In Volume 1, we met Matoi, a high school senior with a talent for music and vocals. Surrounded by people her age who are in an out of love, she’s never felt “in love” before and has no idea what it’s like. We also meet Yuriko, a few years older, who has come home to help her family by working at their gas station. In Volume 2, both Yuriko and Matoi find they sincerely enjoy each other’s company. But with graduation around the corner, Matoi is planning on going to the city, and both of them aren’t at all sure what they want. Matoi leaves to go to a trade school.

Yuri to Koe to Kaze Matoi, Volume 3 (百合と声と風纏い) begins with Matoi in Tokyo for school, she’s made some friends…and met a lesbian couple, for real. Yuriko plans a trip to see Matoi, but becomes ill and ends up needing Matoi to take care of her – which is mortifying, but more importantly, Matoi sees the burn scars on Yuriko’s body. Nonetheless, Matoi is really starting to think that how she feels might well be “love” after all. Yuriko, full of self-loathing and fear is really not ready to be “in love” but may have no say in the matter as she’s really starting to like Matoi.

I love this series. Honestly, I really just like everything about it. Mei Ren’s art is not perfect, which I find humanizes the characters and the story. The story itself is sincere, rather than brilliant. But the characters are relatable and human, and even side characters get to be more than just a supporting role. We’re watching them change, even if we’re mostly paying attention to Matoi.  I even love that this from a Lilie comics, the relatively new Yuri imprint from Dogenzaka Shobo. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 5 Naked Yuriko
LGBTQ – 7

Overall – 8

It’s a charming and fun read, with enough emotional impact that I really want Matoi and Yuriko to figure it out.

I hope there’s someone else out there who is reading this series , so we can roll our eyes at Chiba-kun and be like, “poor Rio-san, how annoying for her….” ^_^