Category: Manwha

Happy Holidays from Your Fave GL Creators!

2019 was one awesome year for the Yuri fandom. What better way to add in more love into the yuletide season but by seeing our favorite GL series celebrating the holidays, getting ready for the new year.

This year we have spotted  a few of our GL content creators posting Christmas art related to their works and here they are.

What Does The Fox Say creator Team Gaji posted a Christmas art of both Sungji and Sumin together. Sumin is wearing a Santa outfit as she was lifted by Sungji wearing a Reindeer costume.

https://twitter.com/gaji0712/status/1209504789102350338

Also, the webtoon (which is published in Korean on Kakaopage) has recently ended. You can read the series officially in English on Tappytoon in both SFW and NSFW versions.

Thai GL manga and webtoon artist Ratana Satis posted a Christmas art in her official Facebook page. Featuring the main characters from hit GL works Pulse, Lily Love, and Lily Love 2 – Frosty Jewel. 

https://www.facebook.com/ratana.satis/photos/a.788935964499217/2769830703076390/?type=3&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDaQk_TM9Tpy-Kl_sPR9A5gEotKM7bovapBK0W3NtNXsThezmd0GwMThq5S_eVYtoMsTr03iFJYhAw1OknjhIeczN671FN-9ciEq5TDuBI2HfQgOLls0SteOq5a7QXuXk8dHf-wjRWw9N_AsMJCx18yM_Pvu9FfpNgHdV1um5nZ1TtaQc0FnvibJCQO-X8wO5zK6QU5p9T19jDPc_blwCJ5-2M2z4GLZRl8N3dCEIGutFq4D1VCOAYTuV1FzZj3yZJKpFa_mcfP8RD-L7Sxpn7WBiFUCROxJxu4duhsrPqit0QSOEjDtAjncTLJEj86KoTK9ujIUGE0HS18Pj3rIBdX6w&__tn__=-R

The artist has recently teased art and characters of her upcoming GL series Soul Drifters.  Speaking of Pulse, you can preorder the 6th volume right now. 

Artist Darunni has also posted a Christmas on her official Facebook page featuring our two lovely girls from She’s A Keeper. 

https://www.facebook.com/artsbydarunni/photos/a.872399416243692/1476960549120906/?type=3&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARAxXghLm_5NUy6TT8FkHuakzhrB4hvKTJyAUWGWNnghnpT0-arJjFbX_mF7oHOlc6-R9IBRCFTbAiznvo1dSzGiq6IFhIIy2RHQKZU5ZS_pbHjnm5-jPOeDVPf_OCWNFg_R0bWYZXiOaENLbrbpy9oWZ6HKc2vth-oPnmW3kGIm56aKD_3MQWb0NNGNFoub6RexU0KTUUNGMz5cLdAltNxbytc9xKVK3MpYCSDemEfGw_ivap7TzRRxlSd3Tpom9PllQhaBO5sIRX8T9glNk4PgC3zWa0QecHOKDRbyLwOMo9dLnQzdICHatls_ZkfWQfRpwmhs7KCT1jImIuacg4LrUQ&__tn__=-R

She also has another ongoing webtoon series titled BABE! which you can read on WEBTOON. She’s A Keeper can be read on Webcomics.

Tan Jiu, creator of the popular Their Story / SQ Begin with Your Name series also posted a Christmas update on their Weibo page. Also, let’s not forget that December 25 is also Sun Jing’s birthday!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope your holidays have been great and may your 2020 be awesome.

‘On A Leash’ Creator Aji Assures that Series Will Return

In a tweet posted on Friday, webtoon creator Aji shared that the GL webotoon On A Leash will continue once everything is in clear agreements with webtoon publisher Lezhin Comics on the webtoon ownership right. The creator will be providing updates the soonest.

The tweet received a lot of replies from fans holding on to hope that the series will come back the soonest.

