The second half of Comic Yuri Hime, Volume 19 starts off with Hakamada Mera’s “Sore ga kimi ni naru” in which You is fascinated by this older woman who looks at her with the memory of a love she had in the past. This time You accompanies Amane to the library where she works, to see what this mysterious woman’s life is like. When You gets caught in a late rainstorm, Amane is confronted with having the girl stay over her place.

“Himekoi” is full of screaming…again. And I’m skipping “Soulfege” because, bleah.

In “DNA Double XX” Aoi proves that she haz mad fightin’ skills, but the Eves have better Yuri-service.

Amano Shuninta’s “Cell Frame no Mukou Kawa” proves that once again, there is a group mind behind anthologies, as yet another cosmetics salesperson find herself part of a plot. This time she has fallen for the local pharmacist, who is unreasonably cute with makeup. For the record – I prefer girls in glasses. Justsaying.

“Mizu-iro Cinema” has an awkward reunion between Yui and her former lover Mizuki, while Tae is a little slow on the uptake. After Yui throws Mizuki out, she worries that Tae will find the fact that she is a lover of women repulsive (as opposed to, “I don’t love women – just you”, the old-school method of avoiding having any lesbianism in Yuri.) Tae is way too sweet (read; doofusy) to let that happen.

In “Cleo the Crimson Crises” the story doesn’t end. WHY? Why gods, do you hate us? Oh, ahem. So, Cleo and Suoh go to wherever Cleo is from and people are assholes to Suoh, so she can be a snot-faced wet rag some more. Gawd.

“Sayonara Folklore” continues – sort of surprisingly, because there’s not a lot of plot there, but… Sumika is still in love with Takase-sempai, who likes her back and everything is okay until another student starts to scream at them, and tells the teacher about them. And Takase finds that she too is not the first one her lover has loved. What does not need forgiveness is forgiven and at the end they still like one another.

And, finally, in “Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen” Arare and Pero, now in the world of humans, go to Arare’s house, Pero meets her mom, is terrified of her, and licks the bowl clean – literally. Meanwhile, Kiri mopes, remembering how Arare disappeared through a vortex…and suddently realizes Pero’s with her! The end of this story becomes ever more obvious, but you, know, I’m still okay with it. ;-)

And there you have it. Better than average, with more very good and good than not.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

A fine specimen of a Yuri Hime, and another issue that gives me hope that one day I’ll see what I really want in a Yuri magazine – something somewhere between “Story A” and porn about women who love women.

“Got your heart!” says the cover of Comic Yuri Hime, Volume 19. And so far, at least, it’s right. :-)

After some color illustrations that are less skanky than I’m used to, we jump right into a new series “Moso Honey” by the insanely prolific Mikuni Hadzime (of Gokujou Drops). Nonoka enters a new high school and is drafted into the high-end and rather bizarre Student Council by a “cool beauty,” Nozomi. What will this mean for the decidely average Nonoka? Hijinx and Wackiness, of course!

“Kuma-san ni Tsuite” is a slightly uncomfortable love story between a woman who obsesses about teddy bears and her long-suffering friend.

“Spike Girls” is really interesting to me, not because it’s a perfectly respectable sport romance, but also because Takemiya Jin is also doing a sports romance as Junk-Lab, so clearly he’s really into the whole idea right now. :-) Jun is recruited by by Ichi-sempai to play on the volleyball team, but unexpectedly finds herself falling for Ichi-sempai, who was in love with her own sempai. Jun confesses, thinking that Ichi-sempai will be disgusted, but oh, look! not so much.

Mitsue Aoki’s “Sweet Room” is the kind of story that works only if you’re reading an anthology of a lot of one type of short story and you are therefore inclined to be a bit generous about handwaves that are awkward, because how many different ways are there, really, to tell the same story. Nozomi find a stranded high school girl and takes her into her home, because 1) she thinks high school girls are cute and 2) the girl was stranded, duh. But after the girl makes herself comfortable, pretty much moving in, Nozomi begins to doubt her own motives. When Nana seduces Nozomi, she’s wracked with guilt, unti Nana admits to being 21 and having made up the whole high school thing to appeal to Nozomi, who she overheard talking about how cute high school girls are at the convenience store where she works. Heh.

Miura Shion’s Yuri essay touches on Sasamekikoto and “Para Yuri Hime” is Fujio’s love letter to a school crush named Waka.

At the the Black Cat Mansion, tutor Jun rues the fact that she rejected her student Chiasa, on their last day together.

“Mahou no Te” is another over-complicated love story about a girl who learns that someone who touches you on the back of the arm is sure to be your true love, or something like that. Nasu is passively-aggressively in love with Seri. They embrace.

