I’m nervous. I’m really enjoying Comic Yuri Hime these days, but nothing lasts forever, right? As I read Comic Yuri Hime, May 2015 (コミック百合姫 2015年 05 月号) I couldn’t shake the feeling that the boot will drop and soon.

It appears to me, that the magazine has finally struck a balance between the – to me – unfathomable needs of Japanese fanboys and my own unfathomable needs as an American lesbian fangirl. ^_^ Sure, you guys can have your weirdly shaped breasts and bizarre crotch obsession and teary blobby-headed little girls, I’ll take the adults, the depth of emotion, the violent fighting and Iono-sama. ^_^ Deal?

If you don’t like what I do, then there’s “Netsuzou Trap – NTR”, a creeptastic story about two girls with boyfriends who get naked and do stuff on each other while their boyfriends are conveniently not in the room with them, “Citrus,” (on which I have officially given up completely, when a bad old trope that we’d already wallowed in and discarded comes back for a second appearance) and “To Lie-Anguru,” which I will never mention again. ^_^ “Yuru Yuri,”of course, and the “Yuri Danshi” narrative continues on in a slightly altered form with input from male and female Yuri fans in “Ore to Yuri.”

Almost everything in this volume continued on from last time, but there were a few highlights that stood out for me. Ohsawa Yayoi’s “2DK, G Pen, Mesamashi Tokei.” went exactly where I had hoped, and shifted from “competent woman hustles while slacker slacks”, to “two adult women figuring out their lives.”

Nakahara Tsubaki’s “12 Minute Etude” is still cute in a non-intrusive way, as is “Inugami-san to Neko-yama -san,” and the excruciatingly adorable and fun “Kanaete! Yuri Yosei-san” which I still believe may be Minamoto Hisanari’s masterwork effort, in that he can combine the silliest of Yuri tropes, an absurdly adorable moe fairy and still have a lot of fun telling a story. ^_^

To scratch my itch for a little light violence, there’s still “Love Desu” and “Shoujo Shikaku”  for horror and major violence fans.

Takemiya Jin provides “Sakasama Oni-gokko”, Kano makes a debut with two stories and…to my absolute joy, Fujieda Miyabi is back, with a spin off of “Iono-sama Fanatics” called “Kokono-sama Fascinates” which follows the entirely unobjectionable adventures in love and lady-in-waiting gathering of Kokono, the daughter of Iono-sama and Eto. Squee.

So, see? We can all be happy.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

If they can just keep this up forever, I’ll be satisfied.  ^_^

If you’re a regular reader here, you’ll know that I haven’t been really happy with Comic Yuri Hime this year. Too much pandering to the low and uncreatively-minded, too little actual girls in love with each other and almost no creative content.

So you might imagine how surprised I was to be able to say that the March 2015  issue of Comic Yuri Hime, (コミック百合姫 2015年 03月号) was very good. Like…actually really “Good” with a capital “G” good, meaning that, while I personally didn’t like everything, they are stretching the genre a bit again, so that it’s not the same one story over and over.

The magazine did not start off well for me, with a cell phone “comic” of two girls in maid costume and cat ears, so I was not feeling open-minded when I started reading. But, I was intrigued with the opening manga chapter “12bun no Etude” which began as a track club story that segued into a band story, with strong overtones of the few good bits of Sora no wo to. Trumpets, but I’ll be magnanimous and forgive that. ^_^

It was “Shoujo Shikaku” that blew me out of the water. I hated it, but it’s the first horror comic we’ve seen in the pages of Comic Yuri Hime in ages. I hated it precisely for the reasons I’ve discussed; the balance of power is held by someone other than the protagonist and the scales are balanced against them. It was also full of service-y creepiness, which is not to my taste, but as much as it is not at all for me, I was glad to see horror in the magazine once again. It’s seemed to me that recently manga magazines are finally finding their way back to horror stories after decades of sort of avoiding them.

I was a little disappointed in Ohsawa Yayaoi’s newest which, although it was about two adult women, went over some well-trod material and ended up being a watered down What did You Eat Yesterday? Waste of a good character. I hope we see more/better from this setup.

“Chou Chou Nan Nan” from Takemiya Jin came to a climax that was not unexpected, but still was sweet.

In “Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san” an actual for real Yuri couple finally appears and it’s Ryuuzaki Otome and and Torao Mari. Okay by me.

“Tsuki to Sekai to Etoile” also comes to a kind of climax and for the moment, everyone is playing nice. That was a nice change of pace. ^_^

Aoto Hibiki’s “Yurino-onee-san” (which could also be read “Yuri no Oneesan”) was also a refreshing change of pace. Told from the point of view of a young boy, about the two women who live next door, Yurino and Miyako, we get to see Shintarou recognize what their relationship is, how it works and how much it means to them. He’s  a good kid and his fresh eyes give us a chance to understand that love is love. It was sweet.

