Shoujo Manga Magazine Yuri Watch: Blue Friends

July 17th, 2010

Probably a few of you are familiar with Ribon , the monthly shoujo manga magazine.

One of the current series is “Blue Friends,” (ブルーフレンズ) a story that starts out Yuri (and is quickly destined to leave it, but for now…)

Ayumu is good at sports and popular and Misuzu is slightly creepy, totally distant from everyone and hates men. In chapter 1, Misuzu kisses Ayumu, who spends most of chapter 2 wondering what
it meant. Misuzu says it was just between friends, but Ayumu doesn’t know, really, if it was.

Now, not only are the other girls talking about them, making snide comments about are they “that way,” they are also plain old mean about Misuzu, so Ayumu has to keep defending her over and over. When Misuzu drives a guy who confesses to liking Ayumu away, Ayumu begins to wonder if she’s picked up a stalker….

Ayumu’s feelings are totally confused and although it turns out that Misuzu was, really, acting in her best interests, she’s really not sure what to make of the new threat in the form of a transfer student that keeps hinting about something terrible in Misuzu’s past. And, unbeknownst to Ayumu, Misuzu is getting threatening messages in her locker.

Blue Friends, by Eban Fumi, is a relatively new manga that runs in Ribon. It’s only three chapters old and is already moving away from the fake Yuri into something else. There’s at least one horrible secret that will either split the two of them up or possibly bring them closer. It will, I have no doubt, also be the reason that Ayumu hates men. I expect it to be vile.

My guess is that the story will ultimately be non-Yuri, but I don’t think I’ve even seen fake Yuri in Ribon before, so I’ll follow it until it becomes intolerable…which ought to be the next chapter. :-)

Here’s the first chapter online on the Ribon site so you can decide for yourself.

This is the first of a few shoujo manga stories supposedly with Yuri running this summer. I’ve got another one on tap…I’ll let you know how it goes. :-)

This one started out promising, but quickly devolved. I’ll check back if something actually develops.

4 Responses

  1. Mandy says:

    I’m sad to hear you say it devolves quickly, because the first chapter was really good! Ayumu seems so very honest and nice that I couldn’t help but really like her character right from the start! And she plays softball, which always makes me happy. :) And Misuzu is… blunt? >.> But that kind of character can be fun if done well and it seemed to be heading into a somewhat cliche, but enjoyable direction. Oh well, I’ll guess we just have to wait it out and see. I’ll keep an eye out for this one. :x

  2. Anonymous says:

    Seeing you talk about Yuri in a manga magazine aimed at grade schoolers immediately made my thoughts fly to Cardcaptor Sakura. I wonder if we’ll ever see a second coming of that, this time with a properly defined, open relationship… Not in the next decade, I guess.

  3. @Anonymous – Hold your breath – there’s something in the works for tomorrow.

    Also take the rose-colored glasses off, because CCS really *didn’t* have a well-defined Yuri relationship. It had a best friend with an obsession. Not quite the same. ;-)

    @Mandy – We don’t really know where the story is going yet and there’s always the outside chance the trauma that is to come will bring them together but I just don’t see Ayumu really liking Misuzu that way….

  4. Anonymous says:

    is it really Yuri?

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