Yuri Doujinshi Circle: Office Mono

January 31st, 2005

Those of you familiar with ALC Publishing will no doubt be rolling your eyes at the choice of this circle for review. But, the reason ALC chose to translated and print Works was that it was really quite good. :-)

Tadeno Eriko is the primary artist of Office Mono, and I think her art style is clean and easy to enjoy – a nice example of the josei genre of manga. (Josei is manga targeted towards older girls and women.) Like my other favorite authors, Yamaji Ebine and Rica Takashima, Tadeno-sensei does solid artistic work and had a nice depth to her stories.

Office Mono’s series Lavender of Romance tells a series of stories, some one-shots, some with second and third chapters, about a variety of women in lesbian relationships. There are reasonably few schoolgirls in Tadeno’s work – she favors characters that are in the workforce, something that appeals strongly to me. Which is not to say that there are *no* schoolgirls or college-age women in her stories. Another strength of Tadeno’s works are the wide variety of ages she covers – everything from the usual high school crushes to older couples who have been together for decades.

In a nutshell, that’s the real reason I like her work so much – the variety. (That and a single panel in Lavender of Romance 6 where a woman is looking at her half-dressed lover (who is short and stubby, much like yours truly) and sees in her mind an adorable stuffed teddy bear. This is the kind of image that anyone in any releationship can totally identify with, even grumpy ole me. :-) It’s another idiotic grin moment, definitely.)

So if you want to enjoy this wonderful anthology pictured above, you can find it available at the Yuricon Shop!

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