This cover wins. It is, in a lifetime of reading comics and decades of reading Yuri manga, my favorite cover of any Yuri manga ever. The foldout cover, with art by Rolua, is the wholly goth image of an angel with a drippy gold halo and black feathered wings, holding a woman to her chest, the credits and title of the magazine visualized as tattoos across her arms and back. Two thumbs up from me. Animate apparently included a postcard of the full picture with purchase of this issue.

Comic Yuri Hime September 2020 (コミック百合姫2020年9月号) is a very good issue for me. Individual stories were good, and overall it’s a pretty solid volume. But I really wanted to review it this week, because Seven Seas re-announced the Light Novel for I’m in Love with the Villainess and since the manga is running in this magazine, I felt extra motivated. ^_^

This volume starts off with the once-again popular “lesbian sex worker helps a woman get over her nervousness about sex, “with the addition of secondary plot about Asumi’s first love clearly being a sex worker as well. Gosh, I wonder how that will work out?

Takeshima Eku’s “Sasayakouyouni Koi wo Utau” was adorable for what it didn’t do as much as what it did. Yori looks up what to do on a date and, for once, we are not obliged to presume that what she found was nothing but porn. Phew! Her choices of behaviors, the ratings for them, and her honesty with her new girlfriend, was fun and refreshing,

“Watashi no Oshi ha Akujaku Reijou,” which is headed our way, as per the Seven Seas announcement above, remains goofy with the second “high class manners” contest I have now encountered in a GL Bunko. ^_^ Protagonist Oohashi Rei, having woken up in the world of her favorite otome game, finds herself challenged by her love interest, the game villainess, Claire-sama. But. Rei is familiar with the world from having played the game so long and is able to best her challenger in a series of contests that included schoolwork, magical skill and a test of refined manners at the table.

I don’t know where “Kudan Folklore” is likely to take me, but so far, I’m kind of into this apparently dark, but so far mostly unformed urban folklore kind of gothy ghost thing with a reasonably smart and confident lead. More importantly, it was the first time I’ve seen the phrase “mochi ha mochiya” and had just read a great thread on it on translator Jocelyne Allen’s Twitter (which was mostly around how Google will not take the place of a real translator any time soon.) It means, something like if you want mochi, you go to a mochi shop…in other words, go to the right place/people for the right thing.

I will now formally admit that I adore Osawa Yayoi’s  “Hello, Melancholic!” and while Minato faces her own fears, I’m all for her and Hibiki figuring out what they mean to each other.

“Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto desu!” is clearly winding down. The staff of Liebe cafe ask Hime and Mitsuki to sit down and have it out between them, but the conclusion isn’t conclusive.

It was lovely that Saki’s sister was all for Saki and Asuka being happy together, rather than a tired jealous-little-sister stereotype in “Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsuskiatteiru.” This made the third or fourth story where a tedious stereotype was just left behind and it strongly affected my overall feeling about this issue.

mintaro’s “Pochi Climb” limps to an end and I feel nothing. It never really seemed to know who it was for. It wasn’t a sport manga, it wasn’t a romance, it was just an idea that never gelled.

I know it’ll end eventually, but I’d be thrilled if “Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts” by Usui Shio just went on forever. It doesn’t even have to have conflicts, just let’s sit back and watch people figure out stuff in a gentle Jousei manga style.

Inui Ayu’s autobiographical work just slides along one cute interaction at a time. Along with Usui’s story, these are the best way for me to end this issue. ^_^

As always there are other stories I did read and others I did not in this issue and hopefully, you’ll find something to enjoy yourself. You can buy this in print from Amazon JP, or digitally on JP Kindle and Global Bookwalker.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

What pushed this volume up in rating was a refreshing lack of tiresome, old-fashioned tropes just not being used. It’s super past time we have non-bratty little sisters and protagonists who are smart and athletic actually being confident, instead of emotionally tortured wrecks, and supportive friends and lovers, instead of pointless miscommunication. What a relief!

I just want to take a moment before I even begin this review and offer a tip of my hat to cover artist Rolua, who in a few cover pieces told a decent short science fiction story. ^_^

There are a couple of new series starting in Comic Yuri Hime, August 2020 (コミック百合姫2020年8月号). Yuri Light Novel Kundan Folklore is being serialized by creative team SukeraSparo. We’ll get to that in a second. Because, the magazine opens up with a huge spread for “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou,” the light novel series which has been licensed by Seven Seas as I’m in Love With the Villainess. I didn’t hate it, but it sure veers close to fetishtry that does not overlap my own. ^_^

Rei, a miserable worker at a black company, wakes up one day in the otome game she had been playing, “Revolution.” although the game was specifically designed to partner the lead with one of the princes at the school, Rei had fallen in love with the obnoxious bully and rival for your choice’s attention… Claire. The harder Claire tries to bully Rei, the more Rei likes it. ^_^; This series is funny and just a tad creepy and I’ll be interested to see where it goes.

In Miman’s “Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto desu!” Kanako finally says some things Hime needs to hear, and Hime agrees to attend Kanako’s birthday event at the cafe. It feels very much as if we heading for a climax in this series…but we’ve got a few more bumps to deal with before we get there.

