I’m away this week, hopefully kicking back and relaxing as you read this. :-)

The cover of the winter issue of Yuri Hime (百合姫) evokes Valentine’s Day hijinks with Kiri and Arare from “Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen,” chocolates and the joys of licking the cook. ^_^

The book starts off with “Kaminaga Hime” the next chapter of the Black Cat Mansion saga. In this story, a boyish hairstylist falls in love with one of her customers, only to find that, at the end of it all, she is loved back.

In “Creo the Crimson Crises,” stuff happens that involves Creo snuggling Suoh a lot Suddenly, for reasons that would be apparent if I was actually reading this story, Suoh transforms into a bustier, older, sexier, but no less soppy, version of herself.

In the next chapter of “Kono Onegai Kanau nara” the awkward love triangle continues as Tsukiko attempts to confess her feelings to You-chan, but does not manage it. The third point in this triangle, whose name escapes me, overhears and reacts with jealousy and frustration. Tsukiko tries again, this time coming much closer to making her point. Time will tell how this painful situation will shake out.

The Essay on Yuri Manga by Miura Shion touches on the recent series Girl x Girl x Boy, which I reviewed and found to be better than the sum of its parts. ^_^

The cover series appears! In this chapter of “Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen” Arare is tortured over her desire for Kiri and her fear of becoming a O-bake. Having made her decision that hot lesbian sex is more important that staying human (and who can blame her?) she runs into kogal Akina who, it turns out, sold her humanity for a little nookie herself. Akina warns Arare from doing it, then says she was lying, it was the best thing evar. She jumps Arare, who runs out into the night, only to face the inhumanity of her schoolmates. She wakes from a dream of being attacked by Pero, and runs out of her room to Kiri’s. Will she make the fateful decision? Tune in next month to find out!

“Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan” manages to be even cuter and fuzzier and warmer than usual as Sarasa and Seriho have a conversation that is long overdue. Sarasa explains that her one true desire is to be by Seriho’s side, making the tea shop work. And so, she has chosen to attend a local trade school to become a pastry chef. Seriho refuses to pretend that she is anything but thrilled at the decision, and the scene ends with them side by side, looking at a future together.

“Urbane” tells a somewhat trite story about a girl who appears at a winterbound village and is just a little scary (and cool.) Miyuki becomes known as the local Snow Woman, but Kuriko warms up to her anyway, only to be shoved roughly aside when she tries to heat up their friendship. Miyuki finally admits that Kuriko reminds her of the girl she was in love with, confessed to and was rejected by. They decide to thaw their relationship and Miyuki admits that her real name is Miharu, preaging a beautiful spring for them both.

In “Nostalgia” a crush on an older married woman becomes a point of contention, then the kernel for a deeper familial love. Kyou met Konomi when she was 8 and Konomi was a newlywed at 17. Her older husband, a loving and dedicated man Takuto, has now been dead for 14 years and Kyo really wants nothing more than to be the one that Konomi looks at with that expression. And, it could happen. But Kyou realizes that their bond was never really meant to be as lovers, and so she recreates it as “family.”

That takes us about halfway, so I’m going to cut out here and pick this up for tomorrow.

In Kowo Kazuma’s Junsui Adolescence (純水アドレッセンス,) Volume 1, we meet Nanao, a high school student. She doesn’t seem to be particularly special in any way. Decent student, head of the club that assists with the Infimary. But secretly, she’s fallen in love with the school doctor, Matsumoto. In traditional tsundere fashion, she responds to these confusing feelings by being mean to Matsumoto.

Soon her feelings overflow her ability to hide them, and Nanao and Matsumoto find themselves in a relationship that must be hidden, even if they do a darn bad job of it.

The handling of this student/teacher relationship is a little pat. Of course. We don’t want our love story being interrupted by charges of statutory rape or professionally unethical behavior or other annoying real-life complications. No, we really don’t. We *know* it’s a bad idea for a student and the school doctor to fall in love. They know it too. That’s the whole point.

So, Matsumoto, despite every logical thought she has, find herself involved with a student. And Nanao flounders while trying to establish a real and lasting place in her lover’s life. It’s a harder journey than either expect. And to be honest, I didn’t see a happy ending at the end of this story. But luckily for all of us, I was wrong. :-)

Because this is a story of internal battles and small victories, I really don’t want to spoil too much. Let me leave it this way – if you don’t mind the problematic nature of the relationship, then you are likely to find yourself *dying* to see what the future holds for these two at the end of this book. (Sadly, I don’t think we get past the “happily ever after” but hey, at least we get “happily ever after.”)

Ratings:

Art – 6, but it grew on me
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 8

This was a series that I kept forgetting was a series while it ran in Yuri Hime and when I finally clued in was thrilled that it was ongoing. As a collection it’s just that much better.

Color pages in Comic Yuri Hime S (コミック百合姫S (エス)? Why yes! The characters of “Yuru-Yuri” are *so* excited that even the voice balloons are in color! But mostly they sit around and talk in a classroom, so it’s kind of a waste. lol Luckily, Ichinjinsha has lot of exciting things to sell tell you about, so all that color isn’t entirely blown on abstract backgrounds. There seems to be some Yuri of some kind in the story, too. Mostly in the form of fantasy and wishful thinking.

In “Flower Flower,” Shuu has something else that worries her now. I really don’t care what it is. I’m starting to think that what she really needs is some Xanax. And Nina’s on the up-side of her bipolar disorder, so Shuu can freak out about that, too.

