The second half of Yuri Hime, Volume 9 brings back the incredibly weird and wonderful “Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen,” with a splash page that is so horrible and distressing that it makes me laugh every time I look at it. It’s hot, Arare, Kiri and Pero comment, because, duh, it’s summer. But that also means it’s time for the summer sea to arrive here at the school for supernatural creature girls! Arare has no idea what that means, but when Pero takes her to look out the window, instead of a forbidding winter sea crashing against the rocks below the school, there’s a veritable tropical paradise. The rest of the chapter is taken up by Arare’s trials as she keeps ripping bikini bottoms in an attempt to hide the proof of her humanity, her belly button. It’s all goofy and creepy fun here at Monster High.

Mori Natsuko’s “Yuri Doujou” advice column takes a look at the continuing stories of some of the folks who wrote in for advice previously. It’s all pretty banal, but heck, love problems *are* banal.  ^_^

FINALLY!! In this chapter of “Hatsukoi Shimai” secrets and flings and crushes are flying thick and fast. Teshigawara’s crush on Akiho is made a little plainer for the idiots like me who thought it was on Chika. The mysterious girl who so troubled Teshigawara last issue reappears and sets her a-fuming all over again. Chika and Haruna spend the chapter being all lovey-dovey, sharing baby pictures and making us all ill with their cuteness. But, we learn that Haruna and Akiho do have a terrible secret! Shock! Chika must never find out! Touko-sensei is reminded that her time at Tsunojo is coming to an end, so she hares off to find Akiho in the Library (can I just say something here? I am clearly either a genius, or Japanese artists are plagiarizing the heck out of my fanfic. I wrote Touko and Akiho in the library before there was even a Hatsukoi Shimai manga.  More likely, it was so obvious that I and the manga writer just came to the same conclusion. But still, first Hana no Asuka-gumi and now this.) Akiho confides in Touko about her terrible secret, which I will not spoil, because it ain’t all that terrible, really. In return Touko moves in to kiss Akiho, *finally.* Geez. But Akiho pushes herself off and runs away. I’m just glad that Akiho and Touko’s relationship is getting some attention. I really want them to get together, despite the questionable ethics of the situation.

In the last scene Miyu is watching Kirika practice archery. There’s an exchange of words, Miyu goes to run off and as she leaps after her friend/lover to grab her, Kirika drops like a stone to the ground. Gasp! We must wait until October to find out what happens.

Some color pages on Soulphage, an apparently all-girl private school game, Blue Drop, an upcoming anime based on the manga of the same name and more “buy our game!” coverage of the Simoun game.

The second chapter of “Creo of the Crimson Crises” was not as fun as the first. Suou complains about having been placed in an unremovable collar. Creo doesn’t care, a magical mascot creature appears and gives an important message, Creo disappears. Suou’s best friend who has a crush on her tries to remove the collar. They both end up going to Suou’s older sister’s where they find Creo already there. Suou’s sister asks Creo to take care of Suou. Bwa bwa bwaaaaah…. There’s some portentous stuff in there too that I’m sure will be important later on. But Suou’s whining got on my nerves. lol

Mana and Chiyo are two little girls with more than little feelings for one another. They talk around it a bit in Takahashi Mako’s “Hitosubu no Umi.” I didn’t like it enough to bother translating the title.

“Mermaid Line” continues from last issue as Megumi goes out with some poor unsuspecting schlub as a beard for her real feelings, (even though she won’t let him tell anyone that they are going out) while Aoi is now as outcast as Megumi had been for being labeled “rezu.” (“Rezu” or “les” is kind of like lesbo or dyke in English. It’s meant to be understood as a slur in this case.) When her boyfriend makes a casual remark about their relationship, Megumi realizes that she’s lying to him, and herself about her feelings. Aoi finds herself looking at a picture book of the Little Mermaid story and berates herself for her stupidity. Megumi finds her there and complains that in that story both mermaid and prince were really dumb. As Megumi smiles at her, Aoi starts to cry at both of their stupidity. The story will continue next month, I’m interested to see where it goes now.

