I’ve been agonizing over the spiritual symbolism of my first post this year.

Do I pick something tried and true and beloved, knowing that it will start the year off with warm fuzzies and a comfortable frame of mind?

Do I pick something not so good, as I frequently do? Since I end the year with the best, I like to contrast that with something laughably bad to start the year off with a snort and a reminder that we’re not out of the woods yet.

Do I pick something indifferent, to attempt to not be symbolic at all and because aside from what convention says, today is just another day and not at all symbolic?

Do I pick something new to start off the New Year and Decade with a thrill at the start of a new venture?

Or do I grab something random off the pile and hope I can make some symbolism soup out of it?

How about All of the Above? :-)

Yuri Manga Anthology Comic Lily has all of the qualities listed above. It is a new venture, that treads comfortable territory and is at times good, indifferent and bad.

The anthology cover gave me no hope that it would be good but, the first two stories, while not being original in any sense, had really strong art. The third story was both good art and an okay story, after which the anthology sort of lost me in the welter of loli, maids and other things that I find less than compelling. None of it was kill-me-now terrible, but none of it was standout wow, either.

Anthologies are difficult creatures – the publisher wants to provide great stories and art, but there’s a limited pool of people who can fulfill the requirements at any given time. And what you like and what I like may be (often are) different, so a good anthology has stories that cover a wide range of tastes. That means that out of ten stories, most people will only really like one or two. It makes it hard to judge an anthology without bias.

Knowing what it takes to put an anthology together, knowing that many of the best artists in the field are already working for other collections and knowing the many – often mutually exclusive – pressures are involved in an anthology, I’m going pretty easy on this one. This is not Tsubomi, which hit the ground running with experienced and well-known names and has only just started to blossom (yes, pun intended). Comic Lily, is more like Eternal Sisters (pre-Ichijinsha) or Yuri Monogatari – a sincere collection made with love. A veritable Great Pumpkin of Yuri. ^_^

So, no, it’s not stellar, but it’s not stab-my-eyes-out horrible. It’s the first volume of what I hope will one day will grow up into a fine Yuri anthology series.

And I guess that answers my question above huh? This year starts with…hope. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 6

Thanks to Okazu Superhero George R. who took some suggestions from my Amazon JP Wish List in order to sponsor this first review of the new year!