To say that the January 2015 cover of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫) alarmed me is not an understatement. Since the repatriation of Yuri Hime S content into Comic Yuri Hime, I have had the nagging sense than the editor is trying again to shift the content away from “stories women – perhaps even lesbians – like,” to “stuff that appeals to fanboys.” When the magazine originally relauched, it had become less “typical fetish”y, slightly more adult, more lesbian and a teeny bit darker. In recent issues, it’s ended the lesbian series and strongly ramped up the Yuri fetishtry.

The cover has a purely moe piece of art, accompanied by the decision that alarmed me. Instead of the usual Kanji 百合姫, the magazine title is written in hirigana as ゆりひめ. Why would that matter, you may ask? Moe is not just the cutifying of characters, or the simplification of the art, it is also very much about keeping female characters infantile. It’s about obsessing about their “innocence” “awakening” and “budding”  and other euphemisms for puberty. In Eureka’s Yuri Culture issue, Rica Takashima wrote an essay on the relationship between “Yuri” and this tendency to never move lesbian love or life beyond high school or enter the real world. It keeps the idea of “Yuri” firmly locked in that not-real-life space of school life. Lesbians die after leaving high school in this version of Yuri. Or, more appealing to ultra-conservative male otaku, they get married, leave their careers, have babies and remember that one affair fondly. The end.

Rica makes a pretty good case. Women’s progress in Japan is stagnant. You’ll notice that, for all that both BL and Yuri have grown in popularity, there has been an almost complete lack of movement on LGBTQ rights in Japan. I say almost, because a few years ago, it was reported that Japan would recognize Same-sex marriages of Japanese citizens done outside the country, but has yet to actually do so. This week Shibuya Ward announced that they would discuss the idea of issuing SSM certificates. Unfortunately Western media reported it as if they were definitely going to, but it is not a certainty. We’ll find out next month when (if) the vote is actually held….

And here we are, looking at the last of the Yuri magazines and watching it shove “Yuri” back into the school life closet where lesbians just disappear after high school and Yuri is no longer even allowed it’s kanji, but has to use more childish hiragana.

There is a textured little sticker image on the cover that says “The contents are the regular Comic Yuri Hime.” I am neither reassured, nor pleased. The situation is getting worse, if the March issue is any indication. As bad as the Yuri Hime S cover art was, it was never this horrible. To be honest, I can’t even credit this as “art” in any meaningful sense. Two blobby heads with few features, no discernible setting. This is not what I am looking for in Yuri.

It’s 2015, and my choice once again appears to be creepy tit-squeezing and bodily fluids-soaked porn and infantile love stories. Yuri has been almost completely disappeared back to 2000s level. I am sure it’s just a dip before the next peak, but UGH. Like women’s rights in the political sphere, it seems that every decade female Yuri fans  are forced to remind the powers that be that we’re still here and this stuff stuff skeeves us.

That all said, the stuff I still like in the pages of Comic Yuri Hime remains stuff I like. I even found myself not disliking this issue of “Yuri Danshi,” as the Yuri Joshi contingent joins the crew of delusionals.

Of all the stories I am reading, the one I flat out enjoy the most is “Love Desu,” by Kuzushiro. It’s horribly violent, not at all cute, and I gasp with relief when I get to it. In this issue, the one character shot a bobby pin into the other character’s eye. Thank the gods for this story. Thank Kuzushiro-sensei too. One more blobby face with a blank expression and I was going to gouge my own eye out with a bobby pin.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

I’m asking nicely – can’t someone please write a decent pro sport Yuri series? Please? I am so so so so so so done with school drama.

The May issue of Comic Yuri Hime is also available for pre-order.

As I mentioned in my review of the November issue of Comic Yuri Hime, the last few stories were all from recent collections, like Himitsu no Kakera and today we’ll look at the last of them, Haya’s  Hakkou Snowflake (薄光スノウフレーク).

In a snowy country, with an impenetrable accent (so much so that furigana with Standard Japanese is needed for even the most common phrases) Chou meets a mysterious kimonoed girl Se-chan. Se-chan isn’t sure if she’s a Yuki-Onna, or a ghost, and neither are we, but it is absolutely obvious that she is not of our world.

