Phew. For a manga that started as a light-hearted romp through Yuri tropes, this series sure has got intense. Hey, wait, I’m sure I’ve said that about other stories that started as light-hearted romps through Yuri tropes, before. Hrm. It’s almost like comedy is a good way to draw readers in, but for a story to be sustainable it needs more. This seems like a good topic for a video…and I just happened to have planned the next video after this upcoming one to be this very topic! How about that.

In Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 8 ( 私の百合はお仕事です!) it is the belated celebration of Mitsuki and Kanako’s birthday at the cafe. Hime is in attendance, but will she stay? Mitsuki puts her own issues aside and convinces Hime to stick around.

Mai, always looking for marketing idea, decides to take the crew on a trip to a hotel that could totally pass for Liebe Academy. An overnight! Everyone is excited. But Mai has made some choices that, if I were Sumika, I’d be like, “Dude. No. This is a bad idea.”

So in between photoshoots of loving schwestern, Mitsuki is dealing with, gosh, the fact that she’s rooming with the girl she loves, who has rejected her and her extremely voluptuous body in a public bath. I’m so vexxed for Mitsuki, stop beating on this girl already!

But things are about to get more complicated as Sumika’s own lily is blooming. And she already knows Kanako’s feelings, so…yikes?

Good heavens, do I want to reshuffle this whole mishegas. BUT, I wouldn’t and I couldn’t and I won’t. Miman-sensei is perfectly capable of writing their own story and keeping it compelling and dramatic without me.

A great volume from a series that has pretty consistently had great volumes.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 4
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

Volume 7 of Yuri is My Job! is out now from Kodansha, and I guess I should have reviewed that before this one, oh well. ^_^ In any case, this is a great series and you should be reading it.

When we left Volume 6 of Miman’s “Yuri concept cafe” series,  Hime has rethought her desire to stay at the cafe, throwing the rest of the staff into complete chaos.

In Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 7 ( 私の百合はお仕事です!), the staff makes Hime and Mitsuki sit down and talk everything out. It does not go as planned. Or, well, sort of yes it does. The outcome just isn’t what they wanted.

Mitsuki makes her case…and she’s really pretty bad at making that case, frankly. Years of pining quietly for the friend she remembered has unmade her ability to see Hime in front of her as a real person. But – in an amazing scene – when Mitsuki ends up talking to some of her classmates, she finds that they giver her very good advice, and she is able to speak honestly with one, who is kind and supportive to her. That one scene may well have repaired a lot of damage in that girl.

Kanako finally lances the wound her anger has become. She lashes out at Mitsuki and she’s only a little wrong. But she is also wrong and Sumika has to hold her back, before she does new damage. The bits Kanako gets right, and the conversation with her classmate, force Mitsuki to rethink things. Ultimately, though, Hime is the one with final say. In her desire to not hurt Mitsuki…she hurts her very much.

The ensemble here is perfect. Kanako’s anger, Hime’s reticence, Sumika’s overwhelming need for things to stay the same, and Mitsuki’s cruel honesty make a tense, yet never quite overwrought, volume. Seven volumes into this series, if you’re not already reading it, this review is not going to be the thing that draws you in, but for a series that started with a silly premise, a bunch of mostly-unlikable characters and a handful of unrealistic plot complications, Miman-sensei has been really deft at managing this narrative into something interesting.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 1
Yuri – 7

Overall – 8

Another messy af relationship, but somehow I feel like this story will pull together in the end.

Liebe Academy is a “concept cafe” set in the world of a popular series of Yuri novels. When cafe manager Mai broke her arm, high school student Hime ends up filling in as one of the “student”-waitresses at the cafe where, she ends up in a contentious sister relationship with her former best friend from elementary school, Yano. In Volume 5, we get a deep look at Yano’s fraught history of rejection and ostracism and we learn her perspective on Hime’s betrayal, and about the ideal self she is striving to become.

In Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 6 (私の百合はお仕事です!) by Miman, Hime and Kanako express an interest in staying on the roster, now that Mai’s arm is healed. The cafe is gearing up to celebrate Yano/Ayanokouji’s birthday, but Mitsuki is sick. Hime is given the task to visit Mitsuki at home and what follows is a veritable lancing of the various festering wounds in Yano’s psyche. Hime’s desire to understand Yano’s real self isn’t helping and she pours out her pain…and once again, offers Hime her heart. All of Yano’s behavior is now explicable. What Hime will do with her new knowledge is key.

When they are all gathered once again at the cafe, Hime makes a sudden announcement…she’ll be leaving after all.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 4 Mitsuki’s cleavage is its own character
Yuri – 7 When it lands, it lands hard

This was not an easy set of chapters to read either in the magazine or as a collected volume. Yano’s experiences are something I imagine many of us will resonate with. And I cannot be the only one reading the moment Yano confesses her feelings, screaming “No, Don’t do it! You’ll only get your heart broken!” Yes, yes, we all know that Hime and Yano will very probably end up together, but once again, I am not copacetic with this choice. Yano deserves someone who will treasure her.

Volume 6 of Yuri is My Job will be released in English in June, and so will, quite probably Volume 7 in Japanese but we don’t have a link for that, yet. ^_^