In Volume 1 of Soirée Gakkyuu, we met Beni and Ruri, two close friends who attend an unconventional high school with a host of other characters for whom the traditional high school model is just not going to work. The story is told, generally, from the perspective of one of their classmates who becomes their friend, Yanagi.

In Volume 2, the final school festival of their time at this school approaches and they decide to actually do a thing. They set up an elaborate haunted house with effects and costumes. Beni is in charge of getting people in – challenging at this school, where participation is not required.

While at the festival, a couple of guys mack on Beni and take pictures of her in costume. When they appearoin an amateur photo site, she’s not all that displeased. We get a little more development of Beni as a person, but then, something happens. Ruri can see something has happened – they all can all see something has happened, but Beni isn’t saying.

Ultimately we learn that Beni’s family is moving to Shanghai. They offer her a chance to stay and finish up school, but she’s torn. When she finally tells Ruri, we can see she feels guilty for wanting to go and live a different life completely. Ruri sees it too, and lets Beni go. Any threads that might have held Beni back are unraveled as they admit the importance each other has in their life, but they need to move on.

The book wraps up with each of the characters graduating at their own pace and moving on. An epilogue five years later brings Beni and Ruri back together for a night, in which they talk like they used to – just like old times, but nothing more or less.

I’m not going to lie, I was a little sad at the end, when I felt that the writing skirted any of the things that might have been said, but it also seemed consistent with the story as we were told it. And then the mangaka’s notes at the end of the volume went on in detail about the office chair she sits in, so maybe it was okay that it ended that way.

Ratings:

Art – 6 
Story – 6 
Characters – 6 
Yuri – 0
Service – 1

Overall – 6 it had potential, but stayed where it was and ended up a nice enough thing to read but nothing that has to be read again.

Probably-a-vampire Yuri manga number 3
Was not just a waste of a tree
It was dumber than hell
And it knew it quite well
So I’ll read Volume 2…maybe.

Makioka Shizue is starving. 

She’s living alone, in penurious circumstances, has no money for food, no way to cook it. As Shizue drags her hungry ass in to school at Yomaiyocho Girls’ School, she sees two girls in what appears to be a compromising situation. As she hurries along, she realizes that 1) that girl with the dark hair was her classmate Endou Yasuko and 2) she wasn’t kissing the other girl…she was sucking her blood! Horror fills Shizue, so when Endo Yasuko catches up with her, she quite naturally asks if Yasuko is a vampire. 

No, Endou Yasuko replies, I’m a serial killer. (The kanji for which indicates an “abnormal eater.”) Oh okay then.

Welcome to Endou Yasuko ha Yomaiyochou ni Kakureteru (遠藤靖子は夜迷町に隠れてる). This gets my award for best title of the year. I’d probably go with “Endou Yasuko Disappears into the City of the Night” if  I had to translate it. 

Yasuko has a problem – finding food can be difficult. It keeps running away. Shizue has a problem, she also wants food. Yasuko proposes a plan – Shizue be food for her and can live in her spacious apartment, she’ll cook for her. It’s win-win…as long as Shizue doesn’t mind being Yasuko’s meal plan. She doesn’t mind. 

Another schoolmate hates Endou Yasuko. So much so that she rents an American Vampire hunter to track her down. Only Ashley Nelson turns out to like Japanese food and manzai comedy more than vampire hunting, so she sticks around and slacks on the job.

So, despite an unsolved mystery of three missing students and a blood sucking demon in class, we turn our attention to the school festival! We’re doing a haunted house….duhhhhhh……

I have really come to love Shounen Gahosha titles. They are trash, but they are unrepentant, fun, trash. FLOWERCHILD is having a lot of fun with this story and we might as well get the popcorn out and have a good time reading. The art is about what I’d expect for a Young King title, with busty characters drawn just not right, and a dollop of random undressing, but otherwise competent.

This not a Yuri title, but it is a vampire-at-a-girls’ school title, so some service. Shizue and Yasuko are beginning to truly care for one another by the end of this volume.

Most importantly for us here in the west, Seven Seas has licensed this title for English release as Hungry For You: Endo Yasuko Stalks the Night, which will be hitting shelves in May 2018! 

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – An utterly absurd 8
Characters – 9
Service – 5 Vampire-at-a-girls’ school
Yuri – 2, maybe, but you can make it work if you want.

Overall – Entertaining, trashy 8

I declare that henceforth, all vampire Yuri will be reviewed by limerick on Okazu. ^_^ This one was a joint effort by my wife and I. 