The announcement of the series’ indefinite hiatus happened last February, the same month Team Gaji announced the cancellation of their webtoon hit What Does The Fox Say. 

On A Leash is set in a chaotic battleground where tension and emotions run high. In the midst of the chaos, the story is also centered on the love-hate relationship of Red and Luce (which respectively morph into a dog and snake).  You can read the series in both English and Korean in Lezhin Comics.

Source: agi_mung (Twitter)

 

Pre-Order Lily Love Volume 4 English Edition Today!

 

While Lily Love 2 – Frosty Jewel is ongoing in Lezhin, you can now get yourself a physical copy of the fourth volume of Ratana Satis’ Lily Love! You can pre-order your copy today until November 25.

One book purchase is priced at USD $21 (including shipping). If you are looking for a case to fit all your Lily Love volumes, a soft box is also available priced at USD $3.

Lily Love is one of Ratana Satis’ first successful GL work before her webtoon hit masterpiece Pulse. The series was first released in Thai and was later available for English. It centers on two different girls Donut and Mew as their closeness slowly begins intimate. Their relationship is encountered with a lot of hurdles and doing their best efforts to be there for each other.

While the first Lily Love is centered on Donut and Mew, its second installment Lily Love 2 – Frosty Jewel is centered on Ploy and Ice. Lily Love 2 has just started its second season. Lily Love is also available digitally in Lezhin Comics.

Source: Ratana Satis (Facebook Page)

 

[Update] We Might Not be Able to See or Read Chinese-Made GL Works Anymore

Note: The article is updated with additional information as of November 1:24pm GMT+8. Those underlined are the updated statements.

This is a bit alarming. Worse, there is a chance that we might won’t be able to see GL artwork and webtoons from Chinese artists and writers and related literature in the future. 

https://twitter.com/minorujoeling/status/1065524520461623296

Effective December 1, the Chinese Government will be handing out a huge reward of 600,000 RMB to individuals who will be reporting media under pornography. GL and BL categories might be affected unless it has reached into a degree that the contents of the works contain themes that is considered as inappropriate. 

This draw a huge outcry to fans especially those who loyally follow artists and writers who create related content. Artists urged online users not to re-upload and share their works on the following Chinese social media platforms Weibo and Lofter in order to protect them.

Image from ABC AU

Last year, a woman using the pen name Tianyi was arrested by authorities and was given a 10-year and six months sentence for creating and selling her homoerotic book Occupy in 2017. The novel tells the story about an intimate sexual relationship between a male student and a male teacher.

Tianyi admitted to writing the story and sold copies online via the website Taobao. She promoted her work through the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Pornography is illegal in China and the government is doing all they can to take down those who create and distribute such media.

In the case of Chinese GL works, some of the popular ones are Tamen De Gushi by Tan Jiu and Dear L by Wu Bao.  Note that the mentioned works might not be affected on this as this do not really show pornography.  There’s still hope after all.

To give you a better understanding of the situation, here is a translation of the situation:

https://www.facebook.com/YuriFanaticsOutThere/posts/1918664468203324

Tamen De Gushi was published in a Chinese language physical book titled SQ: Begin with Your Name! released on October 5, 2015. It contained some insert art and the entire chapters from 1 to 141.

Note: While some of the information still requires confirmation, The Lily Cat will continue to monitor and provide updates regarding this. You may follow the Facebook Page or check back here again for the recent updates.

Source: minorujoeling (Twitter), ABC News Australia, Yuri/Shoujo-Ai Manga Fanatics (translation, Facebook), AsiaOne

Team Gaji and ‘What Does The Fox Say’ got me to love Taeyeon, Girls’ Generation, and K-Pop

Long time, no post. As this article is published, I bought my VIP standing ticket to watch Taeyeon’s “S…” Concert in Manila on December 14. It has broke ticket-selling records in the country as tickets were immediately sold out in 5 minutes.

