It’s always a good day here at Okazu when we can read and review a new collection by Nishi UKO-sensei of Circle UKOZ. Today is a good day. ^_^

Couleur de bijoux d’amour (宝石の恋) is a collection of non-Collectors stories from Rakuen Le Paradis magazine, augmented by 2 online comics for Rakuen Le Paradis and an original doujinshi story.

Nishi UKO-sensei’s art is sophisticated and tight, her characters look like…well, people. Incredibly attractive people, but more like people than manga characters. They eat doughnuts, they get into fights, they go to bars, they touch, they laugh, they smile, they have lives with coworkers, neighbors, relatives and friends. They wear fashionable clothing, live in apartments, have jobs, face rejection, attraction. They have lives.

These stories are, in short, exactly the kind of thing I’m always looking for in Yuri – stories of women who love women, and then the story happens. It would be equally as valid to call this a LGBTQ manga.

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This collections includes 18 shorts – don’t miss the one under the cover! Of these, my two favorites are the story “Up and Down” and it’s sequel “helter-skelter.”  the first part, a woman meets and is instantly attracted to a new neighbor. Her emotional roller coaster as she learns about her neighbor (and her school-age child) is both sweet and amusing. In “helter skelter” she has befriended the neighbor and her daughter. The daughter decides they should all go to a public bath – the two women suffer from extreme embarrassment as we can see that they are both thinking much the same thing about each other.

Sweet, human, poignant, these stories are written with adult sensibilities in mind. From cover to cover, Couleur de bijoux d’amour is stylish and elegant.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – Variable, of course, but screw that. 10
Characters – 10 We get little time with anyone, but it’d be hard to not like them
Yuri/Lesbian – 10
Service – 4 These women wear fine lingerie.

Overall – 10

This collection is a shoo-in for my Top Ten List this year. I really hope there’s something even better, not because I don’t want this to win this year, but think of how amazing it would be to be better! ^_^