Archive for the Magazines Category


Drama CD: Hatsukoi Shimai, Volume 1

March 13th, 2006

Whee! I am so happy to be able to review the first Hatsukoi Shimai Drama CD, Tenshi no Present!

There’s more positives than negatives, so let me get the negatives out of the way quickly. For one thing, it’s too short. I don’t know how long it is, exactly, because there’s no total on the disk, liner notes or product info, and I never bothered totaling up the tracks, but even it had been three hours long, it would have been too short. There wasn’t enough Touko/Akiho and Haruna *still* hasn’t said she loves Chika – at least to her face.

04/14/06 Note – upon relistening to the earlier Koi Shimai Drama CDs, I realize I have been a bit harsh on Haruna. She’s more expressive than I originally gave her credit for, calling Chika her “important person” in the first CD. And, in the second CD when Chika said it would be nice to be Haruna’s sister and be with her always, Haruna replied that she cared for Chika alot, but NOT like a sister – more than that. Chalk it up to my insufficient Japanese comprehension the first time. That having been said…Haruna still does not say she loves Chika directly to her face.)

That about covers the negatives.

Right from the beginning, the language used on this particular CD, like that of the original Koi Shimai CDs, is basic. If I were fluent, this would be a negative. As I am not – and am thrilled to be able to follow much more of the story than usual – this is a definite positive. If you’re learning Japanese and want a fun and Yuri-ful way to practice your listening skills – this is just what you are looking for!

Let’s start with the cast:

Matstusato Chika: Nakahara Mai (Mai from Mai Hime/Mai Otome)
Kanzaki Haruna: Chiba Saeko (Natsuki from Mai Hime/Mai Otome)

Hiiragi Touko: Park Romi (Maki from Air Master)
Kanzaki Akiho: Nonaka Ai (Konoka from Negima!)

Kirika: Satou Rina (Tsutako from Maria-sama ga Miteru)
Miyu: Ohara Sayaka (Alicia from Aria/Layla Hamilton from Kaleido Star/Ezra from Vandread)

Not too shoddy, huh?

Okay, so let me back up two steps. If you recall from my four million times explaining this, the characters all originated as character designs from the covers of Yuri Shimai, Volumes 1,2 and 3. The couples above are listed in order of their appearance. The character designs are by Hibiki Reine, the artist for the Maria-sama ga Miteru novels.

The stories of how Chika met Haruna and Akiho, and how Touko-sensei interfered with them and ultimately ended up with Akiho, are all told in the Koi Shimai Drama CDs, and the first bit will be Volume 1 of the upcoming Hatsukoi Shimai manga.

(I always feel a little breathless discussing this series, because of its fractured history.)

Miyu and Kirika, the third couple have only appeared on the cover of Yuri Shimai 3, and in the little story inside the cover. Until now.

So, here’s the story of this CD:

Haruna and Chika are living in blissful oblivion. We get a whole scene of them enjoying cookies together. Whee! We also get a really nice scene between Akiho and Touko, where they meet at a cafe, ostensibly so Touko can check Akiho’s English homework. Touko spends a little time flirting with the waitress, and getting Akiho jealous – and she is quite surprised when Akiho really *does* want her to check her homework!

Miyu asks Kirika to please, please come to her birthday party. Kirika agrees, but is mortified that she has no present for Miyu. Miyu insists that Kirika coming is all the present she wants.

One day, Chika, on her way to meet Haruna, accidentally runs into another student, who drops the doll she is holding. It’s a glass (probably porcelain?) angel and it smashes as it hits the ground. The student, Kirika, tells Chika to fix it – to put it back the way it was. This is, of course, impossible. So Chika decides to make a beaded kimono as a replacement. Haruna helps her – more bliss. But Kirika rejects that as well – Chika was the one to break the doll, she has to replace it by herself. Kirika insists that Chika find an actual replacement – and do it herself. And as a penalty, she can’t spend time with Haruna until she does.

