When we met Matoi, she was an uncertain high school student, with a crush on an older woman who had returned to their town. Yuri was a young woman whose life had a massive trauma in her past, the scars of which still cover her body. She found her days brightened by Matoi, but absolutely would not consider love. The story picks up as Matoi settles in at college, in the final volume of Yuri to Koe to Kaze Matoi, (百合と声と風纏い)

Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 all have been reviewed on Okazu, out from a newish manga imprint, Lillie Comics. Volume 4 is both a continuation and a new creation with a different publisher. So this volume, should you want to read it, is digital only, available from Bookwalker or, in Japan, on Japanese Kindle.

While in college, in Volume 3, Matoi had met folks who openly identified as gender and sexual minorities and that had opened her up in ways she might not have imagined. In Volume 4, her feelings for Yuri have crystalized a little and…but… . She likes Yuri a lot, but also knows that Yuri is not ever going to want a physical relationship.

In the meantime, Matoi enters a song composition contest in which she uses her family’s voices as rhythm and melody. People are blown away and she wins third place – as a first-year this is unheard of. She’s got a bright future in soundscapes. Armed with this, she visits Yuri and they finally have the talk about their lives, both separately and together.

Yuri has also come to a conclusion. It’s not the scars on her body that keep her from wanting a physical relationship. That, she realizes, is just part of who she is. Matoi accepts this, as she has learned to accept herself and they decide that they will move forward together, in their own fashion. We see them in the final pages, after Matoi has graduated, living separately, across the hall from one another and yet, together.

The final pages of the manga include process shots and thoughts about the cover image and a short aftertalk in which the creator, RenMei, addresses some questions about the book and its characters.

It was really nice to get this epilogue/new chapters and see the decisions both Matoi and Yuri make, and how they create a life for themselves that suits them. As I suspected from back in Volume 1, we get no high drama, just a steady growth of two people creating a future together. As a book I took a chance on, it gave me 4 solid volumes, no complaints here.

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 2
Yuri – 4

Overall – A strong 7

For a book I picked up on a whim during my last visit to Tokyo (I miss it so much, T_T), this was a decent read.