Well this book was kind of a surprise. You know how I’m always ragging on Hakamada Mera-sensei for writing the same old Story A and never really getting past that? Well, in Kanojyo no Sekai (彼女の世界) she does and, um, I kinda wish she hadn’t. (OMG, Erica, you are never satisfied!) ^_^;

Hidari is not a well-liked girl. Her name is weird (who names their kid “Left”?) and she’s not personable or outgoing. Natsuki has friends, but she begins to blow them off to go to the roof and read Hidari’s work. She find the story stimulating, but also wants to know a bit more about the author. To make matters worse, Natsuki starts to have sexual fantasies about Hidari, but when she finally acts on one of them and kisses the other girl, she is rebuffed.

The novel changes, too. Now, not only is the protagonist thrown into a variety of sexual situations, a second character has appeared. Hidari confirms that it’s love between the two.

The class trip arrives, just in time to make things awkward for Natsuki and Hidari. Natsuki invites Hidari to join her group, but her friends nix the idea. Hidari goes off with another group and Natsuki can’t even manage to sit with the other girl for the trip. Natsuki sees Hidari from afar on the trip, having fun with her group, she’s overcome with jealousy and starts to cry. When she looks up to see Hidari sitting there, she confesses that she likes her. Hidari says nothing but, quite unusually, she smiles. That night, when all the other girls have gone  to another room to have pillow fights and hang out, Hidari and Natsuki make love.

Although, Natsuki confides in us at the end, Hidari has never said she loves her back, she’s content to join the other girl in their world up on the roof.

It’s a strange, but not insane story, made uncomfortable only really by the fact that it’s set in high school and that it’s by Hakamada-sensei, whose art is not really well suited to more explicit scenes in my head. There’s nothing super explicit, and the characters are not drawn in a way that is inconsistent with her art or with their age or anything that might otherwise make one cringe.  In every other way, it’s a pretty good doujinshi-like story.

Ratings:

Art – 6 on general appeal, but for Hakamada’s art 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 10
Service – 7

Overall – 7

The heads aren’t even huge anymore. It’s just that…it’s Hakamada-sensei’s art and the idea of sex in her work seems so…odd.  ^_^

We left Volume 1 of the new edition of Saigo no Seifuku (新装版　最後の制服) with two unresolved relationships.

In Volume 2, the situation instantly becomes more complicated, rather than less, with the addition of…a boy!

Boys are causing no end of trouble in the dorm in fact. Kimiko’s boyfriend dumps her and, upon overhearing him and his friends being unkind about her dorrmmate, Tsumugi punches his lights out.

In the meantime, Aiko is vexed because Fuuko has decided to date some guy for whom she really has no feelings. This prompts a sudden confession from Aiko. Now that Fuuko knows the truth, what will she do?

In the meantime, Asagi is still planning on gaining Beniko’s affection, but completely fails to even gain her attention.

This brings us to the end of Volume 2 of the original 3-book series. For those of you who bought and read the Seven Seas translation, here is what you missed:

Upon graduation, Asagi calls Beniko out during her speech, for never having noticed or cared that she had feelings for her. Beniko is surprised, partly because she really hadn’t noticed or cared and partly because now *everyone* in the school is watching her.

Fuuko finally admits that she loves Aiko too, but they will not be able to be together, as her mother has taken ill and she is transferring schools. They have mere hours together before they must part. But they continue to write one another as time passes. Aiko is struck by momentary doubt about Fuuko’s feelings, but a visit in person from Fuuko sets her straight. They plan, upon graduation to attend the same school and live together.  For them, the book ends with a rose-colored future.

Meanwhile, Anzu does manage to convey her feelings to Tsumugi, although she knows her cause is hopeless. But she knows that Tsumugi loves her cooking, and she decides she’ll continue to work on it, so she can one day make something delicious for the one she loves.

Asagi remains a selfish ass right to the very end. Why Tama doesn’t punch her in the gut, I will never, ever understand.

And, finally, we get the epilogue we hoped we’d get for Beniko and Tsumugi, as they move in together and Beniko *finally* has her way with Tsumugi, once again proving my theory that in Yuri, the butches are the uke and the femmes the seme. It was quite nice to see them both grown up. This was, in fact, the ending I’d hope we’d get…and we got it, so yay us!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 2

Overall – 8

This series may well be the best example of my opinion changing over time. I started off really not enjoying Hakamada Mera’s art and now, as I read the end of this series at last, I find it was no longer a distraction. I was able to simply enjoy the story for what it was – a high school Yuri story with two happily-ever-after endings and a little sex and candy for good measure.

