Yuri Network News - July 23, 2011

Yuri Manga

Morinaga Milk-sensei's popular Yuri series Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo will be re-serialized in Comic High starting with the September 22 (October) issue. She had intimated that there *might* be a continuation forthcoming, so we can keep our fingers crossed.

Good news for Sailor Moon fans, our friend Bill Flanagan was officially announced at SDCC as the translator of Kodansha's release of Sailor Moon . We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the translation is in good hands.

Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 5 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) wll be hitting shelves at the end of August.

Cassiopeia Dolce, Volume 3 (カシオペア・ドルチェ 3) became available this week, for all your doll-makers who bathe Yuri needs.

Don't forget to get yourself a copy of September's Comic Yuri Hime, with obligatory swimsuit cover.

Tsubomi, Volume 13 joins us in August. There was a HUGE cliffhanger in Volume 12, so for once I'm really motivated to get this!

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Snatches of Yuri

You know what we need more of? Questionable Yuri 4-panel gag comics from MangaTime Kirara. Luckily, there's Marshmallow Typhoon (ましゅまろ×タイフーンッ).

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Other News

The Japanese Digital Manga Association has announced the August launch of Jmanga.com, an initiative by Japanese manga publishers to make manga available online to a worldwide audience.

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That's a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There's a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage - stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent's badge.

Thanks to all of you - you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri Network News - April 9, 2011

Event News

Today and tomorrow is the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival.  I will be there today only at Rica Takashima's Table - L9. She will have art prints, postcards, magnets and a new doujinshi, Miho-chan's Memories. Drop by say hi - I intend to have random items to give away, as stuff always sort of accumulates here in the house. ^_^

As I've said in the past, I consider MoCCA to be one of the best events for comics and cartoon art I've ever attended. If you think you want to be an artist or just want to feel the vibe of a whole lot of creatin' going on, you really must attend MoCCA's event.

For the more literary-minded, New York's Japan Society is hosting an event titled Seeing Stories: Fiction, Manga & Graphic Novels on the reciprocal nature of literature and manga. This is on May 3 in NYC. I plan on being there, if I can.

One more event I am planning on attending - Yuri doujinshi event Girls Love Fest this September in Tokyo. It's about time, wouldn't you say? Next time, Maiden's Garden. ^_^

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Yuri Anime

I am actually amazed it took this long, but massively popular with moe fans Idolmaster
has finally gotten an anime.

YNN Correspondent and Okazu Superhero Eric P. shares the news that Nozomi/Right Stuf has licensed Sora no wo to and will be releasing it as a DVD collection, Sound of the Sky. This collection has a street date in July.

Funimation is releasing Ga-Rei-Zero in combo DVD/Blu-Ray packs and on their Youtube channel.

There was a book in every single store when I was in Japan in 2010. Moshidora is about a girl who becomes a manager of a baseball team. And it was on all the Yuri lists, because it was moe and they reaaallllllly wanted it to have Yuri. Now it's an anime and they still reallllly want it to have some Yuri, even if they have to squint and lean.

And in the same trend, Hanasaku Iroha, which is streaming on Crunchyroll, IMHO (which may not be yours) sounds like the Yuri will be mostly in your head.

Maria+Holic has been granted a second season and, like Hanasaku, I will not be watching it. If you enjoy Maria+Holic and want to review that second season, please feel free to write me about a guest review!

While we're piling on the moe with questionable Yuri, don't forget that the anime A-channel will begin this spring. It's based on a 4-koma comic, so you've already seen this one...a hundred times. ^_^

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Maria-sama ga Miteru News 

New Novel,  Maria-sama ga Miteru: Private Teacher  is already getting high Yuri ratings on Japanese Yuri blogs and juicy snorts of amusement from fans. A Japanese acquaintance on Twitter said, "It sounds like a fan doujinshi!" It really does....

...and, at last! YNN Correspondent Simon gets in first with the news that the Maria-sama ga Miteru Live-Action movie BD and DVD will be seeing a late July release. Want Nozomi/RightStuf to license it? Ask them politely to do so.

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Yuri Manga 

YNN Correspondent Komatsu-san is pleased to share the news that Himawari-san manga has had successful sales and is going to a second printing. Even better, the creator is looking to do a second volume and the publisher is willing to back it. Whee!