In Hakamada Mera’s “Kurozukme no Onna no Ko” a little black-haired, black-clothed girl is very overprotective of the woman she lives with – going so far as to drive potential suitors away and rubbing herself all over her friend. When the girl turns out to be a cat, I’m sure plenty of folks who were not me said “awwww.” (I had read a nearly identical story in Carmilla magazine ages ago. I kind of liked that one better, since there was a creepier vibe. The cat/girl was shown as a normal-sized girl, dressed all goth in black, with a collar and doing all the same cat things. It had a SM sort of vibe about it, which worked.) This one works too. And it isn’t a school story. It’s just not my cup of tea.

Hiyori Otsu’s “Proof of Love” is the second teacher crush story (assuming one doesn’t count “Hatsukoi Shimai”) and of the two, the one I like best. A teacher is sitting down having a smoke, when she is approached by a young woman who asks, “do you remember me?” The teacher (who I don’t ever think gets a name) flashes back to five years previously when she entered a classroom to find two girls kissing. One of the two takes off immediately, but the other, third-year student Haseno sticks around. The teacher asks her if she likes the other girl, to which Haseno replies no, that was a “give up” kiss. In the course of the conversation Haseno kisses the teacher, then admits that she likes the teacher…but will not give up. Now, five years later, Haseno is a new student teacher at the school, and she wants an answer to her proposition. :-) The end. More and more I’m coming to like Otsu’s work. She tends to have older characters and even though there are often set in schools and colleges, they are not always same-old retreads of school girl crushes.

In “Apple Day Dream” it’s time to go to watch fireworks and Kaoru dreams of getting Mayu in sexy yukata and having her way with her. She comes closer than usual, but is interrupted by coworkers. At this point I can’t really tell if Mayu is actually uninterested or not, since as a passive-aggressive character her job is to protest all the time. Kaoru, of course, is always so pervtastic that it’s not unreasonable for Mayu to protest. Personally, they exhaust me.  ^_^

The last story, “Butterfly 69” is, in my opinion, wonderful. I cannot express how much I enjoyed it. At a private music school for girls, half-Japanese, all-punk bad-girl Maria is pretty outcast, but she doesn’t care. Her love is given to her rock band and to the president of the student council, Ageha. Ageha not only returns her love – and desire – she basks in it. Ageha supports Maria in everything. But when Maria’s band, Butterfly 69, starts to sell out performances and gets a deal with a recording company in the US, she tells Maria that she won’t be going with her, her family is a main sponsor of this school, and she plans on remaining here after graduation. She insists that Maria goes, though, and become the singer she wants to be. Ageha takes Maria’s earring and pierces her own ear with it, then stops talking to Maria at school completely. Maria, suffering in silence, one day overhears a teacher badmouth her; then overhears Ageha’s response, which is to rip the teacher a new orifice. She calls the teacher jealous of Maria’s voice – a voice which could change the world. As a going away present, Maria’s band hijacks the senior concert and does a live performance, where Maria sings her heart out, hoping that Ageha will hear her message of love. She does. In the final few pages, the school is in an uproar – the massively famous lead singer of the number one band Butterfly 69 is at the school! Ageha comes out of the school to find Maria standing in front of a Porsche in the parking lot. In front of everyone, she launches herself into Maria’s arms for a passionate welcome home kiss. A perfect end to a great story and a really strong ending to the book. While the art is in no way clean, the energy it conveys to the characters is a perfect fit. I’ve liked both the Yuri Hime stories by Natsuneko and look forward to more.

As always, while not everything was to my taste, I liked well over half of the 300+ pages and about a third I really liked or loved. So, a strong thumbs up from for Yuri Hime 9!

Yuri Hime, Volume 9, starts off with a not horrible poster by Sakura Kinoshita of – I know you’ll be shocked – school girls. (I say “not horrible” because with *every* issue of Dengeki Daioh magazine, I open the book, look at the posters, cringe, then vow to burn them. It’s made me wary of those first-page posters.)

We move right into a new manga based (probably pretty loosely) upon a new game by the same folks that brought the world the lily-scented vampire game Aka Ito. “Aoi Shiro” follows Akita Momoko as she enters the girls’ private school that she has aspired to. When she enters her room, she finds a girl sitting there, looking pale and tragic. After a short time, Momoko decided that she likes her roommate, Aizawa Yasumi, and thinks that she’d like to see the serious girl smile. The two become closer, mostly due to Momoko’s irrrepressable good nature. Momo gets “Zawachi” to smile eventually. Ultimately, Yasumi confides in her. When end of term comes, and Yasumi admits her grief at the loss of her mother, and the loss of an admired sempai, Momoko is right there to pick up the pieces. This is a first chapter with a low Yuri quotient. But it’s a nice friendship, with a lot of embracing and we’ll see what progresses.

