Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 30, 2017

September 30th, 2017

Yuri Anime

ANN has a couple of relevant items about the upcoming Card Captor Sakura Clear Card Arc anime. Fittingly, a classic singer, Sakamoto Maaya, is returning to do the theme. That’ll please all the older fans. ^_^ And announcements have been made on new character casting, as well.

Yuri Foxgirl anime Konohana Kitan is going to be on Crunchyroll this October. Check out Crunchyroll’s promotional video for the series.

Girl’s Last Tour, a post-apocalyptic series with cute girls, has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks. That it has an anime at all is amazing. ^_^ Check out the trailer on Youtube.

 

Okazu News

I know I do keep going on about this, but with the help of all of our amazing Patrons – and with humble thanks to our first God-level Patron, Ivan – Okazu is within spitting distance of being able to pay Guest Reviewers. I feel kind of strongly about this. Writing is hard work and it takes a lot of time and effort. I try to get you 4-6 posts a week here and it’s important to me to be able to pay our guest writers for their efforts. Sometimes a single paid gig can make the difference in a resume. 

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If you enjoy these weekly Yuri Network News reports, the reviews of Yuri anime and manga and lesbian novels and the guest reviews of Yuri VNs and games and anime, please consider subscribing to Okazu on Patreon. Even a dollar/month can make a difference…that dollar will go to rewarding a Guest Reviewer for their time and energy, and help us get to events of interest, do interviews with people you care about and for us to be able to tell you about all the great Yuri  news happening in this time of amazing things! Thank you very much for being part of the Okazu team!

 

Yuri Manga

I didn’t keep on reading it, but heavily supernatural-influenced Comic Cune had a lot of Yuri and Yuri-esque series. Comic Natalie reports that vampire story Kyuugetsgi-chan x Kouhai-chan (吸血鬼ちゃん×後輩ちゃん) is getting a collected volume and vampire x vampire hunter story Killing Me! (キリング・ミー！)  is starting in the November issue. I might have to take another look, despite my disinterest in vampires. ^_^

Comic Natalie also says that from the folks at Kadokawa’s web site magazine, comes Yuri Natsu – Minshokugaya (ゆりなつ-民宿かがや-」) a Yuri Twitter comic by  Nao Mochi-aulait. This series will start in October and I’m going to keep my eyes on it.

Equally, I’m not going to be reading Yuri “comedy” Akarui Kiokusoushitsu (明るい記憶喪失), Volume 2. “cheerful amnesia” is just a big no for me. ^_^

 

Yuri Visual Novel

YNN Correspondent Brendan B want you to know about “a cute looking Yuri visual novel called Butterfly Soup that was released this week.” This is an indie VN and is a free download. If you plan on reading it let us know how it is!

 

Live-Action

Also via Brendan, “Fun Home is getting a Japanese production, with former Takarazuka star Jun Sena playing adult Allison.” He said,  “That’s some casting!” and I was too busy screaming to reply coherently other than yah, it is. ^_^ It’s being performed while I’m there, but I make no promises. If I manage to see it, I promise to scream incoherently for a whole review. ^_^

 

Other News

ANN reports that Fukami Makoto is launching a manga about writers and I just bet that it’ll have lesbians in it. He loves his lesbians.

If you’re in or near Tokyo on November 18 and are interested in literary translation, why not attend Strong Women, Soft Power Symposium #1: Towards a Community of Practice in Japanese Literary Translation?

 

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find.Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 8 Comments »


Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu Manga, Volume 3 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ )

September 29th, 2017

I’m starting to think that Hirao Auri-sensei has a bad case of manga interruptus. Is the creator a master of tense, unresolved (unresolvable) sexual tension or is it a case of “string ’em along, the suckers’ll get what they deserve.”? I’m honestly not sure.

But apparently, I, like Eripyo, deserve to keep being disappointed by her inability to bridge the gap between her and the subject of her hopeless obsession, pop idol Maina. Surrounded by shifts in and around the group, Maina is “gambare”ing as hard as she can and Eri is exhausting herself at any number of part-time jobs in order to support her.

In Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 3 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ ) things are starting to stretch to untenable stress. Eri’s Mom is wondering when she’s going to stop working like a child and get a real career. 

Kumasa is having the best luck at connecting with his favorite idol and even Motoi has a moment or two, but Eri is exhausted, constantly broke, and eternally frustrated as all she wants is to be there for Maina.

Maina is working as hard as she can and wants desperately to thank her number one fan, but all they can do is stare at one another, awkwardly, unable to think of the right thing to say, holding sweaty hands at the handshake events.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8, dammit
Character – 8
Service – 1
Yuri – 4 I’m running out digits to cross, with the need to strangle the author.