Today we’re doing that thing where a series is on Yuri lists for so long and so consistently even though it’s really obvious that there isn’t any Yuri,  that we can only avoid it so long. And we’ve done a pretty good job of avoiding it, I have to say. Three years of pretending it just doesn’t exist, in fact. ^_^  

Over the years I have developed a little mnemonic device for myself when in Tokyo – Look for it in Book-Off first. (“Duh~~~~~” is understood.) This come from years of buying a book in Toranoana or wherever, then finding it used at Book-Off or K-Books for a few bucks. Took me like a decade to really grok this, but eventually it sunk in and now our first shopping day in Tokyo is confined to used book stores, then after a couple more shopping days, I now know what I want, then I go back to Book-Off and really look for stuff. Which is how I found this volume for 400￥. Which, I guessed is pretty much what it would be worth to me.

Well, I was right about the Yuri, but I was totally wrong about it’s worth. Because Shinmai Shimai no Futari Gohan, Volume 1 (新米姉妹のふたりごはん) is really a lot of fun. I’m definitely going to be looking for the next volume and I really hope it never actually becomes a Yuri manga, to be honest. 

Sachi and Ayari are sisters by marriage and while their parents are off on an extended honeymoon, move in together. Sachi’s a little afraid of her somewhat unfriendly new little sister. But, when a Jamón Serrano arrives, as a present from Dad, it turns out that Ayari’s one real passion is cooking. Sachi’s one real passion is eating, and so the  sisters begin to bond. 

Each chapter is centered around a not-at-all-simple recipe, often with relatively exotic ingredients and Sachi and Ayari getting to know a bit about one another. Sachi, having been thrust into a position of being an “older sister” is a little overwrought about being a good older sister. The absolute saving grace of this manga is that as Ayari is good at cooking, which is exactly what Sachi needs, Sachi turns out to be good at math and helps Ayari out on her problem subject at school. Once Sachi settles in to the role, she makes a good older sister, taking her lonely sister out for a movie and shopping, introducing her to her friends and just being really appreciative of Ayari. You can see that having Sachi in her life  is good for Ayari. By the end of Volume 1 they are lightening up a lot around each other.

As I read this volume, I’m obviously comparing and contrasting it with another sisters by marriage manga, Saburouta’s citrus. Hands down, this story wins. Yes, the premise is stupid and so are the absurdly complicated recipes (Oh, sure, I just nip out for a wheel of raclette,) but it’s 100x more fun to read.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story  – 6 Ridiculous, but fun
Characters – 8 Both Sachi and Ayari would be welcome over for lunch (especially if Ayari cooked)
Service – 1 if you think like that
Yuri – 0

Overall – 8 

So where’s the Yuri? There is none in Volume 1 and  my guess is that it is primarily in the heads of fans who cannot imagine a non-romantic show of affection between female two human beings. Doesn’t matter, I’ll definitely look for Volume 2.

Lily Lily Rose by Konno Kita, is an unexpectedly pleasant manga with some LGBTQ-relevant situations.

Nobara’s twin sister is dead and she is in the position of having to care for her niece, Lily. Nobara’s not a bad person, she’s just slightly eccentric. She lives in a house along with many cats and a first-floor boarder, Maya. The two women welcome Lily, an understandably frightened little girl who rarely speaks, into their lives. 

Nobara and Lily slowly open up to one another, while Maya instantly takes a liking to the child. As Lily gets used to the house, it’s occupants and visitors (including the ghosts of two girls who like to dance in the garden), she eventually heads to school. Slowly and carefully Lily makes friends, and becomes more verbal.

The crises are small when the relate to Lily. The first big crisis comes in regards to an older woman who visits Nobara from time to time. A young girl stalks them for a while and finally comes out with an accusation – the older woman, Satome, is her father and he and Nobara must be hiding an affair. Nobara denies this, and says she’s lovers with Maya – which takes Maya by surprise, since they aren’t. Satome admits that she wants to be able to be herself and although she goes home with her daughter, there’s still a lot for them to talk through.

What, exactly Maya and Nobara’s relationship is, is never stated. They are clearly close emotionally and Maya and she touch comfortably as people who have known each other a long time might. When Nobara is unhappy, Maya comforts her with a hug. But, after Lily’s father comes by see Lily, and to apologize for being unable to take care of himself, much less his daughter, Nobara tells Maya of Yurika’s, her twin’s, suicide in the final pages of the volume. Maya reaches out to touch Nobara, and is brushed away rudely, as tension lays unexpressed between them.

The art is purely Konno-sensei. Ephemeral and light, populated by animals and spirits, exactly what one would hope from the person who created the Yuri classic Himitsu no Kaidan (Volume 1 and Volume 2). The story is less grim than I expected, even with a suicide as a backdrop. Some of Konno-sensei’s work in the early days of Yuri Hime were filed with incest and violence. The ghosts here are laughing and dancing, which is a massive improvement from my perspective.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
LGBTQ – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

I was thrilled to see something new from Konno-sensei and even more pleased to enjoy it as much as I did.