Fall Cleanup Lucky Box Bonanza! – All Claimed

October 4th, 2023

My office is once again in desperate need of a cleanup, so it’s time for some Lucky Boxes!

This time we have 5 Lucky boxes – all are premium boxes with media, manga, candy and toys. They also include other flat fun things like stickers, bookmarks or postcards which are equally random and frequently bizarre (and often not at all Yuri.) As always, there are candy and toys. The larger boxes have a few other surprises, as well!

My promise to you is that you’ll get random things, sometimes in other in random things. ^_^ I assure you that this is all 100%, unadulterated stuff.

This time we have 1  Very Large USPS box (which is listed on the box as Large Mailing box, but it’s about twice the size of the Large Flat Rate box, go figure, so I’m calling it the Very Large box,) 2 Large USPS Flat Rate and 2 Medium USPS flat rate boxes.

 

We have one Box remaining!
Medium Box 2 – $30

1 Very Large Box – $75 – Claimed
Large Box 1 – $50 – Claimed
Large Box 2 – $50 – Claimed
Medium Box 1  $30 –  Claimed
Medium Box 2  $30 –  Claimed

***

To be eligible to buy a Lucky Box, follow these instructions carefully. Please. Thank you. Failure to follow all of these instructions will disqualify you. It’s not personal, they are all claimed pretty quickly and I don’t have time to track you down for a piece of information.

1. You must live in the Continental USA (contiguous 48) only, no APO/FPOs. This is disappointing for me too, so I apologize.

2. You must be over 18, I am not policing books or recipients.

3. Email me with the Yuricon Contact Form with the subject “Lucky Box.” Use an email you check regularly, because I will reply asap. The first person who responds to my email gets the box.

4. *****Please include your name, age, mailing address. ***** Tell me which box you want. Even if you’ve given me your address previously, please include it, I am very lazy.

5. 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. Thanks in advance. These will be shipped out asap, as well; the whole point of this is to get these out of my house. ^_^

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

Get your Lucky Boxes and get this stuff out of my house!

Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »


First Look at I’m In Love With The Villainess Anime

October 2nd, 2023

Today was the day we’ve been waiting for! I’m In Love With The Villainess anime has premiered on Crunchyroll. With an English dub, as well as the Japanese audio track.

As I said in a comment on the first episode, this is the Yuriest anime that has ever been made, since it is literally centered around the romantic relationship of two women right from the first moments. As those of us  who have read the novels know, it also becomes progressively queerer as it unfolds. We should find out next episode how much of that is retained. For these things alone, I would love this anime.

The narrative  – especially in these early scenes – are wholly character-driven, so it’s a pleasure to know that the voice cast really made it all work. I actually laughed out loud twice watching this first episode, even though I anticipated the gags. inori-sensei commented on her Pixiv Fanbox that at the live premier event in Japan, she was worried that people might not react to the jokes, but there was plenty of laughter. The funny bits were, genuinely, funny. I’m going to rewatch the episode later this week as a dub and see how the jokes land.

Serizawa Yuu as Rae and Nanami Karen as Claire have really dug deep on these characters and made them come to life. Of course the supporting cast is also terrific and it felt very comfortable to hear the three Princes, Pipi, Loretta and Misha all sound, well, like they sounded in my head, honestly.  Kenn’s Rod Bauer was so full of bonhomie, I kinda sympathized with Rae’s dislike of him. ^_^

The one real weak spot of this anime is the animation. I have a number of thoughts about that. First, let’s just acknowledge that there’s a good chance that it simply was given a limited budget. That happens and I would not hold it against them any more than usual. I’d rather the animators get more time and money every time, but no one asks me. That said, we can do some justification …and projection…without too many mental calisthenics.

To begin with, this story begins in the world of an otome game, so the animation might be reflective of that. Otome games are, like other sims, usually pretty flatly animated in a puppet show kind of way. The backgrounds here are often ignored for sound effects and other gimmicks, which are, yes, money savers, but also give this early phase a gag manga feel. It would be kind of cool if, as the story developed, so did the animation. I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I’d love to see it.

We can see a little bit of the initial arc of the story from the opening credits. At the very least we can see that the Commoner Movement arc will be included and, with the addition of Mizuki Nana to the cast as Manaria, it’s a good bet that it will go through the Scales of Love arc. That means we’re definitely getting into more serious territory before the season ends. And here, I am going to digress, but I will be back to conjecture further.

Today on Twitter, the official wataoshi account announced that Blu-Ray Box pre-orders are available at various Japanese anime outlets. (That link will take you direct to King Records to pre-order.) Different stores have different extras, as usual, and folks who pre-order will get a special copy of “Rae’s doujinshi” story that she wrote for Revolution, of course, written by inori.-sensei herself. The BD box is slated for a February 2024 release, so that’s an extremely early pre-order period. inori.-sensei commented on Twitter that expectations for success were very high so the BD Box was arranged even though the anime had not yet aired.

