Volume 1, we met Koharu and Mafuyu, childhood friends who have once again met now that they are in high school. And, having met again, they are spending time together and realize that they quite like each other. It’s a quiet, pleasant progression, without tension. Friendship neatly sliding into “like.”

In Tsurezure Biyori, Volume 2 (徒然日和 ), we turn our eyes to Koharu and Mafuyu’s friends, roommates Nanaya and Minori. Everything about them reads “married couple” and it is obvious that they both care for one another very much. They are not a couple, however. They are an excellent example of a Boston Marriage, two women who are a family  without being lovers or relatives. The majority of Volume 2 is focused on them, their current relationship, and their past and how much and why they care about one another. It is, once again, pleasant, and even when it’s a bit heart-wringy drama, its never over the top melodrama.

This story is not – has not ever been  – a romance. It is about day to day nothing that makes up a life. We complain about the heat in summer, we have friends over for food, we go to the beach and play in the water. We love and care for our friends…the day-to-dayness of a life being enjoyed. If I had to translate this title, I’d say something like “languid days.” As we head into summer here in my part of the world, I’m kind of looking forward to living this. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7 Simple and pleasant
Story- 7 Same as above
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5 Koharu sleeping over Mafuyu’s house is adorbs
Service – 0

Overall – 8 A pleasant read about nothing in particular.

This series along, with Goodbye Dystopia are two of my favorite Yuri series in which nothing happens, not even much Yuri.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »


Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight ―The LIVE― SHOW MUST GO ON Manga, Volume 1 (matinee) (舞台 少女☆歌劇 レヴュースタァライト )

May 5th, 2019

We enjoyed the Revue Starlight anime, didn’t we? It was fun, with an edge of wtf. The music was appealing, the fights were colorful…there was a giraffe instead of a creepy obsessed adult human which would have made us feel bad.

So, I’m walking around Melonbooks, looking for Junna x Banana doujinshi (and finding a couple of non-skeazy ones!) and I see this: Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight ―The LIVE― SHOW MUST GO ON Manga, Volume 1 (matinee) (舞台 少女☆歌劇 レヴュースタァライト ). The title takes up approximately 50% of the cover. I liked that. I thought, well, how do you create a comic out of a surreal musical action show? So I picked it up.

The only problem with this book is the same problem the anime had – Hikari is unlikable and I don’t care if she ever shines again. But that aside, Ayatsugi Tsubaki does a pretty amazing job of rendering this particular nonsense in comic form.

What hooked me right away was the girls introducing themselves in song. It was loopy and a little gonzo. Of course we must imagine the music, but we can see the words, and the graphics indicate the tenor of the song.  But…the story, when ripped away from the shiny graphical rendering of symbolic fights, suddenly turns darker. I mean that literally. The girls find themselves fighting the faculty, other classes and each other.

I keep mentioning the giraffe, because it is objectively creepy for a bunch of young women to be forced to fight in order to excel on stage. Even more creepy, they sing songs about about their internal struggles, their hopes and dreams and fears. This is not the hallmark of a cutesy story, it is the hallmark of a horror story. Baring their souls, these girls “perform” combat for the ability to star in a horrible, tragic miserable play. The person overseeing the fights being an adult human male would be intolerably horrible. He would immediately become a vampire, feeding off their secrets. And that would suck. (hah) So we get a giraffe, and it gets put into the WTF box.

Here in the manga, the giraffe is merely a symbol of the audition, and the driving force behind the combat is…a creepy adult human woman! Not much less intolerable and yup, she sure comes off as pretty darn vampirey. Everything about her is drawn that way – broad, dark lips, pulled back in a carnivore smile, long dark hair, crazy eyes. And suddenly, this story which makes sense as a triumph of will only if you don’t poke too hard at it, looks about as creeptastic as possible. Hikari’s anger, Karen’s refusal to see the truth, Maya’s ego, Claudine’s self-esteem issues, Junna’s rejection of her true self, Banana’s desire to be loved, Mahiru’s dependence, on and on….the “audition” is a therapist’s office where each girl is forced to lay bare their weakness.

If I thought for a second that the second volume of the manga would not just be a facile reminder of friendship, love, trust, teamwork and belief in self will, triumph, I’d get it. While there’s a lot that could be done with this set up…I’m convinced none of it will be done. I will be happy to be proven wrong.

Ratings:

Art –  7 Really interesting more than good
Story – 7 The way it is rendered is again more interesting than the plot itself
Characters – 7 Still decent, except Hikari
Service – 7 for emotional vampirism, otherwise none
Yuri – Nope

Overall – 7

For a sequential graphic rendering of singing, dancing, and fighting, Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight ―The LIVE― SHOW MUST GO ON, Volume 1 (matinee) is a fascinating visual exercise.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 5 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 4, 2019

May 4th, 2019

Tons of news this week as we get ready for TCAF festivities! (So, no YNN report next week.)

Yuri Events

Galette Yuri Matsuri – May 6 in Tokyo at Culture Culture in Shibuya. The folks from Yuri manga magazine Galette are running a Yuri event of their very own! Artists Momono Moto, Hakamada Mera, Hamano Ringo, Morinaga Milk and Morita Miyuki will be there.

Yuriten 2019 wraps up its time in Nagoya this weekend with a lot of signings! It will move to Fukuoka from May 18-26 for its final week.

Toronto Comic Arts Festival – May 11,12 at the Toronto Reference Library with events in the surrounding area. Check out a 100 Years of Yuri exhibit at the Toronto Reference Library, listen to me talk about 100 Years of Yuri and speak with Kase-san creator Hiromi Takashima and lesbian horror comic artist Emily Caroll! The schedule is jam-packed with great stuff and its free!

