The Anemone Feels the Heat, Volume 1 is a story of missed chances and opportunities gained.

Nagisa, who might have passed quietly through life at an elite high school, misses her chance to do so, due to an act of human kindness and has to accept a place at a local school. She is committed to bettering herself, but finds that she may have missed that chance, as well. Mashiro is a girl who has little chance to do anything, as she is usually ill. She’s happy to be in Nagisa’s class, but Nagisa sees her as a burden she didn’t want, holding her down.

Mashiro is trying to not lean too much on Nagisa, but circumstances are not in her favor. All she can do is appreciate the other girl…and learn to care about her own health a little bit more. She’s never thought about making opportunities for herself, but Nagisa encourages her to do so. Nagisa’s existence opens up chances for Mashiro, to live, to enjoy things – chances she never expected to have.

Very much despite her stated intentions, Nagisa finds herself wanting to help Mashiro. When she and Mashiro hug in the infirmary, something in Nagisa…changes. Grows? She’s missed her chance to become one kind of person, but has an opportunity to become someone else, someone she never expected to be. She was convinced she didn’t like Mashiro, but now…she thinks she likes her.

The final chapters lighten this all up a bit, as Nagisa explores the boundaries of hugging with her friends – who are super happy to help out, which takes Nagisa a step forward to looking Mashiro in the face. Baby steps, but welcome ones.

Ren Sakuragi’s art is strong enough to give the characters some flavor, but here at Volume 1 it is not apparently obvious if the narrative itself will develop any depth. That said, the fact that this series is thus far 8 volumes in Japan indicates that it does. ^_^ Mei Amaki’s translation is quite smooth, and yeah, I get why Yen has Rebecca Sze doing subtitle-style sound effects, I will always hope for a smoother reading experience.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 2 Hugs, I guess?
Yuri – 2 Hugs, I guess?

Overall – 7, with some room for growth.

Overall, a solid opening to this hopeful schoolgirl Yuri story. Here’s hoping it builds into something bigger.

Viz Media is quietly carving out a little niche  for themselves, aren’t they? ^_^ Along with all the quiet little school  Yuri from Shogagukan, like Rainbows After Storms, they have complex adult Yuri in  How Do We Relationship from Shueisha, and now Pink Candy Kiss, Volume 1, by  Ami Uozumi.

Taka is coming off another breakup with a boyfriend. She just doesn’t seem to have that *feeling* of wanting to be with them and she doesn’t know why. (As an aside – this is perfectly normal! We should be dating to date, not to marry!) She meets up with an old school friend and is blown away at how much Ema has changed.

In her memories, Ema was quiet and needed protecting. They were so close…why did they stop keeping in touch? Taka can’t stop watching Ema, and is jealous that Ema’s husband Hario has had all these years to be with Ema. But, as Hario repeatedly says, he’s never seen Ema this happy, since Taka is back in her life.

Having set this up situation up, we run into the story’s biggest weakness – Taka’s denial setting is on 11. So for the rest of the volumes, she is torturing herself. “What am I feeling?” goes only so far to carry a story.When she finally remembers that she and Ema stopped speaking after Taka tried to kiss her friend, it feels almost like psychological horror that she never, ever, ever, ever thought this through. At last, at the end of Volume 1, Taka realizes that she loves Ema, although no one yet has noticed that Ema is also in love with her. It all feels all very old school “what is this feeling?”  The creator does mention that their wish is that people can love freely, which makes this feel more of a moral than a story. But, I get that many people really don’t understand themselves until later in life, so I am willing be convinced.

Having recently finished up Takako Shimura’s Even Though We’re Adults, Viz apparently felt that we needed another lesbian falls for a married woman story. ^_^ Only in this story, the marriage is not on the rocks. I could, almost, visualize a  relationship in which Ema had two partners but for one thing…Emma herself. She seems much too unaware, unless that is her method of self-preservation? ” I guess we’ll find out in future volumes. Tsumetakute Yawaraka ( 冷たくて 柔らか) is already up to 4 volumes in Japanese, so there is room for drama.

Ratings:

Art –  It’s a bit rough, but somehow very Josei-feeeling
Story – Reunions are nice as a premise, but the backstory/secret it a tad weak, hoping for more as it develops
Characters – I am wholly invested in Ema’s happiness. Taka better not hurt her. Grr.
Service – None
Yuri – All kinds, Ema’s feeelings for Taka, both implicit and explicit, Taka’s feeeling for Ema, bot overt and covert.

Overall – 8

It is always fascinating to me to read a collected volume of work I have previously seen as serialized. The story seems so familar, of course, because I have already read it, but also seems very new, as if I am seeing it for the first time.

After a huge debut Kickstarter, Yorita Miyuki’s first volume of Her Kiss, My Libido Twinkles came out last year. Following that, she ran a Kickstarter for volume 2, which was even more successful, coming in at a whopping 770% funded. I reviewed Volume 1 as  part of a two-part Kickstarter review. Today I’m going to take a look at Volume 2. Although I have the Japanese volume, I apparently never got around to reviewing it. It’s not that surprising, as there is so much Yuri these days that keeping up with everything in Japanese is now impossible. ^_^ But since this arrived at my door in English, I thought I’d take a moment to talk about it.

The cover of Her Kiss, My Libido Twinkles, Volume 2, shows Sana and Akane in yet another position that establishes Akane as an aggressor…a theme carried through this volume. Having established in Volume 1, that Akane is some kinds of “broken” – ill, without family, friends and with a tendency to romantically and sexually press her dominance over Sana, without making space for feelings or conversations, wec ome to a Voume 2 where both girls are trying to reframe their relationship to fit their own needs.

Sana struggles to understand Akane who, until the end of the book seems as if she has no interest in being understood. In the final story, we see Akane take a leap to meet Sana where she is, even at the cost of some embarrassment. It is this Akane that we think might work for Sana as a girlfriend. 

What helps is a chapter in the middle from the perspective of Sana’s friend Mi-chan. Cut out of being Sana’s intimate friendship, Mi-chan struggles with jealousy, only to find at the end that she actually admires Sana and Akane as a couple, although she had no idea. Once she makes the attempt to befriend Akane, the other girl starts to warm up a bit. Socialization is very good for our unsocialized Akane.

The technicals on this volume are excellent. BPS Co, Ltd did a bang-up job on the translation and  lettering, with full retouch of the sound/fx. The paper is pleasantly thick – unusually so in these days were paper is almost miraculously thin. And the French fold on the cover always looks and feel nice.

It is nice to see such a good-looking book as a reward for a Kickstarter. The book came with an advert for an upcoming kickstarter to fund the upcoming live-action series. It will be quite interesting to see how that goes!

Ratings:

Overall – 8