So, back to conjecture. I think that pre-orders for the box set may well be used to determine if a second season will bring it to the end of the Revolution arc. Sales for that could determine whether we ever see a Nur or DQ arc – highly unlikely, but not wholly impossible. Sure, the anime also may exist in part to bump up sales of the ongoing manga and the print volumes of the novel and I hope they do! There’s nothing wrong with that. Ichijinsha’s done a decent job extending the life of several series that way.

Definitely give the series a watch. It’s fun and goofy and deep and serious and very queer and we’ve never seen an anime like this before, really. As we discussed on the Okazu Discord as I typed, if you want to get someone into Yuri, this would be a good place to start! Like isekai? We have series for you! How about high fantasy?  We got you covered. Looking for LGBTQ+ anime – it’s here. Oh…you like Sci-fi….well, sit down and let me tell you….  Looking for something with social consciousness? This is what you’re looking for !

So grab your friends and get them aboard the Yuri train with I’m in Love With the Villainess, streaming now on Crunchyroll.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 9
Characters – 100
Yuri – 8
Service  – This is a complicated question… Let’s take a look at it again later

Overall – 9

A fun start to what I hope will be a story that takes audiences to very gay places they have never been before. ^_^

Next up for us, would be to pressure Crunchyroll to provide us with premium BD box sets so we can get that doujinshi, too!  I mean, I can see myself pre-ordering the JP set just for that….please don’t make me do that, Crunchyroll.

Posted in Anime, Artists, English Anime, I'm in Love With the Villainess, inori, Yuri Anime | 2 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – September 30, 2023

September 30th, 2023

In black block letters, YNN Yuri Network News. On the left, in black silhouette, a woman with a broad brim hat and dress stands, a woman in a tight outfit sits against the Y. Yuri Anime

Set your  alarms! Crunchyroll will begin streaming I‘m In Love With The Villainess  on Oct. 2 and Stardust Telepath on October 9. Thanks to YNN Correspondent Patricia B for the link.

Speaking of ILTV, Rafael Antonio Pineda has the news on ANN that the cast will include Nana Mizuki as Manaria, so I guess a bit of a spoiler as to how far the anime will get. Personally, I’m guessing it will go through the end of the Revolution arc. ^_^ Maybe we can wangle a second season to cover the Nur and DQ arcs. 

Not yet announced for streaming, but I’m betting on it, Kibou no Chikara – Otona Precure (キボウノチカラ～オトナプリキュア‘23～) premieres on NHK in Japan on October 7. Whether this gives us a taste of the Yuri everyone saw in the original series is anyone guess, but there is a hint in the trailer. Click the link and see if you see what I see. ^_^

The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess will be streaming on HIDIVE in (checks…) 170 hours. Look for this on October 7th, as well. Fanservice Yuri hijinks undoubtedly.

 

Yuri Manga

The Crunchyroll store still has no category for manga, only anime ,and I’m waiting to hear back about an affiliate account, so for the moment RightStuf links are staying put, but may soon become unusable. I apologize for any inconvenience while we wait to see how this shakes out. 

This weekend Global Bookwalker is doing a huge Manga Haul Sale for National Comic Book Day with discounts and coin back on many selected titles!  This sale is good through Oct 1. 

Via YNN Correspondent Patricia B, Kodansha is offering a Yuri, BL, and LGBT Manga Sampler on Global Bookwalker for Free!

Newly added to the Yuricon Store: 

I’m playing catch-up on Kimi to Tsuzuru Utakata, Volume 3 (君と綴るうたかた). This series will be ending shortly and I want to get it all up. The Summer You Were There, Volume 3, is up on the store, Volume 4 in English will hit early in the new year.

Cheerful Amnesia, Volume 1  is hitting English-language shelves in October.

With the addition of Vampeerz, Volume 9 (ヴァンピアーズ), I am finally and fully caught up on that series, which ends with this volume. 

Ichijinsha on Twitter has offered us cover reveals on Watashi no Oshi  ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 7 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) and Watashi no Oshi  ha Akuyaku Reijou. Maid Kitchen, Volume 1 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。メイドキッチン) I’ll get these up on the Yuricon Store asap.

Via Comic Natalie, Sekai Ichiban Oppai ga Suki!  (世界で一番おっぱいが好き！) is ending with a final volume 8. Volume 7 of Breasts Are My Favorite Thing In The World  will be out in October from Yen Press. I’ve never read any of that series, so if you are enjoying it and would like to review it for Okazu, drop me a line!

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Yuri Audiobook

The first pre-order links for the I’m In Love With The Villainess Audiobook are live and up on the Yuricon Store. I’ve added it to the newly renamed Voice Drama & Audiobooks category on the Store, and I’ll start weeding through the old Drama CDs and adding new voice dramas….and audiobooks… as we get them! 

