Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 16, 2020

May 16th, 2020

Events

Normally around this time of year, this segment of the news report would be filled with Yuri panels and appearances. To be honest, I am not planning on attending a live event for the rest of 2020 at the absolutely minimum. (Honestly, I’m still iffy about 2021, because I know history and expect a second wave of COVID-19, as with the Spanish Flu. Not to be a downer, but I’d expect this to be ongoing well into 2022.) But this year events are going online and showing some success already. Air Comiket (which I was following closely on Twitter) was really quite wonderful. The Comiket twitter feed made the usual announcements, directing people to places and cautioning folks against running. They paged people and shared videos of previous years so we could applaud when the event opened and “walk up” the stairs to Big Sight. Artists set up tables in their homes and promoted their work online. Kim Morrissy over at ANN says that I was among the 440,000 people who enjoyed the AirComi experience together from their computer screens. I thought it absolutely delightful.

San Diego Comic Con has announced an online Comic-Con@Home event. ANN’s Crystalyn Hodgkins has the details.

The Cartoon Art Museum is holding the Queer Comics Expo this weekend on Discord!

I will be holding an Online Yuri Panel on May 31 on Youtube. (link will be forthcoming.) I’ll also be holding an Okazu Patron Backstage Event on May 27, where they can post questions I’ll answer at the panel and get to watch (and laugh) as I set up my “studio.” Support Yuri reviews, news and interviews – and get “backstage” access –  become an Okazu Patron today and help us support the Yuri ecosystem!

Yuri Manga

We have a bunch of new titles up on the Yuricon Store:

tMnR’s If I Could Reach You, Volume 4 is already available. This story is perfect if you like relationship angst and unresolved sexual tension.

Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Volume 8, in which the combined Senshi defeat Neherenia and free Helios.

Galette, No. 14 (ガレット) has been released in print through direct sale only in limited quantities, but is available for the JP Kjndle in Japan, and on Global Bookwalker next week for folks outside of Japan.

Speaking of Galette, they’ve released a bunch of free sample chapters, including Hakamada Mera’s Sekai ga Owaru Sono Mae ni (世界が終わるそのまえに), Hamano Ringo’s Sora-iro Melancholic (空色メランコリック) and Yatosaki Haru’s Ami-chan no Nikki (あみちゃんの日記).

Comic Walker offers a free sample chapter of Kyuuketsuki to Yobaretai (吸血鬼と呼ばれたい) by Pyaa, about vampire girls who attend Vlad Gakuen, and I mention this primarily because my wife immediately said, “What? Not Saint Vlad Gakuen? Missed opportunity.” and I want you to have that stuck in your head as it is in mine. ^_^

 

Yuri Light Novels

Hitomi Iruma’s Adachi to Shimamura, Volume 2 is slated for a September release in print, but will be getting an end-of-May release on Kindle!

 

Yuri Doujinshi

Also on Kindle is Ruri Hazuki’s REFACTORS 1: Nana  & Kanon, a workplace romance doujinshi we encountered at Girl Love Festival during the 100 Years of Yuri Tour.

If you like Hazuki’s work, Lilyka has just also added her -3.25 Hazy World Saturday – Lunch Menu – 2, a continuation of her office romance series named after days of the week.

Minamoto Hisanari, creator of the delightful Fu~Fu (ふ～ふ) manga, has released a Fu~Fu 10th anniversary doujinshi for Air Comiket that is available on Melonbooks. This is Act 1, and an Act 2 is supposed to follow later. There are sample pages on the Melonbooks site. 

Hayate x Blade creator Hayashiya Shizuru, has a new doujinshi series out that combines two of my favorite things: Yanki girls and food. Yan  Koi Shokudo (ヤン恋食堂) Set A (which offers some sample pages) and Set B look amazing. Hayashiya-sensei said on Twitter there will be a Set C and she apologizes, but she hasn’t gotten to the Yuri part yet…. ^_^

I’ll take this opportunity to tell you that, despite the fact that Japan Post has had to suspend shipments to the USA and other  countries, because of the slow-down of commercial flighst, proxy service Tenso has added DHL shipping as an option.  I’ve used Tenso before (and am using them now for these and a bunch of other doujinshi) and can recommend them as a buying service. Signing up is free, you just prove you identity. You are assigned a Japanese address, to which you can ship your items. Tenso will hold the items for a time, if you need to combine orders. And when you ship from Tenso to you, there are multiple shipping options. I was willing to let these go by sea, but since DHL is available, why wait? ^_^ (Tenso also has a proxy buying service, if you don’t read Japanese and don’t want to figure out their almost-always exhausting hoops to buy stuff. I don’t know why, but my goodness buying from a Japanese site has so many steps!