So it has been a year since What Does The Fox Say ended. Sadly, its side-story sequel Paradise is still cancelled and there seem to be no word to when it will be back on the popular webtoon platform Lezhin Comics. Now you may ask why am I mentioning the popular webtoon in this post? Well believe it or not, What Does The Fox Say  and its creator Team Gaji (and Alggumba) got me to love the following: Girls Generation (SNSD), Taeyeon (the group’s leader), and K-Pop in general. 2016 was quite something for me because this was the same year that I got in these things all at once.

Alright people you would probably be having question marks on the top of your heads to why this one specific webtoon got me to love K-Pop. Here is the story:

Previously, I was a moderator of a Facebook group dedicated to this webtoon. One of the things that puzzled me was this thing that some yuri fans usually post pictures of the members of Girls’ Generation and compare them to the What Does The Fox Say characters Sumin, Sungji, and Seju. While some seemed to not really super accurate, one stood out and that was the group’s leader, Kim Taeyeon. I admit she does show some similarities with Sumin. Fans have been creating theories that Sumin was based from her and that the creators of the webtoon were SONES.

Years ago, Lezhin Comics also confirmed this fan theory too. (Note that the screenshot was posted before in Lezhin Comics’ Facebook page but was removed later on).

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BATnXwrE52E/?hl=en

Other theories from fans claim that the whole What Does The Fox Say story is a fanfiction of TaengSic (Taeyeon x Jessica shipping). Before of the hype and success of the webtoon, Team Gaji created art and a small fan comic of Taeyeon and Jessica. Some however claim that WDTFS could be a TaeNy (Taeyeon x Tiffany) fanfiction but I’ll leave it to you guys.

 

Although all of this isn’t really like super confirmed, all this fan theories dragged me to a fandom that I’m not too familiar with which is K-Pop. My curiously lead me to listen to some songs of Girls’ Generation (as well as Taeyeon’s singles) and my love and appreciation for the Team Leader grew. If it weren’t for WDTFS, I wouldn’t have known this awesome group and wouldn’t go through heaven and hell just to see Taeyeon live. No regrets.  Also I want to give credit to my online friends (some of them I have already met personally) because they put into the right path of the fandom. I have witnessed a lot of drama and popcorn moments so I don’t really want to go there.

I can’t wait to see Queen Taeyeon next month. Aside from me, thousands of fans are really looking forward to see her in the flesh and serenade us with her powerful angelic voice. To those who are going, hope to see you there at the New Frontier Theater! I’ll be at VIP standing ;).

About What Does The Fox Say

What Does The Fox Say is a story of the intense love triangle of Sung Sumin, Ju Sungji, and Baek Seju. Sung Sumin is a Team Leader of Hello Studio, a company run by Baek Seju, her ex-girlfriend. Everything seemed to turn around for Sumin when the new recruit Ju Sungji came into the picture. You may read the series in Lezhin Comics.

Sources: Happy Sy (Twitter), koalahug97 (Twitter), Ticketnet, Love-Mega-Evolution (Tumblr)

 

Lezhin Entertainment Sends Apologies to its Creators Regarding “Blacklist” and Closure of Web Novel Platform

Webcomic company Lezhin Comics / Lezhin Entertainment recently released an apology to its creators regarding the issues of a so called “blacklist” (where certain series are excluded in the promotions), contract irregularities, and for the uncalled closure of its web novel platform last August 2017.

Changes to be Implemented the Soonest
Some of the creators were emotional after receiving the apology statement from the company’s CEO, Hee Sun Hang.
Lezhin Comics acknowledges the irregularities and will be pushing changes into the creators’ contracts removing everything that is unfair to create an equal system agreeable for both parties. They will also be taking immediate actions in regards to the delays of creators’ payments which is cost around 430 million Korean won. They have also promised a better and fair distribution of promotions of all webtoon series in the website and in other media.
The Cold Protest

Korean webtoon and webnovel authors working for Lezhin organized a protest last January 11 in front of its office building expressing their anger and disappointment towards the company’s unfair payment system wherein 70% of the earnings of each chapter being purchased will be given to their employer leaving only 30% to themselves.

