I admit it – I’m reviewing in size order, largest to smallest. My parents are coming at the end of the week and I’m trying to get the piles down to a size my father can watch the TV over. No joke.

Today, I’m going to tackle the second largest object in the pile, Comic Yuri Hime S, Volume 2. ^_^

Just as a reminder, CYHS is the brother compilation to Yuri Hime, in which artists who are well known for drawing highly servicey, moe and/or fetishy Yuri for a male readers are drawing Yuri for a more mixed audience.

My opinion of this magazine remains the same – it’s not as bad as I feared, but it’s not as good as I hoped. The “moe” part of the fandom means that many of the characters seem waaaaaaaayyyyy ootsy-cutesy or baby faced and I just will never, ever find that appealing. Sorry. If you do, then you will like this magazine better than I do.

The magazine begins with a few color pages on the recent Blue Drop anime, once again mirroring our conversations on the Yuricon Mailing List.

The first story is “Cassiopeia Dolce,” by Takagi Nobuyuki, creator of Kokoro Library. Anna arrives at Dolce to be the new worker and is surprised, confused and alarmed by the fact that the dolls are people, the people are really strange, and the girls seem to be kissing one another, and her, with alarming frequency. The story was just sort of silly, until the saliva string length contest began and I checked out. Not sexy at all. Ecch.

Kurogane Ken’s story “Watashi no Kido” was kind of suspended between two things that weren’t fully developed. The end of the world is coming and a bunch of girls gather on the roof to greet their death. Just as the end begins, Misa spots Yuma, who she had never had a chance to tell how she feels. In trying to call out to her, Misa falls off the roof, but (no deus ex machina here) ends up floating as the multiple-kanji explanation is given over the world PA system that I didn’t fully comprehend. Yuma and Misa end up floating together in space and kissing as the world probably doesn’t end, but I can’t be sure. lol When I have more time, I’ll give this one a closer look. Despite myself, I like Kurogane’s work.

“Flower Flower” by Iwami Shouko pickes up after Princess Nina has established her seme role over poor Princess Shuu. Shuu struggles to find a way to make Nina be nicer to her, which succeeds, but only in private. Poor Shuu. Poisoning Nina seems like the easiest route. The art is cute, the story is sort of soppy and I can see it going on eternally like this. I don’t dislike this story, but I hope something happens. Passive-aggressiveness isn’t a plot.

“Yappari Idol” by Araki Kanao lost me right from the first page. You like loli/moe, it’s perfect. Grow these kids up so that they are not repulsively young and then maybe I’ll care. Young idol is a lesbian, so gropes and kisses another idol. Yes, young lesbians are known for this kind of behavior and not say, years of confusion and self-loathing. Reading this story made me feel ucky.

Still with the schoolgirls, but much less nasty was “Sketch,” by Yoshitomi Akihito (Blue Drop.) Rika asks Sae to do a portrait of her, so she can give it to the person she likes. Sae knows that Rika’s seeing a sempai. As she works on the picture, she starts to realize that she’s in love with Rika. As Rika goes off to go on a date with the sempai, she gives all the pictures to Sae who, after a moment of hesitation, kisses her. The story is given a little depth and humor by the addition of a great analogy about apples being eaten. This story was sweet without being sickly and I like Yoshitomi’s art.

“Otome-iro Stay Tune” by Fujieda Miyabi was hysterical. Back in the studio with Arise and Hina, Arise is voice-acting the very Yuri story of a shoujo manga series that takes place at St. Lotecia’s Academy. Hina’s surprised, she’s not really a shoujo manga fan. Arise segues into using the manga as a pretext for playing with Hina’s hair, but talking about it in a way that listeners would get totally the wrong idea about what was going on in the studio. ^_^ The program producer and director approve. The last issue was so short, we barely had time to see who was who, but this issue was much better. I can see that this story isn’t going to be deep or emotional, but as art, characters and story are all kind of fun, I’m okay with it. As “funny” teasing goes, this was WAY better than Nina heaving books across a room.

