It still strikes me as rather fun that Yuri fans are practically buried these days under an avalanche of Yuri anthologies – and that so many of them are set in adult society among working women. ^_^ I can practically see myself in 2004 or 2009 or 2015, reading yet another collection that was so similar to everything else, that I just kind of snapped. But I kept coming back for more and so, I find myself today taking a look at another Yuri anthology set in working adult society. I am not complaining! (Not yet, at any rate. ^_^)

In 2018, I reviewed the first entry into this anthology series and found it entertaining. Today I am taking a look at Chocolat 2 Shakaijin Yuri Anthology ( ショコラ2 社会人百合アンソロジー).  The contributors are mostly names we’re very familiar with here on Okazu. Morishima Akiko starts off the anthology with a somewhat complicated relationship between two women who are balancing work-life-society issues.

Kashikase’s story takes a tried and true scenario – the unpaid therapy done by all women in the customer service industry – and turns it into a love story.

I’m reading a collection by Kiriyama Haruka and just finished a story last night that I really enjoyed – but was sure I had read before! Well I had…in this collection. A woman working for an insurance company comes face to face with the web idol she admires, in what I think is a very sweet little story.

A love that never quite manages to get past the gate is the subject of a sweet and a little sad story by Takemiya Jin.

For me, the stand-out story was the last one, by Shigisawa Kaya, called “Love Letter.” A deceased writer has left her unfinished manuscript to her former lover, also a writer, to finish. We travel the length of their relationship from when they met through their parting in this taught story about endings. This was, honestly, excellent. Shigisawa’s writing and art – which tends to center tension and discomfort –  hits exactly the perfect note of melancholy, unexpressed anger and love. Outstanding work by an artist I always want to like but often cannot.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

What this collection does is hold itself together by the thinnest of connecting strings. Other than the fact that these stories are all collected for this volume, there is nothing similar about them. Different art, different tone, and vastly different takes on the topic makes Chocolat 2 a superior Yuri anthology.