Yuri Manga
We’ve added a couple of new titles to the Yuricon Store!
Galette No. 12 (ガレット) is hitting shelves this week and the cover, illustrated by pen, is just lovely.
The fifth anthology in the Éclair series, Éclair orange – Anata ni Hibiku Yuri Anthology (エクレア orange あなたに響く百合アンソロジー) also makes it to Japanese bookstores this week. This one features a new story by Bloom Into You creator Nakatani Nio.
Speaking of Nakatani Nio…the final volume of Yagate Kimi ni Naru is being released this week in Japan. Yagate Kimi ni Naru, Volume 8 (やがて君になる). Now I’m just killing time until that third Sayaka novel. ^_^
I’m currently reading Yuri to Koe to Kaze Matoi (百合と声と風纏い) about a girl who has no real idea what love means…until she falls for a mysterious woman with a motorcycle who helps her out on a rainy day.
Now that I’m done with events and traveling for a little while, I’ll play catch up on the Store and get some more stuff up!
I’ve just gotten a glimpse of the Udon edition of The Rose of Versailles, Volume 1 and …it’s breathtaking. I expect to have it in my hands this week and I will stop everything and review it immediately. In the meantime, pre-order it, you will not be disappointed.
Lilies Anthology Volume 8: Nodding Lily is now available in print and digital on a number of formats!
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LGBTQ News
Via Cartoon Network’s Twitter account, Steven Universe Future has a premier date! I’ll keep saying this – this cartoon is the only thing standing between me and a complete breakdown since November 2016. Around my house every night we take two episodes before bed. ^_^
Be Gay, Do Comics is a queer comics anthology; 250 pages of queer history, memoir and satire from amazing political cartoon website, The Nib.
Avery Kaplan takes a look at Queerness in Naoko Kodama’s manga I Married My Best Friend To Shut My Parents Up.
Now You Know, an animated history of 200 years of LGBTQ history and rights is narrated by Wanda Sykes.
This Renault car ad is the best lesbian movie of 2019. ^_^
Yuri Podcast
I was a guest this week on Anime News Network’s ANNCast. Zac Bertschy and I talk Yuri and queer representation in Revolutionary Girl Erica (and the comments drop down to Queen’s Blade as a good Yuri in under two pages, so you can see exactly what Zac is talking about very clearly. I was trying to be kind, but guys..seriously…Queen’s Blade is not good representation. )
Yuri Events
Folks in the Shinjuku area on March 1, should plan on attending the 20OL Expo, a doujinshi market focusing on Yuri romances in the workplace.
I’m very pleased (and proud!) to announce that our panel: Transporting Yuri Across Borders has been accepted to the Mechademia conference in Kyoto in May 30-June 1, 2020. Myself, James Welker and Verena Maser will be presenting papers about “challenges and opportunities in the evolution and transformation of yuri as it has been transported across chronological, geographic and linguistic borders.” Sounds cool, right? Now we have to, y’know, write the papers! I’ve been using the Nanowrimo energy of the month to push myself and have gotten a third of the way through the thing.
Interestingly, a whole new section of my paper opened up with my desire to create a new word for Yuri fans. We’ve gotten first-hand testimony from Rica Takashima that Itoh Bungaku-sensei meant to specifically coin a phrase for lesbians when he chose Yurizoku and I’ve done some primary research this week of currently used terms. Yuri is a common genre term now, but there is no clear pre-eminent word for Yuri fan. Yurizuki has been suggested, but it’s no more common than anything else, having been primarily promoted on Twitter through the efforts of two bots who RTed it an average of 5 times a day in 2013-2015. So a bunch of us are now working with 百合人-Yurijin…although predictably there’s already valid discussion about pronunciation and calling it Yuribito…but as I was typing this I realized why I don’t care for that. Yuribito describes a single person’s identity or role within a society. I’m thinking of us all as “the Yuri people,”so Yurijin it is for me. (Leaving Yurizoku still for lesbians, as opposed to anyone who likes Yuri the genre.) I’ve been among those who shape how we talk about this genre for 20 years now and I love how we’ve pushed and prodded it towards a broader vision of inclusivity. ^_^ This conversation will evolve, undoubtedly. Who knows what we’ll call it in another 20 years! Isn’t language fascinating?
Other News
Here’s a fun interview with Laurie Halse Anderson, creator of Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed on rebooting Dian’s origin story through a real world lens.
Here’s a funny story to wrap up. Reed Pop, having whiffed twice at creating an anime festival at NYCC is trying again over at Emerald City Comic Con with Pop Asia. Why. Seriously.
Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Write me with any questions you have, and I’ll do my best to answer them on my YNN podcast, when I revive it this winter!
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