Yuri Manga: Tsubomi, Volume 13 (つぼみ)

September 21st, 2011

Tsubomi (つぼみ), Volume 13 opens with a cover sure to please Morinaga Milk fans. From there, it’s right into “Himitsu no Recipe” in which Wakatsuki is still having no luck getting a moment alone with the club president…until she does.

Of the many stories in this volume, here are some notables:

From there, we jump into my favorite story, “Lonely Sheep, Lonely Wolf” in which Imari-chan finds the strength given to her by big Imari to stand up to big Imari’s ex and get her girl back, dammit! I award a standing ovation to Imari-chan.

“Hoshikawa Ginza Yon-choume” starts to re-ravel after Minato and Otome’s relationship had come completely unraveled.

“Candy’ continues, somewhat surprisingly, with the intrusion of one of Kana’s admirers.

A new story, “Sogo Tovoarisch” begins and I can make neither heads nor tail of it yet, but that’s par for the course these days. Get back to me in three chapters.

“Prism” ends in a unexpectedly sweet way, then launches into a side story of itself.

“Hana to Hoshi” brings Hanai-san up against the obvious relationship between Hoshino and her sempai. What will she do about it, and about her feelings? I think we can assume she’ll work it through, don’t you? ^_^

And something about “Kurai Mori, Shiroi Michi”: appeals to me, but I have no idea what it is. This quiet little love story about a depressed girl and a blind girl is little more than talking heads, but they are sincere and fully fleshed out in a way that surprises me every time. I once again hope that we don’t have to draw the curtain yet on what is the beginning of something good.

As always these are hardly scratching the surface of what is in this volume. It’s quite literally too much to review thoroughly anymore. But these stories were some that I thought stood out from the pack. I will also say that there are a few more non-schoolgirl stories these days, so if you’re getting jaded on the all-schoolgirls thing, Tsubomi is a little less of that than it was previously. No sports manga (well, other than a story about ping pong players who no longer play ping pong) or action/adventure yet, but travel and scifi is starting to claim their spots.

Overall – 8

Once again, I’m pulling for us to see a little bit past the “we like each other!” phase of relationships here, but not betting my lunch on it. Still – it’s getting better.

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