Something completely unexpected has happened in “Hello Melancholic” by Ohsawa Yayoi and I find that I really, honestly care about Minato now and desperately want her to be happy. ^_

“Kundan Folklore” looks…pretty interesting! Better thn that visual novel and let me  assure you that I’m surprised to say that. It’s front-loaded to be a scary family legend story, but it’s also a story about mismatched friends and protagonist who works hard to be where she is. I hope I like it.

Kodama Naoko’s “Umineko Bessou days” is also heading towards an ending, Sadly the complications are scraped from the back of the plot complication closet and just completely failed to keep this reader engaged. I don’t dislike this story, but it could have been so good. It was instead very average.

I adore the color washes give to Kon-chan’s dialogue in Inui Ayu’s autobiographical manga. Whatever the color of the “Hime Cafe” section of the magazine, is the color of Con-chan’s key lines. It’s adorable and I hope they keep it for any collected volume, should we get one.

Ratings:

Overall  – 8

As always, there are other stories I read and enjoyed and others I read and did not and a few I don’t read. A pretty even bell curve of interest and something for mostly any Yuri fan. The September issue is already out and has an amazing cover! I do like a woman with tattoos.

Something had to give, and it looks like “magazines” is the breaking point. I have every Yuri Shimai/Yuri Hime/Yuri Hime S/Comic Yuri Hime magazine since 2003 with the exception of some of the curated volumes I didn’t keep. There are several huge cartons in storage and there’s just no more room to keep them really. I still have a subscription to the magazine with the local Kinokuniya, and hope I’ll be able to pick it up print sometime, but for now, I am shifting all my magazine reading and at least some of my manga reading to Global Bookwalker‘s system. In fact, I just assume the entire global pandemic is specifically because I was caught up with Comic Yuri Hime and this is the universe thumbing it’s nose at me. (I obviously do NOT assume that.) In any case, I’m running behind once again, but plan on forging ahead with new volumes digitally.  ^_^

So today I’m looking at Comic Yuri Hime, May 2020 (コミック百合姫 2020年5月号) which is still available in print on Amazon JP, or digitally on Global Bookwalker – which has the distinct advantage of not being as limited by region as Kindle and includes a English-language manga store, as well as Japanese, something I find very convenient. They can all be kept in one library, as well, so you don’t need to toggle back and forth. You do need to check out the Japanese manga from the JP store and the English manga from the EN store, which is a small inconvenience given the streamlining of the rest of the system. AND like all online systems, it has a points system, and there are sales and coupons constantly and give-backs.

And I gotta tell ya – there is no going back. I LOVED reading the magazine on the digital system! I’m able to change size (not as fluidly on my Surface as with an Android system, but the pen helps) and move easily around the page and the book. A 10″ tablet gives me a roughly full magazine page , I can shift to two page layout with a twist and the art looked great.  Honestly, the art looked clearer and better on the screen than it can on paper, which roughens it up ever so slightly.  I enjoyed the reading experience of the digital edition greatly.  And no soy ink smell! This is always a problem for me.

So how was the content? It was a solid volume, with some good and bad, as always. I have a few stories I want to note because they are doing something interesting. We’ll start with the surprising.

You know I have a complicated relationship with Kodama Naoko-sensei’s work. I like her art, I sometimes do not like the story. More oftenn I’m just creeped out by some fetishtry embedded in the tale. Her current series, “Uminekosou days” (recently licensed by Seven Seas as Days of Love a Seagull Villa,”) has been on brand with this. We’re setting Mayumi up to be betrayed by her “best friend,” because apparently stealing her boyfriend wasn’t enough. So ask me how surprised I am to find that Rin may not be corruptible? I’m really hoping she’s not. I’d love to see a series where the manipulative bully gets told to shove it and shove off. I’m still angry that Peach Girl Next even exists.

Also surprising was FLOWERCHILD’s “Warikitta kankeidesukara,” as it appears to be developing an actual plot. I did not expect that.

On a positive note, although it probably heralds the end of the series, Ohi Pikachi’s “Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteiru” is teasing a mutual marriage proposal. I’d pay extra if the series just kept going and let the school be in an uproar about the wedding for, I dunno, a year and a half or so, maybe 2? ^_^

I’m also perfectly okay with “Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!” taking it’s time to wrap.  It’s kind of maddening knowing that in 2020 becoming a couple or proposing marriage is still the end of the story, instead of the beginning. Dammit. Give me more like Inui Ayu’s slice-of-real-life “Kyou mo Hitotsu Yane no Shita.” Please.

Ratings:

Overall  – 8, but an extra point for the digital experience. Damn, that was nice. So, 9

I’ll end this by reminding you that you may subscribe to the magazine directly on Bookwalker, a feature I find very intriguing, especially now. New volumes will be added to your library automatically. Each issue page includes a few sample pages, which is nice.  And for those of you interested, the June 2020 issue is already available (And with coins I’ve gotten from purchases and affiliate links, I’ll be paying 16 cents. Booyah)