Once upon a time, a friend of mine told me a story about a guy she went on a lunch date with. When she inquired about the possibility of a second date, the guy said that he couldn’t. She asked why not, because she thought they had gotten on well. His reply was that they had and he really liked her and he could see himself falling for her and then they’d get serious about one another and maybe think about marrying and kids and he just wasn’t ready for that. She stared at him seriously for a moment, shook her head and said, “I was asking about lunch.” She walked away and never regretted it.
I have met many people like that man, people who construct elaborate fantasies in their heads about small things blowing into huge things, but the bulk of us can tell when we’re making it all up in our heads. I mean, we’ve all done it, haven’t we? Fantasized about “what we’d do if” somethingsomethingsomething.
In Kuchibiru ni Saketa Orange (くちびるに透けたオレンジ), Chizuru is busy making up stuff about Kae in her head. In reality, she’s got Kae on a really high pedestal, and doesn’t even consider herself worthy of dusting the base. Chizuru is a child-faced incoherent who never quite manages to answer a simple question simply, but blushes and stutters and always lags behind.
Kae is perfect, according to Chizuru. She’s beautiful and smart and stylish. Chizuru’s goal is not as high as to be noticed by Kae – she just wants to have something in common with her object of desire. Her wish is granted in the form of an orange-colored lipstick.
Chizuru gets together with Kae, was there any doubt that she would? How, why…I’m not quite sure. They just do, because they have to. And they live happily ever after wearing gaudy lipstick, one supposes.
In the second story Miwako and Anzu are cousins and lovers. A misunderstanding about a boy threatens to break them up, but it was only a misunderstanding.
And in a final “Plot, What Plot,” best friends Rio and Yui have sex, because.
Now that I think about it, I think I read all of these same stories in Mist magazine, only with adults instead of young woman. I liked them better that way.
The title is translated as “A transparent orange in the lip,” so the book wins as the strangest title I’ve read in a while in both Japanese and English.
Ratings:
Art – 5
Characters – 5
Story – 5
Yuri – 8
Service – 6
Overall – 5
Check out the entries to our “Orange In The Lip” contest in the comments!
Once upon a time, the wagon of hedge-sorceress Alquelie and her apprentice/lover Aelanie stopped in the smithing village of Remsk. The couple thought there might not be much work for them, however their first customer had brought a cart that was refusing to hitch properly to its horse’s harness. Sensing magic, Alquelie reached under the lip of the hitching rod and drew out a clenched, yet seemingly empty fist. Then, after chanting a spell of revelation, she smilingly opened her hand to Aelanie, revealing a squashed fruit. “A transparent orange in the lip!” Clearly, a mischievous magic-user lived in Remsk.
“What in the?” … she was stowing her small gear to the zero-G bowl, and there was a transparent orange in the lip. Not a naval orange, you could see the seeds.
“Gunny!”
“Aye Cap’n”. Com said Gunny was down in her squad’s berth.
She held up the incriminating evidence. “If one of your marines lost some cargo from your last drop, …” She paused. Was that a hint of a smile on Gunny Smith’s face?
“Ah, Cap’n, that’s for you. Sorry, in the excitement last watch, I didn’t mention it.”
How odd. A present from the squad … or from Gunny Smith?
It was a night which found Torie praying at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. An evening of introspection, when the soul meets that particular, realistic, part of ones mind. She was finally able to admit her feelings for Justine.”I am in love with her….”
“A transparent orange in the lip” was a strange phrase passing through Torie’s mind, as it was painful to give her full mental focus up to these frightening feelings of love, discovered in the shadows of the colonial architecture around her.
Sally was in shock. She never expected to suddenly be kissed by a girl, nor expect to like it. She blinked dumbly for a second before she was able to utter a coherent response. “Wha-why did you do that?”
“Because you had an orange in your lips; I like oranges.” Sally was confused; she hadn’t eaten an orange today. “It was a transparent orange in the lip,” the girl said with a wink.
Ah she understood now; it was a confession, of sorts. Blushing lightly she replied, “Um…I’m Sally”
The girl smiled brightly, “I’m Sarah.”
And so begins their story.
“A transparent orange in the lip, you say.”
“That’s right. A transparent orange in the lip.”
“And what exactly does ‘a transparent orange in the lip’ look like?”
“It doesn’t look like anything, obviously. It’s transparent.”
“How would you know it’s an orange then, if it doesn’t look like anything?”
“Because it’s obviously an orange! Just like how a pane of glass is a window. You just know!”
“Ok… Well, what’s the transparent orange doing in the lip then?”
“I don’t know yet. That’s why I’m still staring at your lips.”
“Next time, just say you feel like kissing me.”
Alizée and Simone had fallen in love with each other, but Alizée was the clan leader’s daughter and when he found out about their relationship, he ordered his subordinates to take Simone to the forest and kill her. As Simone felt her life fading away, she clutched the orange-coloured flower her lover had given to her. Alizée never took a husband because she knew her lover would return. One night, a woman’s silhouette appeared before her.”A transparent orange in the lip” was glowing in the dark, revealing her true nature. Her lover had returned.
A private detective was hired for solving a case that had been haunting the city for the past decade. Every September 2nd a new victim appeared brutally murdered at the steps of the City Hall. Merely 2 days were left for the fatidic day to take another victim. The detective searched for clues to no avail, her confidence was fading away.
Suddenly she heard some footsteps and saw a leather clad woman getting closer. Smirking with a transparent orange in the lip, the woman kissed the detective passionately. The detective knew the end was near.
Here we stood, at the world’s end, with a history deformed by us, filled with neglection. As we climbed up the spaceship, I took a glance, this was not what I remembered from my childhood, not what life should be.
As the spaceship grew away from the Earth, I recalled every moment I had spent in it, every person I had known or loved…vanished, like cosmic dust.
I turned away once more, the Earth was blue no longer; was shrinking, consuming itself…”Ouroboros”, and then… an explosion, nothing was left but a transparent orange in the lip reflected upon my window.
For the umpteenth time, Sienna examined the fashion magazine, the weird flashlight and the glasses – both surely designed after some bad crime magical investigation tv show.
Clearly, Akemi had left a message in this bizarre mix of objects. The question was where, as the glasses gave her headaches too fast for her to skim the entire rag.
Frustrated, she threw it against the wall. It fell open right at the article about this top model Sienna thought looked so much like her lover.
She combined glasses and flashlight and there it was : a transparent orange in the lip.