Flashy Matsuoka is in love with wallflower Tomoko in “Kikoeru Suzunone.” Tomoko can’t really believe that Matsuoka likes her, so she concocts a low-self-esteem version of their relationship, but has to acknowledge that she’s plain old wrong when she overhears Matsuoka talking to someone else about her. Tomoko and Hiromi end up celebrating a romantic Christmas Eve together, with a solid forecast of “happily ever after.”

“Tsukiko ha Bakakawa” involved really cute girls doing cute things cutely. Sometimes they hug.

Summer – what does it mean to you? In “Natsu Toieba,” Sakura and Fumiko have a checklist of things “summer” means to them. They proceed to pound through the checklist, which includes things like somen and yukata and watermelon and fireworks and all that. At the end they are able to add the most important list item of all – “love.”

Suzuki *finally* learns that there are two Kuse sisters in “Kotohana Link.” And, she learns that one, Miyako, is a “bad girl” who is openly a lesbian playgirl. After Yoriko admits her sister’s bad behavior, Suzuki admits that she too liked a girl….

Anna’s having issues in “Cassiopeia Dolce.” She really, really, really likes Elza-sensei, but sublimates her desire for the Master in her desire to own one of her dolls – which coincidentally looks just like Elza. She gets the doll, and maybe a step closer to Elza.

In “Minus Literacy,” Matsudaira begs the Yakuza boss for Miharu to be returned, but Miharu blows her off and drives away with the boss, the car symbolically splashing Matsudaira as they spin off and leaver her on the sidewalk in the rain. Cue the violins and clarinet.

Once again, I will skip “Love Cubic.”

The Vice President of the Student Council is very cheerful and relaxed today, and goes so far as to offer sweets to go with the President’s tea in “Kaichou to Fuku-kaichou.” But her good mood crumbles when she find that her beloved President has stood next to a boy in a puricula booth. The Treasurer rubs it in, declaring that he looks like a great boyfriend, but it turns out that the Treasurer also desires the President *and* saw the VP and Pres together during orienteering. She’s determined to keep them apart. Ominous music plays as the chapter comes to a close with the Vice President’s tears.

“Beautiful Pain” is another half-sisters in love story, this time brought together by a truck accident. Sean – this one’s totally for you. Both “she got hit by a truck” and “happily ever after,” …as long as they stay inside the bedroom. Reality is so going to be a bitch.

“Nanami to Misuzu” is ‘Nanami to Misuzu”-like.

It’s a small volume compared to recent ones. The stories are so varied that surely, if you are Yuri fan, you’ll find *something* to like.

Otsu Hiyori is a darn good storyteller. Not many mangaka are. If they can draw, they often can’t write. Vice versa applies, as well. And even if you have an awesome team of artist/writer, if the magazine’s editing staff has specific, overwhelming requirements, or they aren’t good at their job or any number of other things, the end result can, to coin a phrase…suck.

Not so with Otsu Hiyori, whose deft, light-handed touch makes for individual stories that read pleasantly and, when collected, turn into a little slice of wow. One such slice is Clover. It is a collection of stories that ran in Comic Yuri Hime and one fabulous omake chapter that makes it all the more ‘wow’-er.

Let us begin at the beginning. I *completely* missed that the stories that make up Clover were about 4 sisters. Sure, they all had the same family name, but I never noticed their family name in the first place. And the stories are told in non-chronological fashion – and the magazine comes out 3 months apart, so pardon me for not noticing, okay?!? ^_^

So, the Tachibana family has four sisters, each of whom have had at least one relationship that involves falling for another woman, or having one fall for them. They are all very cool about it; it’s not screaming, knife-wielding drama for this family (nor for any of Otsu’s characters ever, really.) And for most of the sisters it was but a fleeting moment in time. Except for one.

In “Bitter Girl,” Midori finds herself at rope’s end working at a cake shop during the holiday season with no help. She asks the girl who drops by all the time to help out and so, Sugiura starts to work with her. As they work together, they talk about themselves and ultimately, Sugiura and Midori start going out. Midori’s not entirely sure about this, because she thinks she’s doing it as a lark, but when a boy asks her out, and Sugiura breaks up with her to free her up, Midori realizes that she’s fallen for Sugiura! She runs after the other girl, only to catch up to her and find that despite the cheerful face she had on when she said goodbye, Sugiura is crying. Midori and she are honest with one another at last. The story had a nice extended epilogue in which we learned that Sugiura really don’t like cake at all – she liked the girl at the cake shop. ^_^

The collected volume Clover also has an extended epilogue omake that finds Sugiura and Midori still together 3 years later. Sugiura is in law school and always busy; Midori is home, feeling a bit resentful of playing the role of the wife. She feels as if she’s being taken for granted and is starting to rethink this relationship. When she confronts Sugiura, the other woman falls apart instantly, as she did all those years ago. Midori realizes that she was misinterprating Seiko’s feelings completely, and the two of them patch it up instantly. On the final page, we see Sugiura, now a successful lawyer (we can tell because of the suit,) being seen off by Midori – and so we can assume happily ever after.

I just loved this collection. Otsu’s stories rarely feel typical, even when they are playing in safe waters. There’s always a feeling of self-awareness about the characters, as if they are looking at themselves and seeing some of their situation from outside themselves. Otsu’s style fits the atypical stories – the ones set outside of high school – best, because her characters are so often mature and laid-back.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 8

A great book, one that will fly under most people’s radar because there are no mecha, no sex, no over-the-top melodrama. I know Seven Seas can’t bring over the more explicit Yuri Hime books and if they bring this out it probably won’t sell well because “nothing happens.” But this is a *fabulous* example of Yuri that does not suck and I hope that they can bring it over here and you can all prove me wrong by making it a best-seller. ^_^