Mebachi’s cover story continues, this time with the addition of a young woman with a beat-poem-esque inner monologue, as she sees the two from last volume. Will she reach her destination? Would it be better if she never did? We’ll have to wait and find out. Somehow I felt this appropriate for the cover of Comic Yuri Hime February 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年2月号.) I’m still recovering from the explosion of color and texture on last year’s issues and this palate and design seem so stark in contrast. It’s not at all bad, it’s just very different.

Rae and Claire have reached Euclid, Rae and Misha’s hometown, in this chapter of “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.” They meet Hans, a local businessman, so we see a side of Rae’s life we had not previously seen…even if Claire cannot see it, yet. And they run into Dole, who makes some harsh arguments against addressing poverty. Their vacation is off to a rocky start!

Chinese-esque fantasy about  death doula and her bodyguard starts to develop in “Kono You de Ichiban Sutekina Owarikata.” I hope this series develops a plot, now that we have the basic outline. What I want to see from Yuri manga in this magazine now is a bold approach to story-telling. They are two girls who live together…less of why and more of and then what happens?

“Haduki’s Osoto Gohan” is an idea in search of a hook. Clearly Yuri and food work well and camping is pretty hot, but just doing another Yuru Camp, isn’t gonna cut it, so we meet Fuuka who has just moved out in order to start her adult life. But her dreams of serving delicious food to her family and friends are not met, because her apartment – most especially the kitchen – is small, now her family is not nearby and she has no friends. In an amazing coincidence she wins a huge box of meat at the store. Upon arriving home, Fuuka encounters her neighbor Yomogi, who mostly camps in the garden of the apartment building. Now she has a friend and food, but the kitchen is still small. But since Yomogi is a relative of the landlord, she’s allowed to cook outside…and so, a camping-at-home-Yuri-food-manga is born. One hopes that it will be less convenient in the Yuri than it was on the setup, but it seems unlikely. Don’t get me wrong. I love Yuri and food stories, this just seemed a tad lazy.

Big doings in “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkon Shitemita”by Usui Shio! Rio has gotten a job and Ruriko told Kurumi that she likes her. Kurumi’s clued in now that this is more than just friends like, maybe this is a step forward for her?

Also big things happening in “Odoriba Skirt ni Naru”  – the first contest toward the Quadrille is upon them. Michiru and Kiki are *ready* and Kiki’s former partner, Shion, and Kiki have a long talk about the past.  The results surprise everyone, and now the stakes are higher. Michiru and Kiki are starting to notice how cute each other are, and thinking about feelings they hadn’t had before.

One of the new columns in the back is called “Design Yuri Hime.” It’s talking about the various looks the magazine has had over the year. I also learn that Nakamura Seitaro, the founding editor of Yuri Hime, is back in the Editor-in-Chief seat, now that Umezama Kanako has left for Alphalopolis. But this issue was about one of my favorite design changes, the year when they began to include the cover novels. The first one was by Fukami Makoto, with art by Kazuaki (whose art I still really like) and cover design by BALCOLONY. This still is one of my favorite years of cover art. ^_^ The story was messy and not Fukami’s best work. The whole year was collected into a book called GIRL’S UPRISING, which I reviewed in 2016, even though it was the 2011 cover. I am going to try and read these columns, because the year-long themed covers are a joy. I might not like every year, but I love the idea behind it.

And Muromaki’s column about overseas Yuri fandom is, for obvious reasons, very interesting. I’ll be really interested to see the results of their poll (I assume it was for the column.) My own Yuri Fandom polls results will be my 5000th post here on Okazu, which should be….this week! Keep an eye out for both.

A lot of the new stories are not appealing to me so far this year, several for the art and at least one about cyber-harassment and a few continuing series that aren’t my thing. I think the magazine is striking a balance between slice-of life and adult content, but I still would really like to see some honest action or scifi stories. And sports. I cannot understand why this magazine almost never runs a sports story? It seems much more likely to fall in love with a teammate than a person camping in your yard or who wants you to record their final statement.  Ah well. ^_^

What I do like here, I like a lot. I just want more of that! ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 7

The March Issue hit shelves in Japan last week (so, for one brief second I am caught up…hah!).

Taiwanese brand Ocean Bomb announced a line of Sailor Moon-themed sparkling waters, and of course, as an otaku of the series, I was required to purchase and consume these. ^_^ I reviewed the Inner Senshi-themed sparkling waters at the end of 2022. They were bad to okay, so please read that review first. Certainly read it before you buy and drink any of them.

I really didn’t feel like I needed to get any more of those… although I have another can of Jupiter/cucumber in my fridge if I ever need. “Need.”

But then, the news came of Outer Senshi flavors and, despite the fact that I can still taste and smell the Chibi-Usa rose soda, I found Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune flavors and drank them. So here we are for another round of…

(Thank you, Christian, for this image.)

Okay, so the Inners were not great. I’m saying “Outers” but there are only two to get through. I wondered about how   was going to manage this. Well, I learned with drinking Sailor Mars that food pairing was critical – strawberry was not good with a cheeseburger.  ^_^;

These drinks were purchased this time on Arcaera, a rando online shopping service I found and trusted to take my money and send me cans of sparkling water, which they did. The packaging was not fantastic, so Uranus has a small dent, but she and I survived.  They have limited amounts of these (or so their websites says.)

With all that in mind, here we go! 

Sailor Uranus – Pineapple Flavor

Do You Like Piña Coladas, or a walk in the Silver Millennium?

Pineapple is not my favorite flavor in the world, but….this was really good. I joke about Piña Coladas, but there was a coconut-y bottom note that worked fine. This flavor wasn’t nearly as sickly-sweet as the Inners, which helped a lot. 

As for food pairing, I think I was very clever. We had ordered from a local Taiwanese place and one of the dishes was Singapore Mai Fun which was a curry noodle dish. The pineapple was a smashing success with that. Highly recommended.

9/10 Would drink again, with appropriate food pairing

Sailor Neptune – Kiwi Flavor

So. Kiwi. I actually love kiwis, but can’t eat too much raw. Luckily no one ever gives me too much. I had leftovers of the above noodles and figured that would be a good comparison point. 

The kiwi flavor was there, but a little muted. It honestly tasted more of the cucumber flavor, but much less sweet, with a kiwi finish. I thought it was pretty darn good. It was even better when I doused the noodles with a hot sauce. It made the “coolness” of the kiwi/cuke flavor stand out.

Again, I’d drink this again, when paired with something spicy.

8/10

Both of these were significantly less sweet than the Inners and had no floral overtones. They tasted like sparkling water, which really improved the overall drinkability.  The overall order for all the flavors is: 

Sailor Chibi-Moon – 0/10
Sailor Venus – 4/10
Sailor Mars – 5/10
Sailor Mercury – 5/10
Sailor Jupiter – 6/10
Sailor Moon – 7/10
Sailor Neptune – 8/10
Sailor Uranus – 9/10

There are no Sailors Pluto or Saturn sparkling waters available. My wife and I propose the following flavor suggestions: Grape for Saturn and Pomegranate for Pluto. We will await Saturn and Pluto options with anticipation (and some slight fear.) ^_^

In commemoration of these drinks, I have rebranded my ko-fi account to a Sailor Senshi sparkling water account, and now have the following button for tips! If you enjoyed this post, why not buy me another? ^_^

Thanks for joining me on this taste adventure!

Very many thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for sponsoring today’s review! Eric has been a huge supporter of Okazu since the early days and I am very thankful to him. Today, because of his generosity, we are looking at the newest work in the Legend Of Korra-verse, The Legend of Korra: Patterns in Time, out now from Dark Horse Books.

This collection of short stories set in and around The Legend of Korra timeline, are very entertaining. These are mostly short, character-driven stories, which add depth to the characters of Korra, Asami, and Tenzin and his family. The back cover says that Bolin and Mako are included, but they don’t appear at all. Meelo and Jinora do feature in stories. We also get a few cameos from some of our favorite Beifongs. ^_^

This anthology features some terrific art; each story interprets the characters differently, but in doing so, each finds something specific to bring out for that character. Most stories are done by separate writers, artists, colorists and letterers, except one. Blue Delquanti (creator of O Human Star,) handles all roles for their own story.

My favorite story was the opening gambit, “Friends For Life,” written by Korra co-creator, Michael Dante Di Martino, with art by Heather Campbell, colored by Killian Ng and lettered by Michael Heisler. The second story, “Skyscrapers,” written by Rachel Silverstein, illustrated and colored by Sam Beck, lettered by Richard Starkings and Comiccraft’s Jimmy Betancourt, was a close second. These two featured a young Korra and, separately, a young Asami, and both gave us a moment in their formative years, with some happy times. Also notable is Blambot’s Nate Piekos’ lettering in the Meelo and Korra adventure “Lost Pets.”

Ratings:

Overall – 8

If you enjoyed The Legend Of Korra and you wanted a few more moments in the company of these characters, I’d recommend this collection. There’s no grand world- or plot-building here, just one-offs that give us time to enjoy the idea of Meelo and Bumi bonding or Jinora getting her mojo back or young Avatar Korra getting a night off her studies.

In thanks to all of you who support our work here on Okazu, on Yuri Studio and on Yuricon with financial (and emotional) support , we will be having a relaxing and fun end-of-year party today, so no review. I hope I’ll see more of you in 2023 on the Okazu Patreon.

I’ll see you back here tomorrow, with one last review for 2022, followed by one of the most difficult Top Ten Yuri list I have ever had to writing in nearly 20 years of doing this. ^_^

Over the years there has been a lot of research into Boys Love and BL fandom and it seemed time to set up something to get a feel for what Yuri fandom is like in the 2020s, now that it has an established presence in most Japanese pop-culture media.

I would like you, readers of Okazu and members of Yuri fandom, to participate in  a 2022 Yuri Fandom Survey.