“Renai Joshika” follows Fumi, who falls in love with the woman behind the makeup counter. It turns out that “love” is the best makeup of all.

And this section, we’ll end end with “A Knife Edge Girl” which was probably the most realistic “friend in love with friend” story we’ve seen in a while. There’s a lot of interior emotion and some very little interaction, but it rings true in that a real love story is not one story – but two. Each of the people involved has their own story going on in their head, apart from the other. While this story only so far follows one character, we can see that the other has a whole separate set of stuff going on.

Up to this point, the magazine’s been better than average and has a fairly high percentage of grown up characters, which I will never complain about. The level of high melodrama is lower, and so is the “afterschool special” feel as compared to some of the stories we’ve had in the past.

Also, I’d like to note that the tone of obsessive destruction that used to walk hand in hand with Yuri is pretty much out of the picture now. No knives, paper cutters or rooftops threaten our Yuri with the grim specter of suicide. These characters might be depressed a bit when they think their love isn’t returned, but Yuri and madness no longer are equivalent.

In fact, what I’m seeing is more of that tectonic shift to strong characters, characters with jobs, lives, friends, characters with hobbies and interests and – can you believe it took this long – female characters in sports! ‘Bout time too. Honestly, you’d think *someone* would have written an Olympic-like competition Yuri story for this issue. Duuuuuuhhhhh……. However, I am sufficiently glad for the absence of Valentine’s Day stories. Phew.

Tectonic shift it may be, but I’m liking it.

Part 2 next.

Yuri Hime S, Volume 11 comes with a calendar for 2010, each month with an illustration by one of the artists from the magazine. Whether you think it’s great or mediocre will entirely depend on whether you like the artists in this magazine. The front illustration is hitting Dengeki Daioh levels of icky and then it heads right into that paean to passive-aggressiveness, “Flower Flower.” Nina sees Shuu through the eyes of the common people who adore her and at the end she’s still passive-aggressive

The second story of the collection was so surprising, so breathtakingly stellar, that the bulk of my review today will be centered around it. Minamoto Hisanari’s “Fu-Fu” is a story that I have already read three times and cannot stop boggling at how it managed to be included in this magazine and thanking the deities that it has.

Today is the first day that Su-chan and Kina are living together. They are already a couple, and clearly have taken the next step forward in their relationship. Kina asks if she can be Su-chan’s hanayome. That is, her bride. Su-chan wants to know why the word “lovers” (koibito) isn’t sufficient. Kina answers that their relationship is more than just lovers, now that they are living together, and she’d like a word that recognizes that fact. She suggests the traditional word for a married couple, fufu. This word is written 夫婦 in Japanese, the first character symbolizes the husband and the second, the wife. Kina likens it to sushi. Tuna is maguro, but there are specific words for the parts of the tuna that are special, toro, chuutoro and ohtoro. Likewise, when a person takes a special place in your life, there ought to be a word for it.

Before I deliver the punchline here, let’s stake a step back and look at the magazine once more.

This is Yuri Hime S which, since it’s inception, has targeted the male, moe Yuri audience. This is an audience that is not particularly LBGT friendly in any country, preferring to see Yuri as entertainment and titillation for them, and nothing to do with real, probably ugly lesbians who don’t really want them to watch, so screw off.

This story is quite sweetly making a case for what is arguably one of the two main issues involved in the question of same-sex marriage. One is, obviously, an issue of unequal rights and benefits. The other, more pernicious issue, is that of wording. The word “marriage” is powerful, precisely because it gives a name to a very specific joining of two people that is recognized by their community, potentially their deity, and their government at *all* levels. Likewise, the words “husband” and “wife” are equally powerful because they provide an instant way to establish the relationship between two people that combines their emotional and legal existence in one word.

Significant other, girlfriend/boyfriend, lover, just do not do that. They don’t and all of us who have to correct, reply, cajole, point out and casually mention what we call the other person in our lives who happens to be of the same sex, know that.

And here is this quiet little Yuri manga addressing what is a traditionally ultra-conservative group of people. (I was at a lecture at the Japan Society in which a Japanese art professor excoriated otaku for clinging to outmoded gender roles and national identity (I.e., focusing on fantasies of male/Japanese supremacy) to the exclusion of all else, but I sincerely doubt that the American otaku in the audience realized that he was talking to them, as well. Updated: I just read a chapter of Genshiken which made the same point, in which a male otaku insisted it wouldn’t be right for him to sit on a subway when there was a woman with him. She said, “how typical of an otaku.”)