Teen star Julia has won a trip for two to a high-end resort in this issue’s “Strawberry Shake Sweet” and she asks recently debuted idol Ran to come along. Ran initially says no, thinking that the two of them alone would be a bad thing, now that she’s decided that she’s in love with Julia, but the idea of Julia going alone is even worse so…. Now both Ran and Julia fight off temptation as they travel to and arrive at the resort. Just as they relax for a second, they are shocked to find that Ryou, the lead singer of the all-lesbian band Zlay, is sitting a floor below them. When Ran comes to the balcony, Ryou’s gaydar tingles visibly. She asks if they have plans and, when they say they don’t, asks them to join her for a consultation. The chapter ends there, and I have to admit – I’m intrigued. What could Ryou possibly need to discus with Julia and Ran???

“Summer Window Syndrome” is one of two teacher-crush stories in this volume. In this case, school doctor Mastumoto-sensei is speaking to student Nanao, who insists that she not be called by her given name. When pressed as to why, she admits that hearing Matsumoto-sensei say her name, she begins to shake in a distinctly crush-y way. Matsumoto kisses Nanao, and later when the teacher is asleep in the bed in the health office, Nanao returns the favor. Matsumoto awakens, asks her what she’s doing. When Nanao says she was just playing, the doctor tells her to do it seriously. It’s a nice, if provocative, one-shot.

“Epitaph” continues from last issue as Ash fights off some threatening behavior from adults who ought to know better. When they return to their home, Towa flashes back to her lonely existence at a hospital sans family. She was rescued from her loneliness by Ash. When the same two men attack them later, Ash defends Towa, who licks Ash’s wound. That night Ash kisses a sleeping Towa, affirming that their life together is what saved her too. So, the Yuri quotient is up, but my opinion is still in reserve on this series, while I wait for the plot to arrive. (Good god, I’m being hard on this series. lol)

The essay on Yuri manga covers Himitsu no Kaidan, which I have reviewed here, as well.

This issue’s “Nanami and Misuzu” is comprehensible for a chance, but not any funnier than usual. Nanami’s cat ears appear to be missing. This puts the class president (who has cat ears) into a near hysterical state and forces her to be bedridden. But, oh, wait, the ears were there all along – they were just under Nanami’s hair. … Ha? …

Next up is “Soshite, Bokura ha Ai wo Mezasu” (“I’ve got our love in sight”, or something close to it). This comic has Morishima Akiko’s trademark chubby-cheeked faced characters. For the adult scenes it’s a nice look, but the kiddy scenes look a bit Hakamada Mera-ish for me. Shinobu is a successful career woman who lives with her sempai, whom she met way back when she was 13 and Lalaa was 17. Despite the four-year difference between them, Lalaa looks much younger than her age. She works at a cosplay store and is, no doubt, very popular because she looks underage. But in their relationship, Lalaa is still sempai. Shinobu flashes back to their meeting in which Lalaa was her savior, when she became emotionally overcome from family situations and fell in the rain. Now, as an adult, the rain still affects Shinobu the same way. When a downpour arises, she collapses to the ground, only to have her beloved Lalaa appears and rescue her once again. It’s a love-love ending all around.

I’ll end today’s review with Chi-Ran’s “Dream Drops.” Miki is in love with Yui, but can’t tell her. On the way home, a magic urchin offers her the deal of the year – a little bottle full of candy that will give her dreams that will be her desires. Miki buys the drops and immediately dreams of her and Yui becoming friends…then more. When she and Yui meet accidentally at school, Yui reddens then runs off and Miki is mortified to think that her fantasies have been discovered. After her last dream drop shows Miki the two of them happily holding hands, she throws caution to the wind and confesses. She shows Yui the bottle the drops came in. Yui’s response? “You too?” We can only assume that they are destined for happily ever after. ^_^

