Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – June 3, 2017

June 3rd, 2017

Yuri Visual Novels

Several Yuri VNs are on sale over at Denpasoft right now. The demo for the obviously 18+ Alpha’s Adventures is free and includes demos of all the paths, according to the description. If this appeals to you, do let us know how the demo looks.

Also on sale are Highway Blossoms and Love, Guitars and the Nashville Skyline. I enjoyed the former when I played it, and have heard nice things about the latter. 

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Yuri Events

Girl’s Love Festival is happening in a few hours in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, and Morishima Akiko-sensei has created the doujinshi that I felt was the most obvious thing *ever* that needed to exist. Check out her Yuri Yuri on Ice! doujinshi on Pixiv. (And if you’re going to GLF, pick me up a copy? Thanks!) If you’ve been wondering where she’s gone, the answer is…online. Her work has moved to mostly digital. Amazon JP won’t allow non-JP addresses to get Kindle books, but don’t worry, her work is available on other platforms as well, like Kobo, Renta! and Comic SeeMore (which I’ve used). Check out her comic novel in collaboration with Nanbu Kumako, Sasayaki no Kiss on Jimdo.com, for all the links.

 

Yuri Anime

Crunchyroll has added Serial Experiments Lain which, as I found during a recent rewatch, held up a lot better than I had expected! Check out my reviews of Volume 1 and Volume 2.

 

Yuri Manga

Kurosaki Rendou’s Yuri stories from Rakuen Le Paradis magazine have been collected into a volume, Kanojochuu (彼女中). His art is always kinda ugly, the characters look strung out, the sex is messy and the stories gross. but he has a niche. ^_^

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness is *still* heading up the Yaoi, Gay & Lesbian Manga category! Rock on you folks buying it!

 

Other News

Matt Thorn has put together a terrific primer on the “Magnificent Forty-Niners,” the women responsible for much of what we think of as shoujo (and BL) manga. This is a great read about manga history and these still-current masters of the medium!

The new photos of the next Sailor Moon musical characters, Sailor Galaxia and the Animamates on ANN made me squee. ^_^ Please, powers that be, let Lead Crow and Aluminum Siren have a moment. Please.

Another lesbian couple had a Disney Princess wedding at Tokyo Disneyland. Still meaningless, but pretty. BUT, back here in the real world, the city of Sapporo in Japan is now allowing same-sex marriage certificates. That makes six places in Japan. (And today, my Facebook feed included a letter from a Japanese store manager who told a customer to never come back, after receiving a complaint about a couple of men holding hands in the store.) Steps forward.

 

Resistance News

The Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, NY is hosting an exhibition called Graphic Activism. The opening is June 15, from 7-9PM. “Graphic Activism features a selection of posters, newsletters, and zines from the largest collection of lesbian materials in the world. Comprised of posters from across the United States, this exhibit celebrates lesbian arts and artists, including Leslie Feinberg’s Passing Fancy: Passing Women in Their Own Words and Rivers of Honey, a NYC-based Woman of Color Arts Cabaret, and addresses such topics as gay teen suicide and AIDS activism.”

 

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 | No Comments »


Steven Universe Soundtrack, Volume 1

June 2nd, 2017

Sometimes, you just need the world to have a #1 movie about an Amazon and the debut of the much-desired Steven Universe Soundtrack. ^_^

There’s not much I can really say about this soundtrack to convince you to get it. Either you enjoy Steven Universe, find the music an integral and pleasant part of the series as a whole, or, well, you don’t.

If you do like the music, and have a habit of singing “It’s Over Isn’t It?” for days and days at a time, then you, too, will want to run out and get this-digital only album. It’s available on iTunes, where it soared to #5 in the album charts right away and also on Google Play. 

I find that not only did I remember every episode every song belongs to, I find myself thinking Lapis and Peridot *really* need a duet. Or, I should say, I really need Lapis and Peridot to have a duet. ^_^

I hadn’t realized that Rebecca Sugar herself sings the beautiful ED, “Love Like You.” And now I get to enjoy Olivia Olsen’s version of “Haven’t You Noticed (I’m a Star)” on repeat as well.  And probably the full-version of the OP “We Are The Crystal Gems”  and “Do It For Her”. Which makes me realize that Deedee Magno Hall as Pearl is the winner in terms of songs for me. The depth and honesty and pathos of the writing for Pearl is extraordinary. 

Yes. I’m fangirling. Yes. This will surprise no one.

And now I undoubtedly will sing “It’s Over Isn’t It?” for days and days. And days.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

And days. 

Soar like a comet and get this album and we can all sit around sharing jams and jam.

Tell me what your favorite track is in the comments

 

Posted in Steven Universe, Western Cartoons | 4 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Volume 2 (English)

May 31st, 2017

Hoshino-sempai is graduating and Ai is in a panic. She ‘s desperate to not lose her beloved astronomy-loving sempai – even going so far as wishing for her to fail her exam, but really, she doesn’t want that at all. Ai just wants things to stay the same between Chiharu, Hoshino-sempai and herself. In the end, she’s able to send Hoshino-sempai off with a gift that will give her the stars whenever she wants.

Chiharu has another problem. She’s Hoshino-sempai’s roommate and she’s fallen in love with her. She fights with Hoshino, and while hiding out comes across a lowerclassman breaking a minor rule by riding a bike to school. Chiharu starts to watch over Izumi, ostensibly to catch her riding the bike, but as she and Izumi get to know each other, and Izumi gets involved in Chiharu’s spat with Hoshino-sempai. They make up, but Chiharu has realized that she is starting to have feelings for Izumi now. Hoshino is able to graduate without any unresolved regrets, and Chiharu and Izumi move off into their next year, able to support one another.

