In Volume 1 of Sugano Manami’s Himawari-san, high schooler Matsuri meets the owner of the Himawari Book Shop, eponymously referred to as “Himawari-san.” In Volumes, 2, 3 and 4, Matsuri and Himawari-san grow closer without ever quite really understanding one another.

By Volume 5, Matsuri’s infatuation with Himawari-san has developed away from a rolling boil of curiosity into a slow simmer of growing respect and friendship. And Himawari-san comes shockingly close to actually telling the younger girl something about herself.

It’s not that Himawari-san was so used to being alone that she doesn’t know how to be friends, we learn, from her old friend, Ayame. In fact, she and Himawari-san have been friends since school. So what holds Himawari-san back? Our lily-colored lenses see it as reticence not because she doesn’t want to be closer, but because she does.

There is little tension in these volumes. So, the smallest traces of conflict seem almost absurdly out of proportion. When Himawari-san’s older brother asks Matsuri out on a “date,” it’s a little off-putting, as we can see he’s more serious about it than she. But when he goes so far as to say that Himawari-san writes a lot about Matsuri in her diary and offers to tell Matsuri Himawari-san’s real name, it precipitates a crisis. First Matsuri gets mad for his presumption and then Himawari-san, who had been following them, gets madder for his presumption and because of her embarrassment. When Himawari-san and Matsuri sat comfortably side by side at the end of this arc, it dawned on me that Himawari-san is probably holding out until Matsuri graduates. When she is an adult, Himawari-san will feel comfortable sharing herself with Matsuri.

The beginning of the book is a touching piece on Matsuri and her sister Fuuko’s relationship, in which Fuuko also begins to see her sister more clearly.

And the end follows Ayame through a small crisis of her own.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall  – 8

A surprisingly emotional volume of this series about a bookstore owner, and the lives she changes.

Guest Reviewer has been found and approved, but thanks to everyone for jumping right in!~

Hi Okazu Readers! I am in desperate need of a Guest Reviewer and I hope one of you can help me.

As you know, I do my best to bare my biases here on Okazu when I have them and explain why I don’t and do like manga when it’s relevant. Every once in a blue moon, I come across a manga or anime that just really makes me unhappy and I can’t find a civil word to say about it.  Last year for instance, the Sakura Trick anime just made me deeply uncomfortable and I didn’t want to have to watch it.

I understand that many of you love Citrus, by Saburouta. So much so, in fact, that it is currently selling as the #1 Romance Manga! Congrats to Seven Seas and Saburouta-sensei on that.

But, you see, I have been reading it since the beginning and..I really don’t like it.

For the several people who are super jazzed about reading a review by me on this series – notice I have never once reviewed it in Japanese. That ought to be a clear indication of my feelings. To be honest, I haven’t even bought the Japanese volumes. I like it that little.

I don’t like either Mei or Yuzu, I don’t find their attraction appealing. It reads like just another incest story to me and I honestly to do do not care if they live happily ever after or get hit by a truck and die. Reading Citrus has, since the day it debuted, made me deeply unhappy. I don’t like reviewing things that make me unhappy. And, I know from experience, many readers get personally offended when I have the nerve to not enjoy something they like.

So…I’m turning to you, my readers. If you have 1) Purchased a copy of Citrus, Volume 1 and 2) enjoyed it, I invite you to be a Guest Reviewer on Okazu. Please read the Okazu Guest Review Guidelines first and follow the instructions there. (You don’t have to convince me that the series is worth reviewing, only that you should be the one to do it!)

And, please, I beg of you, do not comment here attempting to convince that Citrus is awesome. I’m glad for you that you enjoy it, please respect that fact that I have actually been reading it in Comic Yuri Hime and I just don’t like it. Thanks very much. ^_^

Thanks again to all you amazing folks who volunteered! We’ll have a review up shortly.

Well, in this month of firsts, we have another first! Today’s review has been sponsored by a brand new Okazu hero, Christopher S! Christopher, please email me at yuricon at gmail dot com so I can send you your Hero badge! Seriously, what a month this has been – what  a month this is going to be.

Thanks to Christopher, I have had the chance to read the first volume of the Kampfer manga. The Kampfer anime came out in 2009 and was a hot mess. ^_^ Nothing was explained, and frankly, it wasn’t like it was worth really knowing. The manga, which appears to be an afterthought, doesn’t really give us much more to work with.

High school nice guy and resident nonentity, Natsuru, who is in unrequited love with his neighbor and  childhood friend, Sakura, suddenly turns into a girl and is commanded to fight. Why, for whom, and what the goal is, is almost entirely left out of the narrative in Volume 1.

In the anime, we had the limited pleasure of the entrails animals being voiced by popular voice actresses. In the manga, we don’t learn much more, except that the “Moderators” are the ones who have sent our unpleasant little mascots and required the fighting. Why, we still don’t know. Neither do the girls. Some of them don’t much care.

Volume 1 focuses primarily on Natsuru’s concern that he has suddenly become female and can’t control his switching back and forth. And the fact that he’s being attacked for no apparent reason. With his life on the line, of course the thing he’s most concerned with is that he doesn’t know when he will suddenly become female. As a result, the opening chapter is chock full of really random service, lots of panty shots and Natsuru fondling himself to make sure that those breasts are attached to him. I guess visual confirmation wasn’t sufficient? ^_^;

As a girl, Natsuru saves Sakura, who promptly falls in love with her savior. She asks for a date but of course the date is interrupted by a Kampfer attack. Yuri is wholly in Sakura’s insto-crush with girl Natsuru…. This becomes a multi-partite plot complication, by damseling Sakura and also giving Natsuru another reason to be nervous about switching to girl-form.

I’m actually interested in reading more, because I’d like to see if the manga actually gets the opportunity and/or impulse to tell us anything about to the situation. I’d like to know what the plot is or whether there actually is one, or is this just the thinly connected conglomeration of ideas it appears to be.

This emanga from DMP is as okay as the manga itself. It functions, one can read it, but nothing impresses, really.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Competent
Story – 4 Not so much
Characters – 4 At the moment, they are the same 2-dimensional creations of the anime. If the manga gives them a chance to develop, it would be nice.
Service – 8
Yuri – 3

Overall – 5

I can’t say the manga is bad, although it sure ain’t good. I went into it knowing it was going to be fairly craptastic and I wasn’t disappointed. ^_^

Thanks Christopher, welcome to the Okazu family!