Fundamentally, the first half of this volume was pretty strong. Other than “Nanami to Misuzu” which…well, I won’t beat this horse anymore. It’s just not funny to me. Otherwise, it was a nice variety with some non-school stories to break up those ever-present schoolgirl crushes. And the art was, by and large, decent and variable, with probably something for everyone. I favor Hayashiya’s clean, open art over something like “Aoi Shiro,” but in general, a really strong level of variety. And as far as I can see, the second half continues the trend, so check back tomorrow for the rest of the review.  ^_^

First of all, welcome to everyone that comes to Okazu from Afterellen.com! I hope you’ll enjoy the reviews, the biting humor, the random mixture of internet and anime fandom slang. :-) I apologize for starting you off with a Japanese-language magazine – it was what I had slated to review today, since I expected the Afterellen article to run tomorrow. Woops. :-) I’ll try and put definitions after all the jargon for non-otaku (obsessive anime/manga fans.)

Today’s review is Yuri Hime Selection, Volume 1 the third all-Yuri quarterly publication from Japanese publisher Ichijinsha. Sister to Yuri Hime and Yuri Hime S, Yuri Hime Selection is a mix of stories originally published in the now-defunct Yuri Shimai magazine and new stories. Yuri Hime Selection is, for our new readers, a Japanese-language magazine.

One of my original complaints about the stories that ran in Yuri Shimai was that they were heavy on the schoolgirl crushes. While reading Yuri Hime Selection I was also reminded that many of them were about abortive schoolgirl crushes or were, in other ways, kind of annoying…

Case in point, the first story, “Under the Rose” about two half-sisters whose incestuous and abusive relationship got completely under my fingernails the first time around. Four years later, it is no less irksome. But the next two stories, also by Kita Konno, are much more interesting, if a little on the bland side.

This goes for many of the stories that follow – Girl A finds Girl B interesting, but don’t expect much more. Some lost opportunities, pleasant memories of school years gone by – even the ghost story is about a love lost. There’s a lot of that in this book. When one remembers that the audience for Yuri Shimai was straight women, this is not too surprising. This is not “Yuri” nearly so much as “memories of first crushes for women who went to girls’ schools.”

The second half of the book contains new stories. The first, by Hiyori Otsu, fits right in with the first half of the book. The second, by Morishima Akiko, stands out as being completely out of sync. About Sarina and Sumi (from Yuri Hime 8) the story is about adult women on the cusp of a new relationship, with only a short flashback to their school years.

This is followed by the 4-panel comic “Apple Day Dream” which, if you’ve ever read any of my previous Yuri Hime reviews, you know that I enjoy about as much as biting my own cheek. Kaoru and Mayu work at a fashion house. Kaoru still likes big breasts and Mayu still has them. Lots of passive-aggressive behavior and pretty clothes.

Following that is yet another story of children with absurdly large heads and awkward relationships, by Hakamada Mera. Less repulsive than the most recent Yuri Hime S story, it’s got that similar bitter unrequited love feeling as most of the stories in this magazine.

Next is more of the wacky 4-panel comic “Nanami and Misuzu” which remains impenetrable and unfunny as always. LOL (Why is it that comic strips are so exhausting to read? In English, they are the easiest to understand – in Japanese, I feel like I need an advanced degree to “get” them.)

The final story is a sketchily drawn, but entertaining sempai-kouhai (upper-/lower- classman) relationship by Aikawa Jinko. Still, in the end, there is nothing more than beautiful memories.

I can’t say that Yuri Hime Selection is my favorite of the YH magazines. Many of the older stories seemed pale in comparison with the likes of the currently running series. The newer stories fell into line with lots of unrequited love, lots of first loves, beautiful memories of love, etc, etc. Not at all to *my* taste but, if you’re a completist, or only started collecting after Yuri Shimai went out of print and want to have everything in the series, you’ll probably want to get Yuri Hime Selection too.

The second half of Yuri Hime “S” is as variable as the first. What was good was really pretty good, and what was bad was exhaustingly tedious.