Among those who are affected with Lezhin’s issues are GL artists Team Gaji, creator of What Does The Fox Say and Aji, creator of On A Leash. In their respective Twitter accounts, they have expressed previously that the issues of Lezhin have caused them stress leading them to the decision of discontinuing their works. 
This protest was then followed by a few hearings months later and continuous awareness of the issue through the use of social media. 
Hoping for the Best



This issue in regards to a large company vs. a large group of content creators is a first of its kind in South Korea. After so many months of sacrifices and voicing out the irregularities, it was all worth it.
With everything seem to be going into the right direction now, we can only hope that this will be a start of a new chapter for Lezhin, its readers, and its previous and current creators.

If you want to know more about this issue, Korean webtoon artists and readers shared and retweeted a website containing information and updates on the issues. You can visit the site here (Korean). 

Images from Yonhap News, OhmyNews, Huffpost Korea
The Lily Cat is your source for the latest updates and reviews on Yuri, GL, anime, manga, cosplay, and more.

New GL Project by Team Gaji to Release on May 22!

What Does The Fox Say artist gaji0712 (Team Gaji)  announced in their Twitter account on Tuesday that their new GL project translated as “Pet’s Aesthetics” is slated to debut on the Korean webtoon platform BOMTOON on May 22. The tweet also mentioned that the releases will be every Tuesday. 

Their first announcement regarding this new project was supposed to be slated for April. Below is some preview images from their tweet:

About ‘What Does The Fox Say’

What Does The Fox Say characters from left to right: Ju Sungji, Sung Sumin, Baek Seju

Team Gaji rose to popularity due to their GL webtoon hit What Does The Fox Say which can be read in the premium webtoon platform Lezhin Comics. The original series ended in September 2017 which was then proceeded to a side-story series centered on Baek Seju titled Paradise. It also was awarded Best GL series in Lezhin Comics.

What Does The Fox Say centers on the intense love triangle between Sungji, Sumin, and Seju. Paradise is side story chapters which are a flashback between Seju and Sumin’s relationship.

The artist team officially announced its cancellation on the webtoon platform last February and this was a massive shock to its fanbase. They are hoping to continue the story once the contract with Lezhin Comics has expired.

About Bomtoon

BOMTOON (also known as BOM Comics) is a Korean webtoon service established in 2015 publishing webtoon series and serializing digital Japanese manga under the genres of BL, GL, Comedy, Romance, drama, and more.

They recently announced of a webtoon competition centered on BL and GL stories.


We can’t wait for release of this series. Let’s hope the stories will have the same intensity as WDTFS. Finally, something to look forward to every Tuesday!

The Lily Cat is your source for the latest updates and reviews on Yuri, GL, anime, manga, cosplay, and more.

BOMTOON Officially Opens Webtoon Competition for GL and BL Genres!

The Korean webtoon platform BOMTOON announced on Wednesday the official start of its webtoon competition from March 21 until June 20. This competition is centered for both the GL and BL categories.

The winner of this competition will be receive 10,000 USD with the runner-up getting 5,000 USD. 5 finalists will also receive 1,000 USD each. All the winners will also have an official serialization with Bomtoon. Names will be revealed on August 20th.

Entering the Competition:



According to the website, here are some things to take note upon entering the competition:

1. Must submit at least 2 completed full episodes with the competition entry form. You must also provide a synopsis of your story.

The webcomic must have at least 70 cuts per episode, scroll, with a width of 1440px. They must be saved on JPG format.

2.  Upon submitting, it must be placed in a zip file in this format: ‘TitleName_Nickname_Realname.zip’. Send your contest entry to partner@bomtoon.com

Interested applicants may download the competition form here. Please note that the platform is in the Korean language.

