Kokoro has just learned that when she graduates high school, she is to be married to someone to whom her father owes a significant favor. She is not happy about this, and refers to it as “dying” after graduation. As a result of her impending “death,” Kokoro wants to live a happy Yuri life while she is in high school. She may never get to date the girl of her dreams, but she can at least draw pictures of the Yuri couples she observes and imagine their lives. Kokoro enlists her best friend and fellow art club member, Amami, in her plan.

Yuri Espoir, Volume 1, seemed like it might be fun. It quickly became…extraordinary. Yes, Kokoro sees Yuri couples, then draws what she imagines their story to be. The next chapter the tells us the reality of their story. As it tuns out, Kokoro has solid Yuridar. She gets the basic situation right, but the details are different and more complicated than her imagination. Everything in this book is more complicated than Kokoro imagines, in fact. Amami’s feelings, their art club advisor’s secret…everything. 

 I loved that we got the story of the Yuri couple and that those stories are truncated. We get bits and pieces, and maybe the wrap up…maybe they don’t. We may never know what happens to them, or we might, but it was compelling.  Unpredictable, ebullient, with a complicated and much vaster plot that it initially seemed, every chapter was a revelation. I couldn’t put it down.  What a fun and unusual manga!

Mai Naoi’s art is not practiced and slick, but solid enough that both Kokoro and Amami has vastly different styles that are themselves recognizably different from the main narrative.

The main narrative may or may not be good in the end, but the individual chapters are a fab collection of Yuri tropes remixed in and out of “reality.” I cannot stress this enough – I have not seen a story like this before. It was really very interesting. You may not like it, but I’m going to say Yuri Espoir, Volume 1 was worth reading.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Stories – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 9

Great job to Caroline Wong on translation and  to the entire Tokyopop team for a surprising Yuri manga. Thanks so much to Tokyopop for the review copy! I hope you’ll pick this up when it hits shelves this summer; it was genuinely intriguing. I’ll definitely be grabbing Volume 2 when it’s released in October.