“Interface” by Kurogane Kenn (Shoujo Sect) was unexpected in every conceivable way. The story begins with a girl walking in on another girl drawing a stick figure on the chalkboard in a classroom. When the first girl asks “who is it?” the second replies, “There’s no one inside.” But she touches it with a blown glass heart pendant then says that the pendant is her. (Not “hers” – “her.”) She gives the first girl the pendant, then runs off and quite literally disappears. The girl (who remains nameless throughout) tries to find the girl who gave her the pendant, but is unsuccessful. She’s directed towards Kitamoto-sensei, who runs the handicrafts club, in which they might have blown glass. But Kitamoto-sensei is not only unhelpful, she’s downright rude. The girl says that she’ll come back later and ask, but the teacher just says that she’s not promising to help…which is rather odd, when the question is just “do you know whose this is?” Girl waits for the teacher, who turns out to be out the next day, and waits every day for a whole month for Kitamoto-sensei to return to school. When Kitamoto sees her waiting, she asks if the girl wants to meet the girl who gave her the pendant. The girl says yes, and they get into the teacher’s car and drive….to a cemetery. Ena, the girl who gave her the pendant, died after a protracted illness. She and Kitamoto were lovers, which explains why the teacher was so rude when she realized that Ena gave someone else the pendant. The girl suggests that by giving her the pendant, Ena is now inside her, and the story ends with all sorts of possibilities.

I can’t tell you how much I liked this story. It was original, the art was clean and Kurogane drew the adults to look like adults. It was just plain old good in every direction. Hands down, the best in the book.

This was followed immediately by a new original work by Fujieda Miyabi (Iono-sama Fanatics) called “Otome-iro Stay Tune.” Hinako and Arise work together on a radio talk show. Arise has a raging crush on Hinako, which Hinako brushes off through a variety of implausible mental gymnastics. But to thank Hina for her guidance, Arise is about to go home with her and make her some dinner…to be continued. This story was so short it felt like half a chapter. I wish the other half had been included. Much the same way the most recent “Ameiro Koucha Kandan” chapter in Yuri Hime 8 felt sort of half done. I think Fujieda’s just running out of time between all his projects.

Next up was the totally crack-tastic “Gretel” by Sudoo Kaoro (Onegai Suzune-chan). I recognized the art style immediately, which was weird because about all Sudoo is known for is pretty obscure hentai…it just happens that I own – and like – Onegai Suzune-chan. LOL Mikoshima Yuu is ecstatic to be entering into a all-girl world at St. Millefeuille Gakuen. Mariya is annoyed that she’s been assigned to show the newbie around (and she’s also the resident panty-shot recipient, for no particular reason that I can see.) But Nagi volunteers to escort her – in fact, she’s positive frantic to do so, and immediately starts to court Yuu, who is thrown off her stride when she’s so openly being pursued by a beautiful girl. But she gets used to it pretty fast, and succumbs shortly thereafter. As they kiss, a loud alarm makes them jump – okay, now hold on, because this story gets pretty weird, pretty fast – the school has been invaded/infested with “Formika,” creatures that feast on sugar and are therefore the enemies of young women everywhere. Got that? Everyone is running around like crazy; theteacher suddenly develops a GothLoli younger sister who clearly speaks in a monotone and who is tied into the school systems; Formika defense is on. Hashimoto-sensei enters the control room where an engineer-y type touch chick gives her the lowdown on the situation and the GothLoli girl monitors everything. In the meantime, Yuu’s beautiful maiden’s garden has blown up in her face and she’s sort of standing there in shock. When a gigantic Formika tears through a wall and heads towards her, she thrusts her hands in front of her and blasts it unconscious! Everyone, including Mariya of the panties, reacts with shock! Except the Teacher and the Smoking Engineer Woman who just look pleased with themselves. Mariya tells Yuu that she has “Gigantus Force” to which Yuu reasonably replies “huh?” and Nagi runs up happily to tell Yuu that she has it too! Yay! They both have “Obu” – to which Yuu reasonably replies, “Obu?” To be continued…obviously. This story was simply bizarre, so of course, I liked it. ^_^

“Apple Day Dream” is, like its Yuri Hime counterpart, primarily concerned with Kaoru’s breast obsession. In this case, because it’s summer she wants to see Mayu in a bikini. This is one of these stories in which my “Good” rule come into play. If Kauro were a guy, he’d be a boring perv. As a girl, Kaoru is a boring perv. I’m so not into this series. The art is nice, but there’s no anything – no plot, no character development, no humor – unless a girl endlessly obsessing about breasts is, in your mind, endlessly hysterical.

