Like the first volume of Yuri Hime Selection, Yuri Hime Selection, Volume 2 is a collection of the random widows and orphans of the two Yuri Hime magazines. These are one-shots that didn’t have enough longevity to manage volumes of their own.
The collection itself is a nice, thick volume of a little over 360 pages. It’s smaller than the magazine issues, about A4 in size, so it feels less cumbersome to lug about. It contains 14 stories, almost all of which I remembered as soon as I began reading. Amazingly, not all of them are stories about school girls. Not all of them – but most of them, let’s be real – are Story A, either. However, even as Story A, they were more fully formed than just about anything in the first volume of this reboot anthology.
As I say, there are several stories that focus on adults, including at least one by Hiyori Otsu, “Maple Love,” which was amusing right up until the last bon mot when it tanked (although not fatally.) This trend also includes “Imprinting no Coffee” by Yotsuhara Furiko and Uso Kurata’s “Kusari ha mou Iranai,” among others. There’s a number of May-December romances – it’s up to you to decide if they count as “about adults.”
Overall, this was a pretty strong volume, with stories by some of the best-selling names Yuri Hime has to offer right now. There’s a decent variety of art work, and because many of the artists have had time to grow more confident and the genre as a whole has evolved since those early Yuri Shimai days, this collection functions well as a “glimpse into the state of Yuri” and a nice introduction to the YH lineup.
If you’re not sure you’d like Yuri Hime, this would make an excellent collection with which to test the waters. It’s much stronger and more entertaining than the first volume of this series.
Ratings:
Variable, averaging 9
As an anthology of Yuri one-shots, and despite the not terribly convincing cover that proclaims “Our secret love,” Yuri Hime Selection, Volume 2 is very good. I wasn’t running to read Volume 3 (I have to budget myself a *little*) but it is on my Amazon JP Yuri Wishlist. I’ll make you a deal – if you get it for me to review, I’ll send it to you when I’m done with it. This way you get my review and the book! ^_^
