We hit that moment – I am officially behind with reading Comic Yuri Hime. ^_^ I knew monthly was going to get me one day – I’m just kind of glad it took 7 months. ^_^

The cover story – as pink and gauzy and moe as it is, is actually pretty lesbian, “I fell for you at first sight, let’s be together forever.” Uh-huh. Might as well have had a U-haul catalog on the bed with them.

But, more importantly, Comic Yuri Hime July 2017 (コミック百合姫2017年7月号) issue was good! 

It starts off with an absolutely slappable plot complication for “Watashi no Yuri  ha Oshigoto desu!” to which I say, learn how to write a fucking story. No, you did not meet each other in school and then one of you *completely* forgot the other one. It was like 3 years ago, not 30. Look, people are not complete idiots. I was standing at the airport having trouble with a Global Entry machine and a DHS guy walked up and said, “Hey you taught Tai chi!” and I looked at this guy with a beard and said, “Oh my god, Marc?” We hadn’t seen each other in more than a decade, and he hadn’t had a beard and I had long hair and we were out of context and I’m terrible with faces and names…and we still remembered each other. If I can remember a guy I saw weekly for a few years, after 15 years, this character can reasonably be expected to remember a friend she saw every day and hurt really badly a few years later. /rant

“2DK, GPen, Mezmashitokei” went there. At last! I’m so happy it took so long and hope to all the gods they don’t just wrap it up, the end. Please oh please give us a few more volumes.

I still can’t get a bead on “Shuumatsu nani shi ni kou.” but I enjoyed (almost despite myself) Fujimatsu Mei’s “Aisareu Watashi no Monogatari” in which a lonely woman hires her favorite novelist -who has writer’s block- to write her a love and a family…and, in the process, they become both to each other. It was a really nice meta-fanfic.

“Kai to Alterna-rock” (オルタナロック is short for ‘alternative rock’, but if it is anything else, I don’t know what it is. Suggestions welcome) made me laugh out loud. I have read this “mean boss” and employee  who fall for one another story about a hundred times, but I still like it anyway.  ^_^

Takemiya Jin offers up another fan and idol story, so far, the best of the bunch in “Musou Artifact.” No surprised as it’s about my specific kind of geekdom, so yeah, of course I like it. Duh. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

As always, there are any number of other stories and some you will like and I will not. But this issue was pretty strong for me so I’m extra glad I finally had time to read it!

Yep…monthly is really pushing my limits. ^_^  But let me tell you, what a problem to have! Ten years ago, I trawled the shelves of used manga stores obsessively, looking for hints of Yuri in this series or that, or an homage anthology that paired up characters in a not-gross way. (Still am appalled at all the Sakaki-san and the creepy cat from Azumanga Daioh doujinshi back in 2003.) Just to find something to blog about. And here I am, with an excess of Yuri. I am not complaining, I assure you. ^_^

So here we are looking a Comic Yuri Hime, April 2017 (コミック百合姫2017年4月号) and I find we have another problem, slight though it might be. We’re 4 issues in and a number of the newer series are starting to fall apart already. No surprise, as they weren’t stories, they were story ideas. Gag concepts only carry you so far. Of these “Holmes-san ga Suiri dekinai” by Nemachi Dorumaru has suffered the largest collapse. It hasn’t really been Yuri, and now that it is, it’s actually become less interesting.

However, there were still a goodly number of fair-to middling series. Of the ones that work best, “Now Loading”, “Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto desu!” and 2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei” are still my standout three. That they all seem to be about women working is just coincidence, I am absolutely sure.  ^_^ “Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto desu!” deserves a special mention, for having added female customers to the Yuri cafe, which I had previously noticed were absent. 

I also liked the go-nowhere “Hakushi no Kanata” by Hamuro Kei. This is pure one-shot stuff, but it was a nice bittersweet “what might have been, if only” tale that could change a life which was quite nice. And “Demi-Lfe” and “Roku + Ichi Sodarashi” are still forced and a little fun, even though they don’t have much substance. 

Ratings:

Overall – 7

So, points off for the complete dissolution of “Holmes-san” but holding steady else wise.  Let’s see how long this can be sustained. I pick up the May issue tonight. ^_^

Comic Yuri Hime March 2017 (コミック百合姫2017年3月号) continues with the same variety of Yuri that we’ve come to expect from magazine this year. That said, there’s a definite slant towards the moe….understandably, as it’s easier to drawn simplified faces than it is to draw detailed art.

Which is why I genuinely treasure Ohsawa Yayoi’s “2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei”. About to go into a 4th volume (yay!) this series continues to be very much about adults and, in this chapter does something completely unexpected. Well, at least I certainly didn’t expect it. ^_^ As an aside, I wonder if Nanami is at all aware that pretty much every other woman she has ever met has fallen for her.

In “Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto desu!” The one stereotype the Yuri cafe doesn’t cover – the best friend with a crush – rears it’s head and the cafe ends up with a new employee. I have no idea if this story will develop into anything particularly, but I’m willing to ride along for however long it stays silly.

Hitoto’s “Shuumatsu nanishini ikou?” sticks with giving us more detail about keeping fish than I, uh, expected it to. Fish it is. Okay then.

“Holmes-san ga Suiri dekinai” by Nemachi Dorumaru continues to be a parody of every mystery series ever and Ohi Pikachi’s “Demi Life” is already getting self-referential. I hope they will both break out of their niches and become real stories soon.

“Roku + Ichi Sodarashi” is still pretty much Hidamari Sketch, by a different artist, with Yuri. That part’s refreshing.

I still love Mikanuji’s “Now Loading” for it’s how-to tutorial on game development and honest look at the hours one pulls working in a small gamedev company. That this story feels “real” to me is the best part about it. That it also is Yuri is just icing on the cake. ^_^

Comic Yuri Hime is advertising pretty hard for editorial assistants right now, so if you’re still young and want to work in the manga world, are located in Japan and looking to get a position with a company that has never been positioned better to grow, take a look at the Comic Yuri Hime‘s advert for people wanting “Yuri Work.”

Ratings:

Overall – 8

This March issue appears to be sold out in print on Amazon JP at the moment, but folks with Japanese IP addresses will be able to get it through Kindle and you can get it digitally outside Japan on Bookwalker Global as a single issue or as a subsciption.