PR: Yaoi-Con Set To Return This Fall In CA

Gardena, CA (May 30, 2013) Yaoi-Con, the largest convention dedicated to the yaoi genre, is excited to announce the convention's return in Fall 2014. After a 2012 event in Long Beach, California and a short hiatus in 2013, the convention will come home to the San Francisco Bay Area, with specific dates and venue to be announced in the coming months. Perennial fan favorites, such as the Bishonen Auction, Bishonen Bingo are scheduled to return, on top of the new and exciting events we're cooking up.

Interested in helping make Yaoi-Con 2014 the convention's best year to date? Fans, cosplayers, and bishonen alike are invited to contact us about volunteer/staffing/bishonen opportunities. Email us at info[AT]yaoicon[DOT]com!

For the latest Yaoi-Con information, visit our website, http://yaoi-con.com, follow us on twitter @YaoiCon, or like our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yaoi-Con/423314747753170! Want to chat with fellow con-goers? Head to the Yaoi-Con forums: http://forums.yaoicon.com

About Yaoi-Conhttp://yaoi-con.com
Established in 2001, Yaoi-Con is the largest American convention dedicated to the yaoi genre. Derived from the Japanese phrase "yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi" ("no peak, no point, no meaning"), yaoi is a genre that defies simple definitions, but has become a catchall term in the West for male/male relationships in Japan-related media. Under Digital Manga, Inc.'s ownership, Yaoi-Con aims to continue the promotion and celebration of yaoi while staying true to the convention's fan-powered nature. 

Masaaki Yuasa's Kick-Heart Trailer Now Online

Masaaki Yuasa's anime project Kick-Heart has been fully funded via Kickstarter, and now the official trailer is online. The short anime film is set to have multiple screenings, although dates have yet to be announced.

You can watch it at this link. Vimeo sucks at the whole embedding thing! It looks like the kind of rollicking high-paced fun anime with a killer soundtrack that was totally worth throwing money at. I want my copy already!

Open Thread: Star Trek Into Darkness

Spoiler warning: Post and comment section will have spoilers for the new Star Trek film.

Yesterday morning (I do love me a morning movie!), me and my best friends had the honor of seeing the latest in the JJ Abrams/Bad Robot reboot of the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek Into Darkness (a movie made a hundred times better when sitting next to a Trekkie more seasoned than myself). If Star Trek was an introduction to the newly rebooted Enterprise crew, STID is their official entry into Trekdom, five year mission and all. It was shiny - oh, the lens flare! - and full of action and explosions and old school Trek references but it also had heart and was thoroughly entertaining. Perfect? No, but it is a worthy follow-up to the 2009 film.

Here are a couple things about Star Trek Into Darkness worth talking about, to get the ball rolling:

- The evolution of James T. Kirk as he turns into the starship captain TOS fans know and love. Although I wished we saw more of the nerdy genius side of Kirk.
- Benedict Cumberbatch as - well - you know. 
- The Spock/Uhura relationship, which has become canon and, IMHO, is great but could do without so much forced squabbling for drama's sake.
- All the TOS references! Anyone else catch the minuscule reference to "Mudd's Women"? That's not the only reference Abrams threw in there...
- KLINGONS. And Uhura speaking Klingon! Be still, my fangirl heart!

Feel free to expand on anything else in the comment section! I'm personally still starry-eyed over my Enterprise faves, Bones (who is really tapping into his Georgia boy accent this time round) and Chekov (who should probably stay on the bridge from now on!).

Manga Review: Short Program

Short Program
Mitsuru Adachi
Viz Media/Animerica Extra
288 pages

These eight short works by a master of manga storytelling, published for the first time in English, are rich with emotion and unexpected outcomes. Decidedly human, they deal with the kinks and quirks of love, lust, missed opportunity, fate, and temptation that make life both tragic and comic. (Source: Goodreads)

I've been a fan of Mitsuru Adachi since happening across his anthology Adventure Boys as well as his crossover one-shot with Rumiko Takahashi, telling the story of their involvement with the Shonen Sunday magazine. Then several summers ago, I started reading Cross Game, his series about baseball and adolescent, and I pretty much fell in love with Adachi's work. Apparently, so did the rest of y'all, since every review I've seen of Cross Game has been glowing and full of love.

Short Program, another collection of one-shots, is a hold over from the days of Animerica Extra, an imprint of Viz Media which has since turned defunct, the English language shojo manga magazine before Shojo Beat. It's a shame it's not around anymore if it was running boss manga like this and Banana Fish and X/1999.

Fujoshi O'Clock (5/24/13)

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:

• Melinda at Manga Bookshelf is lovesick over Loveless, the BL flavored title by manga-ka Yun Kouga. It covers up to volume six of the Loveless manga.
• SuBLime has licensed the four-volume manga series Crimson Spell. This Ayano Yamane has been previously released, partially, by Kitty Media.
• Japanese company Otome's Way is to release a guide to learn Japanese entitled A Fujoshi's Guide To Japanese as well as the Otome's Way Anthology. The Fujoshi's Guide book will be available digitally and in full color.
• Manga publisher PictureBox announces further plans to release more BL/bara titles, including more titles by Gengoroh Tagame.
• RightStuf is warning Canadian customers that their copies of the Bonds of Dream, Bonds of Love manga may be seized at the border. Each volume's listing on RightStuf now includes a line that the work has been banned in Canada and that it will no longer be shipped to Canadian addresses.

Reviews:

• Helen at Narrative Investigations reviewed volume one of Off*Beat by Jen Lee Quick.
• Naru at OASG reviewed The Cat In The Box by Sumako Kari.
• Daniella at All About Manga reviewed Love Makes Everything Right by Sanae Rokuya as part of her 30 Day Yaoi Challenge.
• Brain Vs. Book reviewed Bara Iro no Ho no Koro by Asumiko Nakamura, which is part of the J no Subete series.
• Experiments In Manga reviewed The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: The Master of Gay Erotic Manga by Gengoroh Taname, a collection of bara manga.

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!