After Chika says she’ll do it and leaves, Haruna asks Kirika if the angel had been a present. Kirika says yes, for the person she loves. And she asks Haruna if she loves Chika. Haruna says she does, totally.

Miyu finds Chika and asks what’s up. Chika has no clue who she is, but Miyu tells her about the birthday party, and how she and Kirika have been together forever – and she goes off more than a little annoyed at her lover’s behavior.

Chika heads out to the shops, but has no luck – which is not surprising, since Kirika bought it off the TV. As she wanders looking for the angel, Touko roars up on her bike and offers Chika a lift. Touko also says she has an idea where to find the angel.

Haruna comes home, depressed and missing Chika, and wanders into Akiho’s room, where she finds her little sister online. Akiho has hunted down the glass angel and sent Touko off to find Chika and get her to it.

Chika and Haruna go off to locate Kirika to give her the angel, and finds Miyu giving Kirika what for, because she (quite rightfully) feels that Kirika was a jackass about the whole thing. Chika is totally honest and tells her that Touko helped. Kirika accepts the doll – shocked that Chika was able to find it at all. Haruna prompts Kirika to give it to Miyu, who is quite overwhelmed. And to boot, Chika gives her the beaded thing she and Haruna made too.

Epilogue:

Haruna and Chika, are making beaded phone straps for each other. (Haruna, btw, is a total maroon about this, and keeps dropping beads). Little by little, Chika tells us, like beads being added on to the strap, she and Haruna grow closer.

Akiho is on the phone with Touko, who tells her several times how much she likes Akiho. Akiho plays, to my dismay, hard to get, but does ask if they can talk a little more.

And we all live happily ever after.

There is a bonus track, in which the seiyuu all discuss gift failures, which was funny, as was to be expected.

Along with the original voice cast and art by Hibiki Reine, the other thing that migrated whole from the original CDs is the musical theme. It’s so silly a thing, but I was kind of glad when I turned on the new CD to hear the same piano theme in the background.

The cover of the CD is reversible – a new picture of Haruna and Chika, and the cover of Yuri Hime 2 with Chika and Miyu. And a postcard.

Ratings:

Story – 5
Characters – 7
Yuri – 8
Music – 7

Overall – 7

The *best* thing (other than Touko’s sexy voice) was how NOT stick-up-the-butt Haruna is in this new incarnation. I totally approve, even if it has made my fanfic for the series obsolete.  ^_^

 





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 3 (Part 2)

February 9th, 2006

Thanks to everyone who wished me well. I’m still sick, but the fever’s gone down and I can concentrate enough to type. Lucky you. :-) I’m also breaking in a new pair of glasses – bifocals. Feel free to snort. But damn, this feels weird. What you lose with bofocals is that middle distance – you know, the distance at which you stare at a computer, or, say, watch TV. Whee.

Anyway, we left off with the climax of Hatsukoi Shimai. From now on, I am just referring to it as Hatsukoi Shimai, unless I am specifically referring to the first two Drama CDs, so as to avoid insanity. Yours or mine.

Starting the second half of Yuri Hime 3 off strongly, we have the newest chapter of “Strawberry Shake Sweet.” This, as I mentioned in my review of the first collected volume of this series, is a New Year’s gag, so we still don’t know what happened to Ran on the eve of her debut. In this chapter, an exhausted Saeki comes home on New Year’s eve to find a drunken Kaoru on her doorstep. Saeki offers Kaoru a cup of something hot, but wants her to go home quickly. Kaoru gets maudlin, and tells Saeki that’s she’s lonely. Saeki wonders why she’s not with Haruna. Kaoru tells her that Haruna is on an extended job. Saeki immediatley berates herself for discussing a lesbian relationship as if it’s normal, at which a still pretty drunken Kaoru decides that it’s her job to “turn” Saeki. By the time Ran and Julia show up to toast the New Year with Saeki, they find their manager standing over a bound, half-undressed Kaoru and immediately misunderstand the situation in time-honored fashio. My description doesn’t do the gag justice – this chapter was damn funny.

