We’re still banging on about beginnings here on Okazu. ^_^ And every January issue of Comic Yuri Hime is a new beginning!

For Comic Yuri Hime January 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年1月号)  we’re getting single-panel comic by Mebachi for the cover, with a small text paragraph in the upper-right-hand corner. It is a melancholy story, of loss and longing and concern that the speaker hadn’t been a good listener. The larger letters spell “Sazanami ga, jama wo shita.” My Japanese grammar is a bit not great, so I’m not sure if the ripples were disturbed, or they were disturbing. Hopefully one of you will weigh in that.  I don’t want to get ahead of myself on feel, because next month seems awfully like it’s going somewhere else, but it feels melancholy.

This issue begins with a fantasy tale by SikuSiku, “Sekai De Ichiban Sutekina Owarikata,” a title that offers some hope.  This is followed by a number of new stories, which I will wait on to see if anything develops.

“Sasayakuyouni Koi Wo Utau” has finally gotten to the punchline of Shiho’s drama…and she’s shocked at learning the obvious truth. Now we’ll get the battle of the bands. Phew!

In “Kimi to Tsuzuru Utakata” the inevitable end is approaching, but Kaori get a chance to talk about her dreams with her friend Ruri-chan. Yuama’s work has really gotten stronger, but I feel that it is time for this to wrap up…as we know it will.

“Utsotsuki Hime” is a short prose story that takes place in Europe in World War Two, about connections that can’t be.

I don’t want to be unkind, but “Natsu to Lemon To Overlay” has ended and it was, very sadly, forgettable. I loved the premise, but there was no conviction in it, and it became a story that, had it started there, I would have liked, but it had to throw away it’s whole premise to do what it did. Writing that sentence without spoiling anything was not easy, let me tell you. ^_^;

Taguchi Shouichi’s “Futari Escape,” too…what the…you don’t begin a chapter that way and expect us to laugh it off. FFS.

And now we come to the story I really want to talk about. “Watashi no Yuri ha Ohigoto Desu!” goes …I don’t even know. Dark? Like I totally trust Miman at this point and I don’t think anything bad is likely to happen, but the dark, foreboding music in the background and the two-page center color of a boudoir image of Youko has left me with shivers. You hurt Kanako (who, yes, is not okay and needs help) and I’ll murderize ya! I don’t even know how to describe this chapter beyond “ominous.”

“Usui Shio’s “Onna Tomodachi to Kekko Shitemita.” gives us a lovely, relaxing chapter in which everyone, for one moment, is quite happy. I needed that. ^_^

Last of the things I want to note, Muromaki does a comic essay in the back about German Yuri & BL and the German Yuri fandom, that I found interesting.

Again, there were a lot of other stories that I either read or didn’t, and enjoyed or didn’t. As 2023 opens, I think anyone picking this magazine up will find a reasonable balance of adult and school stories,  and relationships that run the spectrum from hand-holding to fully realized adult relationships. We’re poised to lose several stories next issue and welcome some new ones.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

The February 2023 issue is already out and has a center-color spread from “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.” by Aonoshimo!