Q: When is a Yuri manga not a Yuri manga?

A: When it has no Yuri.

This may seem like a zen koan, but it is in fact, the subject of our attention today. Futaribeya (ふたりべや) frequently appears on Yuri manga lists, and yet, has no actually Yuri beyond a tense moment in a single panel once a volume.

<– This cover is wholly unrelated to the content of the volume. 

This is sort of existentialist Yuri. Can Yuri exist only in the minds of the readership and the manga still be seen as “Yuri”? I’m going to have to say yes, as so many of the series reviewed here over the years existed as Yuri only in the headcanon of dedicated readers – Aria and Lucky Star spring to mind immediately. Neither had the slightest hint of Yuri, but both were obsessively seen as “Yuri” series. And now, we have Futaribeya to add to that voluminous list.

Note to angry Twitterer Whoops who sent me art of the two characters snuggling to prove I am wrong:  That art, while by the creator, does not appear in or have anything to do with the actual printed content of Volume 1 and 2 of the manga. You can write whatever story you’d like in your head, you don’t need my validation.

Futaribeya, by Yukiko, is a 4-panel comic strip about two girls who share an off-campus apartment close to their school. Sakurako lives relatively far away and so her parents wanted her to room with someone else. Her roommate is Kasumi, a beautiful  girl, who always has a part-time job, does some light magazine modeling, is always hot and has narcolepsy. That’s pretty much all the jokes there are. Sakurako is the responsible one, Kasumi is a layabout at home, because she works so hard.

This cover is likewise wholly unrelated to the content. —>

The Yuri is thin. Sakurako’s younger sister has a crush on Kasumi, and every once in a while Kasumi and Sakurako are too close and suddenly looking too deeply into each other’s eyes, before they pull away in embarrassment. Bwah~ bwah~waaaahhh~.

And yet, this series consistently comes up on Yuri manga lists. I’m not entirely sure why. So, we come back to the question I began with –  When is Yuri not really Yuri? When there is no Yuri between the covers, but entirely in between the readers’ ears.  Surely we’ve moved beyond headcanon as primary criterium? I mean, sure, once upon a time, making up stories between the two principals was the bulk of Yuri, but it’s already more than a decade since we needed that kind of filler in our Yuri repertoire.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Not particularly great
Story – 4 Not actually existent
Characters – 4 Not geuinuinely developed
Service – 1 Not seriously annoying
Yuri – 0 Not literally there

Overall – 5 Not really worth it

There is no Yuri here. This is a generic 4-koma school life comedy that is considered Yuri only by the kinds of people who cannot imagine two women sharing a room who are not in love.

Nonoka Tatsu’s Nari x Yuki Living, Volume 1  (なり×ゆきリビング 1) is an ant-farm of  manga. The entertainment is watching these two go about their lives in which nothing particular happens. It’s not that it’s not entertaining, just that you have to scale down your expectations in order to find it enjoyable.

Shinomine Kanari is a bit helter skelter, while Sato Yuki is very reliable. Sato is the section chief, at Shinomine’s workplace. When Shinomine, after  a workplace drinking party suddenly asks Sato if she can live with her, as Sato lives so much closer to the office, Sato says yes. And so Yuki and Nari begin their life as roommates. Their life is predictable and fun in it’s own way. They work, they come home, have dinner, go shopping or go out drinking, rinse repeat. Normal lives lived normally.

The manga is a typical 4-panel strip comic, with occasional bursts of actual humor, almost all of which has to do with the other employees at their mutual workplace. In particular, there is a meaningless gag having to do with the similarity between Shinomine’s family name and another employee named Shinomiya. A mistakenly routed phone call sets off an avalanche gag in which the two become become the “Mine and Miya combo” and ultimately end up as “Shino Red” and “Shino Blue.” The gag has nothing to do with the main story, but still ends up being the funniest bit. Without this gag, we’re left with Sato being blind without her glasses, or their next door neighbor eavesdropping. … Hah.

While there is certainly plenty of set up for Yuri between Yuki and Nari, none manifests, not even with all their drunken evenings. Lots of sloppy hanging on one another and blushing, but they barely know one another at the beginning and by the end have just started becoming friends.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Sloppy, sketchy and lazy, but kind of cute
Story – 6 Same
Characters – 6 Likable, even if they just keep going back and forth along the same tunnels.
Service – 4 Sadly, there is some.
Yuri – 1 Sadly, there really isn’t any.

Overall – 6

It’s not a terrible manga, although it is a bit one-note. But, like an ant farm, I kind of can’t stop watching to see what happens…which is ridiculous, as the answer will be “mostly, nothing.” But still, we watch.

It’s been 5 years since the car company Subaru teamed up with anime studio Gainax to create a short and moderately entertaining anime series.  In 2015, they teamed up again to create a manga for the same extended commercial in conjunction with TV broadcasting of the anime and appearances at comic and auto shows.  Houkago no Pleiades/Wish Upon the Pleiades Prism Palette, Volume 1 (放課後のプーレアデス), was basically the same as the anime, only slightly less marginally entertaining the second time around.

The story is fundamentally the same – schoolgirl Subaru, who loves the stars, is somehow reunited with a former best friend who had gone to another school. She discovers that there is a team of magical girls at the school and becomes one in order to help an alien collect the scattered parts of his ship’s engine. They are obstructed in this by someone who coincidentally looks like the only other character in the story, a boy named Minato who appears to spend most of his time in a magic secret garden. Got it?

The story was a little scattered in the anime, but ultimately wrapped up with some interesting twists. I can’t say it was genius, but it was worth a watch. Knowing the twists ahead of time, I can’t say the manga has anything particular to recommend it. On the minus side, there is service, much of which is pointless and irritating. On the plus side, Minato’s role in this first volume is much less time than in the anime and the relationship between Aoi and Subaru is given more room to develop in one’s head. ^_^

The best bits of the anime – all the space rides on car brooms – is lost here, but we can’t really do anything about that. Manga isn’t anime. But don’t worry, they fill up that time with pointless and irritating service. Deep breath.

If you loved and adored the anime and really want to read the manga, this is certainly cute enough. If you love Subaru and /or Gainax, ditto. (I just got a Subaru for the first time, myself, but somehow I am not motivated by this manga to love the company. ^_^;)

Ratings:

Art – 7 The background screentones are nice
Characters – 6
Yuri – 4
Service – 4

Overall – 6

The fact that this is a really long car commercial is much less obvious in the manga than in the anime as the car-brooms don’t make vroomy noises.

“Space rides on car brooms” – I’m so glad to be alive to have been able to type that.