Oh my god – I totally forgot. After the color pages of Hatuskoi Shimai there’s is an interview with the seiyuu for Haruna and Chika for the upcoming Drama CD. Haruna’s voice will be done by Chiba Saeko, the voice of Natsuki in Mai Hime and Mai Otome, and Chika will be voiced by Nakahara Mai, who did Mai in Mai Hime (and, assumably, in Mai Otome when she appears.) The point of all this is that during the interview, the seiyuu are asked, naturally, what they feel about playing girls in love for the Drama CD. And, quite naturally, they say, love is love and who cares if its a woman or a man? Well…it’s not like they are going to say. “It was gross. I was totally squicked the entire time.” I personally interpreted their comments to mean, “It was a paycheck.” LOL

The next essay, by Miura Shion, was about her early love for the characters of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon – especially Sailor Saturn. And her ultimately futile search for a Silence Glaive (and a Princess to worship) of her own.

This is followed by Morishima Akiko’s “Yuri Life” comic. Unmotivated to draw over the cold winter, Akiko-san’s editor decides to stimulate her yuri skills by forcefeeding her yuri anime and games. It’s pretty funny. Her fanboy nosebleed at Kannazuki no Miko is pretty much everyone’s reaction. lol Her evil editor stops her from going out to enjoy the day, instead compelling her to draw. (As ALC may be the benefactor of that evil editor, I thank her from the botttom of my heart!)

Okay, now here’s the WTF bizarro coincidence of the season. When I have time and energy (a rare combo these days) I have been reading Maria-sama ga Miteru: Manatsu no Ichipeeji, the thirteenth novel of the Marimite series. During one scene, Yuuki is talking to his friend Kobayashi and he brings up a Japanese fairy tale called “Naita Akaoni” (The Red Demon Cried.) And not two weeks later, here is that exact same story in Yuri Hime. Two weeks earlier and I would have had no idea what this story was about. How weird is *that*? Anyway, the basic plot is that there was a nice red demon who wants to befriend the local humans, who are naturally wary of demons. So the red demon’s best friend, a blue demon, offers to terrorize the humans, so the red demon could drive the blue demon off, and be a hero to the humans. This all happens as planned, and the humans come by to eat the red demon’s sweets, but the blue demon tells the red one that he has to leave forever, because the humans won’t understand that they are friends. So the blue demon tells the red one that they’ll be friends forever, and leaves. And that is why the red demon cries. Okay – now, make the demons girls, add in a cute human girl and the “terrorize” part becomes sexuall harrassment, and you’ve got the yuri-fied version. The pictures are rather amusing. Of all the yuri fairy tales so far, I’ve liked this one best.

I admit to waiting with bated breath for the next installment of “Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majo to”. So much so that I have FINALLY translated the title. Let’s call it “The Literary Miko and the Soulful Witch” – the point being a contrast between the witch as going by feeling, and the miko working on learning from the book…sort of opposite of the way most people think of witches and shrine maidens. Anyway, it’s not a title that translated easily. SO anyway, Letty and Suzu argue over Tsumugi’s fate. Tsumugi wakes and tells the heart-rending story of how her mother left her at the shrine to save her life when she was a little girl. Now that she’s left the shrine, the disease she was suffering from is back – let’s call it tuberculosis, since it comes with a hacking cough. Letty decides to go back to the shrine to make the shrine spirit give Tsumugi up, to be Tsumugi’s prince. Letty conjures up her armor and horse (witch’s costume and broom) and rides off to confront the evil ogre of the shrine. She forces the spirit to become visible and finds herself face to face with…Tsumugi!?! End of chapter. Damn this magazine for being quarterly, is all I can say. I’ll look forward to any collection of this story the future might bring.

(I’m giving up on the bifocals for the moment. My eyes are, not surprisingly, fubared.)