Then we come to “Love Desu,” again by Kuzushiro-sensei. In start contrast to the horror story, this ridiculous thing pits two evenly matched, psychotic and violent people in a deadly love/hate relationship. This time one gets stabbed, but she’s the one who gets the kiss, so by the standards of this story, I think she won this round. ^_^ Again referring back to my discussion of violence – they are evenly matched and fully aware of what they are doing. This series is, therefore, perfectly enjoyable to me.

Last, but not least, was “Kanaete! Yuri Yousei” by Minamoto Hisanari-sensei. I think, honestly, he’s hit his pinnacle here. It’s all the moe he could ever want, and an actually amusing story about an old Yuri trope. I actually laughed at out loud at it. And what a perfect way for me to end this issue.

Except that it wasn’t the final chapter in the issue. Instead, we had a chapter of the Yuri Danshi side-story “Ore to Yuri”. Oh well.

As always I’ve left a number of stories out, and I’ll never talk about “To Lie Anguru” which I want to burn with fire, so if you’re not moved by these, trust me, there’s plenty of Yuru Yuri and other moe comics to be found.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

For the first time all year, I can actually say I enjoyed an issue of Comic Yuri Hime. The May 2015 issue has already been released and July is available for pre-order. All of these – and any back issues that still exist  –  are available on the new Yuricon Store in the Japanese Manga Section  – just click C in the alphabet header, or search for it by name!

To say that the January 2015 cover of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫) alarmed me is not an understatement. Since the repatriation of Yuri Hime S content into Comic Yuri Hime, I have had the nagging sense than the editor is trying again to shift the content away from “stories women – perhaps even lesbians – like,” to “stuff that appeals to fanboys.” When the magazine originally relauched, it had become less “typical fetish”y, slightly more adult, more lesbian and a teeny bit darker. In recent issues, it’s ended the lesbian series and strongly ramped up the Yuri fetishtry.

The cover has a purely moe piece of art, accompanied by the decision that alarmed me. Instead of the usual Kanji 百合姫, the magazine title is written in hirigana as ゆりひめ. Why would that matter, you may ask? Moe is not just the cutifying of characters, or the simplification of the art, it is also very much about keeping female characters infantile. It’s about obsessing about their “innocence” “awakening” and “budding”  and other euphemisms for puberty. In Eureka’s Yuri Culture issue, Rica Takashima wrote an essay on the relationship between “Yuri” and this tendency to never move lesbian love or life beyond high school or enter the real world. It keeps the idea of “Yuri” firmly locked in that not-real-life space of school life. Lesbians die after leaving high school in this version of Yuri. Or, more appealing to ultra-conservative male otaku, they get married, leave their careers, have babies and remember that one affair fondly. The end.

Rica makes a pretty good case. Women’s progress in Japan is stagnant. You’ll notice that, for all that both BL and Yuri have grown in popularity, there has been an almost complete lack of movement on LGBTQ rights in Japan. I say almost, because a few years ago, it was reported that Japan would recognize Same-sex marriages of Japanese citizens done outside the country, but has yet to actually do so. This week Shibuya Ward announced that they would discuss the idea of issuing SSM certificates. Unfortunately Western media reported it as if they were definitely going to, but it is not a certainty. We’ll find out next month when (if) the vote is actually held….

And here we are, looking at the last of the Yuri magazines and watching it shove “Yuri” back into the school life closet where lesbians just disappear after high school and Yuri is no longer even allowed it’s kanji, but has to use more childish hiragana.

There is a textured little sticker image on the cover that says “The contents are the regular Comic Yuri Hime.” I am neither reassured, nor pleased. The situation is getting worse, if the March issue is any indication. As bad as the Yuri Hime S cover art was, it was never this horrible. To be honest, I can’t even credit this as “art” in any meaningful sense. Two blobby heads with few features, no discernible setting. This is not what I am looking for in Yuri.

It’s 2015, and my choice once again appears to be creepy tit-squeezing and bodily fluids-soaked porn and infantile love stories. Yuri has been almost completely disappeared back to 2000s level. I am sure it’s just a dip before the next peak, but UGH. Like women’s rights in the political sphere, it seems that every decade female Yuri fans  are forced to remind the powers that be that we’re still here and this stuff stuff skeeves us.

That all said, the stuff I still like in the pages of Comic Yuri Hime remains stuff I like. I even found myself not disliking this issue of “Yuri Danshi,” as the Yuri Joshi contingent joins the crew of delusionals.

Of all the stories I am reading, the one I flat out enjoy the most is “Love Desu,” by Kuzushiro. It’s horribly violent, not at all cute, and I gasp with relief when I get to it. In this issue, the one character shot a bobby pin into the other character’s eye. Thank the gods for this story. Thank Kuzushiro-sensei too. One more blobby face with a blank expression and I was going to gouge my own eye out with a bobby pin.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

I’m asking nicely – can’t someone please write a decent pro sport Yuri series? Please? I am so so so so so so done with school drama.

The May issue of Comic Yuri Hime is also available for pre-order.