From random tweets, Morinaga Milk has intimated that there may be a new edition and possibly continuation of Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakura-iro.  When more details are released I'll let you know. Or, conversely, when one of you learns details, you'll let me know! You're not shy! ^_^ (Also, please don't bothering to respond to this news with "Yay! I can't wait to read scans!" because I will not approve comments like that.)

Aoii Hana's got a new collection of Comic Yuri Hime stories called called Twin Kick (ツインケイク).

There is a charity doujinshi for Earthquake rescue and relief that has contributing artists from a number of magazines including the creator of Nobara no Mori no otome-tachi.

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Other News

If you're looking to practice your Japanese, but don't want to risk being treated like a weirdo for liking Yuri, then consider joining the new Yuri GL Community.

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That's a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There's a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage - stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent's badge.

Thanks to all of you - you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri Network News - March 19, 2011

Yuri Drama CD

Because one Hayate x Blade Drama CD was not enough and two drama CDs only barely scratched the itch, the Hayate x Blade Ultra Jump Drama CD Sanban Hoshi! Hyuuryuu Tsumeawase (はやて×ブレード ウルトラドラマCD さんばん星！ 漂流つめあわせ) is now on sale!

Also available is the GIRL FRIENDS Drama CD. Morinaga Milk seemed very happy with the results in her posts on her blog and on Twitter, so I think we're in for a treat.

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Yuri Anime

This week Nozomi/RightStuf announced the street date for the first Revolutionary Girl Utena (少女革命ウテナ) box set. This set will include all the extras that were in the Japanese remastered set - and TRSI says that for fans who pre-order all three sets, there will be an extra extra. There's no hint yet as to what that might be, but they promise it will be very cool. If any other company said that, I'd shrug. TRSI gets my kind of "cool" better than most. As another type of extra, there is a feature on the Utena website in which you can ask the Director Ikuhara Kunihiko questions about the series. Have at it - I'm looking forward to seeing those questions!


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Yuri Manga

My reaction upon hearing the news that Kodansha USA was going to be releasing the Sailor Moon Anniversary edition and Sailor V manga in English was, and I quote "OMG, did Kodansha USA *listen* to us? I don't know where to look, or what do do with my hands!!!"

Under no circumstances is, "So when is the anime coming out?" the appropriate reaction, btw. Saying "yay!" and saving your money to buy the volumes, which will start being released in September, is an appropriate reaction. If you really do not have the money (and believe me, I sympathize with that,) the most appropriate reaction is to head over to your local public library and become friends with the person who is in charge of the Graphic Novels section or, if there is no GN section, the "acquisitions" person and start getting them primed to pick this series up. Don't rant. Just let them know that one of the two series that truly launched anime/manga here in the US (Dragonball being the other) is about to be released and it'd probably be cool to get it for the collection.

One last thing while I'm asking you to mind you manners. ^_^ Tokyopop did not actually do a TERRIBLE, GODAWFUL translation. They changed the names, because that was what we did back then. It was not actually a crime against nature - for the most part, the Japanese companies wanted it that way. In fact, convincing the Japanese publishers that we *didn't* want names changed was a pretty big battle back in the day.

Quick History Lesson: Sailor Moon was being serialized in Tokyopop's Smile, then Mixxzine magazine when the first rebellion occurred. The anime had been running on Cartoon Network, Usagi had become Serena, Makoto was Lita already. Tokyopop kept Lita but tried to mollify fans with Bunny for Usagi. BUT. When the Outer Senshi arrived and their names were changed, it was intolerable - the straw that broke the camel's back was, apparently, using Olivia for Hotaru. Fans rebelled and wrote ridiculously angry letters. Tokopop bowed to pressure and when Sailor Moon 'S,' 'Super S' and 'Stars' volumes came out, the Outers and Starlights retained their names. I still have those Smile and Mixx magazines issues, by the way. ^_^

This series, and later Azumanga Daioh, with Yukari being the Spanish teacher in the first volume of the manga, were the two big proving grounds for the kind of localization we expect right now.

Some back channel chatter convinces me that we *are* getting a new translation of the manga, and from a very talented and reliable source. I hope we get some good editing too! Let's keep our fingers crossed.


