The name Kiriyama Haruka should be familiar to us by now. We’ve seen work from this author in multiple “Shakijin” working-life Yuri anthologies.

And today we are looking at a collection of stories by this creator that center working women’s lives. Or, more properly, some of the more typical tropes of working women’s lives.

It’s a pretty specific distinction, because by now we have, actually, seen all the basic plotlines of romance between women working in offices. Cool together character and disaster employee, two women get drunk, wake up in bed. Women hiding they are together in the office, women coming home from work to their partners. A year into this new subgenre of Shakaijin Yuri and I’m already looking for artists looking past the “get drunk, wake up in bed” storyline.

And most of these stories fit the bill. The collection begins with three work friends getting together for an after-hours drink and it turns out two of them are a couple.

An artist and her assistant are extremely cute together.

A woman who works for an insurance company ends up meeting the online video idol she admires. (Yes, shades of Risou to Koi.)

The best story in my opinion was a story of a couple, struggling with their idea of what they want from their relationship right before they get married. I liked the recognition that commitment can cause friction in even a strong relationship. This one also felt very realistic.

And in a lovely final story, a woman whisks her lover away on a much-needed overnight vacation to restore balance to her beloved and to them as a couple.

Ratings:

Art – 7 sometimes a little sloppy
Story – variable 8
Characters – 8
Service – 2 Very mild partial nudity
Yuri – 10

Overall – 8

It was all very pleasant, easy to look at and no one I wanted to strangle. ^_^ More importantly, there were a couple of stories with some good real-world touches.