Comic Yuri Hime, March 2013 (コミック百合姫) has so much going on that upon first glance, my thought was, “The most recent issue of Comic Yuri Hime feels like the end times. There’s a wedding, gay pride and an older couple. Whoah.”

Well, upon reading it all the way through, I would like to revise that to “The most recent issue of Comic Yuri Hime feels like the end times. There’s a wedding, gay pride, an older couple and a HELICOPTER! Whoah!”

But I get ahead of myself. ^_^

There is a wedding. Minamoto Hisanari’s “Fu~Fu” comes to a close in the goopiest, most smile-making way possible, as Kina and Sumi make vows that have meaning to them.

There is gay pride, as Takemiya Jin’s story of Satomi’s discovery of herself as a young lesbian comes to an end with Satomi telling Asuna off for her LGBTQ-loathing vision of what life should be like and standing up for her own normal. The end of this series echoes what I have so often longed for in others – take the lesbian out of the dysfunctional relationship and plop her down in a functional one.

There are older characters. I’m afraid I’ll never like Takahashi Mako’s idea of “romantic” but they do indeed grow old together in “Yuki Bara, Akai Bara.”

There is a breakup in “Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika” that looks like a real breakup. The first that I have ever seen in manga. No histrionics, just two people who have irreconcilable differences. Darn you, Amano-sensei. I really wanted them to work it out.

There is good and bad and schoolgirls and adults in this issue of Comic Yuri Hime.

But more importantly than all of this.

There is a helicopter. ^_^ (As Mathilde says, “Let’s face it: it wouldn’t be proper Yuri without the helicopters.”)

In “Love Gene Double XX.” But  I’m not going to tell you why. In any case, it’s utterly beside the point. The point is, despite all logic, the newest, strangest, most delightful Yuri trope – forget butches on motorcycles – is helicopters. Hee hee hee! ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Not just because of the helicopter, but it helped. ^_^ Do you think I ought to add “Helicopter” as a Category, I wonder?

Once again, the cover of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫) tells a story. The January issue’s story, which is helpfully titled “Love Story”, provides flashbacks to Mad magazines of old, as the cover and inside cover offer *4* pages of story with the fold.

This issue was primarily interesting for the various ways in which so many of the stories explored the typical tropes of schoolgirl Yuri with abandon. And I mean that – artists are really just going nuts within the same few basic ideas. Girls are still transferring into elite schools, where they encounter the star of the school…but none of the typical things one might expect are happening. The star of the school is not who she seems, murders occur, things are being smashed and thrown and kisses are hard, sometimes, and gentle sometimes. Characters are enigmatic, cheerful, angry, polite and crazy. This issue is not, really, in any way a great reflection of life, but that isn’t my point. My point is…wow there’s a lot of *stuff* going on in this magazine!

And once again “Fu~Fu~” wins the universe as Sumi decides that she and Kina ought to, y’know, have matching rings. Oh god this series is so cute! Kinana agrees that matching rings would suit them well…and she suggests that the next thing on the menu ought to be a wedding ceremony. ^_^ Squee!

This issue was a really nice selection of stories of girls and women in a variety of relationship from utterly dysfunctional to happily ever after. Exactly what I want in an anthology. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Rather than run down each story with a quick synopsis today, I really want to just say this about  the November 2012 issue of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫):

This was quite possibly the most amazing volume of Comic Yuri Hime ever published.

Story after story, I found myself saying, “Wow, what a weird/unusual/unique story.” From the cover, which was a story of its own, a departure from the normal cover art, to a high school Yuri version of Well of Loneliness to a relationship in a war-torn country, to black magic-advice-offering goat-headed net idols, almost no story did what I expected it to do. My eyebrows spent a great deal of time pushed way up toward my hairline.

If you haven’t been reading Comic Yuri Hime, get this volume. It’s half insane, half carefully calulated to sell stuff, and surprisingly out of the normal.

Hot damn.

Ratings:

Overall – 10