I read this story open mouthed, agape, amazed and exultant. No, still not the “L” word, but I will gladly bypass that conversation to resolve this one. I will give up the word Lesbian, to be able to call the woman I love, “my wife.”

That is exactly what Kina and Su-chan do. While they can never be fufu, 夫婦 , they decide that they will be fufu, 婦婦. A word I whole-heartedly approve of.

This is meant to be a continuing series, so I now have a grain of hope that Su-chan and Kina will cutely and sweetly train the male Yuri fans of Japan to have a clue. In fact, between this and Poor Poor Lips I have more than a grain of hope. (Day 33, 2010 is *still* the best year ever!)

“Konohana Teikitan” has fox girls in kimonos doing things cutely for people who like that kind of thing.

“Osanajimi to Yobanaide” is a drippy looking story about a love polygon at school, by an artist who draws drippy looking stories about love polygons at school.

“Zettai Shoujo Astoria” combines EVERYTHING. For pity’s sake, even the title is a combo of everything ever. Rito comes to a new school, with a mysterious “unicorn horn”pendant around her neck and finds herself in love, then enmity, with her roommate and there’s school mysteries and stuff, and fighting, too. This series is a total ice cream sundae of a series and all it needs is a transformation scene to have one of each and some sprinkles on top.

I’ve stopped reading “Honey Crush.” Not because it offended or disgusted. I just got tired of it. It failed to hold my attention.

“Hatsujou Jijou” by the same artist who drew “Love Cubic” so I skipped in on principal.

Twice as much blood than ever before in “Shinigami Alice” which is desperately flailing for a plot. Dead people everywhere this time, including the protagonist. I guess that means something will actually happen now.

I can’t believe I’m saying this. I was so happy to see “Kaichou and Fukukaichou” in this volume. I guess I just wore down from the constant onslaught of carnival-head Yuri. Fine, fine, I like Hakamada Mera – are you *happy*?!?

In “Casseopeia Dolce” Anna gets lots of kisses and is surprised when her doll talks. I can’t imagine why…the one doll has been talking since the beginning of the series. Oh, and for some reason, not a single bath was taken this chapter. Takagi is falling down on the job.

“Yuru Yuri” follows that. Again, I have no particular reason to not read it except that it doesn’t interest me.

Yoshitomi Akihito’s “Futari to Futari” looks like every one of his last fifteen stories. I think he’s played out, overstretched, something. There hasn’t been a single story in any of his stories in three magazines for over a year.

More fox girls, more “Konohana Teiktan” followed by the resurrected, but no more interesting than it ever was “Nanami to Misuzu.”

Another skipped story and this time, I can’t even be bothered to translate the title it’s so unappealing. lol

“Ko-no-hana-link” finally hits the big day of the school festival and an old relationship drops by to cause a scene in front of Chieri. I find the title ironic, because it’s honestly quite difficult for me to remember who is who and what their relationships are from chapter to chapter. I expect a collected volume will help with that. I don’t blame the story – in fact, that single fact makes me believe that there’s an actual *story* in here, something more complex than “Story A.” One day I will read all of it in a row and find out what’s actually going on. :-)

I’m sorry, I’m just not as resilient as I used to be, so I skipped “Hime-chan ha yappari tereya-san” purely on account of the art.

Uso Kurata’s “Apocalypse” went somewhere I didn’t expect. When Matsuhara accidentally breaks Natsu’s game system, she asks Natsu and their friends to go on without her and lends Natsu her system. They do, and meet up with a guy wandering alone. He’s a nice guy, so they team up for that adventure. He sees Natsu’s marriage ring – that oh-so-rare item – and is kind of flipped out when he hears that she’s exchanged it with another woman. He writes it off as being just a game thing, and her friends don’t help by calling Matsuhara her “friend.” Although it’s just a game, Natsu wants to make sure she doesn’t leave Matsuhara behind, and asks Shibachi to lend her system this time, to let Matsuhara catch up. Clearly, Natsu has some reconciling her real feelings and their game relationship to do. I’m totally interested to see where this goes. Plus I really like Kurata’s art.

And finally, there’s a two-page short of drippy art that once again I skipped.

I’m sorry I skipped so much, but I’ve gotten to the point that I’m not wasting my time reading stuff that doesn’t interest me anymore. If you mostly disagree with me and my opinions, if you just read the stuff I skipped, you should probably be satisfied. ;-)

Ratings:

Overall – 7

Overall, the magazine was just as variable as ever, but the entire thing was made worth it by “Fufu.” That was such a significant, amazing story that I’d recommend the magazine just for it alone.