Yuri Hime Collection (百合姫 Collection) is (surprise!) a collection of short works by current Yuri Hime artists that have not been published in any previous commercial publications. It is an anthology of several artists’ doujinshi.

The anthology contains eight stories, two of which are two-parters. Masaki Miyuki’s chapters falls into a category I’ve just named “Yuri with props.” You know what I mean…when one character has a specific quirk or prop that indicates their personality and we spend a lot of time looking at it or obsessing about it? In this case, one of the girls smokes, which clearly shows she doesn’t care about the rules – or her future health.

Momono Moto’s stories were about the pain and tears that come from loving someone in an untenable situation – like high school – and how being together and being apart can hurt.

This contrasts strongly with the smiling faces and bright sun of Morishima Akiko’s contribution, as two women enjoy sun, blue water and love on an island vacation.

Back into the gloom and rain for a story about love at a distance by Yoshineko and the collection finishes off with some “wacky hijinx” love comedy-style wrapped around a semi-serious story by Yotsuhara Furikko.

In the cases of artists I recognized, one can instantly see these are earlier works. There’s a sketchiness about them that I find common among doujinshi, especially when they are early-ish in an artist’s career. The exception to this is Morishima’s story, but that one was published only a few years ago, and she had been in the industry for a while already. For the rest of this collection, there was a sense of these being earlier in both art and story, both of which had less confidence than one would like.

There is nothing worldshaking in this collection, but if you are a completist or, like me, you like to see where artists come from to understand where they are going to, this is a nice little addition to your Yuri collection.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

Yes, I *was* trying to use the word “collection” as often as possible. ^_^