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Volume 2 is about the pressures unrequited love creates in the person for whom that love is consuming. The object of the emotion may or may not know just hw much they affect the other person, but the lesson has to be that your like is not contract – the other person has every right to continue their life without you.  Both Ai and Chiharu must let go of Hoshino…it’s not her responsibility to stay for them.

In the final chapter, our protagonist from Volume 1,  Ayaka, meets Yurine’s little sister, who casts her as a rival for Yurine’s attention. While Shiramine protests she doesn’t *want* Kurozawa’s attention, after spending a few moments looking at her self-proclaimed rival through the eyes of her admiring sister, Ayaka can really see just how amazing Yurine is.

What I like best – and what can be seen clearly here in Volume 2 of this ongoing series – is how *different* all the relationships we’ll see are. Yes, Ayaka and Yurine are the love/hate rival couple, but there won’t be another one just like that. The school setting makes this very much a “Yuritopia” series, but within that setting, we’re going to be getting a wide variety of character and relationships.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8 More realistic than the set-up for the first volume
Yuri – 5
Service – 1 on principle only

Overall – 8

Volume 3 will be out in August, and pre-orders are available now. If you’re looking for Yuri that takes a basic schoolgirl trope and gives us some great character development, Kiss & White Lily For My Dearest Girl is an excellent bet.

Posted in Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo, Canno, English Manga, Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Western Comic: Small Favors: The Definitive Girly Porno Collection

May 29th, 2017

Colleen Coover’s “Girly porno comic” Small Favors was first published by Eros Comix in the early 2000s. I had heard of it, of course, but by the time I was interested in getting it, it was already out of print, woops.  So, although I’ve known about and seen some of Small Favors for years, I hadn’t ever had a chance to read all of it.

2017 has already been an amazing year for lesbian comics and Yuri manga. We have comic essays and romances that aren’t exploitative or annoying (and romances that are exploitative or annoying) but we were missing some good old-fashioned porn. Well…that’s been taken care of now.  Small Favors: The Definitive Girly Porno Collection is exactly what it says in the title. 

Annie is a young woman who enjoy masturbation. A lot. So much that the Queen of her Conscience feels Annie is wasting her life. She sets Nibbil, her own daughter, to inhibit Annie. Unfortunately, Nibbil is just as interested in sex as Annie and together they sex it up in a variety of ways. As the story develops, Annie and Nibbil add a friend, Sage, to their fun and eventually get to include Annie’s neighbor and another emissary from the Queen.

The art is very competent and tends to lean toward fun over anything else. Backgrounds and characters are rendered in simple black and white line work, with hand-drawn shadows and backgrounds. A very “western” looking comic. The later chapters include a full-color story, sketches, character studies and mini-comics. This collection includes all the published chapters of Small Favors and a previously unpublished chapter. It also has a delightful Foreword by Kelly Sue DeConnick.

This is a very sex-positive book. If there is a moral, it’ “Sex is fun, we should all have more sex.” And the sex is also very explicit and creative. Nibbil’s natural size is that of a small figurine, which allows her to enjoy Annie very up close. She can also take on a human sized form. But along with being sex-positive, this comic is also love-positive. Nibbil and Annie love each other, but that doesn’t mean they have sex exclusively with each other. Their friends are welcome to join in.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 7 It’s porn, so a set-up each chapter, rather than a “story” per se.
Characters – 8 All likeable, which is good, because we spend a lot of very intimate time with them.
Service – 100 It’s women having sex. Sometimes group sex.
Yuri – 9 It’s women in love who are not lesbians, per se.

Overall – 8

If you’re in the mood for some fairly explicit lesbian sex in a variety of places, poses, positions, costumes and with a varying number of participants, you will enjoy the heck out of Small Favors.

Posted in Western Comic/Comix | 1 Comment »


Okazu Welcome to Summer Special Lucky Box! – Claimed!

May 29th, 2017

Thank you everyone who wrote in to claim the Lucky Box. It’s been claimed.

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It’s that time of year again …time for a Lucky Box!

I’ve collected a pile of the randomest stuff I have sitting around the house, and shoved a DVD box set, a pile of manga magazines, some comics, manga, random goods, stickers, clearfiles, whatnot and candy into a USPS medium flat rate box and offer it to you as a Lucky Box!

This Lucky Box is $50 and is first come, first serve.  See below for eligibility

There’s only the one, so I promise you will get well more than your money’s worth. I got loads of stuff here and I want it to not be here any more. I’m motivated to make it fit in that box!

How to be eligible to buy a Lucky Box:

1- You must live in the Continental USA (contiguous 48) only, no APO/FPOs – sorry about that, really.

2 – You must be over 18, I am not policing which books you get.  

3 -Email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with the subject “Lucky Box”. Use an email you check regularly. Please include your name, age, mailing address.  

4- I will contact you at that point and give you details about payment by Paypal. Please be prepared to check your email and get payment out so this post doesn’t linger like a dead animal. Thanks in advance. 

This whole process will be handled with utmost capriciousness. ^_^

I’ve literally spent the last few minutes trying to cram one more thing in the box. I hope you enjoy all that crap! ^_^

Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »