Kaname saw Miki-sama perform ballet and immediately decided that she would try to enter that refined, beautiful world. So, with only a few years of ballet classes under her belt, she transfers into the elite school at which Miki-sama trains. This is the setup for the title story of Kaname no Etoile (かなめエトワール)

Inexplicably, Miki-sama encourages Kaname, which causes her to be bullied by the second-best student, Sugiura-san, and her fans. To make matters worse, when Kaname is suddenly (and also quite inexplicably) assigned to dance in the competition with Miki-sama, Sugiura is (rightfully, I think) enraged.

But Miki-sama continues to encourage Kaname, despite the other girl’s lack of confidence. They are assigned to dance a pas-de-deux from Swan Lake, Kaname as Odile, with Miki-sama taking the role of Odette. (Which is an interesting idea.) Everyone, even Kaname, is shocked at this choice. Sugiura-san challenges Kaname to a dance-off, which Kaname wins. Sugiura backs off, but the worst is yet to come for Kaname.

Kaname undertakes grueling practice, only to find that Miki-sama is practicing twice as hard. She despairs of ever being good enough. When Kaname quite accidentally, attempting to protect Miki-sama from the unwelcome attentions of the press, slightly injures Miki-sama, she breaks under the pressure and stops going to school.

Walking around a park one day (after being yelled at by her mother to get the hell out of bed) Kaname stumbles upon a crowd watching an attractive young man in a hoodie dancing. Kaname watches, entraced by his moves. When he approaches he and asks her to dance with him, she’s speechless. But, he says, I can tell you love to dance, and so they do, moving together as if they belong together…Kaname is amazed, she’s found her very own prince.

After the crowd has dispersed, the Prince takes her aside for a little talk and cautions Kaname to get back to school and start practicing again…there’s not enough time before the competition. What? How? Kaname cannot understand how he knows, until he pulls down his hood. Her Prince is none other than Miki-sama!

Kaname returns to the school and works herself to near collapse.

Eventually the day of the competition arrives and we finally see Kaname become the black swan that Miki-sama needs to win the competition. But her triumph is short-lived, as Miki-sama announces she’s leaving the school to go to Europe to study. Kaname asks her to not leave, but Miki-sama assures her that she’ll always have her eye on her, and that she looks forward to dancing with her again.

The other stories in the collection are conventional love stories set in high school. All three stories ran in Shogakukan’s Sho-Comi magazine.

If you watched  Kaleido Star and hoped that you’d find another series that captured the same kind of rival/friendship tension in regards to performing arts, colored with longing and rich with the potential for Yuri, Kaname no Etoile, short as it is, fits the bill. Miki-sama seems to be as interested in Kaname as she is in her mentor…and, after the scene in the park, our thoughts will naturally stray to the “what ifs” of a future situation. Miki’s street dancing moves give her more personality, too, than we might have otherwise expected from a longingly-admired sempai. At the end of the story, it’s not at all hard to imagine that Miki’s just waiting for Kaname to catch up with her, then they’ll dance off into a bright future together.

Ratings:

Art – Typical shoujo magazine – 8
Story – It could not have been more full of holes if it actively tried. ^_^ 8
Characters – Unrealistic in every way – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Why is Miki-sama so encouraging of a younger woman who will one day be her rival for a limited amount of roles? We’ll never know.

Volume 1 of Kill Me Baby/ Baby, please kill me (キルミーベイベー) is a 4-koma comic with an exceeding simple premise: School student Sonia is a professional assassin, and her classmate Yasuna wants to be her friend. This leads to 14 million ways in which Yasuna almost gets killed by Sonia. For instance, Yasuna touches Sonia on the shoulder, and has her arm broken by Sonia. Or Yasuna throws an eraser at Sonia, and has knives thrown back at her.

They are joined periodically, and for no particular reason, by Agiri, who is a ninja. She is frequently drawn appearing hanging from the ceiling, also for no reason.

Anyone who is a fan of Noir will probably instantly liken Yasuna’s basic character design to Kirika and therefore Sonia’s to Mirielle, but personality-wise, they couldn’t be more different. Sonia is taciturn and humorless, Yasuna is goofy and endlessly incompetent.

Kill Me Baby is about to become an anime. I hope they consider doing the super-short Morita-san ha Mukuchi treatment on it, because seriously, there’s one joke here.  It’s a mildly amusing joke – you keep hoping that Yasuna will break through Sonia’s seriousness and maybe they can become friends…but, by the end of Volume 1 they don’t. I’m reading Volume 2 and basically nothing has changed. It’s fun for a few pages, then it gets repetitive and I stop. Then I pick it up again in a few days. Personally, I can’t imagine 22 minutes of this one joke staying “heh”-worthy in anime form.

The one joke is the only joke, so there’s really no storyline to speak of, and the characters don’t develop or change – with one exception. Yasuna begins to study self-defense. It doesn’t help her, but now she can at least *try* to fight back.