Overall – 8

Argh and argh. But I guess I get what I deserve, since I keep coming back.  If this series goes 8 volumes and all we get is a reset, I better hope the judge understands, because I’m gonna lose my mind. ^_^

Posted in Hirao Auri, Miscellaneous | 3 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Kai to Alternarock (貝とオルタナロック)

September 28th, 2017

Nako’s Kai to Alternarock (貝とオルタナロック) has the English subtitle “The key to her room will be opend by her music” which nicely, if inaccurately sums up the story. Alternarock is short for “alternative rock.” Kai is a shell, a symbol that is relevant to the story. An Alternative rock guitarist does get the protagonist to come out of her shell, but it still wins this year for the most awkward title to explain in English. ^_^

Makino is an asshole boss. Intolerant, rude and impatient, she treats the people in her department poorly as a course of matter. She’s a mope and a grouch.

And yet, Seo just can’t hate her. Seo isn’t trying to play Makino, she’s not trying to seduce her, she just wants her miserable wretch of a boss to enjoy something. Seo invites Makino to see her play with her band live and somehow or other, something starts to crack in Makiko’s thick and bitter exterior.  And almost without either of them realizing it, they are kind of an item. The big boss, an old friend of Makino’s, is pleased to see her friend less unhappy. It takes some time before Makino finally comes clean about the personal history that has made her so unhappy, but of all people in the world, Seo is the last to judge Makino poorly.

Sadly we don’t get to see Makino at work after she open up, but I’d like to think she isn’t any different. ^_^

This manga is pretty well-used plot for an office romance in manga, but I don’t know, I still kind of like it, as unrealistic as it seems to me. (Maybe not to you, but you haven’t had my bosses!)

Nako’s art is not complicated, but not precise, either, with very light use of tone. It’s easy to follow, but then this is a mostly “talking head” manga and didn’t need complicated backgrounds. I quite liked that the manga was preachy about the evils of smoking and drinking. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Character – 8 Seo’s sincerity won Makino’s heart and mine
Story – 8 Nothing new, but that can be okay, too
Yuri- 6
Service – 0

Overall – 8

Yay for Yuri about adults adulting! More please!

I would like to dedicate today’s review to our first-ever Kami-level Patron here on Okazu, Ivan L! With his and your help we’re just about in range to pay our Guest Reviewers. Thanks to all the Okazu patrons! We can’t do it without you.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Sailor Moon S Anime , Part 2, Disk 2 (English)

September 25th, 2017

For the first time ever, I’m going to say hands down, the Blu-Ray is better. Watching Sailor Moon S, Part 2, Disk 2 on BD was…fun. The colors are super-saturated, and the animation is as good as the animation ever was (which is to say, not really all that good.) It was good enough, however, that we commented that the Blu-Ray made a difference and we never do that. Sound quality was, again, really decent and overall, the technicals were solid enough that we never once had to think about them for being intrusive or annoying.

In Part 2, the story is getting both sillier and more serious at the same time. We lose Eudial and pick up the delusional Mimete, with her creepy cormorant Daimons. In Mimete’s world, pure hearts are only had by celebrities, so she’d get along famously in 2017.

The Outer Senshi have settled down into full-time brooding, as Sailor Moon herself is getting used to a powerup. I particularly like how they don’t sit down to have any sensible conversations about the situation. Chibi-Usa is the only one who can cross lines, and that’s only because no one takes her seriously. 

Hotaru gets a creepy power-up, then the pathos is laid on with a trowel. I don’t get Kaolinite treating Hotaru so shitty. You’d think…but, no. 

In one of the most eye-opening episodes we both saw something so Ikuhara we started to laugh. It’s funny to see a beloved director’s visual tic so obviously on display.

We’re about to get into the darkest moments of the series and I find I can’t wait to watch it. 25 years later and I’m still a huge fangirl…which is why I’m as excited as I am to say I’ll get to see the new Sailor Moon store in Harajuku! Yay! I’ll be in Tokyo for Comitia and will save my yen for all the Sailor Senshi goods. ^_^ 

Ratings:

Art – 8 
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri –  2 A bit muted this disk
Service – 3 

Overall – 8

I’m also keeping my fingers crossed for an interview that will interest you all at AnimeNYC. Say a little prayer.

Thanks very much to Viz for the review copy! I just love it to pieces.

 

 

Posted in English Anime, Sailor Moon | 2 Comments »


New! Okazu Patron-Only Content on Patreon

September 24th, 2017

Today I hit a major milestone in what I’m calling the “Big Book o’Yuri” – the definitive book on history, influences, key series, definitions, and random things I want to write about, etc, etc. This monster project, which is going to cover approximately 100 years of the genre we love is halfway done! Yay! (mind you, halfway not counting formatting, citing, editing, images, etc….)

In honor of this momentous occasion, I am working on my first-ever “Patron Only” content! Get this glimpse of the definitive on Yuri book by subscribing to Okazu! All patrons who are subscribed at any level will get a peek behind the screens at some of the newest content on October 8th.

Your patronage makes it possible for me to do the work of writing what will be the most comprehensive book about Yuri ever. Every dollar helps and will get you a look at brand-new, non-Okazu content.

Subscriptions over $5/month get a badge and mention on the Okazu Hero Roll, chances at special patron-only Lucky Boxes and my sincere thanks!

I hope you’ll support this work on Patreon!

Posted in History of Yuri | 3 Comments »