Yuri Hime S, Volume 9 (コミック百合姫S (エス)) is…Yuri Hime S.

I keep wanting to like it, I really do. And mostly I kind of sort of enjoy it. But it is not for me and I am reminded repeatedly of the fact as I face chapter after chapter of stories like “Yuru Yuri,” “Love Cubic,” “Minus Literacy,” “Cassiopeia Dolce” and the new series “Konohana Teikitan.” They are simply not for me. Like or not like is beside the point. I’m the older sister reading a younger brother’s Yuri and just not feeling it.

It’s not even that the golden allure of schoolgirls’ thighs are nothing to me, it’s just that there’s nothing *happening* in these stories, because the fetishism fills the pages so full with cat/wolf/elf ears and bathing suits and underwear that the characters don’t have any time to develop. Take “Shingami Arisu,” a story that had a pretty bloody opening in which our protagonists meet over a murder. Well, in this next chapter…our protagonists meet over a murder. It was pretty much the same *exact* chapter all over again.

Or take “Flower Flower” for instance. In the beginning Nina was tsundere, Shu was all sincere and hopeful and her sister was kind of weird. Now, Nina is intermittently tsundere, Shu is all sincere and hopeful and her sister is really weird. There’s been almost no progress or change.

Many of the stories feel less like a story and more like a story idea repeated over and over.

Which is not to say that there aren’t some good stories here.

Uso Kurata’s “Apocalypse” is pretty standout. Two classmates play an MMORPG and find that their characters’ relationship is several step ahead of their own, but their feelings for one another are totally in sync.

Natsuneko offers a nastly little BDSM short that I would have liked more if it had more body to it.

Orange and Yellow, by Hiyori Otsu was an entirely predictable doofus best friend story that was made enjoyable by the art.

And most standout for me was the massive multi-crossover chapter by Fujieda Miyabi in which characters from Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan, Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to, Iono-sama Fanatics (unnamed, because the characters are owned by another company), Alice Quartet and “Otome-iro Stay Tuned” all meet for tea. It’s noted that the Amber Teahouse seems to be REALLY popular with female couples….

Overall – 7

It’s not awful, really. I just keep hoping for better and getting more baths. Sigh.

Oh and utter fail is Yoshitomi Akihito’s “Futari to Futari” which is a rehash of the same story he’s doing for Tsubomi. He’s getting paid twice for the same story, what a cunning plan. Snooze.