Birz magazine has been rarely mentioned over the years here on Okazu. Not because I don’t like it, it just hasn’t been relevant to our topics. But with the inclusion of the Yuri Kuma Arashi manga, and this new Yuri Anthology, Yu-Ribon, it’s time to have that conversation.
Even in families full of oddballs, there are good crazies and bad crazies. ^_^ Comic Birz is one of the, if not always bad crazy, then always just plain crazy. Birz reminds me of a specific person I used to know – every conversation with her was conducted in a bizarro world of her own making. Even when the conversations were not awful, they were just strange.
So, the idea of a Yuri anthology from this comic was a challenging concept. Would it be knives in the head, tentacles or schoolgirls?
Tl;dr – It was schoolgirls.
Except for the story with the knives in the head.
A number of the creators names will be familiar to us here, Kanojo no Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu creator Tsukiko, Manga no Tsukurikata‘s Hirao Auri, Takahashi Mako. Others will be less well-known, perhaps, but no less capable.
The stories are lodged firmly in the “eternal school” of Yuri relationships and a number of them are notably more about friends than lovers.
And so the volume goes. I was three stories from the end and thought, “wow, not one weird story yet!” I was wrong, as usual. ^_^”Heru” by Tsubana is not really Yuri in any sense, but there sure were a lot of knives involved. No violence, no blood, Just knives. It was classic Birz. Upon my wife’s request, here is an example.
My favorite story of the collection came immediately afterward. “Eye Contact Visitor Game” about a famous softball player and her friend that went so far as to include the word “like” and everything! (“How progressive,” says the wife.”)
If I had to choose, I’d pick this kind of bland not-lesbians, not-love “Yuri” over breast squeezing and bodily fluids, but, just.
Ratings:
Although the ratings are variable, the art is pretty good throughout.
Overall – 7
Not bad, not great. And knives in the head, so your mileage might vary on that.
I am morbidly curious about the knife one. Good thing I can’t read Japanese, so I can resist buying it. :)
I must confess that seeing the words “Yuri” and “anthology” made me nervous, but then seeing the cover art, I felt a sense of relief – “Well, its probably all schoolgirl stuff, but, phew, at least those two girls on the cover don’t look like kewpie dolls!” I can feel my standards slipping!