Starting in 2020, Yuri manga artist Inui Ayu began an autobiographical comic essay column in the pages of Monthly Comic Yuri Hime. For almost two years, she had about a couple of pages every month to talk about her life with her girlfriend. It is absolutely adorable, and apparently garnered enough support that it was expanded into a full page series in 2021. Now it has been collected into a volume and I, for one, am really happy to be able to read it in one place!
Inui-sensei portrays herself as a bit silly, but primarily to show us how her partner, here known as Kon-san, is so solicitous and intuitive about her needs. We are assured they both love a lot of the same things, they are both into Yuri, and idols. In one particular chapter, something that made me laugh was, as they both watch some media with a lot of female characters, they are both like, “Oh yeah, this so Yuri.” Wifey and I have been known to say that very thing, so…yeah. ^_^
We learn how they met, and started dating and eventually move in, about their daily lives, and mostly, it’s all a giant love letter from Inui-sensei to Kon-san. Chapters are split up by short Q&A pages where Inui-sensei and Kon-san answer questions about their lives together; how they deal with social issues, whether they plan on getting married, and what kinds of foods they like – a whole gamut of questions, very personal and less so. Inui-sensei’s art style is cute, with broad, blushing faces, but her characters are not infantilized. These are adult women, with fashion choices and hairstyles. I love the looseness of the art.
It’s real life, but only a small slice, of course. Nonetheless, as I am very appreciative when Yuri artists are out, this kind of comic essay makes me extremely happy. This is a pretty openly queer story, too, which gives me hope for the future. It took Comic Yuri Hime a long time to be home to queer manga, and the more we, get the better it is for Yuri, I think. I’m so proud of the younger generation of manga artists who are much more open about themselves and their lives. Yay for them and yay for us! ^_^ This is, again, the future I want to see for Yuri manga.
Ratings:
Art – Inui-sensei’s signature style. Lots of blushy cheeks.
Story – Small slices of real life
Characters – Real people, but presented in a way to make them seem extra adorable. ^_^
Service – No, this is about the love-love of daily life
Yuri/LGBTQ+ – 10/10
Overall – 9
A cutely conceived and executed look at a real-world relationship turned into a manga about life and love. Sign me up for more of this!
This sounds so dang cute! I *really* hope someone licenses this in English, and that Yuri Hime publishes more queer manga in the near future (both non-fiction and fiction, but especially the former). To me it’s always something so uplifting to read about same-gender couples living happily together, and I’m also very happy to see these personal accounts are becoming more common.
Here’s one I hope to be licensed in French. But so far, Yuri manga with a pure Queer content haven’t hit their target : only 2 books by Kabi Nagata have been published (one being OOP and not being re-released any time soon) and Ebine Yamaji’s works have been OOP for years.
However,this could change as a lot of small publishers have recently been delving in different types of Manga with some success : I’m especially thinkkng if the publishing in French of “Umareru Seibetsu wo Machigaeta!” (“I wasn’t Born In The Right Body”), an autobiographical Manga by transgender woman author about her sex change operation.