“Minus Literacy.” I just don’t know where it’s going. We pick up at the end of last chapter with Iinchou somehow having been involved in Takeyama’s family drama, in which her deceased family left her millions of dollars in debt with only a big house filled with priceless treasure and money – and a maid. I just don’t get it.

If you are fan of the Lucky Star art style, you will probably enjoy “Kokoya Riron.” I am not. Therefore this short story filled with adorable little SD creatures assumably doing incredibly cute, yet somehow Yuri things was completely lost on me. It started with a snake puppet hissing “suki” and just went downhill from there.

Madoka has a boyfriend. In any other world, this would be a good thing, but if you are the ghost protagonist of “Honey Crush” by Tsubaki Asu, is it not. You would be reduced to playing mean-spirited little tricks on your love and her boyfriend in hopes of breaking them up. Kyouko arrives in time to stop ghost girl from kissing Madoka after inhabiting her boyfriend’s body. Kyouko confesses to Madoka, who plainly says she’s not interested. In the end, neither ghost nor girl are willing to give up on Madoka. Why? I have no idea. :-)

“Nanami to Misuzu” remains exactly the same as it always is. Goofball situations with Bwa-wa-waaaah punchlines. A new character shows up, in lieu of a plotline, a cute ninja girl this time.

In “Kuroi Hitomi no Majou” a serious first-year confesses to Satomi, who reacts coldly, then tortures herself about it. In the fine tradition of shounen manga, her “no” is completely ignored, because you know, she really didn’t mean it. Or something. Two Hakamada Mera stories where the girls didn’t skeeve me. It’s a miracle. They still have huge cabbage patch heads, though.

And last of all, the one story I was most looking forward to, the second chapter of Sudou Kaoru’s “Otome Kikan Gretel.” We last left Yuu in a state of complete and utter confusion as she inexplicably defeated a gigantic monster with powers she is now informed are “Aube” – Appearance of Unlimited Bio Energy. In other words, Nagi explains cheerfully, we’re all witches here. Mariya and Nagi defeat the big-ass monster, but it’s not really dead yet, so Nagi commands angry Mariya to kiss Yuu – deeply. It turns out that Yuu’s power is to absorb the powers of anyone she kisses, so…. The kiss occurs, Mariya and Yuu combine to defeat the plug-ugly Formica and thus it is that Yuu’s all-girl school life begins. This story is so dumb, I love it.

While Comic Yuri Hime S isn’t as full of joy for me as Yuri Hime is, it’s not bad, either. I’d like to see a lot less of the moe/loli/cute, but there’s just nothing I can do about that.

Overall – 6

I forgot to mention this yesterday – for some reason, in both YH magazines, there’s a bunch of reviews of manga that in no way at all look Yuri. Now, to be fair, I didn’t actually read the descriptions, but it really looks like a rattlebag of manga with no rhyme or reason. I suppose I should read the reviews to find out why they were mentioned, but I’m not going to. ^_^

Yuri Hime, Volume 10 comes in at a bulky 400 pages. Wow. Despite that, I’m going to try and review it in one post, because I have a gigantic backlog of things to review and only a week before I go away and don’t care for a while. So, let’s see if I can keep the story synopses short and sweet. (But not alliterative, because that would be annoying.)

To begin with, this volume comes with a lovely clear file with the cover picture of Seriho and Sarasa (in tie, notably designed by Alice Quartet. AQ is another Fujieda series about five clothing designers. Yes, five.) Very nice.

The volume starts out with “Clover” the beginning of a new series by Hiyori Otsu; a tale of four sisters, a transfer student, an embarrassing situation and whimsical desire to ride on the luggage rack of a subway car. Thumbs up as always from me for Otsu’s art and characters.

