Here we are, heading into slow, lazy days of summer and here we have an excellent bit of reading material for those very days in Comic Yuri Hime August 2019 (コミック百合姫2019年8月号). Most of the series running are matured a bit, having settled into their own millieu and we can just sort of sit back and watch the slow trainwrecks of oncoming dramatic crisis or enjoy the bright smiles and happy faces of couples enjoying their time together. Perfect beach reading, really. The cover story is cute and girly, as a woman convinces her lover to be her truest self in the clothing store.
This chapter of “Itoshi Koishi” by Takemiya Jin-sensei was the climax of Volume 2, in which Hina’s friend Rena lets Hina know that she knows Hina is seeing Yayoi. It’s a sweet and touching moment, when Rena affirms her love for her friend and in doing so, convinces Hina that her friends can be her allies, if she can let them be.
“Scarlet” continues once again, moving forward and back at the same time. I wonder if it’s going to be allowed to go anywhere.
“Luminous Blue” is heading for a crash, one that we have been able to see coming for a long, long time and one that I’m not all that comfortable with. I expect the full collision next issue.
Shiki-sempai and Hina are both slapped upside the head with desire for one another and no physical or emotional space to unpack it in “Ikemensugi Shiki-sempai!”
Ohsawa Yayoi’s new story “Hello Melancholic!” is very reminiscent of “12-minute Etude” with almost identical setup, but I am content to see how it plays out. I like(?) Hibiki-sempai’s complete disregard for personal space. ^_^; Girls in band. I can be patient.
“Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteiru” remains absurdly adorable, as the teachers tour the school festival and make out on the roof of the school. Absolutely inappropriate, both of these last two stories. Oh well. It’s summer, screw propriety.
Ashima is trying to figure out what she wants, even as she’s afraid of losing it, while Mayumi and Rin teeter on the edge of something more intimate, in “Umineko Bessou.”
As I said, a great summer read with stories for just about any taste in Yuri. Adults, school girls, creepy dysfunctional relationships, sweet functional ones, undying children, werewolves and whatever those other things are. ^_^
Ratings:
Overall – 8
I really like that I’m reading about 2/3 of the stories, (even the one about the undying child, and the horrible people in FLOWERCHILD’s story, both of which are grim as fuck,) and liking them, with only a few series I’m skipping whole because they are too intolerable. ^_^ And then getting lovely stuff like two teachers being so cute together I can barlye stand it and Hina and Yayoi and their friends, as comfortable places to return to.
If we can stay like this for just a while, I’ll be very happy. ^_^
Hello Melancholic is like the antithesis of 12-minute Etude.
It is a flipped version, yeah. The leitmotif feels very similar.
The kinds of things 12-minute Etude was concerned with depicting for its characters to go through as part of being in a club are the sort of thing the protagonist of Hello Melancholic has already been broken by and the story is concerned instead with delivering an escapist fantasy where an idealized band helps her recuperate, so to me they feel very different.
Fair enough. I feel like the story is on the same continuum, about isolation and healing through music.