Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – October 14, 2023

October 14th, 2023

A blue silhouette of a girl with a white flower in her hair, embracing the earth. Blue block letters read YNN Yuri Network News. Art by Lissa P. For Okazu.

Yuri Events

The Yuriten Yuri Exhibition has opened today in Tokyo. In a newly refurbished space, they are doing same-day entrance tickets for fans who would like to enjoy the exhibition, which is open until October 22, then moving to Osaka. Check out the Yuriten official Twitter account for pictures!

The Girls Love Fest just finished up last week in Asakusa and is already gearing up for an event in January, Girls Love Festival ShinYuri 2 on January 21, 2024 at the Shinyuri 21 Hall in Kawasaki. I actually like the mobility and flexibility of this event that has kept it alive now through well more than 3 dozen events.

Not technically an event, but the I’m In Love With The Villainess pop-up shop is taking place at the Akihabara Gamers store through October 22. AND the Animate HQ in Ikebukuro is holding a chocolate distribution event on October 21.

I’m still hoping that someone, somewhere will open a cool Yuri pop-up while I’m in Japan, but wow is this the week to be there!

We have a new video up for Yuricon 2023! Novelist Laura Weyr hosts a dynamic panel featuring VN team Aikasa Collective co-founder Roxie, web novelist Nara Moore & webtoon creator Ari North to discuss the pros and cons of different media for creators of Yuri in S04 E14 – I Want To Make Yuri, What’s The Right Medium For Me?

Yuricon 2023 continues this month with another terrific conversation coming up next week, and a few more fun things for next month. I’m stoked about the panels and presentations we’re getting from you all. There’s plenty of time to arrange a panel before the end of the year, so if you have a panel or presentation you’d like to do for Yuricon 2023, fill out our Yuricon 2023 Panel & Presentation Application Form!

 

Okazu need your help – $5/month can make a huge difference
Become an Okazu Patron today!

Yuri Manga & Queer Comics

Kitao Taki has a new series being serialized on Bookwalker,  Heimin No Watashi Desu Ga Kōshaku Reijō-sama Wo Taburakashite Ikite Imasu, (平民の私ですが公爵令嬢様をたぶらかして生きています).  You can also read free it as each chapter goes live on Yuri Navi. Chapter 3 is up now.

Via YNN Correspondent Patricia B,  The Stranger, by Rosemary V-O, is a short comic that “explores the brief relationship between an old woman who is losing her memory and an android made in the image of her late wife.”

We haven’t had a review of it yet here (although I did read it in Japanese when it came out,) but Rebecca Silverman takes a look at Mikanuji’s I Don’t Need A Happy Ending for ANN.

Via YNN Correspondent & Reviewer, Luce, Seven Seas announced the license for Kabi Nagata’s My Wandering Warrior Eating Disorder, as digital-only release.

The Isaki Uta: Lost And Found Collection from Irodori Comic, has made it’s Kickstarter goal with 18 days to go. There don’t appear to be any stretch goals at this time, but you can be sure you’ll get the collection when it is complete. Congrats to everyone involved!

 

Yuri Light Novel

Miyazawa Iori, creator of Otherside Picnic has a new edition of an older, pre-OP work out, U ha Uchyuu Yabai no U (ウは宇宙ヤバイのウ) which is a “slapstick science fiction” story about a high school girl at the end of the world – or is she an agent of an interstellar intelligence agency here to save the planet?

 

Buy us a Sailor Senshi sparkling water
Support Yuri journalism on Ko-fi!

Yuri Visual Novels

Creator Yamino would like to thank the more than 2000 people who have downloaded Act 1 of Phantom of the Black Rose Revue on itch.io, which she describes as “a tale of haunted love, inspired by classic shoujo manga and The Phantom of the Opera!” Act. 1 is currently available at name your own price. ^_^

The postmortem of “survival Yuri horror” VN created for the Spooktober Game Jam, The Final Prize Is Soup, is really interesting! I bet the VN is too, grab that on itch.io.