For those of you who can read Japanese – or are trying to learn, I strongly suggest reading Mori Natsuko’s advice column, “Yuri Doujou.” This paerticular issue has a letter which made me gape and go, “Whoah!” as I was reading it. And Mori-san’s comment? “Whoah!” It’s the last letter – the really long one. This is high lesbian drama at its silliest.

“Nanami and Misuzu” remains impenetrable to me, but funny. In this set of gags, we learn that there is a series of tunnels under the school that leads to, apparently, Nanami’s kotatsu table. Inexplicable and bizarre, but funny.

Chi-Ran has reinvented the wheel once again with “Beginner’s Luck.” In this rehashing of the same old story, Saki is in love with Misono but doesn’t have the guts to tell her. Eventually Misono kisses Saki and they fall into bed. We live happily ever after.

Last up is the continuation of “Voiceful”. We learn Hina’s backstory – and why her songs feel so sad all the time. Kanae isn’t sure she has the right to be part of Hina’s life, until she returns to the computer and finds that Hina has emailed her a zillion times. The last lets her know that Hina is about to do a “live.” What will happen? Will Kanae gain enough confidence to face Hina again? Will Hina reach her with her voice? I look forward to the climax next issue.

And there you have it – the most recent Yuri Hime from beginning to end. A great read all the way around. Good art, for the most part and a nice mixture of the horribly trite and the amusing and the original I’ve come to expect.

You can get your copy of Yuri Hime 3 from Amazon Japan through the Yuricon Shop – and your support is greatly appreciated, believe me! Feel free to come over to the Yuricon Mailing List to chat about the series in Yuri Hime or other fun Yuri anime and manga!





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 3 (Part 1)

February 7th, 2006

It’s that time again! Time for me to sing the praises of the newest issue of Yuri Hime. And in this case there’s not only alot to praise, but some things to smirk and choke at, as well.

Starting, as I am wont to do, with the cover – for the first time in a really, really long time, it depicts Chika and Haruna from the serial Hatsukoi Shimai together. With the Drama CD for that series coming out later this month, and the end of the first part of their story later in the magazine, it was a fitting choice. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get Akiho and Touko for the next cover. I pray that it is so.

The first comic in this issue is the new serial, “Simoun”, which is slated for an anime later this year. The story of Simoun is a “speculative fiction” (what I’ve always called sci-fantasy, but I am, I have been informed, well behind the times in my labeling.) In the world where “Simoun” takes place, everyone is born female, and at their fifteenth birthday chose whether to remain female or become male. We begin the manga with a moody, pouty “Princess” Neviriru confronted by newcomer Aeru. Aeru asks Neviriru why she doesn’t fly, at which a cool, older butchy type scolds Aeru and walks her Princess away. We get some overview of the world, and the reasons that these girls must fight in fantasy mecha aircraft thingies, etc, etc. Ultimately Aeru finds Neviriru, and they fly. Happy, happy.

I was not overwhelmed by this story so far, but at least in part, it’s me. I’ve gone waaaaaayyyy off fantasy and I am never 100% in love with yuri stories where the protagonist may or may not be a woman. In this case, as the manga is running in Yuri Hime, I think we can be at least mostly certain that Aeru will (she hasn’t chosen yet, but she wants to fight and to do so must remain female.) I also found everyone’s clothes distressing, but the color page art is pleasant and watercolor-y. But I will withhold any real judgement until I’ve seen a few chapters, to know where its going and how it gets there.

The second story was a three-page preview for a new series starting in the next issue, “Tokimeki Mononoke Jogakuen”. From these three pages, I really am looking forward to it. It adds an extra measure of silly to the usual girls school story…all the students are non-human. Our heroine, who looks perfectly human, is actually a rain fairy. That’s all we can see from these three pages, but it looks like fun.

