Never let it be said that I’m not willing to give artists a chance. Mochi Au Lait and I have a checkered history….which is to say their breakout hit, Deaike Site de Imouto to Deau Hanashi (出会い系サイトで妹と出会う話), is something I probably wouldn’t read if you paid me and the first volume of their work I read in whole, YuriNatsu -Minshuku Kagaya– Volume 1 (ゆりなつ-民宿かがや-) disappointed and depressed me.

But here we are. And third time’s the charm. Rental Shop Onee-san wo Rental no Suru Hanashi (レンタルショップでお姉さんをレンタルする話) actually got me to laugh out loud.

The initial story arc follows a woman who has fallen for a female employee at the local rental shop. When she asks if the woman will come out with her for tea, the employee responds, “Same day rental is $30, 2 day rental is $100, one week rental is $350.”

…she’s joking, of course, but was pretty funny. 

From there, she basically just teases the bejebus out of her earnest belle.

This is followed by a couple of shorts and another rental-shop story. Both of the shop stories are tied up in the amusing hissy fits of another store employ railing pointlessly at the affection shown by and to employees on the clock.

But, I want to take a step back and address one of the shorts. I had to read it a few times. It’s really short – just 3 pages. A woman sees two young woman holding hands in public. She’s instantly happy for them and, when a guy intrudes on their idyll and won’t be put off, she imagines…burying his corpse on a dark and rainy night. I think we’ve all been her, so I quite liked this story. ^_^

Mochi Au Lait’s art is very simplistic character drawings over screen tone. The stories rely on dry personality and sarcasm rather than wit. So far, this has been the best of the lot, IMHO.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Face faults primarily
Story – Sarcasm
Characters – Sarcasm
Service – Not unless you consider burying the corpse of an asshole to be service. Which I do. So, 5
Yuri – 7

I was pleasantly surprised and pleased at this collection in exactly the opposite way that YuriNatsu unpleasantly surprised and displeased me.