Last fall, there was a veritable explosion of Yuri-flavored shoujo manga in all three of the leading shoujo magazines Ciao, Ribon, and Nakayoshi. Leading the way was Nakayoshi with Nobara no Mori no otome-tachi. Now that that has been moved over to the seasonal special Nakayoshi Lovely, Sabagebu has stepped up to the plate.
Sabagebu (さばげぶっ！) is short for “Survival Game Club.” The story follows first-year middle school student Momoka, as she is strong-armed into joining the Survival Game Club by the charismatic, popular and insane club president, Miou.
The club – when they manage to get any activities in at all – primarily engage in military training and war games-style activities. To what end, we don’t yet know. Mostly, it seems, because Miou wants to. Momoka comes down to breakfast to find Miou parked at the kitchen table, charming her mother and waiting to drag “Mokarin” to morning practice.
In the April issue of Nakayoshi, the Sabagebu gets a new member – Kasuga Urara. Urara is a hard-ass. She thinks that Momoka is weak and pathetic and more importantly – standing between her and the object of her desire, Miou-sama. Urara is assigned to Momoka as a training partner and, to express just how much she really wants Momoka out of the way, so she can have her beloved Miou-sama to herself, she works Momoka nigh unto the bone.
When, by accident, Momoka succeeds in some camouflage surveillance, she is praised mightily by Miou and the other sempai, and Urara runs off in tears. Only Momoka follows her, and offers the new girl kind words of comfort and a handkerchief. And…a new love interest is born, as lilies bloom around Urara’s head. The next morning Momoka comes down to breakfast, pleased that today she won’t have to go to morning practice, only to find Urara parked at the kitchen table, charming her mother with her loli-cuteness and nosebleedy desire. Bwah~bwah~bwaaaahhhh~~~
It’s a throwaway Yuri character and nothing will come of it, but seriously, who wouldn’t want to read a shoujo manga story about a middle-school paramilitary “club” with Yuri elements?
Ratings:
Art – 6
Story – Seriously idiotic – 6
Characters – Just as seriously idiotic as the story – 6
Yuri – 4
Loser FanBeing – 5
Overall – 7 because it’s seriously idiotic and you cannot possibly be taking it seriously, so what the heck, it’s fun.