Morinaga Milk’s newest entry is once again following Hitomi and Nana. “Chocolate Kiss Kiss” brings us to Valentine’s Day at this particular all-girl school. Nana is surprised to find that all her classmates are unashamedly giving chocolates to female sempai (and girlfriends, unbeknownst to her…). She considers making chocolate for Hitomi, but fails at the hand-made part. In a discusion with Hitomi, Nana learns that , unintentionally, she hurt Hitomi last year by not realizing that the chocolates Hitomi was making were really for her. Nana feels terrible, and makes it up to Hitomi by, Hitomi suggests, giving her something sweeter than chocolate.

I like these two in general – and I’d like to see “next steps” manga for some of the other couples we’ve been shown as well. Nana’s unintentionally causing Hitomi emotional wounds reads as fairly accurate to me (even if Hitomi has to be a bit too patient and understanding.) And of course, the art is both cute and sexy in turn.

“One Room” by Mucchiri Muunii is very much the kind of story I don’t care for. In a nutshell, it’s a story in which one girl’s desire for the other must be forced out of her by a confrontation/forced kiss. This is exactly the same mentality that gives us the kind of yaoi stories in which the uke has to be raped to “understand” his feelings. But don’t let my rant fool you – this story is not nearly that extreme. Seme girl, Tsubaki, invites herself over to uke Umi’s room to stay over because she knows that Umi lives alone. Tsubaki forces a confrontation, but when Umi runs away, prepares to leave – at which Umi asks her to stay and admits she’s right, she does like Tsubaki. Gosh I just love passive-agressive manga…. Anyway, the art is not to my taste, but I’ve seen worse.

At last, we get to seen the final chapter of “First Kiss” by Zaou Taishi and Eiki Eiki. Ryouko gets an email message from Ayano on the evening that she is to meet her fiancee’s parents. She kisses him goodbye and runs back home, to find Ayano on her doorstep. Ayano screams at Ryouko that she’s loved her all along, and Ryokou screams back, her too. It was actually kind of a funny scene. Anyway, they fall into bed, and assumably live happily ever after. Cut back to school, where Takashima, the student from the first scene (and from the story “Female Wolf” before that)is about to leave the Doctor’s office. Ryouko tells her, in short, that what’s she’s feeling is love – and to go for it. Look for *that* story to continue next volume.

More color pages – this time for the climax of “Hatsukoi Shimai.” Haruna suddenly develops a personality and defends Chika publically against the charge of cheating. Unlike the Koi Shimai Drama CD, in which it was the teacher who accused her, and Chika had to take a make-up exam, in this case its just a jealous Teshigawara whose made the accusation. Teshigawara gets dissed by the other students, and of all people Akiho has to tell her that she understands how she feels. Trust me – Akiho isn’t any happier about it than we are. To celebrate, Chika and Haruna go out to a cafe for souffle’. In a scene also not in the original Drama CD Haruna admits to Chika that in the past, she also had a much admired sempai, but was basically told that, as cute as she was, she could hope for nothing more. It broke her poor little heart, which is why she was so cold to Chika. Whatever. But the completely out-of-character end of the story is the same, as Haruna, in public, leans over and licks souffle’ from Chika’s face, causing the younger woman to explode. This will also continue next issue – and keep your fingers crossed that it’s the much better arc where Touko-sensei arrives.

This takes us roughly half-way, and I’m home sick today with fever, etc., so I think I’ll stop here.

As always, you can get Yuri Hime 3 from Amazon Japan through the Yuricon Shop – and your support is greatly appreciated, believe me! Feel free to come over to the Yuricon Mailing List to chat about the series in Yuri Hime or other fun Yuri anime and manga!





Yuri Manga: Strawberry Shake Sweet Volume 1 (ストロベリーシェイクSweet)

January 30th, 2006

I cannot tell you how happy I am to be able to review the first volume of Strawberry Shake Sweet. Here are some of the reasons why I think that this manga is particularly important:

1) It’s the first time that Hayashiya Shizuru has professionally published a volume 100% Yuri story, for an audience of Yuri fans. It’s not like she hasn’t written tons of Yuri into her works, both professional and doujinshi, but this is the first time that a professional story by her has Yuri as the target genre.

