Archive for the Kase-san Series Category


Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 5 (山田と加瀬さん。)

April 9th, 2026

Two young woman stand before background of colorful cat face silhouettes, cups and toothbrushes. The taller, with dark brown hair wears a brown bear sweat jacket with ears on the hood. The short woman with collar-length blonde hair, wears pink and white stripes sweater and a white cat ear Alice band, as they hold toothbrushes and bathroom cups.There are several extraordinary things about Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 5 (山田と加瀬さん。)  that I want to call out. 

First, this series has been one the most persistent works I have ever read. It “should” have ended several times; when Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari was cancelled after a respectable 4 years and when the initial series ended on Web Hirari. Instead of becoming an interesting relic of Yuri history,  Takashima Hiromi-sensei kept drawing.

The Kase-san series moved to the online edition of Wings and then to the print edition of Shinsokan’s flagship magazine. It’s even been the cover series. Kase-san and Yamada graduated, moved to Tokyo are going to college…and now they are living together! This volume makes Takashima-sensei’s 10th volume of the series.  All of this is just…amazing. Not miraculous, though. I believe that Takashima-sensei just works hard at the series and keeps it thriving.

In Volume 5, we turn to Yamada who is living her best life…a little too hard. In her desire to buy beautiful things for her . and Kase-san, she is pushing herself to her limits. This choice ends up hurting Kase-san unintentionally. Thankfully, Yamada realizes that her failure to prioritize her time in the right ways is her own fault and they make up, agreeing to prioritize their time together. It’s almost nice to be annoyed by Yamada for something other than low self-esteem. ^_^

Kase-san and Yamada are entirely relatable than in this volume and there’s no sign of the jealousy from previous volumes, just the small day-to-day adjustments we make as a couple. 

Ratings: 

Art – 9
Story – 9
Character – 9 
Service – eh, 2?
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

So congratulations to Takashima-sensei for this 10th volume of the Kase-san series, which still bears the Hirari comics imprint – which is the last notable thing I wanted to point out. ^_^ Still carrying the Hirari torch, 12 years later. How incredible is that?





Kase-san and Yamada, Volume 4

May 29th, 2025

Two girls snuggle on the cover, surrounded by colorful silhouettes of tea cups and tea posts. One has medium length blonde hair, wears a brown plaid skirt and cream blouse. The other a pink shirt and grey shorts. They hold matching teacups.It is absolutely gobsmacking to think that we have been following these two young woman in real time almost as long as they have been alive in story time. The Kase-san series turns 15 years old this summer. Boggling.

And, finally, they seem to be growing up a bit. But they still have some hurdles to clear in Kase-san and Yamada, Volume 4, which is the ninth volume of this story!

Kase-san and Yamada are planning on moving out of the dorms and into an apartment together. Yamada finds the perfect place, but Kase-san cannot get herself together to sign the lease. Instead of leaving the dorms, she finds herself unable to cope with the unrequited emotional baggage of her roommate.Her teammates are no help at all, and encourage Kase-san to race Fukami, because they want a race, and Kase-san isn’t strong-willed enough to claim her own space.

Meanwhile Yamada finds that she has managed to build a little nest of friends on her side. Hana and Fukawachhi help her move in and she unloads the absurd story on them. And then Kase-san arrives and it’s just as wonderful as Yamada dreamed. Whene she casually reminds Kase-san that her plan is to study in England, we feel the future looming up ahead, but for now, Kase-san and Yamada are happy in their own place together. Yay.

This is a spot at which the series could, if it needs to, stop. And it will have served all the functions we can ask of it – we got to see Yamada meet and fall in love with Kase-san, Kase-san return her feelings, they graduated and moved to the big city, and now, are living together, at last with nothing between them. And yet! There they are in this issue of Wings magazine with a color page and a slight mismatch of schedules once again, causing mild chaos that will resolve with the two of them happily together. This series has traveled a long road, between magazines and online publishing and, like it’s titular characters has foun it’s home and is quite settled in, thank you.

Kase-san and Yamada are not flashy people, this manga is not a flashy title, but it has quietly been doing an amazing job of bringing us a lovely Yuri couple for 15 years now, and I think Takashima Hiromi-sensei deserves a lot of praise for her work.





Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 4 (山田と加瀬さん。)

September 5th, 2024

As you age, one of the absolutely weirdest things is watching the people you knew as children growing up, maturing, starting their own lives. You never know what they’ll turn out like but it is an interesting process and a reminder of our mortality. (When you get to some point, practically everything is a reminder of our mortality, really.)

