On the surface, Shinobu seems to be a long-haired glasses-girl stereotype. She’s reticent, quiet and, compared with her outgoing classmates, reserved.

But things in Last Waltz, Volume 1 (ラストワルツ 1) are not at all what they appear to be. When her classmate, who is sleeping with the teacher, is approached by a bunch of punks, Shinobu appears and rescues the girl. But this doesn’t solve the problem, it worsens it. The punks go after the teacher and threaten him until he agrees to turn Tsukasa over to them, Shinobu has to take on punks and teacher.

Shinobu is herself sleeping with a teacher, Yukari, who is hopelessly in love with the girl. When Shinobu saves another classmate, who is a idol, she falls for Shinobu as well.

And so the rest of the volume goes – Shinobu saves woman from mean nasty man and sleeps with woman who falls in love with her. If it weren’t so silly, it might be depressing.

When I bought this volume I stared for a while it, wondering why I just could not remember what the story was, even though I know I read it when I get Comic Yuri Hime. After struggling to make sense of it, I realized that the problem is that there isn’t a story, really. It’s a single chapter on repeat.

Katakura Ako’s art is wildly inconsistent, vacillating from not-great to good panel to panel. There is lesbian sex, and apparently Shinobu is great in bed, but as a story character, she falls flat. 160+ pages later I know exactly nothing about her except that she’s got a wicked axe kick (eyeroll, that’s so likely) and is good in bed.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 5
Characters – 5
Yuri – 8
Service – 8

Overall – 5

Volume 2 is coming out in Summer 2016 and I’m pretty sure it’ll be more of the same. So depending on what you want out of your stories, you may want to get that. I’m going to have to think about it. Maybe.