In the February 2018 issue of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫2018年2月号) “NTR: Netzuzou Trap” comes to an end. I want to talk about this for a second, because in ending, it iremains a horrible series.  It ends with “happily ever after,”  which is to say that the two female leads end up together. At no point did the story establish a good reason why we would want them together. Nor did it convince me that the guys were particularly bad boyfriends, as they were lied to and made fools of the entire run of the story. In fact, I basically feel that anyone reading the story was being made a fool of, since it was never a Yuri story in the first place. 

Now that Kodama Naoko-sensei is free of it, I hope we’ll see a much less unpleasant series from her. I really like her art and her characters, generally, so this  story about unlikable people being unlikable was not all that enjoyable for me. 

Honestly, I’m just glad that’s over. 

In the meantime, Ohsawa Yayoi’s “2DK, GPen Mezamashitokei” continues (thank the gods!) and has veered into once-again uncomfortable territory. Both Kaede and Nanami have been invited to Aoi’s wedding, but Kaede has a deadline, so Nanami is shoved into the role of Aoi’s confessor. And confess she does. I can’t be the only one wondering why Aoi is marrying this guy at this point.

A lot of the established stories are taking strange turns in this volume, “Shiori wo Sagasu Page-tachi” and ” Watashi no Yuri ha Shigoto Desu” both shift towards more serious confrontations. Natsu-fuji’s “Kima ha Shoujo” seems pretty well-worn and comfortable by comparison.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

It was a pretty chunky issue and I think I read more than I didn’t for a change, even if “Yuri Yuri” is still limping along making old-man puns. The March issue goes on sale this week in Japan.