Fujoshi O'Clock: July Edition

Fujoshi O'Clock is a monthly feature at Nagareboshi Reviews which focus on boys' love/yaoi news, reviews, and meta. The feature also puts a spotlight on trans/bisexual/genderqueer manga/anime news and articles. For yuri/shoujo ai, see fellow bloggers Yuricon and Yuri no Boke for a more thorough examination of the girls' love genre.

This month will be articles/news only.

Articles for July:

• Midwest yaoi convention Ahn Con is running a crowdfunding campaign to help pay off some of its convention debt and help ensure it will be up and running for another year.
• In further convention news, YaoiCon's 2015 guest of honor will be manga-ka Tateno Makoto. YaoiCon recently held events at Anime Expo 2015, including its infamous annual Bishounen Bingo. The industry guest for September 18-20 will be Martha Asahi, a JP cosplayer and BL manga-ka.
• Korean BL visual novel November Boy, being released by Sekai Project, now has a video trailer, as shared by Hardcore Gamer's website.
• Elementree has released an English version of Yaoi Ooku: Distorted Love to iOS and Android; the BL dating sim game takes place during the Edo era and features the voice of VA Tetsuya Kakihara.

Fujoshi O'Clock (4/17/15)

What time is it? It's Fujoshi O'Clock, a regular feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. There is also a focus on trans and bisexual anime/manga. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• The headline at Otaku Champloo says it all: Nakamura Asumiko’s Doukyuusei (Classmates) is getting an anime!
• Free! fans, get ready: the Free! Starting Days film has been announced, with a projected release date of December 2015 in Japan.
• YaoiCon's latest announcement is that manga-ka Makoto Tateno will be a guest at the convention this year. The California-based yaoi con is scheduled for September 18-20.
• Experiments in Manga looks at manga team Studio Kosen, a Spanish duo who has released BL titles in English and is now being published in Sparkler Monthly.
• The Beautiful World looks at same-sex desire and unions in Kaori Mori's A Bride's Story, currently being published by Yen Press.
• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books recently posted a very BL-friendly podcast in which they talked about male/male English language fiction, blogging on m/m fic, and recommendations for further reading.

Reviews:

• Slightly Biased Manga reviews volume 3 of Love Pistols by Tarako Kotobuki, that infamous BL manga about men and animals and, y'know, weird sex.
• Otaku Champloo reviews Yatamoto by Harada, in which there is "unforgiving eroticism" and a good guy falling hard for a bad boy.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!

Fujoshi O'Clock (3/14/15)

What time is it? It's Fujoshi O'Clock, a regular feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. There is also a focus on trans and bisexual anime/manga. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• According to a Twitter report, manga-ka Gengoroh Tagame's latest work is an all-ages manga about a gay couple and their daughter.
• An Answerman article from early February talks about the Free! anime and the issue with the anime's licensing confusion.
• ANN looks at Sparkler Monthly, which publishes multiple BL and LGBT-friendly titles of original English language manga. And, yes, they talk about Off*Beat quite a bit!
• Hazukashii Kedo looks at the haitoku/'fall from virtue' themed anthology of BL that will be published by Charles Comics.

Reviews:

• Otaku USA reviews the Massive Anthology, which features shorts from major bara/gay manga authors like Tagame and Jiraiya.
• Slightly Biased Manga reviews volume 2 of Crimson Spell by Ayano Yamane from SuBLime and the single-volume One Is Enough by love from GEN Manga.
• Experiments in Manga reviews Hide and Seek volume 1 by Yaya Sakuragi, a romance between a doctor and a candy store owner.
• Rebecca Silverman at ANN reviews volumes 1-3 of Hide and Seek by Yaya Sakuragi, and gives it a B overall.
• ふう子 at Hazukashii Kedo reviews Twilight Underground by Akihira Shiro, a new story by the manga-ka that is running in Craft magazine.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!

Fujoshi O'Clock (9/10/14)

What time is it? It's Fujoshi O'Clock, the biweekly feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. There is also a focus on trans and bisexual anime/manga. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• Crunchyroll is publishing a new fujoshi-theme manga in English: Watashi ga Motete Dousunda by Junko, which translates into What Am I Going To Do About Being Popular?.
• Viz's BL imprint SuBLime has announced deals for attendees of YaoiCon 2014. The convention takes place in San Francisco during the upcoming weekend.
• A new Japanese language BL questionnaire/mailer has just opened online. Naturally, it's more targeted to BL fans who read the manga untranslated.
• ANN's latest Daily Cosplay is from DRAMAtical Murder; the character is the Shiroba version of Aoba Seragaki.

Reviews:

• ANN has reviewed the latest episodes of DRAMAtical Murder and Free!'s second season.
• AnimeSecrets.org reviewed the first episode of Love Stage!!'s OVA series.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!

Fujoshi O'Clock (8/30/14)

What time is it? It's Fujoshi O'Clock, the biweekly feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. There is also a focus on trans and bisexual anime/manga. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• The OVA for Kono Danshi, Sekka ni Nayandemasu aka This Boy Is Worrying About Turning To Stone has a second promo video. This shonen ai OVA is from Soubi Yamamoto, who also made several other shonen ai OVAs in the past couple of years.
• The sixth installment of the BL Pose Collection Created Together With Artists series is turning heads with its real life subjects photographed in very - ahem - interesting poses. There's even behind the scenes videos!
• the beautiful world talks about the importance of Hourou Musuko/Wandering Son and its treatment of trans characters. Some spoilers for the manga are in this post.
• An unaired episode of Free! Eternal Summer will be bundled with the seventh BR/DVD release. This disc will be released in March 2015.