“Arcadia” is a story of love between Yui-chan, a typical schoolgirl and Nanako, a wandering spirit that loves her. There was nothing particularly stand out about this, nor was it in any way horrible. Sweet and forgettable.

Ash and Towa play out two parts of the same story in “Epitaph,” in which chance(?) encounters bring a mother and daughter together.

Miura Shion’s Yuri essay covered a story I had never heard of – “Honey Honey-Pie” from a collection called “So Long.” I’ve got it in my Amazon JP cart now.

“Apple Day Dream” continues as Kaoru attempts to find the guts she needs to tell Mayu how she feels, while Mayu takes the opportunity on their date to explain that she is neither tsundere or an ice queen – it’s just in her nature to be that way. I almost liked this chapter. The clothes were nice, at least. (This is meant to be ironic, as the story *is* about clothing designers.)

The newest chapter of “Cleo the Crimson Crises” (still a great title) follows Suo’s friend Momo as she’s approached, glomped and “befriended” by newcomer Kiki (whose name screams “watch out – bad thing lives here!) while Cleo hugs Suo in lots of interesting poses. I keep waiting for something to happen, but the art is such a train wreck, I’m not sure I’ll notice when it does. ^_^

I was surprised to find that Kazuma Kowo’s story was continued from last volume in “Tsumasamadachi October.” Nanao meets Mastumoto-sensei by chance and when the teacher’s friends make fun of them, implying a crush, Nanao is fast to deny it. But Mastumoto is just as fast to say that she’s damn sexy and she can prove it. Nanao is left with a drunken teacher sleeping it off on the sofa. Personally, I’d write on her face or something. lol I liked this story for reasons I can’t quantify. I just liked it.

Chi-Ran has a story in which two girls are in love and they kiss. Brilliant! “Himitsu Shoujo” is pretty much like everything else she does.

One of my top three stories in the book, “20 musume x 30 otome” (The 20 year old girl and the 30 year old virgin) by Morishima Akiko follows the trials and tribulations of 30-year old art teacher Keiko, when she agrees to go out with her 20-year old student Emi. Blinded by Emi’s shinyness and youth, Keiko comes to face with lots of issues she didn’t know she had. It’s cute, it’s about grownups and it’s got a sweet ending.

Takahashi Mako once again explores the world of neurotic Yuri in “Kumo no Ito”. It was yuck – creepy horrible kids doing creepy horrible things, but hey, it’s LOVE! Gah.

“Strawberry Shake” was brilliance. Best chapter yet. Hayashiya Shizuru’s art is really peaking. Love love love, is all about as Julia and Ran learn what Zlay band lead Ryou wanted with them after all. And once they clear the level of dealing with the clothes – which were great, btw – they run into the big boss. They are being asked to kiss on stage. This precipitates a major crisis and an even more major confession. It was a terrific chapter from beginning to end. It was worth getting the book just for this.

But, since we *have* the book already, we also ought to enjoy “Ameiro Kouchkan Kandan” by Fujieda Miyabi. Sarasa barely notes the fun of the school trip, so focused is she on things at home. The other girls aren’t stupid – they recognize love when they see it, but Sarasa is still mortified when Haru fills them in on the fact that it’s someone older. Meanwhile, at the tea shop, two customers ask Seriho if she misses Sarasa, ’cause she seems out of it. Seriho agrees that when Sarasa’s not around, she let’s things slide, but the two women, who admit to having been together for 15 years ,say they they weren’t talking about the shop. When Sarasa returns, Seriho has a suprising (and happy-making) question for her. Wonderful chapter. Wonderful story. I love Fujieda’s ability to do Yuri with high moe content that is neither fetishy, nor shallow.

Ryounosuke tells us a bit about himself, and his life, before he considered becoming a woman in “Mermaid Line.” He tells Mayumi that he’s considering beginning hormone therapy, but has some issues – and obviously, so does Mayumi. Will this bring them closer or break them up? You’ll have to read the chapter to find out.^_^ I like how this story is dealing with deeper feelings, and confusions and worldviews, without being strident.

“Nanami to Isuzu” remains wacky without being funny. I’ll be honest, I barely skimmed this one. If you want to tell everyone how it went, feel free to do so in the comments field. ^_^

Plot complications fall thick and fast, as we get a load of tragic Yuri backstory for Sawacchi in “Aoi Shiro.” Luckily, as quickly as she burdens us with her past, she sheds it in the face of Momo’s cheerfulness, until…gasp! A relic of the past comes back! Shock! Confusion! I found this to be a realllly long chapter for some reason. It wasn’t bad, but it dragged. Maybe half a dozen plot complications at once was a bit too much.

“Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen” reaches a new level of bizarre as Arare is confronted by her classmates who are distressed at the idea of running a marathon. “If you’re a rain fairy, make it rain,” they say. Sadly, her advice turns them into a room full of teruterubozu, thus practically guaranteeing a beautiful day and a weird-ass end to the chapter. Pun intended.

Morishima Akiko weighs in again, this time with the next droolly-faced entry of “Yuri x Yuri Mimasen.” This time she and her editor take a break from creating Yuri, to attend (and throw lots of cash at) the all-Yuri doujinshi event, “Maiden’s Garden.” Jealous? Who, me? Grrrrrr.

Drama scatters like falling leaves in “Hatsukoi Shimai,” where Miyu and Kirika share memories of themselves as children and face a crisis in which Miyu, who has been given the role of the Princess for the school play (again) runs away form the Drama Club. She is sick to death of playing princesses and wants to do something else, but when she expressed this, she seen as being too big for her britches. She resolves her angst by deciding to play a very tomboyish princess. Akiko learns that Touko-sensei’s time at the school is coming to an end (nooooooo!) and Teshigawara gets extra grumpy to drive of the cute younger girl who’s been hanging around her. Haruna and Chika plan an afternoon of relaxation in their secret place; Chika runs off to get drinks when out of her past comes Haruna’s evil plot complication, erm, sempai. As always, I really like this. But if Touko-sensei and Akiho don’t get together soon, I may be forced to pout.

Hakamada Mera’s “Ame to Hatsukoi” follows the usual progression of rain=angst, sharing umbrella=love, to a first kiss that threatens to become a lot of kisses. Yukari-chan runs away into the rain, terrified of her desire, but Ebi-chan follows with an umbrella of love and more kisses.

Good volume? Yes. Absolutely. Percentage-wise, there was significantly more I loved than any other volume previously. I figure if there’s three stories I really like, then a magazine’s doing good – this one had 7. And the clear file. Yay.

I really wish this magazine would go monthly, but I don’t know how they’d do it. The artists already have brutal schedules.

Overall – 8

If you’re not getting this magazine, then you *are* missing some of the best Yuri out there. Sure, scanlations are nice for you, but I want the artists to be able to pay their bills. Buy it.

While I gladly lined up for all of the first round of Yuri Hime Comics, the second round has been a little less delightful. Of the six or so releases, I’ve only purchased three: Hatsukoi Shimai, Volume 2, Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu and the subject of today’s review, Kawaii Anata (かわいいあなた) by Hiyori Otsu.

(If you are interested in any of the collections that I will not review, use these links to get yourself your own copy from Amazon Japan, and by all means, feel free to send me your review as a Guest reviewer! Apple Day Dream, Otome Cake, Sunset Prince and Dawn Princess, Nanami and Misuzu, Volume 1.)

It took me a while to realize that I consistently liked Otsu’s work. None of her stories are “Oh my god that’s brilliant!” They tend to be more on the order of, “That was pleasant.” So it wasn’t until we had had about 4 or 5 stories that I realized that I just liked the author, period.