2) This volume is explicitly *marketed* as a “Girls Love” comedy, with a cover obi that reads that “Girl falls in love with girl at first sight!!” Yuri has, of course, been marketed as Yuri in the past…but that was and is usually explicit Yuri for a primarily male audience – this is fun Yuri for a primarily female audience. (I got that info firsthand from the editor of Yuri Hime, so you’ll have to trust me on that.)

3) This is one of the first manga volumes put out by Yuri Hime Comics, collected from the body of Yuri Shimai and Comic Yuri Hime magazines. It’s a very decent showing. Large-size format makes it easy to read, the color pages that appeared in Yuri Hime are reproduced (instead of that yucky dark black look that many color pages turned B&W get.)

All in all – this volume marks a significant movement forward in establishing Yuri in Japan as being both *by* women and *for* women. Something that I feel fairly strongly about. :-)

Okay, so let’s move on to the actual manga. I’ll pretend that neither you nor I am familiar with the story, just as an exercise. Strawberry Shake Sweet is the story of young pop idol Tachibana Julia who, at 16, is both popular and busy in her entertainment career. She is asked by her agent (a dorky little guy) to take a new upcoming talent under her wing, show her the ropes, etc. Julia objects flat out. She’s no dummy – and this new kid would be her rival. There’s no *way* she’s going to train up the person who might end up stealing her career!

That is, until she opens the office door and finds herself face to face with Asakawa Ran, the tall, attractive upcoming new talent. Julia does a complete 180 and demands to be the new kid’s mentor.

The next few chapters cover the utterly psychotic way in which Julia, tormented by her desire to be near Ran, but also to keep herself distant, treats her poor junior. Ran, luckily, is a little doofus-y, and starts to assume Julia’s mania is really a form of tough love.

It’s not until their overstressed manager, Saeki Ryouko points out that Julia’s in love with Ran (after carefully pointing out that a girl/girl scandal would NOT be good for anyone). Julia, who had no idea that she was in love, is both relieved and energized. Now she has a name to put to this insane feeling! Saeki immediately regrets mentioning it at all.

Saeki is the series’ constant “straight man”. She fends Julia off of Ran, beauty parlor owner/operator, lesbian and former classmate Shinjou Kaoru off herself, and generally is the butt of many a gag. I quite like her – and the fact that she’s clearly a lesbian magnet. Not only is Kaoru openly desirous of her, Saeki’s junior in talent management is also wanting her pretty badly. Surrounded by lesbians as she is Saeki starts to wear down…eventually. But we’ll get there later.

Also contributing to the high lesbian quotient is Ryou, the lead singer from “hyper visual band Zlay.” Zlay has four members, all female, split into two couples. Ryou’s partner is Goth-Loli Reki, the creepy cute doll-like synth player. Ryou pops into the story suddenly and quite literally sniffs out Julia’s desire for another woman. But later, when she meets Ran, crushes Julia’s hopes by saying that Ran does not have the scent of onnadoushi. (Don’t worry – Ran later tells Julia that she is an important person to her. And let’s face it – it’s a girls love story. They’ll get together…*eventually.* lol)

Last, and kind of least, is babydyke Haruna, who is another idol, but a year younger than Julia. She is out and out in love with Kaoru, who doesn’t dislike the attention one bit. (In fact, in the most recent chapter from Yuri Hime, it’s fairly obvious that Kaoru and Haruna have a genuine thing going on, as Kaoru shows up drunk at Saeki’s door to complain about her relationship with Haruna.)

By the end of Volume 1, Ran has made Julia happy, sad, pychotic and elated about a thousand times, and the two of them are so inevitably growing closer, that you can just *see* Saeki wilting and her ability to keep the two of them apart starting to break down. But more importantly, Ran’s big debut has arrived at last and both Julia and Ran are left alone, desperately desiring to see one another – but holding back to try to be strong. And the maddening thing is – this takes us to the last chapter but one, and I don’t know what’s going to happen!!! Arrrrgghhh!!! (The last chapter was a New Year’s gag issue, so we’re still waiting to find out how Ran handles her debut for an art magazine.)

Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 3

Overall – 8

If you’re familiar with, and like Hayashiya’s art style, you’ll be familiar with, and like Strawberry Shake Sweet. It’s the same kind of physical humor, gags, bops on the head, nosebleeds and the like that you’ll find in her doujinshi as Jesus Drug, and her professional art in series like Hayate Cross Blade.

Oh, and gosh – a story of a lesbian pop idol…now where have I heard THAT before? Just for the record, Shoujoai ni Bouken came *first*. ^_^

If there’s one down side to this story it’s got to be that Yuri Hime is, at this point, quarterly. Which means we can’t expect a new volume for at least two years! Sob…





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 2 (Part 2)

November 2nd, 2005

Yay! Another chance to gush about the wonderful Yuri anthology Yuri Hime!

We left off after the stellar chapter by Morinaga Milk. That’s a pretty hard act to follow, so as we’re sitting there, all smiley and afterglow-y from that, we jump right into the one other series that matches it punch for punch, “Strawberry Shake Sweet” the love comedy by Hayashiya Shizuru. You may remember that Julia was “forced” to stay the night with Ran, because of worries that the young idol-to-be was being stalked. This chapter opens up with Julia’s worst nightmare and greatest desire…sharing a bed with Ran. In fact, they did not start off by sharing a bed. Ran, ever the sweetie, gave Julia her bed and she took a futon on the floor. Only, late at night after a trip to the bathroom, Ran didn’t think about it and got right back into her bed. With Julia. Who hasn’t slept a wink as a result. ^_^

As they leave the apartment, they encounter the stalker – who turns out to be freelance photographer Sera Mutski, and she is very interested in Ran. Sera asks Saeki if she can photograph Ran – she’s *just* the person they were looking for. Immediately Julia is suspicious – no nude photos, she insists, even as she fantasizes about that very thing.

Saeki is excited – this is Ran’s big chance to debut and she sets up the session. Julia is, however, still very suspicious and rightly so, because there seems to be something up… In the meantime, Ran is dressed up to look either super-cool, or like a 1982 music video, whichever way you want to look at it. And she’s very lonely without Julia…. Tune in next time!

I forgot to mention – this volume also includes fanart of all the continuing series, which is really cute. ^_^

Another fantastic story from Volume 1, “Voice” is continued in “Voiceful”. Bashful Kanae is still overwhelmed every time she’s with her beloved Hina, the singing star. But Hina is a very down to earth person and just wants to have a little fun. Hina confesses that she’s only 17, but never been to school, so she’s never worn a school uniform…and Kanae looks awfully cute in her’s…hey, wait a minute! Hina drags Kanae off to the bathroom to switch clothes, but is dragged away by a call from her manager almost immediately.

Hina dutifully goes off to record, but her heart’s just not in it – she wants to be with Kanae, and runs off to tell her so. Hina asks Kanae if she likes her music – and Kanae responds that she loves it, that she loves it so much…and Hina smiles, thinking that she can go back and record now with all her heart, if Kanae likes it. This story is to be continued, which makes me extremely happy!

The fractured all-female fairytale this time is Rapunzel, in which the witch is damn sexy and the Prince/ss is kinda cute and if I were Rapunzel, I’d just choose both and alternate. ^_^

Yuri book reviews are followed by more color pages that intro a odd, but kind of fun story called “Sekai ni Itsudake no Atabana”. Honestly have no clue what it means and haven’t had time to figure it out.

