You know what I needed this week? A bag of sesame cookies and a Yuri manga that was sweet and sappy and feel-good. Luckily, I had both to hand. One package of Ginbis black-sesame “asaparagus”* cookies, a cup of Ceylon tea and a copy of Hisakawa Haru’s Yurikon (ゆりこん) scratched all the itches. ^_^

Yurikon is based upon an adorable/ridiculous premise. We meet two women who will get married. At the end of the chapter, the baton is passed on to a different couple who then likewise get married, and so on. It’s sickly sweet sugary nonsense…and I love it.

In the first chapter Kimiko’s life is over, her favorite pop idol has a lover and she doesn’t. She’s still pining after her high school love, Wakana. Moping and depressed, Kimiko heads out to a drinking party with her school friends, who tease her. When Wakana finally shows up for the after party, she asks Kimiko to marry her! They go on to have a lovely church wedding where Hanako catches the bouquet. 

Hanako heads home to her lover, who seems to be taken aback to be asked “when are we going to get married?” “You want to get married?” But its not that sempai doesn’t want to…it’s that she responds to surprise with a question and this surprised her. After this misunderstanding almost breaks them up, Mizuki and Hanako get married in a very traditional Japanese Shinto wedding. Two spectators muse about their own marriage and ask their children, Nanami and Aoi, which kind of wedding they should have?

When Nanami’s mother said she was divorcing her father, she wasn’t really worried, but she did have a little trouble making friends at the new school until Aoi took her under her wing. Aoi and Nanami have been closer than anything and promised each other that they would marry each other one day! When their mothers got married that made them sisters…which upset Nanami. She wanted to be Aoi’s bride!  But they explained this to their mothers who fly off happily on their honeymoon.

Coming back to Japan, is Akira who fell in love with Himekawa-onee-san when she was young and stayed in love with her when “Hime” became a teacher in her school. Akira left for America but told her that she’d come back and come back she does. “Hime” finds she can’t bear to lose Akira, so they marry after all.

The fifth chapter is my favorite, as we circle back to the beginning of the volume and follow the top idol group ‘Princess”s center, Sana. Sana and center for top idol group ‘Prince, Akane are positioned as rivals, but in reality they are in love. In a scripted scene in which they are supposed to fight and cause a rift between them, they break down on camera and confess their love. The company intelligently goes with the flow on this and they do a new hit single together called… “happy marriage” because of course they do. ^_^

There is nothing realistic at all about Yurikon. There is no discussion of the lack of marriage equality in Japan, the limited nature of same-sex partnership certificates, the social, legal or financial arrangements involved. Families, friends, even employers are presumed to be on board with it. There’s not a trace of homophobia, nor are there any lesbians or bisexuals in the book. These vignettes are 100% pure “gay for you” fantasy. It’s trash, honestly, but on the enjoyably reality-free trashy side.

The epilogue takes a quick look at the previous couples and promises us that this will all be continued. For which I am eminently thankful as I really needed something with the all the sugary sweetness and goofy Yuri love-love of this volume. 

Ratings:

Art – 7 Competent, leaning towards the moe.
Story – 7 The narrative equivalent of a box of Dum Dum lollipops
Characters – 8 Everyone is cute, but the two idols make the volume for me
Service – Obsessing about weddings and drawing different wedding dresses is a form of service for some people. Come at me, I will throw the 100100009 wedding magazines in existence at you. ^_^ But nothing salacious. 
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9 Oh heck, I am full of cookies and tea and Yuri weddings. Metadashi, metadashi. They all live happily ever after.

* Ginbis “asparagus” cookies are so named because they are supposed to look like asparagus, which they do not. They taste like black sesame, wheat, salt and sugar, which they are. I love them and recommend them highly if you like black sesame flavored things and things that go crunch.