Hime is cute. And she knows it. Not only does she know that she’s cute and sweet-looking, she counts on it. Over the years, she’s cultivated her “outside face” in order to make sure that the people around her just love her to pieces. In Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 1 (私の百合はお仕事です! 1) Hime’s “outside face” is a character of it’s own.

When she accidentally bumps into a girl as she’s heading home and ends up being the cause of a broken arm, the stranger tells Hime she’ll have to standing for her at work. “Work” turns out to be a weird concept cafe, “Liebe Jogakuen,” in which the staff all act like students at an elite, prim and proper girl’s school. Hime is completely confused by the concept and steps all over other staffer’s toes, but the customers love her. Of course they do. Everyone loves her.

Except her “sempai” at the “school.” Ayanokouji-san who, as much as she fusses over Hime in front of the customers, has some very serious issues with her in private. Hime pushes the boundaries, asking to be Ayanokouji’s little sister, against cafe rules.

When Hime confides it all to her best friend, Kanako, Kanako also ends up working at the cafe. Hime turns all her charm on Ayanokouji. She works hard at being lovable because, as Kanako knows, she once betrayed a dear friend and is not, she recognizes, a very lovable person in the real world.

How Hime struggles with her role at the Liebe Jogakuen and with the nice-to-everyone-but her Ayanokouji-san, makes for a very fun and silly series by Miman. The art is good without being amazing, and the story, which at first appears to be all over the place, ends up on point. And the concept cafe is amusing for this Yuri fan, obviously, although in real life, I’d probably find it excruciating. ^_^

The one criticism I had for the first volume was that the cafe customers primarily looked male. As the story develops, more of the customers look female, when they look like fully drawn people at all since, in many cases, they are just line drawings. Nonetheless I felt it important for a comic running in Comic Yuri Hime, to recognize that the Yuri audience is split more evenly. And it has, a little.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7 but gets better as it goes on
Characters – 7 I’m withholding judgment on Hime until I see this arc fully resolved.
Yuri – 4 The cafe concept is Yuri, the story is not, until it is.
Service – 2 Goofy Yuri fan moments

Overall – 7 And I’m really hoping that <spoiler> happens in the future!

Volume 2 went on sale this month, so we can all hope that our own personal spoiler thing happens. ^_^