Yuri Manga: High School Girls, Volume 9 (English)

June 24th, 2009

Behind the premise of High School Girls, Volume 9 runs a strong feeling of nostalgia for the bygone days of youth. “Time Stopped at Age Seventeen” screams one header prominently, which immediately causes me to cringe with a feeling of horror crawling up my spine. It wasn’t that my high school years were bad – far from it, I had a great time. However, there is NOTHING that would ever be incentive enough for me to want to have that time extended by a single second. lol

Not so for Eriko or the other girls in the Idiot group, each one of which is determined to wring as much fun from the rag of life as they can. And I approve. What the hell good is being 17 if you’re not going off and doing incredibly dumb things that must be fun because everyone tells you so? Heck, what’s the good of life at all if you’re not having fun doing dumb things? When was the last time you did something fun and dumb?

Anyway, the trip to Okinawa draws to a close and everyone on the trip is as annoying as possible, as all high school students are on trips. (Flashback to Virgina Beach, 1982. Oh. Gawd.)

And in the middle of the crazy fun dumb annoying things, we learn the deep dark secret of the Takarazuka couple…which turns out to neither be all that dark nor deep nor really even important. But it does short of shape their relationship…which is no less Yuri because of it. If anything, I’m now inclined to think that they are lovers, and are just hiding it behind a clever mask of obviousness. Why not – they are only fictitious characters and I can pretty much think anything I want about them. ^_^

So, while this series is actually meant for adults males to look back fondly on the dreams they have of a girl’s school and have those dreams crushed cruelly, as an adult woman who does not like to think about high school except when it can’t be avoided, it was all still pretty funny. With a little Yuri on the side. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7 I liked the tour guide and her hostility
Characters – 7 Did I mention I liked the tour guide?
Yuri – 5 Just because they’re obvious doesn’t meant they aren’t together
Sevice – 6 Tempered by all sorts of brutally blatant “womens’ issues”

Overall – 7

I have to mention the quality of the reproduction. It is so far improved from the early volumes that it’s almost like a completely different company is doing it. Dr Master has really shown incredible improvement over the early days. No question, this reproduction is tight.

4 Responses

  1. Eric P. says:

    It came as a surprise that this was the final volume, which I didn’t found out until after I read it. Still, it had the most appropriate ending for a manga like this. Even the teacher characters got their own closure, the idiot group managed to make friends with the Takarazuka pair, and it ends with Eriko acknowledging that her high school days won’t last forever (although it really would’ve granted the girls have been staying the same age in their world) and that she may even grow apart from her friends, solidifying her resolve to live out what remaining young life she has left. This was a really fun manga while it lasted.

  2. Mandy says:

    Oh wow, that was really the last volume? It never seemed like an ending so I’ve spent the past who knows how many months thinking that another one would eventually pop up somewhere. Huh. Well I guess that’s what I get for not paying attention!

    Definitely a fun manga, though. Crude, obnoxious, insane… but fun! Makes me sad that there will be no further adventures with Eriko and the gang.

  3. Anonymous says:

    “Heck, what’s the good of life at all if you’re not having fun doing dumb things? When was the last time you did something fun and dumb?”

    Read this boook when you get a chance: Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with Animals by Richard Conniff. :) No Yuri or bian, but plenty of fun and dumb. :D

    “So, while this series is actually meant for adults males to look back fondly on the dreams they have of a girl’s school and have those dreams crushed cruelly,”

    Heh heh heh :D

  4. Anonymous says:

    BTW, I just remembered something else vaguely relevant to the blog and that last comment: you know how some romance fiction describes women’s lips as like flowers?

    According to Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time, hummingbirds agree and you don’t even need lipstick!

    http://books.google.com/books?id=xO_sMG-5IJkC&q=opportunistic#v=page

    In search of nectar they will stick their bills into anything that looks like a flower, even some guy’s open mouth while he does gardening or yardwork or something.

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