Reviews:

• Anime News Network is now reviewing Love Stage!! and Free! Eternal Summer on an episode-by-episode basis. Love Stage!! is being reviewed by Rebecca Silverman and Free! Eternal Summer is being reviewed by Lauren Orsini.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!

Fujoshi O'Clock (6/28/14)

What time is it? It's Fujoshi O'Clock, the biweekly feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• The Beautiful World talks about LGBT pride parades and why they are still needed, from a non-Western perspective. It's split between three pages, so don't forget to read all of them! Content warning for quoting bigoted slurs.
• Bruno Gmuender Publishing has announced several new titles for their English translated gay manga line of books. They include titles by Gengoroh Tagame and Takeshi Matsu. The page is in German; PhoenixTerran has a quick and short translation of the important parts of the news on their Twitter.
• As the second season of Free! premieres next week, fujoshi swim fans now have new ways to watch it. Funimation has licensed Free! -Eternal Summer- for simulcast and home video release; the first season is still available on Crunchyroll.
• Speaking of Free!, you can now purchase a life sized tapestry of Rin Matsuoka as he joins the ranks of his fellow swimmers in scroll form. There is also a new Free! season two poster at the ANN link.

Reviews:

• Experiements in Manga looks at two collections of bara manga by manga-ka Gengoroh Tagame, Endless Game and Gunji. It also discusses The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame, another collection of works by the manga-ka.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!

Fujoshi O'Clock (4/19/14)

What time is it? It's . . . Fujoshi O'Clock, the biweekly feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• Something for the swim team otaku out there: the Free! anime was the top favorite at the fifth annual Boys Love award, beating out such titles as Kuroko's Basketball, Yowamushi Pedal and Hetalia for the gold. For fujoshi-favorite manga, manga-ka Kou Yoneda dominated two of the top three titles.
• Oguie Maniax is still bringing the Fujoshi Files and nearing a neat one hundred. This week, it's #95 and Kondou Mayuka from the Onii-chan no Koto nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakarane! anime/manga.
• French speaking otaku on Twitter will want to pay attention to Yaoi Cast, a French-language fujoshi-friendly Twitter feed that shares a lot of BL/yaoi related news and images.
• The nominations for the Eisner Award were recently announced. Among the manga titles included is the Heart of Thomas by Moto Hagio, published by Fantagraphics.

Reviews:

• OASG reviewed volume one of Rensou by Yusura Ai, a historical boys' love set during Edo Japan and centered on a traveling Kabuki troupe and their newest member.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!

Fujoshi O'Clock (1/30/14)

What time is it? It's . . . Fujoshi O'Clock, the biweekly feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• You don't have to wait too long to get into the water again: a second season of Free! has been confirmed, air date currently unknown.
• The Gravitation: Lyrics of Love OVA now has clips of its English dub available online. Nozomi Entertainment is its licensing company and is partnered with Starz Media for the release.
• Viz's yaoi imprint SuBLime has recently celebrated its second year of publishing. The anniversary was marked with a limited time sale on select titles.
• Kou Yoneda's BL manga title Doushitemo Furetakunai/No Touching At All will be getting a live-action film; actors have already been chosen for the main male roles.
• ふう子 at Hazukashii Kedo posts her first ever boys' love manga haul video. It's a long one!
• Mikki at Deremoe asks "are otaku homophobic?" in an incredibly thought-inducing post, and hits upon such things as crossplay and Japanese culture.
• Lastly, in a post that hits more upon LGBT issues than BL issues, Matt Thorn discusses manga-ka Inio Asano's gender identity. Asano is best known for such titles as Nijigahara Holograph, Solanin, What A Wonderful World, and Oyasumi Punpun.

No reviews this week.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!

Fujoshi O'Clock (12/19/13)

What time is it? It's . . . Fujoshi O'Clock, the biweekly feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• Oguie Maniax keeps the Fujoshi Files series rolling with two more fictional fujoshi, Mihara Touko and Akai Ringo.
• Otaku Champloo posts their third Fujojocast, in which they discuss BL gifts and upcoming conventions.
• Sybaritic Press posts about writing sex scenes in yaoi, complete with explicit examples and some NSFW artwork.
• Yaoi 911 has posted some new, somewhat NSFW art, featuring characters from Alex Woolfson's Tough webcomic.
• According to information from attendees at a recent KyoAni event, there will be a second Free! original novel, furthering rumors of a second season of the anime series.
• Punked Noodle talks about Smells Like Green Spirit by Saburo Nagai, a BL title in which a relationship forms over a boy's beautiful long hair.
• For those lucky enough to attend the Toronto Comics Art Festival (TCAF) next year, they've just announced that BL manga-ka est em will be their featured guest. TCAF 2014 will run May 10 and May 11.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!

Fujoshi O'Clock (10/20/13)

What time is it? It's . . . Fujoshi O'Clock, the biweekly feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• Otaku Champloo posts their second Fujojocast, in which they discuss current fujoshi fan favorite Free!. I need to watch Free!, obviously.
• There are more Fujoshi Files at Ogiue Maniax, with #82: Himenogi Rin of Fushigi no Kuni no Ringo-Hime and #83: Ishioka Yuri of Fujoshissu!.
• A Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi anime short will be screening alongside the full 2014 Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi anime film. The short is an original story penned by the series' manga-ka.
• Otaku Journalist tackles some weighty issues in BL culture with the truth about boys' love and rape culture. Good discussion in the comments.

Reviews:

• the manga habit reviews Shuuten Unknown by Sugiura Shiho, a heavily BL-tinged series about two men bound together by some very shiny gauntlets.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!