Kawaii Anata is named after the story of the same name, about a boyish girl in an all-girl’s school who is given the role of the Prince to play for the school festival, as expected. The girl she likes volunteers to play the Princess, and in the course of their rehearsals together, it is the Princess who turns out to rescue the Prince, from her own self-loathing and the careless, not ill-meant, but still damaging teasing from the other girls.

The book begins with “Maple Love” which follows the meeting and wooing of Satonaka Kaede by Miyaji Erika. It’s probably the first story I really took note of, because the characters are in college and it’s not a typical “first crush” story. Erika calmly announces that she prefers girls, to which Kaede replies that she doesn’t care. Let’s test that, Erika says and kisses Kaede, who slaps her. Erika retreats laughingly to being a friend, but their relationship progresses anyway. The only down side to this story is the bad non-joke at the end. Rimshot, please.

“Love Letter” is slightly more bitter than sweet story about a girl realizing what her feelings are, and how much she will never get what she wants, no matter how much she tries to look and act like the guy her best friend likes. The redeeming quality of this story is that while yes, a heart breaks, it breaks quietly and in private and she moves on with no outrageous and useless drama.

“Hoshizora Cycling” was probably the first Otsu story to appear in Yuri Hime. Or, if it isn’t, it was one of the early ones. A transfer student who is not strong physically gets bicycle rides to school from another girl. They grow closer as time passes. One night, they find themselves wishing on a star, but when Mako confesses that her wish was for Momo to like her, Momo responds by bopping her on the head, because…duh, she already does.

Another love triangle leaves our protagonist in “Fuyu-iro omoi” out of the running, but this time, all three are women. Shizuka knows she’s lost before she’s started, but is still there for her sempai when *her* heart takes a beating. And in the final story, “Kokoro Bento,” Shizuka’s feeling for her classmate Izumi now strengthen, and this time, they may just be returned. We all know that the way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach, after all. (Well, it is to mine, anyway.)

All of Otsu’s art is crisp, clean, easy to follow and simple. If you like Aoi Hana by Shimura Takako, you’ll probably like Kawaii Anata It has a similar art style (in a broad, general sense) and a similar lack of screaming hysterics, even when the story includes tears. Let’s call it “not shrill.” In any case…I like it.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Stories – variable, but they average at about 7
Characters – ditto, 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Nothing paradigm shifting, but there’s a few fine cut gems in the job lot, if you know what I mean.

The second half of Yuri Hime, Volume 9 brings back the incredibly weird and wonderful “Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen,” with a splash page that is so horrible and distressing that it makes me laugh every time I look at it. It’s hot, Arare, Kiri and Pero comment, because, duh, it’s summer. But that also means it’s time for the summer sea to arrive here at the school for supernatural creature girls! Arare has no idea what that means, but when Pero takes her to look out the window, instead of a forbidding winter sea crashing against the rocks below the school, there’s a veritable tropical paradise. The rest of the chapter is taken up by Arare’s trials as she keeps ripping bikini bottoms in an attempt to hide the proof of her humanity, her belly button. It’s all goofy and creepy fun here at Monster High.

Mori Natsuko’s “Yuri Doujou” advice column takes a look at the continuing stories of some of the folks who wrote in for advice previously. It’s all pretty banal, but heck, love problems *are* banal.  ^_^

FINALLY!! In this chapter of “Hatsukoi Shimai” secrets and flings and crushes are flying thick and fast. Teshigawara’s crush on Akiho is made a little plainer for the idiots like me who thought it was on Chika. The mysterious girl who so troubled Teshigawara last issue reappears and sets her a-fuming all over again. Chika and Haruna spend the chapter being all lovey-dovey, sharing baby pictures and making us all ill with their cuteness. But, we learn that Haruna and Akiho do have a terrible secret! Shock! Chika must never find out! Touko-sensei is reminded that her time at Tsunojo is coming to an end, so she hares off to find Akiho in the Library (can I just say something here? I am clearly either a genius, or Japanese artists are plagiarizing the heck out of my fanfic. I wrote Touko and Akiho in the library before there was even a Hatsukoi Shimai manga.  More likely, it was so obvious that I and the manga writer just came to the same conclusion. But still, first Hana no Asuka-gumi and now this.) Akiho confides in Touko about her terrible secret, which I will not spoil, because it ain’t all that terrible, really. In return Touko moves in to kiss Akiho, *finally.* Geez. But Akiho pushes herself off and runs away. I’m just glad that Akiho and Touko’s relationship is getting some attention. I really want them to get together, despite the questionable ethics of the situation.