Hana and Yuki are having a little light “relations” in the classroom when cute/innocent Haru walks in on them. She appears to be clueless…but isn’t. And when she walks in on Hana *again* this time with a different student, Haru comments that she wishes Hana wouldn’t do stuff like this at school – it causes rumors. ^_^

Haru, after some cute pouting gives in to Hana, but just then an alien pops in and steals Haru! No, seriously. She’s a little older looking and had mad magic usin’ skillz, which all of a sudden Hana is able to match! Lo and behold, Hana, too, is a whatever it was and she just sort of forgot. Haru forgives her and they both remember a past experience that they kind of dropped from their collective memories. In the end, they are lovey-dovey, except at school, because Haru doesn’t want any weird rumors. ^_^

Next up is this installment of “Hatsukoi Shimai” in which something actually happens! Chika, depressed about being rebuffed by Haruna has let her grades slip. Cleverly Akiho (who is the only intelligent creature in the school, as far as I can tell) sets it up that Haruna becomes Chika’s tutor. This is good for both of them – they are now spending quality time together in the library every day, laughing and studying (while poor tortured Akiho is forced to watch them be giggly at each other,) and Chika’s grades go up. They go up so much, in fact, that after the mid-terms, Chika is accused of cheating and asked to take a re-test. This is all from the original Drama CD, in case you care. However, the class president, a pinchy-faced jerk named Teshigawara is not. And SHE accuses Chika of cheating – even though she is perfectly aware that Chika has been studying every day with Haruna. It’s kind of instantly apparent that Tshigawara has some kind of problem with Haruna – either she’s jealous or doesn’t like her, but we don’t know which yet.

More interesting to me is another scene not on the CD. Akiho and Haruna are at home and Akiho mentions that recently, since she started to hang out with Chika, Haruna has been very cheerful – like she used to be. Haruna agrees, that she was a little over-serious, and thinks back to a few years earlier when she apparently have a very close relationship with a sempai…oh-ho, a new plot twist!

Anyway, we leave poor Chika being confronted by the Teshigawara gang and Akiho and Haruna wondering why she hasn’t shown up at the library. Cliffhanger! Tune in next…oh, wait. I used that one already.

Okay, you know how I harp endlessly about the “Koi Shimai” Drama CDs? And how I go on and on about how great they were, but you haven’t heard them, so nyah nyah? *Well*! The next entry in this volume made me so jealous that I was jumping up and down with jealousy. Nyah nyah, indeed.

Akiko Morishima, you may remember, drew a lovely Yuricon in Tokyo report for the last volume. In this volume, she reports on a recording session of the NEXT Drama CD, “Hatsukoi Shimai” which stars not only the sexy Romi Park as Touko-sensei, but a host of other great seiyuu from very, very Yuri series. Including Tsutako from Marimite. :-) And they’ve added Miyu and Kirika, the missing other cover girls from Yuri Shimai and Yuri Hime, so it’s a whole new story – not just a redo of the original ones. Even better, it looks like Touko-sensei and Akiho are still paired! Yay! I cannot *wait* to get a copy of this. I will move heaven and hell to get one. When it becomes available, do rush off to get it – it’s too cool not to have.

And I’m very, very jealous, Akiko-san. You got to meet the seiyuu. Argh! Jealous, jealous….

Moving on – “The unfamous country’s song of love” is a silly story of a cry-baby ninja and the princess she loves. As children, the princess could hear the ninja girl crying, even when she couldn’t see her. Now, the princess is going to get married and go to another country. The ninja has promised to be with her forever, but she is told that she cannot come. In order to keep the ninja from following, the princess fires her, but on the way to the wedding, her retinue is attacked. The ninja appears from nowhere to save the day, then disappears once again. But on the day of the wedding, everyone can hear someone crying, even though they cannot see anyone. While everyone interprets it as an unlucky sign, the princess knows that she’s very lucky indeed to have such a devoted protector.

There’s more general fanart in the back of the book – which I enjoy every time, because it’s not particularly good – just fans drawing Yuri couples. It all makes me happy.

And that brings us to the end of this truly excellent Yuri anthology. With maybe one or two stories that would score 6 or so, I think the rest of the book is easily an 8 and in some cases 9.

Overall, if you like Yuri manga, a copy of Yuri Hime, Volume 2 is a must-have. You can click the picture above to order it on Amazon JP – it’s linked.