 

Yuri Light Novel

There was a first look at the cover design for Yuusha ni Naritai Shoujo To, Yuusha Narubeki Kanojo (勇者になりたい少女と、勇者になるべき彼女), inori.-sensei’s newest LN. Amazon JP and Melonbooks have pre-order links up for it, so I went ahead and put it on the Yuricon Store. ^_^  Here is the synopsis as given on Amazon JP: After the end of the war between humans and demons, humans established a school of heroes using the magic tool “gear” to train successors. Ruchika, a demon girl who admires being a hero, meets Leonie, the daughter of the hero who defeated the demon king, when she visits the capital to enroll. Ruchika likes her and asks her to marry her even though she is in the middle of her exams. Although she is flatly rejected, Ruchika continues to attend school with the aim of becoming her hero, and approaches Leonie to become even closer.

The girl-meets-girl school fantasy of girls with different motivations begins with a bang!

 

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Support Yuri journalism on Ko-fi!

 

Yuri Visual Novel

Popular fan artist Yamino announced a new Visual Novel The Phantom of the Black Rose free demo will be released as part of the itch.io Spooktober Game Jam. The art is pure 70s shoujo, like a Takarazuka Phantom of the Opera, shoujo style. I may have to give in and get this one. ^_^

Studio Élan’s Élan Festival begins tomorrow night on their Youtube Channel. Check in for news updates and more!

 

Other News

Via Sr. YNN Correspondent Cryssoberyl: CW: VERY DARK, Guro, Body Horror, Cannibalism, yet beautifully animated, The Lovers,  is “An animated thriller about the romantic tension between a seafood chef and a siren, set in a dark fantasy Philippines.” If horror this is your thing, there is a Kickstarter for the animated film, the debut work from Studio Heartbreak. If you are squeamish, maybe skip this trailer.

Ayashi no Ceres is now on the Viz App. I mention this because, much like Fushigi Yugi, creator Watase Yuu was clearly working through some stuff about gender and sexuality (and sexual violence) in days before they came out as X-gender. It was an interesting read but – in my very personal opinion – ultimately disappointing for exactly the same reason FY was, including, but not limited to, the use of rape as a casual plot point more than a few times. The resolutions for what we now can see as non-binary or trans characters did not work for me, either.

While working on adding the ILTV Audiobook links, I noticed that one of the sites also had a book I had been wanting to listen to. Andrew J. Robinson, who is probably best know for his role as Elim Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has written a DS9 Novel  – A Stitch in Time, which he narrates as Garak. It is both an excellently well-written novel, which makes me want to read the other books he’s written AND it is a stellar voice performance. Garak is written as bisexual although, like the TV series, it so far hasn’t committed to more than being interested in other men. What the novel does do though, is really deeply develop Cardassian society, politics and mindset in ways that fully explain everything, except Dukat somehow becoming the leader of Cardsassia without being knifed immediately. I recommend this very highly as an audiobook.

 

If you’d like to support Yuri journalism and research, Patreon and Ko-Fi are where we currently accept subscriptions and tips.  Our goal now, into 2024, is to raise our guest writers’ wages to above industry standard, which are too low!

Your support goes straight to paying for Guest Reviews, folks helping with videos, site maintenance, managing the Yuricon Store and directly supporting other Yuri creators. Just $5/month makes a huge impact! Become part of the Okazu family!

Become a part of the Yuri Network, by being a YNN Correspondent: Contact Us with any Yuri-related news you want to share with us.

Posted in Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu Live-Action (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ)

September 27th, 2023

For various reasons I have spent the last few weeks playing catch-up with everything I have meant to watch and read and listen to but never got around to. At the behest of folks on the Okazu Discord, I *finally* watched Sound Euphonium all the way through and Sean Gaffney suggested that, but for one episode, I might find Management of a Novice Alchemist worth a try. Why is Ep. 9 always the absolute worst? I’m looking at you, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

And, finally, spurred on by my recent read of Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 9, I finally managed to sit down and watch all ten episodes of the Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu Live-Action series (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ).  And wow do I have some opinions about it. ^_^

First of all, the acting was really quite excellent. Matsumura Sayuri as Eripyo was outstanding. In all her pathetic  and inappropriate enthusiasm, she was absolutely perfect.  Jitsukata Takao as Kumasa and Toyota Yudai as Motoi were likewise absolutely spot-on for their roles. If you’ve been following this series, you’ll know that Kumasa is very much our otaku godfather and mentor. He’s balanced and wise and deeply moved. Motoi is a fuckup that I am never going to like, but that’s pretty much the point. LOL Motoi’s sister Reina is so normal and nice in comparison.

