Obscure Yuri Manga
Part 3

One more really obscure Yuri manga you’ve never seen or heard of before. ^_^

Utahime Fight is a collection of short stories drawn and written by Kakunouchi Narumi, creator of Vampire Princess Miyu and Juline (and many, many others…). Her oeuvre is shoujo manga fantasy and martial arts, frequently at the same time.

Utahime Fight includes three stories, all of which are about magical, mysteriously attractive girls and they effect they have on the people around them. In the first story, a girl and her two friends (one male, one female) are really magical fighters for something – probably love and justice. The third story is about a magical creature that enchants a young man and brings love into his life.

But the story that concerns us is the second in the collection, entitled “Keep Trust.” It’s a fairly trite set-up, standoffish cool girl rebuffs cute passionate girl’s overtures of friendship at school. They find themselves locked in the library one night and poof! they find themselves in the plot of a movie, in which a prince strives to save his mother and his land. (The movie had been the topic of much discussion at school, and the heroine, whose name escapes me at the moment, is totally agog over the idol who stars as the prince.)

Our cute, blonde “warm” heroine becomes the Prince’s confidant and encourages him to persevere, while the “cool” brunette falls in love with her from a distance. To make matters worse, as they say, warm girl likes to touch cool girl, snuggle with her in bed and, worst of all, cry in her arms. Cool girl is quietly dying inside the entire time until something happens to threaten their lives, and she admits, finally, that she loves warm girl.

At which they wake up in the library in school. They have a final scene in which they admit that they love each other and story ends.

Not groundbreaking, but quietly sweet. Drawn in Kakunouchi’s usual sweeping, loose-lined art, it’s a little hard to follow any action, but that’s her signature style and it doesn’t bother me.

Ratings:

Art -8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7

For yet another random find in a used manga store, this little collection was quite enjoyable.