Katakura Ako’s Ashita no Kimi ni Hanabata wo (明日の君に花束を) is a collection of shorts from Comic Yuri Hime and while there are a number of reasonably typical setups – sempai and kouhai with varying levels of complexity – but there is one story that really stood out.

“Lily Maguerite to Kasumisou” – which supplies the cover image is a multichapter piece about a girl who falls for her friend’s mother…and another chapter about the friend’s feeling about this. It’s hard to feel completely comfortable with the story, though, as the mother is married and the father is alive and well. This story fills most of the middle of this volume. It both likable and unlikable in mesure – and often for the same reasons. For the feeling of being made uncomfortable by a story one is actually enjoying, this is worth reading. It’s good leavening.

All the stories get one-page epilogues in the final section of the book, and to be honest the epilogue for “Lily Maguerite to Kasumisou” is no less unsettling.

Katakura-sensei’s art is pretty solid, vaguely reminiscent of Konno Kita, without the air of refinement.

Ratings:

Art – 8 YMMV, but I like it
Story – 6
Characters – 6 We have no time with anyone, except Yukuko, through whose eyes we see the relationship between her mother and friend
Yuri – 7
Service – 3

Overall – 7

I probably would not suggest this book to a Yuri beginner, but it’s a decent enough collection.