YAOI AMV: “My Dick” Hetalia Version
I forgot about this one until someone brought it up on twitter. I can't believe I never posted it! This AMV won Best Comedy at YaoiCon 2010. Enjoy!
YAOI NEWS: TOKYOPOP Addresses Licensing
TOKYOPOP has finally made a statement regarding the status of their existing licenses. Here is the statement as posted on their Facebook account:
RELEASE DATES: 2011/12 Release List
The 2011 Release List documenting all yaoi manga and novels being released this year has been updated and can be found here or in its usual spot in the top bar titled "Release List". I have removed all unreleased titles by TOKYOPOP and BLUMANGA as they have now been removed from retailers or made unavailable.
The only change was Dog X Cat V2 now has a release date of 6/1/11.
The following titles have been added: Kizuna V4 Deluxe Edition; Rabbit Man, Tiger Man V2; Yakuza Café; Bad Teacher's Equation V3; Border V3; Bad Teacher's Equation V4 & Bad Teacher's Equation V5.
The following licenses were added to the end of the list as they do not currently show a release date: Great Place High School Student Council V4; Koi ni Tsuite; Yellow 2 Episode 3; Mr. Convenience; Only Serious About You V2; The Tyrant Falls in Love V5 & V6.
~Jennifer LeBlanc
YAOI INTEREST: Great Article on TOKYOPOP/BLUMANGA
There's a great article over at Sequential Tart about TOKYOPOP and BLUMANGA that really delves into the history of boys' love and how instrumental TOKYOPOP was in bringing it over the the United States and in English. Here are a few small excerpts but I highly recommend going to the site and reading it in its entirety:
"In 2003 TOKYOPOP became the first publisher to make boys' love manga, then referred to in the U.S. market as shonen ai, available in English…"
"In addition to being the first to bring boys' love / shonen ai to the North American market, TOKYOPOP was notable for making its BL widely available at reasonable prices…"
As angry and/or sad as we all may be, we should give credit where credit is due. Thanks TOKYOPOP for the great run you've had. You and BLUMANGA will be missed.
~Jennifer LeBlanc
YAOI NEWS: Farewell BLUMANGA
It's a sad, sad day. I don't know who broke the news first as I saw it all over Twitter when I jumped on today so I'll just point you to this article by Anime News Networks that confirms TOKYOPOP will be shutting down it's North American operations effective May 31st and the personal message from TOKYOPOP founder and CEO, Stu Levy. What does this have to do with BLUMANGA? BLUMANGA is the boys' love imprint for TOKYOPOP so if the parent company shuts down, then the imprint will as well if it has no new financial backing. I shot off an email to TOKYOPOP's PR person to confirm but as of yet I have received no answer. I don't expect to hear any good news but I will update this post if I do receive a response.
What does this all means for us? It means we will no longer see new volumes of Junjo Romantica, Love Pistols, You Will Drown in Love or new releases like Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi. There are also TOKYOPOP favorites like Hetalia, Togainu no Chi, Silver Diamond and Vassalord (although there is hope Hetalia V3 will still be released in May). It's too early to know what they will be doing with their licenses or if another company will pick them up but for us boys' love fans, there's really only one company left that could possible step in. That would be Digital Manga and their two boys' love imprints, June and 801 Media. I highly doubt they'd pick up long running series like Junjo or Love Pistols this late in the game though, and they may not pick up any at all. Clearly if a powerhouse like TOKYOPOP can fall, so can smaller boys' love publishers so they need to watch their own bottom line.
EDIT: Here's is another longer message from Stu Levy and more interestingly the very 'direct' comments left by some not-so-happy fans. Ouch.
EDIT #2: I received an email today from Mike Kiley, Senior Vice President of TOKYOPOP that BLUMANGA will indeed close.
EDIT #3: Rightstuf has confirmed that titles releasing after May 4th are being canceled.
EDIT #4: Both the TOKYOPOP and BLUMANGA sites are now closed down.
Feel free to comment, say your goodbye's or just cry over another loss in our very small boys' love publishing world… If there's a certain title you hope gets picked up, say it hear. You'd be surprised who may be listening.
~Jennifer LeBlanc
YAOI ANIME: Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi Now Airing!
Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi is now airing in Japan and Crunchyroll has started its simulcast today for premium members. Those without a Crunchyroll membership can see it air on April 15th. I just finished watching episode one and I'm already hooked. Started a little slow and then bam!.. laughing out loud. It definitely looks just like Junjo including the characters and there's even a 'guest' appearance by a Junjo character but only in the background. People have said Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi is a little more realistic in comparison and although it's only episode one, I can already see some of that shining through. I still love Junjo so it's going to take a lot to win me over but this episode was a good start. 
~Jennifer LeBlanc
YAOI ANIME: Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi to Simulcast!
Awesome news for yaoi fans! Crunchyroll has announced that they will be simulcasting Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi after it starts to air in Japan, which is April 8th. They have not released any details regarding how soon after but I would imagine about a week. What do you think? Anyway, the simulcast will be available for the following countries/regions: North America, South America, United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Netherlands, Portugal, Middle East, Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia. Here's the official Sekai-ichi Facebook page, which is mostly in English.
~Jennifer LeBlanc
YAOI ANIME: Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi Premiering 4/8/11
Shungiku Nakamura of Junjo Romantica fame has another manga titled Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi, which has recently been adapted into an anime. The first episode is set to premier April 8th in Japan. Here's the publisher's description of the series: Continue reading »
Happy 2 Year Anniversary, The Yaoi Review!
The Yaoi Review 10/24/08
Yay! It's the site's 2 year anniversary today and I'm in the giving mood. Since today is also Hetalia Day (per TOKYOPOP) I thought I'd give away some Hetalia merchandise I've been saving for a special occasion. The first item I have is this gorgeous full color Hetalia Fan Book. Seriously, you need to see this thing. The dust cover is almost luminescent and the color and quality of the pages is quite nice. I bought this from Kinokuniya Bookstores for $19.20 and the money was graciously donated by Tara-Chan back in December for use as a prize when I moved the site from LiveJournal to it's own domain. I've been sitting on this book since then trying to figure out the best way to give it away and I think now is the time! It's Hetalia Day baby!
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