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Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – January 13, 2024
Yuri Cafes & Collaborations
Starting off the new year with another I’m In Love With The Villianess event, we have the Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou Maid Cafe at Pure Cafe in Chiyoda-ku in Tokyo, through January 28. The cafe even has a promotional video you can watch on the cafe’s Twitter account.
In the “things I did not predict I would be writing about in 2024,”category comes this collaboration by Sukera Sparo’s Lip Trip and Soup Curry Kamui collaboration. The collab event is over now, but it’s important to remember it happened, so we all don’t think we hallucinated it. ^_^
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Yuri Anime
Discotek announced the license of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A‘s in high def. I’m holding out for StrikerS, which never got a release back in the day.
Yuri Audiobook
I’m In Love With The Villainess Audiobook, Volume 3 came out this week – I’m about 2/3 finished with it. It begins the Nur arc and I really think narrator Courtney Shaw does a fine job, except for some of the name pronunciations, which I do not think is her fault. She’s got a few voices that are simply excellent.
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Yuri Manga
Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 2, (気になってる人が男じゃなかった) hits Japanese shelves at the end of February! Now that Yen has licensed This Monster Wants To Eat Me, we can start haranguing asking them nicely about getting this title. ^_^
Via YNN Correspondent Patricia B., Nerikomi Tokichiro’s crowdfunded manga, Tsurugi, about a female knight and the woman she serves, is now available in English on Booth.pm.
Wings magazine celebrated the new chapter of Kase-san and Yamada in the February issue with an adorable illustration on Twitter.
Hara Yuriko has a new collection of post-Mayu, Matou / Cocoon, Entwined stories, titled Out of The Cocoon (アウト・オブ・ザ・コクーン) which is out now in Japan! Cocoon, Entwined, Volume 5 came out in English last month from Yen Press.
Via Comic Natalie, we have a collection of work by Sanke, Hitori to Hanasu node Seiippai (ひとりと話すので精一杯).
And from Yuri Navi, we have a one-shot manga on Ichijin Plus online, Akuyaku Reijou to Gyaru Meido (悪役令嬢とギャルメイド) a comedy about Selina, a former gal reincarnated in the world of otome game “Magic Dedicated to Your Future,” who ends up working for Almeria, the villainess who appears in the game.
Other News
Shoujo Beat is asking for suggestions of their shoujo manga folks want to see back in print on Twitter.
Via YNN Correspondent Frank H, Cambridge Press has a new translation of the “complete” works of Sappho. As most of you know, we have a lot of fragments of her works and not much complete poetry. There is also an audio version available, which I bet is pretty cool.
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I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 2
Rae and Claire are about to face their reckoning, once again, in I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 2. The revolution is upon them, the various forces are arrayed against them and their allies are dispersed. Will Rae Taylor, reborn into this world, be able to save her Villainess love?
This second volume is even better than the first in terms of story. Everything between Rae and Claire moves more quickly, as the forces pushing the revolution increase the pressure. The wave of change catches the two of them up and some significant things are done and said. Narrrator Courtney Shaw is absolutely brilliant, especially as Claire at the climax of the narrative. Equally, she’s delivers devastating pathos in the final chapters of the book. Those of you who have read it know why. Those who have not, may wish to have a tissue or hanky at the ready. The only complaint I have is the continued (and in this volume, expanded) odd choices for pronunciation of a few names, but it’s not worth getting upset over. It’s just a small minor objection to what is otherwise a fantastic narration.
If you reading the light novel did not appeal to you, or you’d just like to know what happens after the anime ended, this audiobook version is highly recommended. If you are already a fan of the series, I’d say this a really terrific way to experience the feels all over again. Shaw does a very good job giving Claire and Rae personality and charm. She makes Rod slightly unpalatable, Yuu fragile, and Thane impenetrable…until we understand him better.
And for those of you already enjoying this audiobook series, Volume 3 was released this week and is up on the Yuricon Store, with a number of purchase or streaming options. Book 4 is coming in February, you can pre-order it now on B&N and Bookwalker Global. It is clear that Seven Seas Siren is getting these out with alacrity, while the series is popular. I have a fannish hope we’ll hear some news about a second anime season before these are completed in March. ^_^
Ratings (for the adaptation only):
Overall – 9
Private ha Honnin-tachi ni Makasete Orimasu (プライベートは本人たちに任せております)
I picked up a copy of Private Ha Honnin-tachi Ni Makasete Orimasu (プライベートは本人たちに任せております) (translated in English on the frontispiece as Private Life Is Left To Them, Yuri Talext x Yuri Anthology) on a whim while at Gamers, I think, in Tokyo.
Once more, there are shelves and shelves of Yuri anthologies, many of them generated by publishing companies like Kadokawa and Ichijinsha to harness the creators who contribute to contests, or are recruited at events, or send in work for publication, much like a farm league for manga. Many manga publishers are now also having editors for web editions and anthology collections appear at events like Comitia for portfolio review. Of course, sometimes one still comes across a smaller publisher or circle creating an anthology. Galette magazine, for instance, is still out there doing a fantastic quarterly Yuri manga magazine that I am horribly behind on reviewing.
