Please note that I do not call Love Gene Double X  (恋愛遺伝子XX ) a Yuri Manga. That’s only because I’m not sure it is, yet. I’ll reserve my judgement for future volumes.

In the future, all men have died and women, able to procreate without them, have recreated a similar dual-gender society, splitting into ADAMs and EVEs, with an almost-expected propensity for dressing in Rose of Versailles-style clothing. The story begins when transfer student Koshiro Aoi enters “Kingdom,” one of the the most elite schools in society.

Aoi, an ADAM, is welcomed into the school with a typical mix of fascination and repulsion. She’s good at her studies, and is athletically inclined as well. But she carries around a dirty wooden sword, straps her breasts down with sarashi (instead of the protectors used by the other ADAMs) and has declared that she is there take over the top position.

She is befriended by Sakura, one of the “stars” of the school. And, as she blunders around, she finds she has other allies in the school elite, as well.

Aoi needs allies too, as she inadvertently offends the top EVE, Erika-sama. In the middle of the EVE and ADAM mixer ball, Aoi finds herself having to duel Erika’s fiancé, none other than Sakura…which is where the real trouble begins. It is absolutely forbidden for ADAMs to engage in relationships with other ADAMs and Aoi is starting to have some feelings for Sakura. Luckily, she’s not so bright about such things and one of her other allies, Matsuri is able to refocus those feelings…for the moment…into desire for friendship.

Matsuri is also our greek chorus in this series. She is the one who discovers Aoi’s secret and the source of her antagonism for the school elite. Aoi’s mother was an ADAM, who became an outcast when she took the taboo route of becoming an EVE in order to marry the ADAM she loved. Matsuri tells Aoi that she is not alone in wanting to take this restrictive system down and councils Aoi not to bash around Kingdom making threats, but to work subtly from the inside.

In the meantime, Aoi challenges Sakura to a “duel” in grades and while she loses, makes herself one of the top  academic lights of the school. Sakura, Aoi, Matsuri and the last of the school stars, Mizuki, all become friends and comrades as the first volume main story comes to a close.

The extra chapter is a rather silly dream in which Aoi “learns” that the others are all really men, and she spends the next day checking their breasts to make sure they are really women.

To say that I have a lot of problems with this story is a vast understatement.

I’m super unhappy that the premise is that women, when left alone to create their own society, immediately force an extra-restrictive dual-gender society upon themselves. Same-gender role relationships are taboo, gender-role switching is even more taboo. This was really hard for me to take, but….

…on the other hand, Eiki and Zaou are immensely talented and I’m still trusting them to handle this scenario. We’ve got enough of a set-up that, given time, they *could* bring this to an amazing conclusion. But…will they be given that time? I’m not sure that Ichijinsha has given any creators more than 2 volumes so far. 5 or 6 more chapters is unlikely to bring this story to a satisfactory end.

I’m ambivalent about the potential for taboo fakey BL, the potential for a story half-assedly brought to conclusion, the potential for bad, bad lessons here and generally vexed at the whole thing. ^_^

Only the implication that the “real” story here is that Aoi and her friends might destroy these restrictions (given enough time and page count) is keeping me reading. And the fact that the story is being told with a good sense of humor helps, too.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – I’m totally bipolar about it. Sometimes I’m giving it an angry 5 and others a hopeful 8. Let’s be vague and call it 7
Characters – The saving graces, definitely – 8
Yuri – 2 One kiss by Erika to a henchchick so far
Service – 5 Breasts shots mostly

Overall – I’m going with a hesitant 8

Basically, Volume 2 is going to make or break this series for me, I think. If it goes to a Volume 2.

The picture and link above are for the deluxe edition, with Drama CD. There is also a regular manga-only edition available too, for those of you not as helpless before the siren call of Drama CDs as I am.

Another excellent volume of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫). At this point, the magazine is balanced pretty well for me, by which I mean there’s about half stuff I like and half I don’t. It’s good that there’s stories I don’t much care for, because it gives people with different tastes than my own a chance to enjoy the magazine, as well.

“Justice For Girls” starts off on the cover once again. This time, we’re back at the high school in which all students carry firearms and shoot at each other. A girl is in love with her class representative. Did I mention they carry guns? Well, they carry guns. My favorite line comes in the beginning, when the class representative, Kotono, describes Hisami’s gun and mentions how annoying it is. Good writing, because I found her gun annoying too.

Of course the opening story in this volume is “Yuru Yuri” with a ton of info about the anime.

Among the most memorable series for me were:

Uso Kurata’s “Yuri Danshi” adds a fourth girl to the fantasy Yuri team in Hanadera-kun’s head, and offers a variety of new Yuri fantasy scenarios to his delusional brain. When he confronts Matsuoka and tells her he’ll be her ally, she replies with a strong hook to the eye. I loved Matsuoka at that moment. ^_^ But…maybe Hanadera wasn’t wrong after all?…. …. ….

“Start Line” by Nanzaki Iku is a nice look at tension between two girls who never spoke while they were in school together. Will this continue? I certain hope so.

Tanaka Minoru writes a vampire story with an ironic twist in “Vampire Girl.”

Ah ha! I was right after all and I’m not that happy about it. “DNA Double XX” by Zaou Taishi and Eiki Eiki is doing exactly what I thought it was going to do and I’m vexed all over again. OTOH, I trust them to balance it, so it doesn’t just become a fake-BL story. I really feel quite strongly about this, because BL has some tropes I find strongly unappealing and I really hope they’ll avoid those. On the other hand, I very much liked Aoi’s challenge to Sakura for being so utterly dumb that it was funny. I’m trusting them…I’m trusting them.

Minamoto Hisanari’s “Fu~Fu” follows Kina’s older sister Kana, as she deals with something she’s not used to – failure with a girl.

“Renai Joshikka” was Morishima Akiko at her finest. This is a woman’s perspective, looking back at the turn of the century, and youthful behavior, and  grimacing. ^_^ This chapter introduces some new characters in our all-lesbian Wedding Boutique. For the first time, the issue of…ready?…same-sex marriage…is broached in Comic Yuri Hime. Rah! Rah! Morishima-sensei!

The story that blew me away though, was a surprise. I didn’t much much like Momono Moto’s earlier works, but “Aru Shoujo no Gunjou” was fantastic. A high school girl finds herself drawn into the life of a female couple and witnesses their break-up, and becomes part of the solution to healing. Although there were some very typical plot points here, the story worked as a whole.

Kowo Kazuma offers a solid give and take between two girls in “3-Second Rule,” which is a great title. The 3-second rule is simply -if you ask a girl to go out and she doesn’t answer in 3 seconds, cut your losses and move on.

And last for me, if not for the magazine, was a side story from the “Itoshii Hito” series, about Nana’s second chance to apologize to Youko for rejecting her years ago.

Overall, a strong volume with a lot to like. The more experienced creators are really coming up with characters we can care about, and there’s less and less reliance on the tropes of “Story A.” I think we can safely say that Comic Yuri Hime is growing up nicely. ^_^

Overall – 9