Conditions in Entering the Competition



1. There is no age limit or requirement in entering the competition.
2. The competition is for entries under the BL and GL genres.
3. Your entry has to be a long series (At least 30 episodes planned)
4. There is no limit in age range (Can be both all ages and Adult only)
5. Deadline is on June 21st, 9:00PM Korean Standard Time

Rules



1. Bomtoon will send you an email of acceptance the day after you send it in.
2 Only original work that you own and is yours is allowed.
3. If you are doing a collab (e.g. with a writer, inker, co-artist, and the related) you must have an equal agreement upon entering.
4.  You can only submit works that aren’t already published online or into a book.
5. Even if you submitted your work on other competitions, you can submit to this one as well.
6.  You can submit more than one entry into the competition, but there is only 1 winner for the top prize.
7. Works that are deemed breaching copyright or laws will be ignored.
8. The winners of the competition must start serializing the series in Bomtoon, and if you serialize it in another company, your prize money will be void.
9. Even if you win the prize to serialize, if your work is deemed not following the competition rules after serialization, BOMTOON has the right to void your prize money.
10. Deadline and announcement day may change without prior notice.

About the Webtoon Service





BOMTOON (also known as BOM Comics) is a Korean webtoon service established in 2015 publishing webtoon series and serializing digital Japanese manga under the genres of BL, GL, Comedy, Romance, drama, and more.

GL fans recently had their eyes on this platform after What Does The Fox Say artist Team Gaji announced their upcoming work (roughly translate as “Pet Aesthetics”) to be published in the website starting in April.

Note: Translation credits to Meow-chan.


The Lily Cat is your source for the latest updates and reviews on Yuri, GL, anime, manga, cosplay, and more.

Is it the End of Lezhin Comics’ “GL Renaissance”?

The hype was so strong at first but now we are still filled with question marks on top of our heads. The biggest question being asked by many is “What Happened?”

Girl’s Love Revolution

2016 and 2017 were quite some hyped up years for Yuri and GL fans alike as Lezhin Comics opened a door to a variety of GL series. Due to this huge volume of webtoon series, it wasn’t long until the webcomic platform got a lot of attention not only in Korea but also in an international scale. From What Does The Fox Say?, Pulse, The Love Doctor, Maison de Maid and Vengeance, Lezhin was taking the webtoon industry by storm and putting artists and writers on the pedestals of great recognition.
The White Dog in Red Background

To those who are not aware, Lezhin Comics (also known as Lezhin Entertainment) is a premium webtoon service that started in April 2013. It was founded by Hee-sun “Lezhin” Han and Jung-hyuk Kwon, the company’s CEO and CTO respectively. Their website www.lezhin.comis available in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Although there are free chapters that users can browse in, further ones are required to be purchased via Lezhin coins in which you need to buy them with real money.
Aside from GL, the website is notable for other webtoons under Mature/Adult, Romance, Comedy, BL, and so on. It also served as a webnovel platform until they effectively closed down the service last year.
Lezhin was a powerhouse for webtoons catering not only original creations but also offering Japanese, Chinese, and Korean manga publications to be available for purchase on the site. Two popular examples are Saburouta’s Citrus and Ratana Satis’ Lily Love.
Everyday was Girl’s Love Day

The nice thing about Lezhin’s releases is the feeling that everyday was Girl’s Love day. There was a new chapter of a new series to look forward to. It was n Lezhin’s releases that got me to go home early before 8pm my time so that I can get to read the latest releases at 9pm. For a working person like me, I considered the releases as more of a stress reliever from the tiring day you had.