As I have said, I didn’t go to Japan with a long list of books to get this last time. It’s much easier to get books shipped or digitally distributed nowadays. So I only picked up things I hadn’t seen before or that looked really interesting. This book falls into the former category. Pop idols who are queer does interest me, as I have a 2 (soon to be the 3) novella series on the topic. This collection includes stories by creators Kashikaze (I Can’t Say No To The Lonely Girl, coming in April from Seven Seas), Yukiko (Cats and Sugar Bowls, also from Seven Seas)and Mikanuji (Assorted Entanglements and other works, out from Yen Press.)
As with most manga anthologies, the contributions here are more extended scenarios, rather than complete stories. These scenarios focus on the private lives of queer pop idols. Whether their admirers or partners are a staff member, or fan or member of the same group, these stories are all designed to end with the two partners happy in each others’ company.
The first story does have some problematic content, so be warned about creepy, stalkery behavior from a person who ins position of power who abuse that powers in a way that didn’t sit right with me. But most of the stories are harmless to cute.
Now that there is some distance between when I read it and reviewing it now, the one story that stood out the most was by Kaibashira, about a pair of idols who are at odds in all their media appearances. One is, apparently a doofus, the other absolutely disgusted with her easy-going partner. They are constantly bickering on-camera. In real life, they are actually deeply in love and still basically a doofus and a bitch. On a day off, they are mobbed by fans. The bitch character puts the fans off by saying there’s no way they could possibly be friends. But when alone again, she breaks down, upset that she denied their relationship. So the next time it happens, the doofus says proudly that they are dating! And they live happily ever after, one supposes.
A lot of the endings are “one supposes.” We’re not getting epilogues here, so we might as well suppose. ^_^
Ratings:
Overall – 7
As a fun and harmless exploration of how things might be being a queer idol, this is an interesting prompt for an anthology.
Just Friends by Ana Oncina, Guest Review by Em Evergreeen
Em Evergreen is a lonely lesbian with a manga addiction. Find her at linktr.ee/em.evergreen.Just Friends is a one volume Yuri manga by Spanish mangaka Ana Oncina. Originally published by Planeta Cómic in Spain in 2021, the English edition comes to us courtesy of Tokyopop, with translations by Nanette Cooper-McGuinness. Just Friends was awarded a silver medal at the Japanese Ministry of the Exterior’s International Manga Awards in 2023.Just Friends has the form of a manga, with right-to-left paneling and Japanese-language sound effects, but the lower-line-count art style hints at its overseas origin. It’s an opportunity to read a different type of Yuri, one that plays with the tropes of a culturally distinct adolescence – no sailor uniforms, student council officers, or onigiri are in evidence. Instead our story is set at sleep-away camp, where our teenage characters wear graphic tees and eat pizza and baloney sandwiches.Our protagonist, the introverted Erika, is reluctantly packed off to said camp without any close friends. On the bus there, she meets her polar opposite Emi, who takes an immediate interest in Erika and declares them “inseparable” before they even arrive. The story of their whirlwind relationship that summer is framed by more brief flash-forwards into their future, where we see them meet again as thirty-somethings. As with any good real-life sleep-away camp, the setting gives Erika the chance to step outside her comfort zone, figure out some things about herself, and perhaps explore that most new and exciting phenomenon to a teen – romance.To some young adult readers, especially queer ones raised in a similar context, the story will at times be almost painfully relatable. The realistic depictions of social anxiety, bullying, awkwardness, and underage-drinking-fueled misadventures might resonate a bit too strongly for comfort, but you’ll likely chuckle more than cry. Erika and her peers don’t have the communication or conflict resolution skills of adults, but their conflicts aren’t the focus. This is a romance at its core, with a side of navigating heteronormative expectations while figuring out who you are.Just Friends is very much not a Yuri without lesbians. Its mix of LGBTQ issues and romance is distinguished from recent standouts like Shio Usui’s Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon or Sakaomi Yuzaki’s She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat by its strong focus on the drama of adolescence. In that respect, it calls to mind Yuhki Kamatani’s Our Dreams at Dusk, though it’s lighter in tone and less ambitious in scope. Just don’t go into Just Friends expecting a neat and tidy ending, or a sweet story of first love. It’s too grounded in the complexities of real-world romantic relationships, teenage and adult, to give us that. Like all good one volume manga, it leaves you wanting more.Art – 5, effective if not awe-inspiringStory – 8, a nostalgic, bittersweet romanceCharacters – 6, more realistic than memorableService – 3, sex isn’t ignored, but the teens aren’t leered at or sexualizedYuri – 10, Houston, we have lesbians (and/or bisexuals)Overall – 7