In the last scene Miyu is watching Kirika practice archery. There’s an exchange of words, Miyu goes to run off and as she leaps after her friend/lover to grab her, Kirika drops like a stone to the ground. Gasp! We must wait until October to find out what happens.

Some color pages on Soulphage, an apparently all-girl private school game, Blue Drop, an upcoming anime based on the manga of the same name and more “buy our game!” coverage of the Simoun game.

The second chapter of “Creo of the Crimson Crises” was not as fun as the first. Suou complains about having been placed in an unremovable collar. Creo doesn’t care, a magical mascot creature appears and gives an important message, Creo disappears. Suou’s best friend who has a crush on her tries to remove the collar. They both end up going to Suou’s older sister’s where they find Creo already there. Suou’s sister asks Creo to take care of Suou. Bwa bwa bwaaaaah…. There’s some portentous stuff in there too that I’m sure will be important later on. But Suou’s whining got on my nerves. lol

Mana and Chiyo are two little girls with more than little feelings for one another. They talk around it a bit in Takahashi Mako’s “Hitosubu no Umi.” I didn’t like it enough to bother translating the title.

“Mermaid Line” continues from last issue as Megumi goes out with some poor unsuspecting schlub as a beard for her real feelings, (even though she won’t let him tell anyone that they are going out) while Aoi is now as outcast as Megumi had been for being labeled “rezu.” (“Rezu” or “les” is kind of like lesbo or dyke in English. It’s meant to be understood as a slur in this case.) When her boyfriend makes a casual remark about their relationship, Megumi realizes that she’s lying to him, and herself about her feelings. Aoi finds herself looking at a picture book of the Little Mermaid story and berates herself for her stupidity. Megumi finds her there and complains that in that story both mermaid and prince were really dumb. As Megumi smiles at her, Aoi starts to cry at both of their stupidity. The story will continue next month, I’m interested to see where it goes now.

In Hakamada Mera’s “Kurozukme no Onna no Ko” a little black-haired, black-clothed girl is very overprotective of the woman she lives with – going so far as to drive potential suitors away and rubbing herself all over her friend. When the girl turns out to be a cat, I’m sure plenty of folks who were not me said “awwww.” (I had read a nearly identical story in Carmilla magazine ages ago. I kind of liked that one better, since there was a creepier vibe. The cat/girl was shown as a normal-sized girl, dressed all goth in black, with a collar and doing all the same cat things. It had a SM sort of vibe about it, which worked.) This one works too. And it isn’t a school story. It’s just not my cup of tea.

Hiyori Otsu’s “Proof of Love” is the second teacher crush story (assuming one doesn’t count “Hatsukoi Shimai”) and of the two, the one I like best. A teacher is sitting down having a smoke, when she is approached by a young woman who asks, “do you remember me?” The teacher (who I don’t ever think gets a name) flashes back to five years previously when she entered a classroom to find two girls kissing. One of the two takes off immediately, but the other, third-year student Haseno sticks around. The teacher asks her if she likes the other girl, to which Haseno replies no, that was a “give up” kiss. In the course of the conversation Haseno kisses the teacher, then admits that she likes the teacher…but will not give up. Now, five years later, Haseno is a new student teacher at the school, and she wants an answer to her proposition. :-) The end. More and more I’m coming to like Otsu’s work. She tends to have older characters and even though there are often set in schools and colleges, they are not always same-old retreads of school girl crushes.

