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. ^_^

Jumping right in for the second half of today’s review of Yuri Hime, Volume 8.

After “Creo the Crimson Crises” comes the latest from Takahashi Mako. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who didn’t like the creepy kids in her stories, because her characters have now morphed into creepy teenagers instead. :-) The story begins with two girls meeting, seemingly by chance under a picturesque sakura tree. But there was less chance than originally appears. In fact, one of the girls is now going out with the boy that likes the other girl – and who she likes. This girl (we’ll call her “the blonde” and the other “the brunette”) starts to obsess about the girl her boyfriend liked, asking him questions about her. It seems that they two share some superficial similarities, which begins to bother the blonde. Using her boyfriend’s phone, she sets up another meeting with the brunette, who has no clue who the blonde is. The blonde reaches out and grabs the brunette’s breast and receives a hearty slap to the face. She only comments that, yeah, the other girl is bigger than she is. The final page is the blonde asking if she can sit by the brunette under the tree. The story reads a bit jerky and unconnected, but it’s decidedly less dysfunctional than most of Takahashi’s work, so no complaints from me.

Chi-Ran’s story “I won’t let myself love you” begins as Kako walks in on two girls engaged in a little play in the classroom. One of them introduces herself as Ageha and, shortly thereafter, announces to the whole school that she will take Kako as her next lover. Kako’s shocked and confused – this is a girl’s school! She’s informed by a helpfully expository classmate that Ageha is a notorious playgirl and has not yet failed to get a girl she set her sights upon. Kako’s determined to not fall. But Ageha’s cool, attractive, sexy, and more than that, kind and charming. As she woos Kako, Kako finds herself starting to slip, admitting that if Ageha were a guy, she would have indeed fallen already. The chapter ends with a conflicted Kako reminding herself of her vow to not fall for Ageha – but the next issue will tell us if she succeeds or not. Bets? :-)

Morishima Akiko’s Yuri Life column covers her adventures playing Yuri-themed games like Akaito and Katahane, complete with character descriptions and drooling. lol

“Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan,” by Fujieda Miyabi contains what passes for a gigantic conflict in this series – Sarasa is going away for three whole days on her school trip! She worries about how Seriho will manage without her. Seriho laughs at her, but will she, in fact, be okay for a full 72 hours without Sarasa? We’re not so sure. Meanwhile on the trip Sarasa’s moodiness is recognized right away by her classmates as the lovesickness that it is. This is followed by good-natured, but stressful “who is it?” third degree. The chapter ends with Seriho staring at the calendar in a lonely kind of way. Forget Sarasa, *I’m* worried about Seriho….

The next story in this volume has a long title about a house in a forest and is, by far and away, my least favorite. Two young girls one, an ojou-sama, one her servant are in a shady situation in which the rich girl appears to be being groomed for something grim, like high class prostitution or marriage, which is really the same thing depending on how you look at it. But this looks shadier than just marrying off the girl. It’s an unpleasant situation. The two girls are in love with one another, of course, and in a climactic moment, the rich girl pushes the other girl out the window to free her. Epilogue page shows us the servant, now an adult with a daughter of her own that she has named after her love.

This is followed by an interview with the voice actresses from Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu Drama CD. It contains all the usual questions like, “how was it to play girls in love?” but at this point all the VAs have voiced gay *so* often they’re answering “It’s a paycheck.” lol No, not really.

“Maple Love” by Hiyori Otsu, is probably my favorite story of the collection. Girl overhears boy confess to girl and be rejected. She wills them to go away, but is given away by her cel going off. Boy bails. Girl meets girl, says she likes girls and kisses girl – and gets slapped. Girl negotiates being friends with girl. Friendship ensues. It’s a nice, normal friendship, and girl gently pursues girl with no particular time frame or agenda. One night at an “ai-kon” (a group date sort of thing,) girl becomes feverish and girl, realizing something’s wrong takes her home and tucks her in to bed. Girl says she’s ready to consider a relationship with girl. The story ends with the lamest gag in the world about gee, what do women do in bed together? My response: “…” Please. It was so good until then. It’s still good, just not *as* good.

I’ve been pretty vociferous about my dislike of Hakamada Mera’s work and this story seals the deal. I loathed it. A cool, popular girl decides to rehabilitate a dirty, unpopular girl. With a mere change of clothes, a thorough bath and contacts, Eliza Doolitle is transformed and instantly eclipses her savior in popularity. Cue miserable sulking as Eliza goes off and leaves the girl who loved her when behind. I’m sorry but…bleah.

This issue’s column about key yuri series covers Yamaji Ebine’s Love My Life which I have written about here: Manga review; Movie Review.

Nanami and Misuzu continues to be about whatever it’s about. This time we get a new character who looks an awful lot like a kiddy Kouya from Loveless.

Wait, did I say “Maple Love” was my favorite? I take that back. I meant “The Paradise Incident” by Morishima Akiko, in which a freelance Sumi shows up at her friend with benefits’ house. Sari is thrilled to pieces to have Sumi there, and they pick up on their interrupted life together as if they had never been apart. Sari finds her feelings for Sumi becoming deeper and finally gives in and asks Sumi to live with her. Sumi respectfully declines – she’s off in the morning to foreign parts. But before Sari can be too sad, Sumi invites her along for the adventure – and she goes. I liked this story a lot. Adult women, with lives apart from just their couple-dom and a pleasant smile-inducing ending. Yay Akiko-san, my hero!

In any case…

Ratings:

Everything is variable according to taste, but overall – 8

In general, a good volume, with much less meh, except that one nasty Hakamada story. And while it’s still heavy on the schoolgirls, there’s a definite attempt at variety. However, I also feel like the magazine is shifting the focus away from stories for women to stories for guys. I really, really hope I’m wrong. Probably I just want more Hayashiya Shizuru and Morishima Akiko type stuff and less loli.

And look – reviewed the whole magazine in only two parts! yay!