Comitia is returning to Tokyo Big Sight on May 12! There’s always tons of good stuff to be had. Galette No. 10 will be available among other Yuri circles.

Queers & Comics – May 17, 18 at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Over 140 LGBTQ cartoonists, scholars, publishers, and librarians will participate on panel discussions. Prism Comics will be running a shop full of amazing queer comics. Don’t miss this biannual event. We’ll be talking about the History of Queer Manga on Saturday evening!

 

Phew, May is a heck of a month for us. Help us to get to these events and pay our writers! If you enjoy our work here – Okazu needs your support. $5/month will make a huge difference for us.

Yuri Manga

Yen Press announced the license for the remainder of the ÉCLAIR: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates In Your Heart series – BLEUE, BLANCHE, and ROUGE by ASCII Media Works. Following anthology Éclair: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart, the series features artists like Reine Hibiki, Miman, Canno, Nakatani Nio.  BLEUE comes to stores everywhere November 2019, BLANCHE in January 2020, and ROUGE in April 2020.

Via YNN Correspondent zestuboshi, Rakuen le Paradis magazine has a chunky sample of Takemiya Jin’s Fujyourina Atashi-tachi( 不条理なあたし達) on their web comics page – click the white bunny on the left, then click April 5th. On April 20th, you can also read Shigasawa Kaya’s Stay Gold, which is a Yuri short, as well. Site and manga are in Japanese.

Chapter 1 of Seta Seta’s funny/weird series Yuri Wall is available in English on Amazon Kindle.

And we’ve got yet another “sweet” Yuri anthology,  Syrup Shakaijin Yuri Anthology (シロップ 社会人百合アンソロジー) featuring stories by Morinaga Milk, Kodama Naoko, Yoshimurakana and more, on the Yuricon Store. The important thing to nore here is that this anthology is from Futabasha, which means we’ve got yet another publisher throwing their hat in the already full Yuri anthology ring.

YNN Correspondent Catherine C. wants you to know that the English language version of Renta, “an online digital manga site targeting primarily women,” recently started publishing Yuri. One of their titles is Want to Sell Me Your Body? which I’ve reviewed here on Okazu (in Japanese).

 

Yuri Anime

YNN Correspondent Super writes in to say that “in the fourth episode of Carole and Tuesday, it was shown that the former wife of one of the side characters is in a happy lesbian relationship and is going to marry with her partner soon.” Thanks Super, something to check out!

 

Yuri Podcasts

Check out the Manga Mavericks Podcast on May 5th where I answer some seriously good, thoughtful questions about Yuri! 

Date TBD, but later this month I’ll be going over some important Yuri history with the Tomochoco Yuri Podcast.

 

Okazu News

We have hit our 4000th post here on Okazu. Wow.  I take a look at an anthology of Yuri brides (that actually includes lesbians and everything!) for that milestone.

 

LGBTQ Manga

Wahh! OUR DREAMS AT DUSK: Shimanami Tasogare is hitting shelves this week! Do not miss this terrific LGBTQ manga, in English from Seven Seas.

 

Other News


From Carmen Philips at Autostraddle,  “Saving Face” Director Alice Wu Is Bringing a Lesbian Teen Rom-Com to Netflix! Also Wahh! Everything about this news sparks joy. ^_^

Japan Times’ Kris Kosaka takes a look at Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon: Two pioneering women in Japanese literature.

DaVinci magazine takes a look at Shimura Takako’s series about a performing arts school which is not-Takarazuka-at-all, Awajima Hyakkei. I am, somewhat to my own surprise, still reading this series. ^_^

 

Do you have questions about Yuri? Write in and ask and I’ll do my best to address them on the Okazu YNN Podcast, 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!

Posted in Yuri Network News | No Comments »


Yuri Manga: White Lilies in Love BRIDE’s 新婚百合アンソロジー

May 2nd, 2019

Where I live, it’s spring and the flowers are blooming, and the trees are that particular shade of new-growth yellow-green that make you believe all is and will be well with the world. What better way to celebrate the energy and joy of this season than with an adorable anthology about lesbian weddings? Sadly we don’t have that, but we do have this lovely Yuri anthology – and it does actually include a lesbian couple. So, that works. 

White Lilies in Love BRIDE’s 新婚百合アンソロジー is one of the many current Yuri anthologies being heaved up by Kadokawa ASCII Mediaworks. Along with the multitudes from Ichijinsha and Futabasha, we are currently up to our neck in Yuri anthologies named after sweet and fragrant things. I am not complaining. ^_^

The first story takes a look at how important communication is in a new marriage, as newlyweds are not dealing with the gaps that have formed between them, and how they need to talk to work things out.

My favorite story, by the currently omnipresent relative newcomer, Miura Kozumi, (whose work I really enjoy) follows a couple who keep being completely blown away by seeing each other as their new bride.  I loved this story for so many reasons. The two actually came out to their families, they had a lovely wedding, parents bought them cheeseball wedding gifts… and they blush to their roots at thinking about how they are newlyweds. This one was cute as a boutonniere.

Tsuzura Ryo’s story was a close second. A young woman whose lover has died sees a fox’s wedding and is able to marry the spirit of her deceased lover. Of course, she’s left living with with both a fox and the spirit of her wife, but that’s okay.

In close third was Kiriyama Haruka’s story of a couple that fights over everything but are wholly suited for one another. I liked the art best from this story as everyone looked their (adult) age.

Ratings:

Art – Variable, none of it bad 8
Story – Same 8
Characters – Everyone is very earnest, except the art teacher 8
Service – 3 A bit
Yuri – 9

Overall, a strong 8

As a nice collection of Yuri wedding bedtime stories, this was top notch.

Posted in Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »