Many lifetimes ago, I was writing a fanfic and I found that after about 4 hours straight of slamming words onto a screen, I had written myself into a corner. It just so happened that the next night was the regular broadcast of the series I was writing about -and let me tell you, the plot that week was not the strongest. I found myself thinking, well, if they could write themselves out of that mess, then so can I. I wrote all night long and as the morning alarm rang, I finished up the fic, It was a perfectly adequate story, I just remember it as a moment when I had really written myself into a corner and had to write myself out again.

It is my opinion that, in Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!, Volume 13 (私の百合はお仕事です!), Miman-sensei has written themselves into a bit of a corner.  Not completely, because the current arc actually concluded in subsequent chapters of the manga that ran in Comic Yuri Hime, but which have not yet been collected, as the story went on indefinite hiatus after that conclusion.

The arc in question is the incredibly fraught Kanako x Sumika arc and frankly, as I survey the bodies on this battlefield, I cannot see a way out of it that allows for something even far short of happily-ever-after. Kanako might find closure, but to do that, she will have to hurt Sumika. Sumika might have found find closure, but expressing that to Kanako hurts the younger girl. The folks around them have remained largely clueless, with the most minimal apology from – again – the only adult in the cafe. Kanako needs therapy, not a part-time older-sister figure. Her single-minded obsession with the one person who has been 100% truthful to her – and honest about wanting to be close friends, but no more – is exhausting.

And so, for the moment, after one of the most shocking arcs I have read in a manga not openly centered on violence, this series comes to an unsatisfactory stopping point. Kanako did finally have her say in the final chapters of the magazine, and I hope we will eventually get those…but will we ever get a fully formed resolution to this series? Only time will tell.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 0

Overall – 8

I sincerely hope that Miman-sensei can find a way out of this corner and this series gets the ending it deserves.

Hime absolutely shines in this volume. Despite her pretense to other people, her platonic affection for Kanako is absolutely brilliant.