It’s Luce with the ‘2’ of the 1-2 punch of reviews, so let’s get down to business on the series that can be best described by removing the ‘don’t’ in the title. Volumes five and six, memorise your combos and hit player select!

Well into the tournament by Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, Volume 5, Aya, Mio, Tamaki and Inui all have their battles to play, and hopefully win. Into the second pool battles, the opponents are more difficult. Mio is 1-1 against Cafe au Lait, a pro-gamer with a grudge match he wants a rematch on. Aya is in the same position with his previous opponent, Gekido, and struggling to keep her composure. Inui is trying to get the vitriolic kid Arisa to eat her words through the screen, while Tamaki battles her demons – or rather, her sister.

In Volume 6, Mio faces down Arisa in the loser’s bracket… . But, due to a viral tweet about her previous match, it’s been moved to the main stage! Who will win, between Mio fighting on instinct and Arisa with rage?

Do not smack yourself in the head with a game controller. Aya and Mio did break through a window escaping detention, so they clearly have anime sturdiness, however! Despite how metal it might look, it is not a proven strategy for… anything. Other than a trip to hospital with possible concussion. Also, never, ever tell people to ‘kill themselves’. Even in the heat of tournament. It makes sense for Arisa’s character and shows her immaturity, but even still. Just don’t. (The commenters are clearly shown to also disagree with her, so there is push back in canon). Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Onwards.

It’s somewhat odd to have the girls in a more anime style, and then most of the men in a more realistic style. That said, it’s nice to have ‘not perfect’ looking characters? Some characters that look closer to how Japanese people look? I just wish this could be extended to some of the women. Although the implications that those drawn in a more manga style are the prettier ones, so… I do like the art, it just stuck out more in these volumes, where we have a lot of different people commenting.

Speaking of the art though, the rage faces in this area off the charts. Arisa is just a small ball of rage, all of the time. Her back story is probably pretty relatable to anyone who’s tried to connect with someone over something and had it gone badly. Gosh, she was just so desperate to impress Miyu, but it backfired. It’s really difficult as a kid when you’re good at something – most normal adults would be able to go ‘it’s impressive you’re so good at this’ and any jealousy is (should be) kept behind the eyes. For kids though, that’s a lot more difficult. In Miyu’s eyes though, I can see how she thought Arisa had flat out lied to her. I hope they get some resolution, actually.

The match between Mio and Arisa is just absorbing. Between the commentary of the crowd and online (I particularly like ‘nani the fuck?!’ as a comment) and their thoughts, it felt engaging in a way I haven’t felt with the other matches. Part of that is that we know a bit more about these two, and why they play fighting games, but it’s also panelled really well, flitting between them, the crowd, and the commentators without losing focus on the action. The visual of being underwater, not breathing, just living completely in the game works fantastically. I won’t spoil who won, but if you have enjoyed the series so far, volume 6 is the peak of the fighting game action.

Outside of this, Aya gets some of her gayest lines in these volumes. ‘I want to mean more to you than anything else’. If this series doesn’t have a moment where Aya kisses Mio in the heat of victory/defeat, I’ll be disappointed. That said, Aya has some thinking to do, when seeing Mio and Arisa’s match, and realising that she might not be Mio’s biggest rival, and being really upset by that. I want gamer girlfriends by the end of the series, dammit! Is that too much to ask?!

Ratings:

Story: 8
Characters: 8
Service: 0
Yuri: 9

Overall: 9

Volume 5 was good, but volume 6 was great. If you’ve enjoyed any of the series so far, highly recommended. In the imMortal Kombat words, Fatality!

by Luce, Okazu Staff Writer

Well, I guess I need to get around to reviewing more of Young Ladies… Wait, I reviewed Volume 2 review back in 2022!? And now there are 7?! With an anime coming up soon!? Looks like I need a training montage! Over the next few reviews, I’ll try and bring us back up to speed with double bouts, back to back. Ding ding!

In Volume 1 and Volume 2, we met Aya and Mio, or ‘Shirayuri-sama’, who love fighting games but attend a school where games are banned. Having found a group  with Yuu and Tamaki, they even have a little fighting games club going. What next, but a tournament?

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, Volume 3 has the girls realising that if they flunk their exams, the make up tests will be on the weekend of EX-Japan, the tournament they’re desperate to go to. Should be fine… But they’ve been spending all their time gaming, and Mio has a visceral reaction to studying – getting her up to speed in time is going to take some doing. At the tournament, the girls get into their first day of matches.

In Volume 4, they have another run in with the smart-mouthed kid who nearly tries to use physical violence, only stopped at the last second by Tamaki’s sister, who’s also in the tournament! Yet their sibling relationship isn’t exactly roses, when Hana is so damn terrifying. Finally, we follow Aya and Mio’s matches against two pro-gamers, Gekido and Café au Lait. Can they move on to the second day?