In “Apple Day Dream” it’s time to go to watch fireworks and Kaoru dreams of getting Mayu in sexy yukata and having her way with her. She comes closer than usual, but is interrupted by coworkers. At this point I can’t really tell if Mayu is actually uninterested or not, since as a passive-aggressive character her job is to protest all the time. Kaoru, of course, is always so pervtastic that it’s not unreasonable for Mayu to protest. Personally, they exhaust me.  ^_^

The last story, “Butterfly 69” is, in my opinion, wonderful. I cannot express how much I enjoyed it. At a private music school for girls, half-Japanese, all-punk bad-girl Maria is pretty outcast, but she doesn’t care. Her love is given to her rock band and to the president of the student council, Ageha. Ageha not only returns her love – and desire – she basks in it. Ageha supports Maria in everything. But when Maria’s band, Butterfly 69, starts to sell out performances and gets a deal with a recording company in the US, she tells Maria that she won’t be going with her, her family is a main sponsor of this school, and she plans on remaining here after graduation. She insists that Maria goes, though, and become the singer she wants to be. Ageha takes Maria’s earring and pierces her own ear with it, then stops talking to Maria at school completely. Maria, suffering in silence, one day overhears a teacher badmouth her; then overhears Ageha’s response, which is to rip the teacher a new orifice. She calls the teacher jealous of Maria’s voice – a voice which could change the world. As a going away present, Maria’s band hijacks the senior concert and does a live performance, where Maria sings her heart out, hoping that Ageha will hear her message of love. She does. In the final few pages, the school is in an uproar – the massively famous lead singer of the number one band Butterfly 69 is at the school! Ageha comes out of the school to find Maria standing in front of a Porsche in the parking lot. In front of everyone, she launches herself into Maria’s arms for a passionate welcome home kiss. A perfect end to a great story and a really strong ending to the book. While the art is in no way clean, the energy it conveys to the characters is a perfect fit. I’ve liked both the Yuri Hime stories by Natsuneko and look forward to more.

As always, while not everything was to my taste, I liked well over half of the 300+ pages and about a third I really liked or loved. So, a strong thumbs up from for Yuri Hime 9!

Yuri Hime, Volume 9, starts off with a not horrible poster by Sakura Kinoshita of – I know you’ll be shocked – school girls. (I say “not horrible” because with *every* issue of Dengeki Daioh magazine, I open the book, look at the posters, cringe, then vow to burn them. It’s made me wary of those first-page posters.)

We move right into a new manga based (probably pretty loosely) upon a new game by the same folks that brought the world the lily-scented vampire game Aka Ito. “Aoi Shiro” follows Akita Momoko as she enters the girls’ private school that she has aspired to. When she enters her room, she finds a girl sitting there, looking pale and tragic. After a short time, Momoko decided that she likes her roommate, Aizawa Yasumi, and thinks that she’d like to see the serious girl smile. The two become closer, mostly due to Momoko’s irrrepressable good nature. Momo gets “Zawachi” to smile eventually. Ultimately, Yasumi confides in her. When end of term comes, and Yasumi admits her grief at the loss of her mother, and the loss of an admired sempai, Momoko is right there to pick up the pieces. This is a first chapter with a low Yuri quotient. But it’s a nice friendship, with a lot of embracing and we’ll see what progresses.

Teen star Julia has won a trip for two to a high-end resort in this issue’s “Strawberry Shake Sweet” and she asks recently debuted idol Ran to come along. Ran initially says no, thinking that the two of them alone would be a bad thing, now that she’s decided that she’s in love with Julia, but the idea of Julia going alone is even worse so…. Now both Ran and Julia fight off temptation as they travel to and arrive at the resort. Just as they relax for a second, they are shocked to find that Ryou, the lead singer of the all-lesbian band Zlay, is sitting a floor below them. When Ran comes to the balcony, Ryou’s gaydar tingles visibly. She asks if they have plans and, when they say they don’t, asks them to join her for a consultation. The chapter ends there, and I have to admit – I’m intrigued. What could Ryou possibly need to discus with Julia and Ran???