 

Other News

Again from Luce, we have news of Lofty Mountains, “an anthology of Sapphic fantasy stories,” reviewed on LGBTQ Reads.

Alicia Haddick is over the moon to report that Takarazuka is doing an engekidan interpretation of Bollywood sensation, RRR. Check out the posters over on her Bluesky feed.

Empty Movement on Twitter noted some interesting commonalities between Anthy and Utena’s residence and the house of notoriously nationalistic, queer playwright/poet Mishima Yukio’s house.

And two personal notes to wrap up. This week should see the launch of me talking with Leigh of the History is Gay podcast about Yoshiya Nobuko…and waiting impatiently for the upcoming book on her life to come out! I’ll be sure to post links when it’s live. In the meantime, you should listen to this podcast, it’s great. ^_^

Also coming this week is a very personal article I wrote about some of the joys I found while watching slice-of-life anime while I was struggling with Long Covid this past spring. Keep an eye out on ANN on the 16th for “The Joy Of The Everyday: Emotional Intimacy Between Women in Slice-of-Life Anime”!  Again, I’ll post a link when it goes live. Thanks to Lindsay for giving me a chance to publish this.

 

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 | No Comments »


Zerogo: Yuri Literary Magazine (零合 : 百合総合文芸誌)

October 13th, 2023

In recent years, I have reviewed two kinds of Yuri short story collections here on Okazu: The Pixiv+Yuri Hime Yuri Bungei Shousetsu Contest ((百合文芸小説 コンテスト セレクション) collections and a number of science fiction collections like, Asterism ni Hanataba o Yuri SF Anthology (アステリズムに花束を 百合 SFアンソロジー).  I literally have two collections of Yuri short stories waiting to be read. It seems like every year we’re getting more and more Yuri fiction in short stories and light novels. So, the tagline for this new publication being “Where’s The Yuri?” seems to me to be a tad precious, especially with so many of the authors opining that there’s hardly any place for literary Yuri out there. It’s true there is a lot of room for Yuri to grow and I am not at all complaining about there being another collection! Just…look around a bit?

All that said, I found Zerogo: Yuri Literary Magazine (零合 : 百合総合文芸誌) to be the best collection of Yuri short stories I have read. To be very clear – I did not like every story. Two I skipped after beginning them, for entirely different reasons. One was heading in a direction that I did not find entertaining and one was beautifully written, but so full of description that nothing was actually going on. But that left me with  8 long-form short stories that were…pretty damn good, honestly.

My favorite was the second story, “Uso” by Yamaguchi Shun. It was a gritty noir piece that suited my mood that week about a runaway girl who ends up working for criminals and the older woman she falls in love with. It was pretty violent and nihilistic, but I thought it well-written.

This collection had a tremendous variety in terms of the included pieces. Some psychological horror, personal narrative style stories, a really terrific historical piece and a number of science fiction pieces and at least one body horror story.  Only one story bothered with a twisty ending, which really made me happy. Overall, the writing was excellent. Different styles, different voices. While most of the authors were new to me, many of them had writing credits elsewhere.

The collection also includes notes from cover artist Shimura Takako, mangaka Mikami Teren, as well as a few illustrations adorning front/back covers inside and out.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

The absolute best collection of Yuri stories I have read to date. According to the Zerogoh Twitter feed, they are working on a second volume, but there has been no new news since summer. As they say, when you consider all the difficulties of staring up a new magazine, you’ll understand. And so I do. ^_^ 2024 Update: Volume 2 is available and as interesting so far as Volume 1!

Posted in Magazines | 2 Comments »


If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan I Would Die, Volume 2 Guest Review by Christian LeBlanc

October 11th, 2023

Seven-member pop idol group makes their signature gestures at us, wearing cute outfits of white blouses and blue accents and skirts.Like finding a big ol’ slice of salmon in the special parfait you ordered at the maid cafe*, volume 2 of If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan I Would Die is an ugly volume of a very sweet and poignant series. 