 Reading Saigo no Seifuku, New Edition, Volume 1 (新装版　最後の制服) was an exercise of a sort for me. When I first read The Last Uniform in 2006, the art absolutely repulsed me. So much so that I struggled for years to give Hakamada Mera any respect. Her stories were always cute, slightly bland, but the oversize heads drove me batty. As time went on, the heads got a little smaller, moe became more common and far worse giant heads on little bodies were thrown at me and now, years later, I find I barely noticed the giant heads anymore. I think, honestly, some re-drawing was done here, because the heads weren’t nearly as huge I remember them being. In fact, there were one or two pages where I found myself staring at a weirdly drawn jaw, the way I used to, but only a few.

So, here we are, many years after Saigo no Seifuku originally detailed the love triangles at Tsubakigaoka Gakuin. But before we get into the original stories, we’re given a few new ones, establishing both Ai and Tsumugi as completely, goofily besotted with their respective objects of affection.

The first couple we “meet” are Ai and her roommate, Fuuko. Fu-chan is that kind of cheerful, apparently doofy girl that we’re never really sure means “like” the same way Ai does. Well, the new edition clears that up. And Beniko and Tsumugi are as close (and as far) as ever to some kind of an actual relationship.

The original tales are retold – how Anzu arrives at school and is assigned to Ai-chan and Fu-chan’s room, thus throwing Ai-chan into a tizzy. And how Tsumugi admires Beniko from afar (well, as afar as the next bed over) until Asagi tries to mack on her girl. Meanwhile Anzu has a crush on Tsumugi that she really doesn’t communicate properly to the upperclassman.

Without a doubt, my favorite part of the book is Asagi’s friend, who wears braids, so is referred to as “braids,” who writes slash fanfic about the dorm residents.  Asagi asks her to pair characters up for a little thrill. Included in this new edition are a few of those fanfics.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 2

Overall – 7

Add character pages with uniform and character discussion and you have a shiny new deluxe edition of an “old standard.”

Sore ga Kimi ni Naru (それが君になる), by Hakamada Mera, works.

The story opens with two school girls. Amane, reading under a tree and the other, Yuki, taking her glasses off and kissing her. We learn in a short flashback and that Amane and Yuki were lovers during school, until….

Years have passed and we see Amane standing on a train platform, now an adult. When the train empties, a bunch of schoolgirls get off. The wind pulls Amane’s ticket from her hand and it settles to the ground in front of a girl that looks *exactly* like Yuki. Amane, struck dumb, begins to cry. The girl reaches out to touch Amane’s face asking her, “All you all right?”

Thus begins the story of Amane and Yoh (spelling taken from the cover of the book,) and the ghost of a past lost love in an awkward, sweet threesome. Yoh is a pretty sharp girl and not at all weird about her attraction to Amane – or this total stranger’s reaction to her. She’s confiding in her friends at school, even to the point of them discussing why Amane is pushing her away.

And Amane is pushing Yoh away. Overcome by their reaction to one another and so maybe not sensibly, Amane and Yoh are hanging out, until a sudden rainstorm means that Yoh is staying over Amane’s place for the night. Amane tells Yoh about Yuki, and about how Yuki ran off with a tutor by whom she had become pregnant, breaking Amane’s heart, Yoh offers herself in place of the lost Yuki. Before she can stop herself, Amane finds herself kissing the girl, but then realizes what she’s doing and tells Yoh to stay the night, then never come near her again.

The next few chapters are the stereotypical “each moping about the other” and they miss each other by seconds. When they are finally tearfully reunited, they both admit at last what was obvious to us from the beginning.

In a slightly annoying epilogue, Amane and Yoh run into Yuki and set that ghost to rest. A second omake tells a completely separate story about Satomi-sempai being seduced by another girl’s big, (beautiful,) dark eyes.

I think the thing that really worked for me about this story was Yoh’s lack of coyness. I found it refreshing and a relief to know that she was talking about her relationship with Amane with her school friends and they were giving it serious consideration, not just teasing her. When her friends mention to her that when Amane looks at her, it must hurt, the revelation makes Yoh think about the relationship more seriously. If she’s going to pursue this woman, then she’d better mean it, because otherwise, she’s screwing around with Amane and hurting her for no good reason.

It’s hard not to sympathize with Amane. She’s got this great big needy old hole in her heart and when Yoh sort of plops herself in it, it’s difficult to condemn her.

I wasn’t thrilled that Yuki kind of appears at the end, because I always feel that that sort of convenient story-telling weakens the characters dealing with the issues on their own, but that’s more an editorial quibble than anything else.

Ultimately, the title of the book becomes the effective punchline to the story.  On the whole, I liked this book. I liked Yoh, I liked Amane, and I like them together.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 8

And there you have it. Mera wins by TKO. Enough rounds fighting it just wore me out. This “simple love story of Yoh & Amane” took all the fight out of me. ^_^