The members of ChamJam are, likewise, absolutely fantastic in their roles. Like the manga, the best scenes are those with the members and their relationships. While the story centers Eripyo’s obsession with back-row member Maina, the slow building relationship between Yumeri and Maki is really quite sweet.

It’s hard for me to not see the idol ecosystem as an non-sexual form of human trafficking and the bits where the otaku bankrupt themselves to “support” their favorites will always make me angry – especially when the story positions that behavior as honorable. But slowly, almost as slowly as the manga, the members of ChamJam and their otaku have their worlds widened.  One of the strongest bits of the live-action was to give me a reminder of everyone’s personality and finally, I may be able to remember Yuka’s name now. ^_^;  I don’t know why…but I just keep forgetting her. Maybe that’s why Aya is so annoying, so people remember her. The support Sorane shows leader Reo when she’s feeling pressure was quite nice. And we get a glimpse of Maple Doll, which features the lead in Reo’s former group. As I have repeatedly said in reviews of the manga, the moments spent with the group members, getting to understand them has been the best part of the story.

Ratings for the adaptation, not the story:

Acting – 10
Story – the beginning volumes can be harsh, let’s say 6 at the start and 8 at the end
Characters – 10 Everyone was perfect.
Service – 0
Yuri – Eri x Maina  – an uncomfortable 7  Maki x Yumeri  – a comfortable 5

The live-action picks a solid place to end, thankfully, so my guess is that they did not let Hirao-sensei pick the stopping point. ^_^ We’re left with some hope that Eri and Maina might one day communicate appropriately and that ChamJam will one day be in an even bigger venue….

…which reminds me of the day my wife and I saw a bunch of boy idol groups at a Japanese mall, and all their fans came to shout and wave things at the right times. It was really interesting to watch these not-that-popular groups performing. We did not buy any CDs, although we considered getting one song that wasn’t bad.

This series is streaming on Hulu Japan, if you have access. I wish Crunchyroll would pick it up, since they have the anime (via their Funimation merger.) I think I’ll write them and ask.

 

Posted in Hirao Auri, Live Action | 1 Comment »


Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 9 (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ)

September 25th, 2023

Three female pop idols dressed in "cute" costumes that are reminiscent of Nara deer dance on a stage.When we left this series in Volume 8, there were rainbows and doves flying because an entire volume had passed without making me feel unpleasant thoughts in the mangaka’s direction. This was a genuine achievement in the uncomfortable relationship I have with creator Hirao Auri’s works. As a reminder, Volume 8 of Manga no Tsukurikata was dire. So for there to be an entire volume that did not make me want to die or cause something else to be destroyed was a miracle. Well, here we are in Volume 9 of Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu (推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ) and a miracle has occurred once again. ^_^.

The volume has a rough start, though, as a collector’s photo event with special, super special and super special rare photos is going on and, of course, Eripyo does not get one of the SSRs. (Why the management doesn’t just make sure she gets one, after all the money she spends is beyond me.) But Motoi does. And he doesn’t just give it to Eripyo, which has me solidly annoyed for a few chapters. Kumasa and Eripyo are pathetic otaku, but Motoi, wtf, he is such  loser. Thankfully, his sister Rena is not  a loser and makes sure Eripyo gets it. Rena is turning out to be a good friend to Eri.

But even that becomes fragile, when Eripyo learns Rena has fans of her own (fans who ultimately get Motoi the SSR photo he wanted.) Eri explains that, as an otaku she can’t be friends with someone like Rena. Thankfully, Rena is a perfectly decent human being and insists on being friends anyway.

And then we head into the endgame and I tensed up…

Maina has fans! This is a brand new development and Eripyo is ecstatic. Because that means for the first time ever, the group will be holding a Maina birthday event. Eripyo and Rena talk about what they should do for the event and of course Eri’s ideas are too too much. In the mean time Maina has an idea for the birthday concert that actually gets everyone in Cham Jam fired up – they’ll sing in front of a cardboard stage set that is reminiscent of the Budokan. Everyone is stoked.

We’ve actually learned a bit about Maina in recent volumes – shes in this group because she really wants to be for one thing. In this volume she admits to be eating bread a lot recently, because it reminds her of Eripyo, who always smells like bread from working in a bread factory.

And then…and then…Maina and Eripyo have a nice, extended conversation in which Maina’s nail color is the exact color Eripyo wanted for her birthday celebration. And they smile at one another happily.

I almost collapsed with relief.

There is drama on the horizon, though, Reo is about to retire and Kumasa is in despair.

The final chapters follow other idol groups including Reo’s former group Maple Doll, whose “deer costumes” grace the cover.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Character – 9, except Motoi who was a 5. WTF dude.
Service – 0
Yuri – They had a conversation and made each other happy. 10

Overall – 9

Another good volume? No, no, I can’t relax until it’s all over. Not possible.

Posted in Artists, Hirao Auri, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »