There are several extraordinary things about Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 5 (山田と加瀬さん。)  that I want to call out. 

First, this series has been one the most persistent works I have ever read. It “should” have ended several times; when Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari was cancelled after a respectable 4 years and when the initial series ended on Web Hirari. Instead of becoming an interesting relic of Yuri history,  Takashima Hiromi-sensei kept drawing.

The Kase-san series moved to the online edition of Wings and then to the print edition of Shinsokan’s flagship magazine. It’s even been the cover series. Kase-san and Yamada graduated, moved to Tokyo are going to college…and now they are living together! This volume makes Takashima-sensei’s 10th volume of the series.  All of this is just…amazing. Not miraculous, though. I believe that Takashima-sensei just works hard at the series and keeps it thriving.

In Volume 5, we turn to Yamada who is living her best life…a little too hard. In her desire to buy beautiful things for her . and Kase-san, she is pushing herself to her limits. This choice ends up hurting Kase-san unintentionally. Thankfully, Yamada realizes that her failure to prioritize her time in the right ways is her own fault and they make up, agreeing to prioritize their time together. It’s almost nice to be annoyed by Yamada for something other than low self-esteem. ^_^

Kase-san and Yamada are entirely relatable than in this volume and there’s no sign of the jealousy from previous volumes, just the small day-to-day adjustments we make as a couple. 

Ratings: 

Art – 9
Story – 9
Character – 9 
Service – eh, 2?
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

So congratulations to Takashima-sensei for this 10th volume of the Kase-san series, which still bears the Hirari comics imprint – which is the last notable thing I wanted to point out. ^_^ Still carrying the Hirari torch, 12 years later. How incredible is that?