Nanoha and Chidori are going out, and they are keeping their relationship secret from their friends. But, in Hana ni Arashi, Volume 1 (はなにあらし), their feelings are starting to leak into the open, just a teeny bit.
Nothing much happens here in Volume 1. Nanoha is cheerful and Chidori is taciturn, but they work out their differences in real time and their friends are friends. Nanoha and Chidori go out for food, they take care of each other when they are sick, they like being with each other more than with anyone else. They call themselves lovers, but with little time to be alone, a kiss or a touch is all their can manage.
The final “conflict” of the volume is Chidori feeling put out because she isn’t able to go to the new pancake place alone together, but ends up going with the gang. Nanoha and she promise to return together and the issue goes away. There’s only small crises here, with small resolutions.
More interesting than the plot to me is the fact that this series by Kobachi Ruka is a Shonen Sunday comic, from Shogakukan. What does that even mean, really? Well, it means that along with the Big Comic Special manga, like My Solo Exchange Diary, the stodgiest of the big four manga companies in Japan has bought into Yuri as a genre. This is not a minor thing. We’ve seen Yuri on and off from Kodansha (we’re speaking here of the Japanese company, not the American subsidiary that is publishing Comic Yuri Hime books) and Shueisha, but Shogakukan has been slower to join the race. Having decided to engage in Yuri, I’m now seeing a pretty solid investment from them. Expect to see more Yuri from them. in coming days.
Ratings:
Art – 6 Adequate to the need
Story – 6 Quiet and sweet
Characters – we barely know them by the end of the volume, but they seem nice enough
Yuri – 3
Service – 1, mostly on principle
Overall – A nice 6
Not outstanding, but definitely erring on the side of sweet and nice. There’s 4 volumes in print in Japan (Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4) so we’ll see where the story takes us.
Since all of the big Four has entered the fray, that makes it an excellent fit for the 100 years of yuri ^_^
It remains to see how stable this investment is. Publishers make investments to make money. Fingers crossed.
It makes me wonder how long they’re willing to try something before they deem it a failure :( oh I forgot to respond to the actual title review. It seems Hana ni Arashi will not progress much ased on the current pace of the last three volumes. I think you mentioned at an Yuri event that you did see them as adults wearing the same bracelets together. So I am a bit curious if we’ll get to see them grow up.
The event was Yuriten, but the characters were from Canno’s Kiss and White Lily for my Dearest Girl, not this one.
Which “they”?” The publishing company will keep publishing a book if it hits sales thresholds, and this series seems to be popular and, if the creator is successful with this almost-a-relationship story, then why change that, really. Our, yours and my, needs aren’t really important in their bigger picture. ^_^