“Itoshii no Maid-sama” by Hakamada Mera (Saigo no Seifuku) was barely readable to me. The carnival-head art was compounded by the main character being drawn to look and be the size of a five-year old. The sight of her sexually molesting her sempai just…nope. DO NOT WANT. The story? Creepy chibi Eri wants pretty Kyouko and whines and clings until she gets her. Bleah. I didn’t even think it was possible to like Hakamada less than I did already, but yup, it’s possible.

In “Flower Flower” by Iwami Shouko (Suzunari!) Princess Nina has been sent to a foreign country to marry the prince only, she’d prefer the princess instead. Shuurei’s not sure about this – especially when Nina turns out to be more than a little cruel and sadistic. When Shuurei shows Nina kindness, Nina breaks down in her arms. The story ends with Nina being difficult again, but there should be a continuation, so we and Shuurei can enjoy more passive-aggressiveness and abuse.

Yuzuha Seiro’s story, with a title I haven’t translated and am too lazy to look up is a servant/ rich girl story with a sad ending. The art is very pretty, but the story isn’t a happy one. Suzuka-ojousama and Kotone are in love, but Suzuka has to be married to the man her family chose. Suzuka leaves Kotone a note and hopefully will not forget her true love.

The final story is all-color “Cassiopeia Dolce” by Takagi Nobuyuki(Kokoro Library.) It ought to be popular with those readers who liked Kokoro Library – you know, the kind of people who like cupid-faced girls of undetermined age dressed up as maids for no reason in an all-girl’s word that has no explanation. There’s a kiss or two and some light nudity, because of course when women all get together, we all wear our lingerie or maid outfits and eat bon-bons and try to kiss one another. It’s a compulsive behavior. In this case the maids all compete for the affection of their mistress, who seems to be on laudanum. I recognized both the art and the service. You can have both. I’ll stick with some of the earlier stories, thanks. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 7

I’ll say it again, it wasn’t all stuff I liked, but I liked way more than expected. If it keeps the hideous service to a minimum, I’ll be pleased. If it starts adding more maid costumes and panty shots and having less original ideas, I’ll drop it and save my money for better.

It was with a large measure of trepidation that I picked up my copy of the first issue of Yuri Hime “S”, the newest quarterly Yuri manga magazine from Ichijinsha, and the sister (maybe that should be “brother”) publication to Yuri Hime which has now been around for two years.

Based on the names of the artists alone, it seemed that the woman-centric focus of Yuri Hime was being tossed to the wind in favor of the (admittedly larger and more lucrative) FanBoy audience. I feared that the inagural issue would be filled with the usual crap that we’re (that is, women) forced to endure when the audience is guys. You know what I mean; oversized breasts in bras that offer no, or unrealistic, support, grotesque bodies, underage girls and those ever-present panty shots. My expectation was that the original mission – “Let’s do a Yuri mangazine with stories geared towards a female audience” had been changed to that of a “Let’s do a Yuri magazine with stories geared towards a male audience.”

Having read through the first volume once, I’m pleased to report that it seems much more like the prevailing thought was “Let’s have artists known for drawing Yuri for a male audience do Yuri for a female one.” Yes, there is a little service, but not too much more than any given issue of Yuri Hime. Which is not to say that I liked *everything* in the book. But I liked a lot more than I expected – and was less irritated/grossed out than I assumed I’d be. My favorite story of the magazine totally surprised the heck out of me. :-)

The cover art was drawn by Tsubaki Asu, whose story “Honey Crush” was better than I expected, based on the cover art alone.

The magazine opens with a color poster by Oshima Towa, creator of High School Girls. If you’re familiar with the characters from that series, you’ll probably think that these two girls look awfully like Ogawa and Himeji. :-)

Before the first main story we have a few pages of yuri-themed game info (SoulPhage, AoiShiro, Simoun) and a really odd one-page comic in which murderous intent is thwarted by an unexpected kiss… O_o

The first story, “Minus Literacy,” by Miyashita Miki (Maburaho) is a story of a rich kid, Matsudaira Yasumi, her maid Miharu, and a random class representative who is drawn into the melee of the rich kid’s drama. Yasumi’s family has left her a big debt and no money. After lots of screaming at the bank guys, the three girls head off to find work to pay off the debt. Miharu is the hero of the day as she manages to get a hold of a lot of money – but collapses with the effort? (I’ll be honest, twice through this story and the end still wasn’t clear to me.) It feels like it might continue, because while Miharu’s dedication to Yasumi, and Yasumi’s deep friendship, affection and indebtedness to Miharu were apparent, it wasn’t anything like anything I’d call “Yuri.”

