I’m not dead yet, really, just moving slowly through the stuff on my pile. Soooooooooo slowly. The next few days I am also in and out doing the summer trifecta of beach, theater and amusement park, so don’t expect anything new for a few days – I’ll be busy having fun outside. ^_^
Summer has landed and with it, the July issue of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫). The cover tells a single-page story of young love.
This is followed by what I’m thinking might well be a fun new series. “BGMRSP” (“Bousou Girlsteki Mousou Renaiteki Suteki Project”) follows two childhood friends who are totally unalike. Aoi is boyish, athletic, tall and Beniko is girlish, sophisticated and cool. Now they are both in a girls school and each have a harem of devoted fans. So they decide to have a harem competition. School is now a harem-gang warzone. I have no idea if I’ll like this story or not, but I have to give it points for originality!
The entirety of the first half of the issue was uninspiring for me (and the reason I was slogging through it so slowly. Lots of…stuff I’m not interested in. Halfway through the issue I almost flew over to Japan and slapped the editors. In a “Happy Wedding!” Special, they ignore everything important about marriages between female couples to provide utterly fatuous advice like “make sure you buy Yuri manga.” Yeah, in a country that does not recognize the relationship between a chunk of your audience, I’m sure all the lesbian readers found that hilarious. Ugh.
Finally, at about 2/3 of the way through the quality picked up, with Takemiya Jin’s “Atchi/Kotchi/Dotchi” which is still mining the levels of misunderstanding between Satomi and Nana. Best line of the chapter. “What are you hiding from me?” “Ah, which one?”
Morishima Akiko returns with an older chapter from Rakuen no Jouken and new chapter following Serina and Sumi.
Tanaka Minoru’s “Rock It Girl!” dives into Seira and Kaname’s childhood in a deeply unconvincing kind of therapy session.
“Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika (私の世界を構成する塵のような何か)” by Amano Syuninta gets Ruki and Sachi about a quarter step closer. And we get left with the image of Maasa as a child, doing ballet. I feel for her.
Ohzawa Yayoi’s “Strange Babies come to a climax as the penny *finally* drops for Yagi. Phew.
There is Yuri in this chapter of “Yuri Danshi,” but it still manages to be all about the guys. Gah.
The first half of the magazine kept putting me to sleep, but the second half had what I’m looking for.
Ratings:
Overall – 6
I can’t speak for anyone else but, all these years of reading about girls in school has given me an allergy to school uniforms. So very, very off-putting. Dear mangaka – try getting out more.