 

Lesbian Anthology

One more Kindle item of note! Silk & Steel: An adventure anthology of queer sf&f with high femmes & dashing women pre-order on Kindle is now available. And I gotta say that the lineup they’ve got is genuinely fantastic. Aliette de Bodard, Ellen Kushner, Yoon Ha Lee, Django Wexler and more. I have already pre-ordered this and cannot wait to read it. ^_^

 

Queer Cartoons

Via Dinah Frost on Twitter, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are now officially a couple in the Harley Quinn cartoon.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Season 5 has dropped on Netflix and it’s everything we could have hoped.

 

Other News

I was deeply honored and delighted to be asked to contribute to the British Film Institute‘s Sight and Sound magazine‘s Anime Special: 50 Essential Films summer issue. I can’t wait for you all to read it. It looks amazing!

 

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!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »


Aikata System ~ Gakuen ga Eranda Unmei no Onna no ko~, Volume 1 (相方システム~学園が選んだ運命の女の子~)

May 15th, 2020

Hakamada Mera is a name that is well-known around here on Okazu. From her early days with Saigo no Seifuku, originally published by Hobunsha (and eventually Seven Seas as The Last Uniform, as part of their original Yuri imprint, Strawberry and eventually reprinted in a 2-volume edition) through  Kanojyo no Sekai (彼女の世界) with Tokuma Shoten and, more recently, her excellent story in Galette magazine,  Fuwafuwa・Futashika・Yumemitai, Volume 1 (ふわふわ・ふたしか・夢みたい). Here Hakamada-sensei is again, working with yet another publisher, Dogenzaka Shobo, and their new to me imprint Lilie Comics. I gotta give this woman props. She’s really persevered, drawing the the stories she wants the way she wants.

Aikata System ~ Gakuen ga Eranda Unmei no Onna no ko~, Volume 1 (相方システム~学園が選んだ運命の女の子~) is right in her sweet spot – a school life drama with some real life drama baked in.

Nao’s school draws some of the best students because of the famous ‘Aikata System’ – a test that pairs you with you your perfect partner. Nao’s partner is one of the stars of the school, Ibuki, which puts a lot of pressure on Nao. Ibuki’s fan club is not at all okay with some first-year taking their idol’s attention…and Ibuki is definitely giving Nao a lot of attention.It’s frankly overwhelming. When Ibuki asks Nao to do the Aikata ritual with her, it looks awfully like a wedding ceremony and kiss.

Nao’s classmate Kaero has the opposite problem. Abiko-sensei is beautiful, with a voice like an angel and a really shitty attitude. Worse, Kaero is falling in love with her…and can see that Abiko is in love with Ibuki. Nao and Kaero are there to provide support to each other, at least, but it’s pretty clear that Ibuki and Abiko have some history that will have to be dealt with before anyone can move on.

Hakamada-sensei’s art has really tightened up over the years and, while her storytelling will never be sweeping epic, her characters here are likable. Which is all we can really ask of a school life drama.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 6

Overall – 8

Volume 2 is out in Japan and I think I’ll be adding it to the next order. I kind of want to see what’s going to happen.

Posted in Hakamada Mera, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Éclair orange – Anata ni Hibiku Yuri Anthology (エクレア orange あなたに響く百合アンソロジー)

May 13th, 2020

Last month, we took a look at the Yen Press translation of the second Éclair Yuri anthology in English Éclair Blanche: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart. As I have repeatedly said, Yuri anthologies hold a really important place in Yuri manga’s history and, as a result, I love and adore them as a concept. They give established creators a chance to stretch their skills outside their current works and new creators a chance to gain some publishing chops. Before Pixiv, Webtoons and other online platforms, anthologies were the next step up from doujinshi for new manga creators. I’m still so very excited that you can experience an anthology series like Éclair, with the thrill of seeing familiar names and the joy of discovering new ones.

To that end, today, we’re looking at the fourth in the series, Éclair orange – Anata ni Hibiku Yuri Anthology (エクレア orange あなたに響く百合アンソロジー). Cover art and cover story are by Bloom Into You creator Nakatani Nio, and the table of contents is filled with names you already know, like Cocoon, Entwined creator, Hara Yuriko, and names you might be less familiar with, like Kiriyama Haruka and Kabocha, both of whom do great Yuri work.