Admittedly, I know very little of idol culture outside of what Erica’s written about it in her reviews of the Japanese volumes of this series. Maybe Auri Hirao is satirizing and/or critiquing some of the darker parts of idolatry, which would mean the negative impression I get is not a bug, but a feature. Regardless, I can only react to what’s on the page, with the background that I bring to it. 

So, what is my background? Well, as an awkward fan, I feel like I have a lot in common with Eripiyo, “the number one stan for Maina, a sidelined member of the underground idol group Cham Jam.” The desire to show support, coupled with a clumsy, almost debilitating awkwardness around those I admire, makes me feel comradery when I see fellow trash like Eripiyo, Kumasa and Motoi being too fan to function around their faves.

On the other hand, I have trouble understanding why fans and performers, especially on this small, local-group scale, can’t just be friends if they want to be. I think that’s why I liked the chapter where Eripiyo and Kumasa run into Aya moonlighting at a maid cafe: it just feels like how things *should* be, imho. An idol and a few fans just casually shooting the breeze and messing around, unbeholden to the forced interactions imposed on them by management. They’re all just people, free to interact with each other. As if they were humans.

I especially can’t relate to the idea that idols aren’t allowed to have a personal life outside of fan interactions. When a member of Cham Jam is rumored – not spotted, but rumored – to have been seen with a man, her popularity within the group drops, she loses fans, and even some of her fellow idols are disappointed in her. 

And I’m not even going to get started on how Maina is able to ignore Eripiyo’s signs of suffering to ask her why she isn’t buying many CDs. I don’t think it’s just because Eripiyo says things like “I eat salmon while thinking of you, Maina!”

This all being said, there’s still a lot to recommend this volume. Eripiyo manages to clearly communicate to Maina why she likes her, a feat rarely seen in volume 2 of anything I’ve read. Cham Jam holds a track and field event for some reason, with references to brutal violence happening when they tried this the year before. We spend some time with Yumeri and Maki, who are always a delight to see together. Eripiyo is shown eating a guardrail, and – I said this before, but it bears repeating – is able to tell the girl she likes that she eats salmon while thinking of her. I realize that most Yuri manga would close up shop at that point, but luckily for us, the third book comes out in print…today!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 6
Story – 5 Rather disjointed volume, in spite of the thread of a popularity contest tying things together.
Service – 1
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

*Yes, this happens, and yes, Eripiyo is absolutely here for it.

Posted in Christian LeBlanc, English Manga, Guest Review, Hirao Auri, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Koi To Yobu Ni Wa Ao Sugiru, Volume 1 (恋と呼ぶには青すぎる)

October 9th, 2023

Right now on Yuri lists across the Internets, there are a number of Yuri + Food stories. If you are a regular reader here you know two things – 1) I love food more than I love Yuri and 2) Yuri Lists lie.

Which is to say, quite often what one person feels as “Yuri,” others might not. I have read a bunch of stories that either did not feel Yuri, or just weren’t speaking to me; over the years I’ve made an effort to not become cynical about yet another suggestion.  Well, friends, after a couple of series where the Yuri and food did not gel into a coherent narrative, I have found one that was cute…if you like manga in which people shout a lot. ^_^ 

Koi To Yobu Ni Wa Ao Sugiru (恋と呼ぶには青すぎる) by Makotokun is kinda fun, kinda annoying and actually kinda fun. ^_^ Subtitled “Too blue to call love” (In English we’d probably say too green, rather than blue, i.e., too new and fresh) this story was shared on Twitter and has garnered the creator more than 15K followers.

Kyouko runs an izakaya with her brother. She’s cute in a very boyish, immature way. The regulars at the bar tease her pretty gently and she responds by overreacting, cutely.  Her eyes are on Midori, a regular who has a cheating boyfriend. Kyouko can say and do nothing but watch over the beautiful Midori, until one day, the boyfriend walks in the door with another girl and Kyouko loses it. After she rakes Baba up one side and down the other, who should walk in but Midori, who does likewise. Midori ask Kyouko out to get tea one day and leaves her steaming with anticipation and embarrassment.