This manga takes a sports manga approach to e-sports, and within the tournament, you can see the plethora of people who live and breathe fighting games. It’s nice to see people making connections because of the things they love – everyone at EX-Japan loves fighting games, and I can’t even imagine the atmosphere. This manga does a pretty good job of conveying some of that, the energy and hubbub of not only a convention but a tournament too. Unlike a lot of sports manga though, we see lots of little matches. With individuals only needing to sign up to get in, we see everyone from pro-gamers to pretty new players, and plenty of styles of play.

I must applaud the mangaka, Eri Ejima, for the amount of thought and love of the genre put into both the manga and the fake fighting game for it, Iron Sempai 4. The shortening is great. π4. So simple! All the different characters, their moves and hit boxes… I honestly feel like this could be a real game, considering how much they talk about the hit boxes and weaknesses of each move. I’m not familiar with any fighting games, so maybe this is based heavily on another game (there are nods to Tekken, at least), but it acts very much like a sports manga in that way, too, where the sport, or the e-sport in this case, very much is the plot. The strategies, the players. It isn’t fantasy, just people playing a game really, really well. (Although what is fantasy is smacking your head that hard with a game controller and being mentally fine afterwards.) As per the trailer, the upcoming anime will instead have Street Fighter and the gaming animations look as though they will run in the game engine. I’m sure they’ll make it work, but I actually really liked the character designs of π4. That said, it’s a pretty big thing for a franchise like that to come on board for a Yuri anime, so I’m hoping this will translate to some good animation, both in the fighting games and out.

Most brilliantly is that while the game is taken seriously, the characters are not. Mio will spout something ridiculous like ‘while studying for this school, I only vomited once a week’. Aya is often too lesbian to function. It handles the ridiculousness really well. There are little asides between the matches (and around them) that are comedic. But once the tournament restarts, it’s mostly matches – three official, and one not – between Tamaki and her sister. Here we see the root of Tamaki’s issues with fighting games that she’s been trying to work through, and why she is playing them. And dear lord her sister is intense. It does seem to be a complicated relationship, so I’m glad we’re getting some background on it, but the resolution of all the matches will have to wait for Volume 5.

Ratings:

Art: 9 (so many good facial expressions!)
Story: 7
Service: 0
Yuri: 6 (Aya is pretty gay and there are some yuri-esque moments, but nothing concrete. I’m not sure if there will be, but I live in hope)

Overall: 8

If you didn’t enjoy the first two volumes, this is more of the same. If you did, this is more of the same. Sit tight, though, since the next two volumes are still in the tournament. Can any one of our heroines win? Or even make it to the second day?

by Luce, Okazu Staff Writer

It’s Luce, back with a double review, which brings us to the end of this little series – were we spoiled, or was it more spoiled milk? 

In volume one, we met Hinamori Ichigo, a girl who has looked up to the seemingly prefect Suo Yaya… Only to become Suo’s outlet for her crushing desire for validation and praise! Honestly, this girl is a mess, but what can she do? Ichigo is weak for a pretty girl… Even if they’re kind of pathetic at times.

In Spoil Me Plzzz, Hinamori-san! volume two, Ichigo and Suo go on a ‘date’ – to get some clothes for Suo, whose fashion sense is… non-existent. We meet Kujo Hitomi, the girl who is always second place in their year, angry that she’s always losing out to Suo. Turns out… she needs some praise, too. Finally, after some competition between her and Suo, all three girls end up starring in the film club’s movie – and it’s a romance!

I honestly started to wonder how Suo functions at all with how many things she’s shown to be useless at. It was just too over the top with Suo’s inability to do things. How has she done readings in class if she’s that bad? How is she top of the grade when she’s… like this? Have they never done swimming lessons in physical education? I guess she studies, and I know book smarts aren’t necessarily people smarts, but in the second volume, the gap felt too wide to be the same person. Ichigo makes a good point at the start that kindness gone too far is more like self-sacrifice, and I preferred the vignettes that focused on those kind of issues rather than ‘actually I’m terrible at reading things out loud’. I feel like a more interesting ending might have been that she was putting some of it on for an excuse to spend more time with Ichigo – which would have worked out, seeing as Suo is pretty awkward.

I guess that’s the issue with gag manga – you have to stick to the gag, more or less. Them walking home in the rain and Suo getting drenched protecting Ichigo, only to complain about it? Yeah, makes sense. Her being horrific at reading a text out loud? Too much. I’m probably taking it too seriously, but comedy only works when it toes the line to a degree. It has to be funny within the realms of the universe, not make you question it. Suo having zero fashion sense made sense for her character. I suppose my issue is that it didn’t grow up from the gag very much. I never felt much like there was anything much behind the characters, even towards the end, it felt quite superficial.

All in all, the second volume was easily the weakest. I really wondered where we were going with Kujo – namely, I’m not bothered about love triangles, especially when there is so little thought in them. And I’m really not fond on the uber competitive always-in-second character… Particularly when I can see no evidence that the character in first had done anything for it! You gotta do a bit more than just have a character say they’ll be studying for me to think they’re smart, especially to the point of being first in the year. Particularly when they shown to be pretty useless at a lot of things.

The third, and final, volume balances things out a bit more. We get what could potentially be considered a part of Suo’s inciting incident for her need for perfection, but it didn’t really hit enough for the level she’s at. The ending was pretty cute, and very true to the series, but it also just kind of fizzled out. I wonder that it might have been cancelled.

Overall, I enjoyed it to a degree, but it’s not really a recommendation – if you like silly Yuri, this might be for you, but there are probably better ones out there.

Story: 4

Art: 6

Yuri: 7

Service: 5, of course there’s a pool scene, and nobody ever wears anything other than a bikini (a personal gripe of mine, YMMV)

Overall: 5

A bit of a swing and a miss, for me. Or a hit, an out and a weak hit. I suppose. At least it was short!

I’m Luce, here to cover the next two volumes of the manga I have ‘shortened’ to ‘Best Friend Girlfriend’ by Syu Yasaka. Let me know if you have any better suggestions…

In the first volume of Syu Yasaka’s series, we met Minami and Yuzu, and after figuring out that she likes Yuzu romantically, Minami decides that she’s going after what she wants. The volume ends with them going on a date to the planetarium, and happening upon their friends afterward…?

In volume 2 of How Do I Turn My Best Friend Into my Girlfriend?, we get the aftermath of the date, in which Minami comes clean to Unohara, the friend she told about the date, but not that it was with Yuzu – luckily, she’s supportive. Later, when Minami asks Yuzu if she’s interested in anyone, she says Hinori! What does she mean by that? Finally, the group pass their exams, so it’s onto summer – that means the beach, but Yuzu doesn’t do well with the sun, sea, sand and crowds. Will she cope to have a trip with her friends?

In volume 3, Minami and Yuzu take a bath together, and the group go to a festival – it seems Nitori is in a similar situation to Minami. Returning to school, the cultural festival is coming up, which makes the cover make more sense – the theme is animal maids! Minami’s on the committee, and one of the first years has her eye on her?

This manga could do with a character chart. Different characters call each other variously by first names and family names, so it can be a bit hard to tell. Plus I kept getting Hinori/Unohana and Yuzu/Nitori confused, although I’m not quite sure why – my tip would be to focus on their fringes, not that it always helps. That aside, what I do enjoy is that they are a group of friends, and they have different relationships with each other. It feels less like them having token friends to chat to and more of a group of people that naturally came together.

Of course, we get the ‘interested in someone else but not actually’ plot. I’m not a great fan of misunderstandings as a plot device, but at least the people around Minami are pretty blunt with her about the fact that she’s being a bit ridiculous. Hinori is straight up uncomfortable with Minami pushing her and Yuzu together – what I really like though, is that Minami actually apologises for her behaviour. I don’t need or want perfect therapy speak from characters, but it’s nice to see characters actually admit when they’ve done something wrong.

We find out that Nitori seems to like Unohana, mostly because she asks if Minami likes her too. Maybe Minami has it a bit more together than it seems if Nitori didn’t guess, because on the page she’s nearly always melting down about something or other. Her loving Unohana is actually confirmed in Vol 3, leading to a nice moment between her and Minami, commiserating on falling for their best friends.

Kamiya, the ‘rival’ introduced in volume 3, was a little on the pushy side, but equally, it was nice having a character that knows she’s into girls and says it? This also forcing Minami to basically admit she’s Yuzu-sexual, which is… not a favourite trope of mine, but at least someone in this manga seems to actually identify as a lesbian – or a wlw, because the word ‘lesbian’ doesn’t come up. I quite liked Kamiya by the end of the volume, so I hope she pops up again in a friendly capacity. Maybe with a girlfriend.

Towards the end of volume 3, prompted by a bit of a push from Kamiya, we finally get Yuzu’s side of things, to a degree. There were hints that Yuzu is not as chill with Minami-related things as she seems to be, and I really liked the subtlety of that. It makes you wonder about the things you said meaning one thing that were taken a different way. That said, way too much emphasis on what young kids say. Not that they don’t mean some things, but to take anything like that as a lasting commitment… Use your words, Yuzu! And Minami!

Finally, I want to praise the translation, done by Matthew Jackson- it does a good job at sounding casual without being too ridiculous. The lettering (Giuseppe Antonio Fusco) and retouch is also great, I couldn’t pick any faults with the out-of-bubble words, and the type facing matches well, too.

Ratings:

Story – 7, the old classic childhood friends will-they-won’t-they
Art – 8, bright, peppy, cute! My only fault is I’m not very good at telling the characters apart
Service – 4 In these two volumes, there is a bathing scene, beach and therefore swimsuit scenes, and Minami has a few imagine spots… But none of it feels particularly skeevy, and feels more ‘teenagers dealing with emotions’ than anything else
Yuri – 9 (I’m sure there are boys in this. They’re in the backgrounds)

Overall – 7

An enjoyable Yuri romp that feels pretty fresh. My hope for this series is that one they get together, the series will continue, at least for a bit, as I think navigating a relationship would be interesting to see. Minami is definitely not emotionally prepared for it.