In 2011, the publisher of Comic Yuri Hime magazine did something new. Earlier, the magazine had split into two different editions, Yuri Hime S, supposedly targeted towards male readers, and Yuri Hime, supposedly targeted to women. Each of these were released quarterly for a total of 8 volumes a year, plus periodic supplemental volumes. In 2011, the magazine returned to a single edition, now being released on a bimonthly basis. From January of that year, the covers of Comic Yuri Hime would also now have a specific annual theme. To memorialize the cover art of their magazines from 2005-2010, Ichijinsha released a book pf the cover art, Yuri Hime Color Artworks Chronicle. As I said in my review at the time, it was excellent both as a historical artifact and as an artbook.

Yuri Hime Cover Art Collection 2011-2025 (百合姫表紙集 2011-2025) picks up with the cover story and art by Kazuaki of the girl in the tower and her non-human companion who escape an evil witch. With guns. This eventually was released as an illustrated novel, GIRLS UPRISING. While it is messy as heck, I loved the art and loved the new look for Comic Yuri Hime magazine. From 2011 on, every year the cover features a new creator, a new theme, a new look and a whole new attitude. From extremely moe life vignettes to science fiction to girls’ road trip and plenty of girls at school, every year offers up a completely new magazine. 

I honestly love this about Comic Yuri Hime. The cover tells a story, sometime with text, sometimes as a whole actual story, in, around and near the cover art, such as Kesshin’s time travel COVID-inspired Spanish Flu story in 2021.  Sometimes, the cover is just a series of girls’s life, like Fly’s always slightly wet art in 2018. I loved 2020’s gonzo cover designs with art by Rorua and fonts that were often illegible against gothic futurist art. That was an incredible year. 

This artbook offers up the initial design concept, artists’ bios, production details and look at every cover, front, back and spine for that year, culminating in the 20th anniversary story by hechima, with the theme of girls love being ubiquitous and normal. The final pages of the book include a retrospective of all the 2005-2010 covers, from Chronicle, and a roundtable discussion between Saito Hiroshi the Editor-in-Chief of Comic Yuri Hime magazine and folks from BALCOLONY, the cover designers. This book is huge – over 300 pages of significantly thick paper with full color images. 

Again, as an artbook and as an a historical archive, Yuri Hime Cover Art Collection 2011-2025 is a remarkable item. But, also notably, I did not have to ship this to myself from Japan, because it was on the shelf at my local Kinokunkiya! And, you can get this artbook as a digital volume on Bookwalker. Wow. It still never fails to amaze and delight me that Yuri is now just a thing that exists. Seeing Yuri series filling up space in Kinokuniyas world-wide and knowing that we made it is the greatest gift. I can’t wait to see what we can look forward to for Okazu’s upcoming 25th anniversary next year. ^_^ 

Why yes, I am still catching up on relics from my last February trip to Tokyo! In Shosen Book Tower, where the Yuribu was impressively large and well-organized and has a variety of manga, photo albums, novels and other print matter, there were several large artbooks were visible on the shelves and near the register with a very attractive, eye-catching layouta. An artbook of Avalon Yuri anthology illustrations were prominently displayed as was the subject of today’s review Marguerite – Fly’s Art Works (Marguerite フライ作品集).

If you have been paying attention to Yuri recently, you have probably encountered Fly’s artwork.Fly’s done work for Kadokawa and has been the cover artist for Comic Yuri Hime. They have, of course been one of the featured artists at the Yuriten. I quite like their work. It’s got a gentle sensibility and is very moody without being depressing or dull. Pretty girls in contemplative moments set in appealing surroundings. There’s little service, and a lot of intimacy without exploitation. The artist’s very specific form of service comes through in the collection as a whole, but as fetishes go, it’s arguably ignorable. ^_^

The first section, “Innocence,” consists of portraits of individual girls. Section 2 and beyond feature more couples. Section 3 “Love Unrequited” is split between portraits of individuals and couples and Section 4, “Secret Love” is full of Comic Yuri Hime cover art and similar couple portraits.

Fly’s work incorporates a lot of background color and shape without much texture or depth, the art uses water and plant life as the setting rather often. The overall sense is normal days passing in the lives of young women, some of whom who happen to be together. There’s no drama, which makes this collection less like something to page through and more like something to pull down off the shelf and open up, smile at the image and put back for another day.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

It’s all very pleasant ^_^