Kyoko’s brother finds ex-boyfriend Baba alone and sad and ends up taking him out for a drink. The situation between him and Midori is more complicated than it appears. The brother ends up taking Baba home to dry him out.

Kyouko’s brother is thrilled to see Kyouko and Midori get together, he just also thinks Baba’s kind of pathetic and needs a friend. He’s not wrong. In the meantime, Midori and Kyouko go out to a movie and a snack and get to know one another and Midori is very clear that she like-likes Kyouko, who explodes visibly. The next time Midori and Kyouko are out, they comes across Baba and her brother, who invites them all to sit and talk…and weird friendship is born. When Kyouko goes out to buy some nice clothes for her date with Midori she runs into Baba, who picks out a very fashionable outfit for her. Midori admits later that the outfit that she’s wearing was also chosen by him. Midori is comfortable taking the lead in this relationship which is good, because she’d grow old waiting for Kyouko.

This could be the most annoying story ever, but oddly, it’s not. ^_^ 

The art is fun if not clean, and the characters are all likable – even, annoyingly, Baba. The brother (I think his name is Miyabi) watches over everything with a beatific smile and you just cannot dislike him. Kyouko’s charm is her overreactions and showing everything on her face. And Midori seems like a nice person, once she decides to move on. It’s all just kinda cute.

The food and drink is a backdrop, rather than scenery. We get occasional dishes announced but this is not She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat. There are no lingering looks at beautifully prepared meals here, just another order and another beer.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Service – 0
Yuri – 6 to start

Overall –  7

The real question is, would I read the second volume, which came out this past summer. Probably, with the thought that, like the above-mentioned She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat, the publisher is “it comics,” which has been promising. Let’s say it’s very likely that I’ll read V2, eventually. It was fun enough, if a little shouty.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Josei ga Otoko Kimono o Kiru Shashin-shuu (女性が男着物を着る写真集)

October 8th, 2023

9 Panels, 7 of which include portions of the "genderless kimono" photoshoots from the interior, the remaining two have the book titles and creator names.This world is a fascinating and wonderful place.

A few months ago, a Japanese crowdfund project wandered over my feed and I immediately backed it. Kimono artist Remake-ya Candy and photographer Sato Hiroko were collaborating on a photo album of women wearing men’s kimono. Candy’s goal is to bring kimono back as daily wear, and Sato is a photographer who combines whimsical and classical beautifully. They seemed like a great collaboration for this “genderless kimono” project.

This week I received my copy of the Josei ga Otoko Kimono o Kiru Shashin-shuu (女性が男着物を着る写真集) and it gets a two-thumbs up from me. Because the pictures from the album itself have not been shared publicly, I’m only sharing here an image from the Campfire campaign page and the cover, but I strongly recommend following both Sato and Candy on Twitter for fun kimono photos.

First of all, I loved the premise. No surprise. But surprisingly, I actually loved most of the photoshoots. Each model is wearing a custom kimono that really suits them, then they are photographed multiple times in settings around a city, cafe or photoshoot set for maximum mood. Really lovely photos. As a testament to both kimono maker and photographer, this book is excellent.

The final pages include some backers who chose to participate in a photoshoot in genderless kimono. In many ways these are even better, as they are just everyday people who are wearing such incredible clothing and looking so damn good doing it, that it makes one want to run out and hire both Candy and Sato.

The campaign was a raging success, bring in nearly 3x the initial goal, with 132 backers. That indicates to me, that most of the backers threw a lot of money at this project. I know I would sure have participated at a higher level if I was in Japan. ^_^

I don’t often review crowdfunding rewards on Okazu for several reasons. One, if the book is not available for sale, that usually makes it awkward. And, quite often the reward is…okay. It wasn’t why I backed the project. In this case, the photo album is lovely and will definitely find a place on my shelves next to Tokyo Bois! and a few other queer-friendly photo books I have. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Really fun to flip through and appreciate fashion and location…and models. ^_^

Via YNN Correspondent Amy M, take a look at this NHK video on kimono artist Candy for some fun looks.

Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »