Mebachi’s cover story continues, this time with the addition of a young woman with a beat-poem-esque inner monologue, as she sees the two from last volume. Will she reach her destination? Would it be better if she never did? We’ll have to wait and find out. Somehow I felt this appropriate for the cover of Comic Yuri Hime February 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年2月号.) I’m still recovering from the explosion of color and texture on last year’s issues and this palate and design seem so stark in contrast. It’s not at all bad, it’s just very different.
Rae and Claire have reached Euclid, Rae and Misha’s hometown, in this chapter of “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.” They meet Hans, a local businessman, so we see a side of Rae’s life we had not previously seen…even if Claire cannot see it, yet. And they run into Dole, who makes some harsh arguments against addressing poverty. Their vacation is off to a rocky start!
Chinese-esque fantasy about death doula and her bodyguard starts to develop in “Kono You de Ichiban Sutekina Owarikata.” I hope this series develops a plot, now that we have the basic outline. What I want to see from Yuri manga in this magazine now is a bold approach to story-telling. They are two girls who live together…less of why and more of and then what happens?
“Haduki’s Osoto Gohan” is an idea in search of a hook. Clearly Yuri and food work well and camping is pretty hot, but just doing another Yuru Camp, isn’t gonna cut it, so we meet Fuuka who has just moved out in order to start her adult life. But her dreams of serving delicious food to her family and friends are not met, because her apartment – most especially the kitchen – is small, now her family is not nearby and she has no friends. In an amazing coincidence she wins a huge box of meat at the store. Upon arriving home, Fuuka encounters her neighbor Yomogi, who mostly camps in the garden of the apartment building. Now she has a friend and food, but the kitchen is still small. But since Yomogi is a relative of the landlord, she’s allowed to cook outside…and so, a camping-at-home-Yuri-food-manga is born. One hopes that it will be less convenient in the Yuri than it was on the setup, but it seems unlikely. Don’t get me wrong. I love Yuri and food stories, this just seemed a tad lazy.
Big doings in “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkon Shitemita”by Usui Shio! Rio has gotten a job and Ruriko told Kurumi that she likes her. Kurumi’s clued in now that this is more than just friends like, maybe this is a step forward for her?
Also big things happening in “Odoriba Skirt ni Naru” – the first contest toward the Quadrille is upon them. Michiru and Kiki are *ready* and Kiki’s former partner, Shion, and Kiki have a long talk about the past. The results surprise everyone, and now the stakes are higher. Michiru and Kiki are starting to notice how cute each other are, and thinking about feelings they hadn’t had before.
One of the new columns in the back is called “Design Yuri Hime.” It’s talking about the various looks the magazine has had over the year. I also learn that Nakamura Seitaro, the founding editor of Yuri Hime, is back in the Editor-in-Chief seat, now that Umezama Kanako has left for Alphalopolis. But this issue was about one of my favorite design changes, the year when they began to include the cover novels. The first one was by Fukami Makoto, with art by Kazuaki (whose art I still really like) and cover design by BALCOLONY. This still is one of my favorite years of cover art. ^_^ The story was messy and not Fukami’s best work. The whole year was collected into a book called GIRL’S UPRISING, which I reviewed in 2016, even though it was the 2011 cover. I am going to try and read these columns, because the year-long themed covers are a joy. I might not like every year, but I love the idea behind it.
And Muromaki’s column about overseas Yuri fandom is, for obvious reasons, very interesting. I’ll be really interested to see the results of their poll (I assume it was for the column.) My own Yuri Fandom polls results will be my 5000th post here on Okazu, which should be….this week! Keep an eye out for both.
A lot of the new stories are not appealing to me so far this year, several for the art and at least one about cyber-harassment and a few continuing series that aren’t my thing. I think the magazine is striking a balance between slice-of life and adult content, but I still would really like to see some honest action or scifi stories. And sports. I cannot understand why this magazine almost never runs a sports story? It seems much more likely to fall in love with a teammate than a person camping in your yard or who wants you to record their final statement. Ah well. ^_^
What I do like here, I like a lot. I just want more of that! ^_^
Ratings:
Overall – 7
The March Issue hit shelves in Japan last week (so, for one brief second I am caught up…hah!).