I'm still not entirely sure what this is about, but Dengeki 4-Koma Collection, Fu-Fu, (電撃4コマ コレクション ふーふ ) appears to be just what it sounds like - a comic strip of two women "playing house" as we call it around these parts. There's apparently going to be - or is - a net game release associated with this, if I read that correctly.


And let's finish up with something that I think will make a lot of people happy (hopefully happy enough to buy it, rather than just download scans.) The first Ichijinsha collection by Nanzaki Iku Sweet Little Devil, is due out in April.

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Yuri Novel

Miyamoto Ayako is currently contributing short stories to the new Comic Yuri Hime. She also has a new book out, Ame no Tou (雨の塔) which, like the short stories, is Yuri.


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That's a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There's a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage - stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent's badge.

Thanks to all of you - you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri Network News - February 19, 2011

Every week, as I type up a YNN report, I'm reminded just how fast time goes. It's already mid-February!

Yuri Manga

Our top story this week is from YNN Correspondent Jennifer M. French publisher Taifu has released the first chapter of their French-language edition of GIRL FRIENDS by Morinaga Milk as an online preview. Go take a look, even if you don't read French. And if you do, please support Taifu as they takes they first steps into the Yuri market!

This past Valentine's Day, LGBT Comics Consortium Prism Comics was kind enough to feature our own Rica 'tte Kanji!? for a review.

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ALC Publishing

Speaking of Rica,  I would like do a special shout-out today to Komatsu-san. Because of him, our ALC Publishing manga is going to become part of the permanent collection at the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Komatsu-san is a valuable member of our staff and a good friend. And a really nice guy! ^_^ Thank you so much for all your support.

Right now, all of us at ALC are working hard on the new Rica 'tte Kanji!? Omnibus. ^_^ Along with the original chapters, and the "More Rica" chapters from Yuri Monogatari, we've got a previously unpublished story and some brand new work from Rica. It's going to be amazing!

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Yuri Radio

In Japan, Simoun has kicked back into life, as the Emotion The Best Simoun box set edition hits the shelves. To help promote that, there is a new Simoun Radio show, Simoun Electric Wave DE Remersion.

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Other News

Director of Shoujo Kakumei Utena, Ikuhara Kunihiko, has announced that he will be directing a new TV anime this year. He was notably involved in the creation of the opening sequence of Aoi Hana in 2009. The only details he's given about the anime so far as that it will star a high school girl - a piece of information that actually made me laugh out loud. It instantly reminded me of this Dilbert comic.

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That's a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There's a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage - stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent's badge.

Thanks to all of you - you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri Manga: GIRL FRIENDS, Volume 5

After a rollercoaster ride of emotional growth, we have at last arrived at Volume 5 of Morinaga Milk-sensei's definitive work, GIRL FRIENDS. And it is good.

Mari and Akiko have only a few more things left to deal with before they can face the world as a couple. One of these things is the physical component of their relationship, which is played for both laughs and "aww"s and is a sweet, rather than salacious, moment in their journey.

Of course their high school life is another thing they must deal with, and the hurdle of what will they do after they graduate takes up a large portion of this volume. It's resolved satisfactorily on all sides. Akiko and Mari graduate without problem and in a giant handwave get to live happily ever after - at least as far as into the next stage of their lives.

And, despite the big stick o'happily ever after being applied liberally to the end of this series, I find myself not as satisfied with it as I had hoped to be. Bear with me as I explain why.

There are, IMHO, three obvious and perfectly legitimate reasons why the ending was given to us in an amorphous ball of "and they lived happily ever after," rather than in any detail. Please allow me to indulge in a bit of overthinking here. These reasons might have been:

1) The author herself is clearly a specialist in the space between realizing "I like you" and getting together as a couple. It may be she has no interest in portraying anything after that.

2) The editor may have suggested that the audience isn't terribly interested in the non-high school hurdles a gay couple has to face, or that the frisson of first love/first lust is sexier and more appealing to them than the domestic minutiae of buying furniture

3) Since all romances are, in some key ways, fantasies, the author may have wanted to portray a perfect world in which a couple of women, having decided to build a life together actually can, without pressure or difficulty from family or discrimination in housing or employment.

