Volume 9 of Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo, (あの娘にキスと白百合を ), begins with a few wrenches to the heart.
Mikaze loves to cosplay. Specifically, she loves to cosplay magical girl Seira, so imagine her delight when she finds another cosplayer in Seira’s angel form! Mikaze is even more surprised to find that the “other Seira” is a student in her school. Mutual love of cosplay brings Mikaze and Asuka together, and their feelings for one another blossom into love. But Asuka’s graduation is looming and to save Mikaze from having to be left behind by her, Asuka pre-emptively breaks up with her. Mikaze is devastated, but the older girl walks away with a final “Sayonara.”
We turn away from this melancholy chapter towards Ayaka. Once again exams are coming but, this time,, she doesn’t seem all that worked up about it. And for once, she comes out on top. Ayaka has finally beat Yurine, who is left to wonder if she’s a “normal girl” now.
In triumph, Ayaka calls her mother to give her the good news and learns what we have all seen coming for 9 volumes. Rejecting her mother’s demands for perfection, Ayaka finally tuns to Yurine as an equal in her own eyes, and reaches out to kiss her. It is a very nice kiss. So nice that it throws Ayaka into a tizzy for the rest of the book, which was actually kinda cute.
The book turns back towards Mikaze who decides that she hates the way her chapters ended and changes the ending.
And additional chapter about Valentine’s Day gives us all the passive-aggressiveness we’ve lost in Ayaka.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 2 I’m not gonna lie, that kiss was pretty hot
Overall – 8
As far as I’m concerned, the story can begin now. I cannot wait to see where Ayaka and Yurine go. Because now, at last, they will be doing it together.
This was a good one (although I probably say that about every volume, but any book where a character tells of their mom and makes out with her girlfriend is a good volume, I don’t care what series it is). I love how the magical girl Seira character they cosplayed as ties back to the anime that Sawa and Itsuki watched in Volume 5. The continuity is strong in this series!
Not that I’m all about watching people be miserable or anything, but it was refreshing to start the book off with melancholy from the get-go. It added some dramatic tension – are they going to get back together? This seems kind of final. Is there only room for one happy pairing, and so Ayaka and Yurine inadvertently caused this tragedy in order to maintain balance?
Speaking of Yurine: I’m very happy this review was published on her birthday :)
“tells off,” sorry, not “tells of.”
I found the mother a tiresome plot complication, so was very glad to see Ayaka free of that.