Nonetheless Chou adopts Se-chan, becoming friends, teaching her about fashion and presents and modern life. Se-chan starts to take it personally when she sees Chou having fun without her, but only because she’s fallen for her friend. As the book closes they kiss and we have to hope that the spring will not destroy the relationship. Or something, I guess. Since Se-chan isn’t human, it’s kind of hard to know where we’ll go from here.

The story runs to the sweet and cute and mostly-disconnected from real life. There are no adults, no cars, no trains, hardly any other people, in fact, except for a few schoolmates. The world-building is unconvincing, but doesn’t really have to be convincing, as we’re supposed to be focused on the girls. The is as much of a well as that in the YuriTetsu ~ Shiritsu Yurigasaki Joshikou Tetsudobu manga. Elsie, Lacie, Tillie and Peanut, meet Chou and Se-chan. You should all enjoy each other’s company very much, as there are no other humans in your worlds.

Despite the one-dimensional world these two one-dimensional characters live in, I can’t say this manga left me unmoved. It left me with a sense of melancholy. The entire time, I kept waiting for Chou to come home and find nothing left of Se-chan but a puddle and obi. It was actually a bit of a surprise to find it was given a happy ending.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 5
Characters – 5
Yuri – 6 There is a kiss.
Service – 4 Some non-sexual nudity

Overall – 5

It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t good.

The issues I had in regards to the September 2014 Comic Yuri Hime have, to some extent, passed. As usual, I have partially adapted to the new world order and partially the magazine has backed off. As a result, I can talk more coherently about Comic Yuri Hime, November 2014 (コミック百合姫2014年11月号).

There’s still a shift toward fetishtry that is unappealing to me. “Fat girls” (who are not fat), “sisters (who are not sisters), “Mean girls” (who are not mean), “idols,”  etc. On the one hand it’s clear that the girl meets girl scenario is played out and the magazine is looking for hooks, but on the other hand, it’s equally clear that the editorial direction is shifting back to pandering.

The first third of this volume passed without anything of real note. The above fetish pieces, and Yuri Hime‘s featured, but still not-terribly interesting to me series, and a couple of Story As.

As we hit the middle third of the magazine, my interest grew. Takemiya Jin’s “Chou Chou Nan Nan” has been cute, but unremarkable. I do like the fact that she’s focusing this chapter on the one girl who can see what is going on and lays it all on the table. ^_^

The second chapter of “Yuri Joshi” was so meta that it hurt. Saori meets her “onee-sama” to confess that she’s really upset about the discontinuation of Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari and how she’s relieved that the “Kase-san” series is continuing online. The mention of that series specifically made me immediately wonder if Ichijinsha is in negotiation for it. If not, there’s always online. ^_^

As much as I adore Amano Shuninta’s work, I’m creeped out by “Ayame 14.” I find myself not reading it to give the poor girl some privacy. I really am not that interested in puberty. Ick.

Kuzushiro has 4 stories in this volume. He’s taking over and frankly, I don’t really mind. “Hara-san ha bitch” and “Nikochau” are about girls who does not live down to expectations and no surprise at *all* I really enjoy “Love Desu,” about two young women who alternately fight to the death, then have a passionate love affair. Yeah, well. I’m still – almost amazingly – enjoying “Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san.” Apparently Kuzushiro-sensei gets me. ^_^

Ohsawa Yayoi’s back! Yay! “Spice Girls” was a weird twist on a  customer girl meets shopgirl story, and her art  just sort of settles me down. Cute, finite, cute.

The last third of the volume are stories that have been published in collections that I have already or am about to review. It made for a weird deja vu feeling as I read.

Shifting the mass of pages away from Yuri Danshi and Yuru Yuri (neither of which are Yuri, really) to Kuzushiro-sensei’s work (which mostly is) was a massive relief. “Yuri Joshi” is an exploration of Yuri tropes through the eyes of a female character, which, while still not a Yuri story, is less grating to me. Sexist? Probably. Oh well, I prefer girls to guys, it should hardly come as a shock to anyone.

The upshot was that the stuff I disliked was dispersed more and there was generally more to like.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

I have the January 2015 volume here to read already. The thing that sticks in my craw, is that moe is not showing any signs of being less popular. Surely a decade is long enough for fetuses in frilly dresses? When will I get pretty, sexy adults back in my Yuri?