As I said, all three of these reasons are absolutely perfectly acceptable. And yet I remain unsatisfied. Why? Because for 4 volumes, Morinaga-sensei had constructed what I consider to be an incredibly realistic look at two young women in love. No, I absolutely did not need to see Mari and Akiko stressing over coming out to their families, but one handwave to wipe away all the many, many obstacles a young lesbian or gay couple faces was slightly irksome in the face of spending 4 volumes delving deeply into that very thing.

When you are part of a young gay or lesbian couple, your life is never truly private. Every act you do as a couple is a political statement, demanding recognition. As David Welsh of MangaCurmudgeon so brilliantly put it, every time he goes food shopping with his husband it is a subversive act. Constance McMillan never set out to make a political statement - she just wanted to take her girlfriend as her date to their senior prom. But the adults around her immediately turned that perfectly average desire into a divisive political declaration. For those of us who are LGBTQI, this happens every day.

So, when all of that is simply skipped or ignored, after 4 volumes of dealing with every single possible emotional hurdle between two girls and a life together as a couple, I found it to be disappointing. Had Mari at least thought, "Well, we still have a lot to deal with," as she considered their life together in the epilogue, I would have been 100% satisfied. As it is, Morinaga-sensei gives away a little of the issue with the wrap-up in which we are told that Mari and Akiko still remained friends with Sugi-san and Tamamin and the others. This was never really a story about Mari and Akiko as Girlfriends. For Morinaga-sensei and her readers it was a story about Girls and their Friends. And in that story was a very sweet romance between two of those girls.

Ratings:

Art - 8
Story - 8
Characters - 8
Yuri - 10
Loser FanBoy - 4

Overall - 8

This series, at a comfortable 5 volumes, would be an excellent candidate for a American manga company who wanted to take a chance on a "Yuri" manga.

Yuri Network News - October 16, 2010

Yuri Manga

From YNN Correspondent Komatsu-san, French Yuri imprint Taifu Comics plans to release Morinaga Milk's GIRL FRIENDS in 2011 (in French, obviously). France continues to be a very girl-friendly space for manga. The final volume of GIRL FRIENDS hits Japanese store shelves in November...just after I leave the country....

Fans of questions never answered and running around and angsting alot are sure to want to pick up the first volume of Zettai Shoujo Astoria by the artist that did First Love Sisters, Shinonome Mizuo.

FINALLY, the first volume of Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi will be out in early November - unlike everything else I want, which comes out after I leave Japan. I really think you ought to buy this one and read it. Really. Just do it.

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Maria-sama ga Miteru News

YNN Correspondent Soul Assassin was kind enough to point us towards this Cobalt Shueisha special with photos from the filming of the Maria-sama ga Miteru movie. It made me all kvell-y and happy. ^_^

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Other News

A new Hayate x Blade Drama CD - the first since the shift to Ultra Jump - is listed on Amazon. It's cleverly titled, Hayate x Blade Ultra Drama CD! Ichiban Hoshi! Zekkyoutsumeawase!.

Not Yuri, but classic sistercest, here's a a Graphic Novel of Christina Rosetti's juicy poem Goblin Market.

Also not quite Yuri, but very Yuri-friendly, I took a long, lingering look at women's manga magazine Feel Young at Mangacast.

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That's a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There's a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage - stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent's badge.

Thanks to all of you - you make this a great Yuri Network!

Yuri Manga: GIRL FRIENDS, Volume 4

GIRL FRIENDS Volume 4 is the kind of story-telling that fills volumes of literature, but manga fans generally can't stand. Having established in previous volumes that both Mari and Akiko feel the same way about one another, manga fans (who have been trained to be terrible readers by illicitly scanned porn doujinshi and impatiently written fanfic) bitch endlessly "why don't they just get together (i.e., have sex) already?"

Maddeningly for them, this series is not a porn series. Instead it is a graphic novel series about a shockingly realistic - and therefore frustrating - relationship between two girls young enough that merely identifying one's feelings at all is problematic. One of the complaints I've heard regularly about this series is that it is not realistic at all, but I feel that it absolutely is realistic. The folks I've heard this from the most live in a culture and with families that are largely tolerant and accepting of same-sex couples. I can assure you that in parts of the world where there is not a high level of acceptance and/or tolerance, this kind of agonizing hesitation is quite normal.