“Summer Window Syndrome” is one of two teacher-crush stories in this volume. In this case, school doctor Mastumoto-sensei is speaking to student Nanao, who insists that she not be called by her given name. When pressed as to why, she admits that hearing Matsumoto-sensei say her name, she begins to shake in a distinctly crush-y way. Matsumoto kisses Nanao, and later when the teacher is asleep in the bed in the health office, Nanao returns the favor. Matsumoto awakens, asks her what she’s doing. When Nanao says she was just playing, the doctor tells her to do it seriously. It’s a nice, if provocative, one-shot.

“Epitaph” continues from last issue as Ash fights off some threatening behavior from adults who ought to know better. When they return to their home, Towa flashes back to her lonely existence at a hospital sans family. She was rescued from her loneliness by Ash. When the same two men attack them later, Ash defends Towa, who licks Ash’s wound. That night Ash kisses a sleeping Towa, affirming that their life together is what saved her too. So, the Yuri quotient is up, but my opinion is still in reserve on this series, while I wait for the plot to arrive. (Good god, I’m being hard on this series. lol)

The essay on Yuri manga covers Himitsu no Kaidan, which I have reviewed here, as well.

This issue’s “Nanami and Misuzu” is comprehensible for a chance, but not any funnier than usual. Nanami’s cat ears appear to be missing. This puts the class president (who has cat ears) into a near hysterical state and forces her to be bedridden. But, oh, wait, the ears were there all along – they were just under Nanami’s hair. … Ha? …

Next up is “Soshite, Bokura ha Ai wo Mezasu” (“I’ve got our love in sight”, or something close to it). This comic has Morishima Akiko’s trademark chubby-cheeked faced characters. For the adult scenes it’s a nice look, but the kiddy scenes look a bit Hakamada Mera-ish for me. Shinobu is a successful career woman who lives with her sempai, whom she met way back when she was 13 and Lalaa was 17. Despite the four-year difference between them, Lalaa looks much younger than her age. She works at a cosplay store and is, no doubt, very popular because she looks underage. But in their relationship, Lalaa is still sempai. Shinobu flashes back to their meeting in which Lalaa was her savior, when she became emotionally overcome from family situations and fell in the rain. Now, as an adult, the rain still affects Shinobu the same way. When a downpour arises, she collapses to the ground, only to have her beloved Lalaa appears and rescue her once again. It’s a love-love ending all around.

I’ll end today’s review with Chi-Ran’s “Dream Drops.” Miki is in love with Yui, but can’t tell her. On the way home, a magic urchin offers her the deal of the year – a little bottle full of candy that will give her dreams that will be her desires. Miki buys the drops and immediately dreams of her and Yui becoming friends…then more. When she and Yui meet accidentally at school, Yui reddens then runs off and Miki is mortified to think that her fantasies have been discovered. After her last dream drop shows Miki the two of them happily holding hands, she throws caution to the wind and confesses. She shows Yui the bottle the drops came in. Yui’s response? “You too?” We can only assume that they are destined for happily ever after. ^_^

Fundamentally, the first half of this volume was pretty strong. Other than “Nanami to Misuzu” which…well, I won’t beat this horse anymore. It’s just not funny to me. Otherwise, it was a nice variety with some non-school stories to break up those ever-present schoolgirl crushes. And the art was, by and large, decent and variable, with probably something for everyone. I favor Hayashiya’s clean, open art over something like “Aoi Shiro,” but in general, a really strong level of variety. And as far as I can see, the second half continues the trend, so check back tomorrow for the rest of the review.  ^_^