There is no Yuri, either real or imagined. One might, if one were truly desperate, concoct a story about why Yasuna is so determined to be Sonia’s friend, but one would be working way too hard. It’s a mildly amusing story idea, good for a “heh” or two, then a few days off.

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – There isn’t any, but the Setup is a 5
Characters – 5
Yuri – 0
Service- 1

Overall – 5

Many of you know Kakinouchi Narumi’s work, even if you don’t know you know it. Vampire Princess Miyu (both TV and OAV,) on DVD and Juline and Shaolin Sisters in manga, have made it to English. In Japanese she’s done a great number of series, including the obscure Utahime Fight!, which I reviewed back in 2005 and the art for the Case Files of Yakushiji Ryouko (薬師寺涼子の怪奇事件簿), which I am currently reading, having gotten more volumes at Book-Off in Tokyo (and my gosh, if there was the least little bit of Yuri in it, I would be reviewing it here so fast it would make your head spin!)

But what Kakinouchi-sensei is best known for is Vampire stories. Along with Miyu, you’ll find Vampire Princess Yui, and Dahlia the Vampire in her bibliography. And as much as vampires rarely do it for me, I love the hell out of Kakinouchi-sensei’s vampires. Which brings me to the subject of today’s review, Kakinouchi-sensei’s newest series, done in conjunction with her husband Hirano Toshiki, Vampire Princess. (吸血姫 – ヴァンパイア・プリンセス)

Have I ever told you about my Yuridar? I have ridiculous Yuridar. I can stand in front of packed shelves of books and reach out and pull a few off and pretty much guaranteed, they’ll have some Yuri in them. (This works for other things too, like always knowing when there’s  book by T.E. Lawrence in a store.) I saw this book all over Tokyo, but kept resisting it, until the pressure became too much and I caved. So very, very glad I did.

In a small town in the late Meiji period, in a girls’s school, a young girl named Sakura is drawn into the mystery and horror that is the life of her classmate Yuu. Yuu, it turns out, is a vampire and Sakura becomes her servant and partner in her complicated life.

Like all of Kakinouchi’s work, the setting is sparse, but clothing, hair and movements are dramatic, with great sweeping lines that fill panels and pages. Also in keeping with her style, all the females are well-put together, and the vampires are seductive and beautiful in their unworldiness, without being shiny or idealized. It would be very easy to read Yuu as simply a member of Japan’s nobility, using and discarding commoners as she needs. However, there’s something more than just base need in Yuu’s relationship to Sakura – and it is this “something more” that comes so close to being Yuri. Many of Kakinouchi’s Vampire Princesses seem to ride that line between feeding/seducing that Bram Stoker was trying to gross us out with, but only succeeded in making vampires cool and sexy, instead. ^_^ Yuu is both cool and sexy and Sakura is a (mostly) willing partner.

In a world that uses Twilight as a benchmark for vampires,  I’m all for Yuu’s classic inhuman gaze and the sweeping movements of her kimono.

Ratings –

Art – 9, but I’m a Kakinouchi fangirl, YMMV
Story – 7 It’s vampires, there’s really not much else you can do with that
Characters – 7 Same
Yuri – 5, it’s all vampire feeding stuff, but still, sexy is sexy
Loser FanBeing – 5

Overall – 8

I’ll definitely be getting more of this series, and hoping that one day she just jumps the fence and our Vampire Princess and her girl live happily *ever* after.

Morita-san ha Mukuchi (森田さんは無口) must be a work of genius. It must be, because after 4 volumes of the same sort of daily life-nothing much I’m still reading it, still enjoying it and still giggling at the silly gags. 4 volumes of nothing much and I still like this manga. It MUST be a work of genius, seriously.

In Volume 4, absolutely nothing has changed. Mayu is still a untalkative high school girl, Hana’s family issues are still bad, Miki’s still interested in boys, and the girl who is stalking Mayu is still stalking her. The only difference is that she’s now thinking about actually speaking to her, if only that would work out. That’s one half the Yuri.

The other half is in the form of Yamamoto Ritsuki, who is increasingly popular with the girls. So much so, that on Valentine’s Day, she staggers into class with an enormous bag of candy on her back, like a chapman setting off to sell his goods. The look of exhaustion on her face speaks volumes, and so does the expression of pain with which she offers a single candy to each girl who gave her chocolate, with an apology that they all accept with a nod. If she were to buy real candy for all of her admirers, she’d clearly be broke.

There was one small thing that changed this volume – a change that I, for one, welcomed. Yamamoto, as competent, intelligent and calm as she is, showed that she isn’t as cool as everyone thinks. In fact, while all the girls are watching her…she’s watching them back. Yuridar strikes again! As I suspected, Yamamoto is one of us. ^_^

Like all 4-koma, one should not read Morita-san ha Mukuchi expecting great plot shifts. This series makes great bedtime reading- a few pages at a time, sends you to sweet dreams of the look on Mayu’s face when Hana plays with her hair, and Yamamoto’s secret interest in girls. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 2

Overall – 8

Mayu’s a good friend, and her friends are good friends. Watching the four of them together has not yet ceased to fill me with warmth.