I didn’t have a favorite story this volume, although I quite liked most of them (Itou Hachi’s work has always made me uncomfortable and recently I have not been finding it at all enjoyable.) The mix in this volume of school and adult life is pretty solid and there’s even a science fiction story by Yuikawa Kazuno – for whom Kadokawa has put out a collected volume, Éclair Special Kazuno Yuikawa Masterpiece Collection (エクレアSpecial 雑草譚 結川カズノ百合作品傑作選), as they did previously for Kitao Taki last year.

Those of you who liked Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl creator Canno’s story in Éclair Blanche,will be delighted to know that it continues this far along into the series.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

A very solid and enjoyable Yuri anthology. I’m betting that the next color in the series will be noir. Or violet.

Posted in Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »


Sayonara Rose Garden, Volume 3 (さよならローズガーデン)

May 12th, 2020

Goodbye, My Rose Garden, Volume 1 by Dr. Pepperco is is out now in English from Seven Seas and in honor of this series coming out in English, I thought I’d finish it up in Japanese. ^_^

In Volume 1, we meet Hanako, who has traveled all the way to England from Japan to meet her favorite author, Victor Franks. In Volume 2, the secret of who Victor Franks is, is uncovered. Now, in Sayonara Rose Garden, Volume 3 (さよならローズガーデン) Hanako has time to deal with her feelings about Alice’s impending marriage to Edward. All of this is played out in a mostly-predctable way, with a small twist that is not just unpredictable but also wholly unrealistic–but that’s fine.

Relatedly (it is related to this and another “historical” thing I’m reading right now…and I mean those scare quotes…) in 1861 when England rewrote the penal code of homosexuality to remove the death penalty, homosexuality between women was left unmentioned. The apocryphal story goes that Queen Victoria didn’t believe that such a thing existed, but she was no dummy, so I doubt that. Not that it was legal or accepted. Just unmentioned.)

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 3
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

In any case, this book has the ending it deserved and not the one I expected, so yay! You’ll be able to read it for yourself as Volume 2 is headed your way this summer on Amazon in print. No digital link yet, on Amazon or Global Bookwalker for the English volume.)

Posted in Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Bloom Into You, Volume 7

May 11th, 2020

If Bloom Into You were a movie, this would be the part of the movie where, instead of hastening towards the climax, as American movies do, the characters would spend the next half hour moping, then run halfway across town to finally see each other, but Bloom Into You isn’t a movie, so while Touko and Yuu do exactly as described above, there is a different person for us to follow while they mope.

In Bloom Into You, Volume 7, Sayaka confronts her final boss, the fear inside herself. Happily, she doesn’t do it alone, because Sayaka has an adult role model to speak to, happy day! Miyako takes Sayaka on a reconnaissance mission and for the first time, Sayaka gets to talk to someone like her, and see what life can become. Fortified by the knowledge that she is choosing to do what she wants to for herself, so she can grow from it, Sayaka finally confesses her feelings to Touko.

…And the movie resumes, with Yuu and Touko running across town to see each other and finally have their own moment.

I’ve never been terribly invested in Yuu and Touko as a couple, not because I don’t like them, or because they shouldn’t be together, but just because this story was always presented to us as a Yuri romance. Yuu and Touko were fait accompli from the beginning. But Sayaka was a delightful – and meaningful – addition to the story.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8 The Sayaka parts are a 9
Characters – 9 They’ve developed into people now
Service – 1 Really not this volume, but we’ll talk again in V8.
Yuri – 7
Lesbian – 9

Overall – 9

As always, the technical for this are fabulous, Jenny McKeon’s translation does something specific I don’t want to spoil, but that I really liked in the climactic moment between Touko and Sayaka. Adaption, editing and lettering are all top notch, which means you’ll never notice them, but kudos to Jenn Grunigen, Julie Davis and CK Russell and I’m thrilled to see a proofreader, Danielle King. Do take a look at the credits for this volume, because IMHO, this is best of breed. You as a reader get to how many people it takes to get this book to you. I think it’s important that you understand that every book is a village.

I would love a side story about Touko and Yuu learning that Riko-sensei was gay all along. In the meantime Volume 8 is up for pre-order, with an August release date and Volume 3 of Bloom Into You Regarding Saeki Sayaka will be headed our way in the autumn. I can’t wait for you to read it!

Posted in Bloom Into You / Yagate Kimi ni Naru, English Manga, LGBTQ, Nakatani Nio | 12 Comments »