One of the most memorable days for me during this period was when the time Pulse chapters are released every Friday and then next day you get The Love Doctor chapters. There was never a dull weekend as you wait for these series. What Does The Fox Say’s releases were also highly anticipated as chapters were released every ten days of each month.
Slow Decline

2017 was both good and bad for those who follow the Lezhin GL series because this was also the time when a majority of the series were ending— and sadly, a lot of them are either ended suddenly or ended with a not-so-satisfying-cliffhanging ending. Everyday Lily, My Girlfriend’s Ex-Boyfriend, Maison de Maid, White Angels Have No Wings, The Love Doctor, and Chain of Youth are just some of those examples. It has become a notable pattern that the story gets so good at the beginning, a bit dragging half-way then give us a slap-to-the-face ending chapter that let you stay in your seat thinking, “Wait, wut now?”

BL Series Killing Stalking

When The Platform Plays Safe

I am pretty sure that I’m not the only one who noticed this that it seems that Lezhin is now putting more favor into its BL genre than the others. Seldom do you see coin sales for your favorite GL webtoons now and it has come to the point that it has become overshadowed by its counterpart genre. 
Ironically, it was What Does The Fox Say that got Lezhin into the radar of international yuri fans before it was taken over by popular BL works like Killing Stalking. The platform may have noticed that there are a lot of BL fans and decided to ride this hype rather than taking chances on their other genres. 
Although there are still other series being promoted in their social media pages like their Romance and Mature genres, it has become too rare now to see GL works being promoted. It’s quite sad.
Issues

News about Lezhin’s unfair payment policy surfaced in Twitter since last year and it has escalated more when its creators and readers organized protests in front of its corporate office in Seoul. While Lezhin defends itself by giving their readers answers with questionable loopholes, it’s already evident that these constant issues of the company have caused some of the creators to jump ship and leave.
There have been stories that artists and writers dealing with mental health-related problems and so much stress due to the company’s strict polices when it comes to deadline and delays. This has not only affected some of Lezhin’s GL artists, it has also affected other artists from other genres like the creator of the popular webtoon series Reversi.
Conclusion

As much as I want to delve in deeper into Lezhin’s issues and the other GL series, it might be getting a bit too long. So to answer the question “Is it the End of Lezhin Comics’ “GL Renaissance”?”, I would have to say “It’s a yes, for now.”
I am honestly sad that as I’m writing this now, the yuri fandom is no longer feeling the hype of Lezhin GL webcomics everyday due to the lack of new content. Some have already moved on to other webtoon platforms for enjoyment. So far, the only series that is left in this golden GL era is The Third Party by Enjelicious, the first winner of Lezhin US’ Comic Contest.
Although there are new GL series that are stepping up like Blooming Sequence by Leeul, On A Leash by Aji (which is currently on indefinite hiatus), Moonlight Garden by Kang Unnie and Miss PM, and Elixir by Sungwon, I just miss those days that almost every day is something to look forward to. This hype may still take a while to build, what I’m very thankful for is that I was able to support these artists and witnessed this renaissance together with a lot of yuri fans who loved these series the same way as I do.
***
How about you? What your favorite Lezhin GL webtoon back then? Leave it in the comments! For now, it’s time to have a cup of coffee and just keep going.

The Lily Cat is your source for the latest updates and reviews on Yuri, GL, anime, manga, cosplay, and more.

Team Gaji to Launch New GL Series in April!

Team Gaji announced on their Twitter account on Friday that they will be launching a new GL webtoon series in April. The title of the new series is roughly translated as “Pet Aesthetics” and will be released in another platform called Bomtoon.

The characters featured above are actually the same characters that made a cameo appearance in the early releases of What Does The Fox Say that dated back 2015.

Team Gaji announced previously on Twitter that What Does The Fox Say is cancelled due to a series of unfair treatment from its previous webtoon publisher, Lezhin Comics. The artist did mention previously that “a last chapter” might be released but so far no new chapter has been published in the Lezhin comics website. 
It feels nice to know that Team Gaji has decided to get into a new series. Maybe this will be another webtoon worth watching out for. 
The Lily Cat is your source for the latest updates and reviews on Yuri, GL, anime, manga, cosplay, and more.