In Volume 4, Akiko is confused, hurt, frustrated and puzzled by Mari's lack of response to her kiss at the end of Volume 3. It seems obvious to Akiko that she's communicated her feelings properly but, inside Mari's head, the bunker has been shut down. Having only words and unreliable emotions with which to parse Akiko's actions, Mari has convinced herself that this was merely a kiss between friends...despite all evidence to the contrary.

The bulk of the volume is taken up with the class trip, and the comedy of errors, misunderstandings and miscommunication that keep Mari and Akiko apart. Some of it is not their fault, but a great deal of it is simply lack of a quiet moment to have the talk that they need to have. When, over a heart-shaped stone that is supposed to guarantee eternal love, they finally have that talk - amazingly - much of what keeps them apart dissipates into the nothing it really was.

Now, at last, the two can start developing their relationship. We watch their first halting steps through the jaded eyes of their friend, Sugiyama, in what to me was a really miserable chapter about broken dreams and the death of innocence. But, hey, that's realistic too.

Ratings:

Art - 8
Story - 8
Characters - 8
Yuri - 8
Loser FanBoy - 4

Overall - 8

Volume 5 will simultaneously bring fans the climax they desperately want and the end of the series so they have something to whine about - also a critical factor in fan enjoyment. ^_^

Yuri Network News - January 30, 2010

This week was the last week of having 4 jobs; as of next week, I'll be back to my usual 3 at a time. Thank you all for your patience with gaps in reviews. I'm *still* open to guest reviews, so if you have something you'd really like to review here, email me and we can talk!

Before we start, I have a Mystery to Solve. Someone sent me an absolutely *beautiful* doujinshi from Romania. There was no name, no note, no nothing. Can someone claim credit and let me know who to thank?

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Yuri Manga

The pre-order for the first volume of Gunjo is up on Amazon JP. It's got a February 25 release date.

Ordering from Amazon JP isn't as hard as it appears, since all the buttons are the same size, color and shape on every Amazon, and the check-out can be displayed in English. However, I know that not everyone is comfortable with the idea of ordering from there. So, to make things easier, I'll be coordinating a bulk order. I'll let you know when it's all set up, but here's the plan: I'll set up a link to take orders through Paypal. You'll have to pay shipping from Japan, the cost of the book, the fees on Paypal and shipping to you. However, you'll be paying a smaller shipping cost than if you placed the order on your own. You don't *have* to order this way, I just want to make it easier for you if you want it. :-)

YNN correspondent Sean G. did some great investigative reporting this week, when he contacted Digital Manga Publishing and asked whether they had abandoned the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS manga. Their response was 'We still have it. Lyrical Nanoha Strikers will come out this year. Vol. 1 is in September.' As Sean said, "there you go."

Octave Voume 4 is up for preorder, and the latest Comic Yuri Hime magazine has already hit the shelves.

The big news is that Morinaga Milk will be doing a color illustration for Yuri Hime. This has excited some hope that she - and therefore Nana and Hitomi's story - will be returning to the magazine. File that under conjecture and rumor. All it really means is that she's doing a color illustration.

CANAAN Volume 1 is now available. So far, it pretty closely mirrors the anime, which is both good, and bad.

It's the Year of Nanoha! The movie is out, with a Number #1 song for Mizuki Nana, and the first volume of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid has hit the stands. The story is excellent, the execution gives me nightmares.

For those of us who prefer the adult characters, the first volume of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Force is also available.

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Yuri Artist Interview

Speaking of Yuri manga artist Morinaga Milk (Girl Friends), she answers 10 questions on the Comic High website. These cover important issues like her unusual pen name and what items she keeps around when she's writing, etc.

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Other News

It's my pleasure to announce the winner of "Get this thing out of my house! Contest" from last week - Satoshi Miwa. Miwa, can you DM me on Twitter or email me with your address and I'll get this fine example of unrestrained crap out to you as fast as I can manage? :-)

It's all the rage to give away manga these days among the manga bloggers - I may make this a regular feature!

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That's a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There's a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage - stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent's badge.

Thanks to all of you - you make this a great Yuri Network!