We, as a collective, have been watching Yamada and Kase-san grow up now for more than a decade. My first mention of them here on Okazu was in 2012. It always makes me happy to see the Hirari Comics imprint on the spine, in fact. The magazine isn’t completely gone as long as we have that. In those years, they have a long road, but they graduated high school, and have moved to the big city to pursue their college degrees. There has been a lot of relationship stuff they needed to work through – Yamada’s low self-esteem, Kase-san’s jealousy. Some volumes felt like there was no progress at all. But here we are at Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 4 (山田と加瀬さん。) and they are all grown up. The kids are okay. ^_^

Yamada has really grown into herself. She’s good at her chosen career, and has a lot of options in her future. She likes her job and is making friends in school and at work. Kase-san, the star of her high school track team is the more fragile of the two and has to work much harder, but is up to the challenge. The two of them plan to move out together when the next school year begins.

At which Fukami, Kase-san’s roommate, snaps. We’ve seen this coming for a long while, but it was good to get it out into the open. Fukami, having fallen for Kase-san in the most toxic and possessive way, demands Kase-san race her to see if she’ll be “allowed” to leave the dorm. Of course this is ridiculous. But Kase-san is at heart a kind person and not very confrontational outside competitive running.

Yamada ends up getting a smaller, less ideal apartment than she had hoped, but finds a place in Mikawacchi’s building, which means our three school friends are reunited. Kase-san races Fukami, says she hopes they can stay friends and is generally the big-hearted and kind person she always is…and, at last, comes home to her girlfriend in their new home together. Squee.

They’ve come so far. Yuri has come so far. We’ve come far together.

Kase-san and Yamada are going to be okay.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 2
LGBTQ+ – 4 Kase-san has to come out for real for the first time
Yuri – 10

Overall  – 9

This was the volume that I was waiting for from this series.  I look forward to more of their adventures “playing house” together.





Kase-san and Yamada. Volume 3

April 29th, 2024

Two young women, a tall one one with short brown hair and a shorter one with collar length pale hair, dressed in white berets and red coats, surrounded by images of pastel christmas tree balls College life has become a little more normalized for both Kase-san and Yamada. Yamada’s got a job, and loves her classes. Kase-san is still struggling with her unregulated emotions about Yamada, and with her so focused on Yamada, she’s not really noticing what’s going on in her her own dorm room, where Kase-san’s roommate, Fukami, is going through some stuff on her own.

When the school festivals collide, Kase-san finds herself making bad choices – again – but this time it’s Yamada who stands up and talks Kase-san down. And it’s Yamada who asks Kase-san to move in together. It’s pretty clear that Kase-san’s imagination is still a problem, but Yamada…she’s grown. And in doing so, she’s going to help Kase-san do so as well.

It’s so interesting that we still have this manga, more than a decade after it began. As a result, we’re still watching Kase-san and Yamada mature in slower-than-real time. As a result, this manga retains the sweet, slow style we became familiar with originally and we’re just that much happier when these two find a moment of special joy.

Now we just need Kase-san to get over that issue with jealousy. She’s about to feel what it’s like on the other side of that equation.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8, Yamada is a 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

As always, the team at Seven Seas has done a bang-up join in bringing over a manga that I am still amazed continues! I kind of want to see them both graduate and move into the adult world together…and still keep growing together.





Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 3 ( 山田と加瀬さん。)

September 1st, 2022

Kase-san and Yamada moved to Tokyo last spring. Now winter is ahead of them and they are settling in, mostly.

As Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 3 ( 山田と加瀬さん。) begins, Yamada has taken massive strides towards building a new life. It’s true that, as a first-year, she lacks some confidence, but her bouts of low self-esteem are much rarer than before. She’s learning a lot, working hard at her job and making friends. And this year, as the school festival approaches, she’s honored to take part in a special edition of one of her favorite gardening shows. The gardening club is working with their favorite teacher to do a live performance, with a special guest – a famous voice actor.

Kase-san’s school festival is on the same exact day. How they balance the schedule, Kase-san dealing with one last (and for once, rather amusing,) round of jealousy and what becomes of them when the voice actor turns out to be a good gardener, a decent person and an adult who provides good advice, is the bulk of this volume.

The other half of the story is the inevitability of a coming crisis with Kase-san’s roommate. Kase-san’s old rival from high school confides that she knows Kase-san has a lover. Fukami is trying very hard to not care, but…she cares. It is becoming harder to ignore that her feelings for Kase-san are not roommate-y. What will happen with them? We don’t know and it may be moot – because Yamada and Kase-san start talking about the next year and maybe living together.

I like that this manga is moving at a pace that is slow, but somehow feels real-ish.  That is to say, we’re not hitting multiple festivals per volume, which means that we have time to look at both Yamada and Kase-san and see how far they’ve come. Even the art invites us to see both of them as more adult. Yamada, especially. They have distinct personalities, and styles. It’s been half a year, Kase-san is finally dealing with the jealousy thing, Yamada’s low-self-esteem has really changed from her days in high school. Our little girls are growing up and it’s…nice. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – Not really, this volume.
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

There’s no date yet for Volume 3 in English, but I bet it’ll be out in 2023!