“Honey Crush”, by Tsubaki Asu (He is my Master) was much funnier than expected. Mitsu is in love with Madoka, who doesn’t even know she exists. Mitsu’s pretty happy stalking Madoka, but is a little careless about it and, one day, she’s hit by a truck and killed. But now she can REALLY stalk Madoka – and drive away all the boys – and girls – that show any special interest in her. Woo-hoo! Plus she gets to be there when Madoka changes clothes and bathes, etc. etc. Mitsu’s pretty happy with the deal. Then transfer student Kyouko shows up, declaring that when they were kids, Madoka and she had promised to marry one another. Mitsu tries her best to scare Kyouko off, but Kyouko is actually able to see Mitsu and isn’t about to be budged. The best moment of the story comes when Kyouko asks Madoka if she ever liked a girl at her former school. Madoka has no clue what she’s talking about, of course. Kyouko writes “she didn’t even know you existed” on paper and triumphantly holds it up in Mitsu’s direction. It was a really funny scene, trust me. The two have it out which ends up with Kyouko comforting Mitsu, since it’s not easy to just stop liking someone, but Madoka makes it all moot when she shows up with a boyfriend. Bwha~wha~whaaaa~

“Fortune Ring” by Kashiwabara Mami (Sora no Manimani, but also a former Yuri Tengoku contributor) is a bittersweet story that has very pleasant art. Bracelets that one wears to declare one’s love for someone is all the rage at school. Maki has one, but she’s hiding it. Maki met Hirasaka-sempai when a teacher began to bully her because of her light colored hair. Sempai lied and said that she was on the swim team with her – the chlorine in the pool had bleached her hair. To lend verisimilitude to the lie, Sempai suggested she join the team, which Maki did. When Maki’s bracelet is discovered, Hirasaka-sempai ties it on her wrist. Maki’s feelings are all confused – worsened by the fact that she sees sempai with a bracelet of her own. Hirasaka-sempai encourages Maki to cut the “fortune ring” and break free. She shows her own unnecumbered wrist, then leaves. That night Maki cuts the bracelet, and returns to school only to see Sempai with a bracelet on her wrist again. Freed from her burden, Maki leaves both swim team and her first love behind.

“Poem ni Kaeshite” by Araki Kanao (Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru) has art that left me pretty cold. The main character, Mayu, is drawn in a way that I find irksome. Sort of the “cute little runt” style without the cute. In any case, Mayu is a sensitive type who falls in love with Ageha. After a little light stalking, they become a couple. If Mayu looked like an actual human being I might have liked the story. But she looked like a bug to me and I kept wanting to squash it.

“Suika,” by Yoshitomi Akihito (Blue Drop)) has the artist’s very recognizable style – very draftsman-like, expecially compared with the previous story. Last summer, Rin-chan and Sa-chan were suppsoed to have been studying, but they ended up spending all their time together eating wayyyy too much watermelon. Sa-chan has a weird watermelon obsession – she even says that what she’d *like* to do is bathe in watermelon, which grosses Rin-chan out a bit. Now, a year has passed and Rin shows up, with watermelon, of course, to a warm welcoming kiss from Sa-chan – and to a pool full of watermelon. Yes, they bathe in it. ^_^;

Oh goody! “Misuzu to Nanami” has followed us to this book! How wonderful. The gags this time deal with a mysterious fortuneteller (who is Ichijou-sempai, so not really mysterious) and sharp knives. Ah, this four-panel comic is always my favorite….

I’m going to leave off here, because the next story *is* my favorite and I want to start the next post off with it, because I think it will surprise you. :-)

Let me conclude this entry with this: while not every story was to my personal taste (I have that bizarre fetish of liking my humans to look human, and like adults, freak that I am) but, given the other series done by the above authors, I was mightily impressed. Considering the depth of loathing I feel for, say, He is My Master it absolutely floored me that I liked “Honey Crush” so much. I’m glad to learn that these folks can do stuff that doesn’t make my lips peel back in disgust. I concede defeat and promise to never judge a mangaka by one series again. ^_^