Morita-san ha Mukuchi, Volume 9 (森田さんは無口) is not a Yuri manga. It never has been. And yet, for a not-Yuri manga, it does everything it can to sort-of, kind-of, shoehorn little teeny drops of not-quite-Yuri into every corner. Like eking out the the last few bit of sugar glaze onto a crumb cake, the thing is plenty sweet enough, but if you just get a bit more on it…

This volume begins with the girl who is stalking Mayu stalking her. And then we drop that like the untenable plot point it is. Phew.

From that point on, we’re given the silliest possible set-ups, like the cover, group hugs, and Mayu’s cousin Yukino being weird to make our lizard brains think “girls touching!” If this manga was in any way mean-spirited, it would feel gross. But it never does. Mayu and her friends continue to genuinely like and care about one another, and so a group hug makes us smile.

The one (in)sincerely service-y bit was when Misaki nearly collapses in gym and finds her head resting on super-cool Yamamoto’s lap…at which she completely overheats. (The rest of the girls in lass also start feeling like they need some lap treatment, not surprisingly.) The how and why Yamamoto ended up there is vague, class president, blah, blah, but she doesn’t seem to mind either.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 3

Overall – 8

There’s no substance here. It’s cotton candy. It always tastes the same, it never tastes like anything but too much sugar, but you know, every once in a while, in the right circumstances…it’s a lot of fun. ^_^