Sweet Guilty Love Bites, by Amano Shuninta, is currently a candidate for my top ten manga of the year list. It is so very, very close to the kind of thing I want out of Yuri. All it would need is *one* little thing to make it perfect.

The book follows the trials and tribulations of 4 hostesses at Club Lilac. In “Sweet Guilty,” Kirie has had a bad night and in a fit of pique kicks a pile of garbage only to learn that it was wrapped around a person. Myata settles into Kirie’s life so quickly she barely has time to get used to the feelings she’s having for her, when Myata suddenly leaves. But Myata isn’t really homeless, she’s actually the bassist for a popular band who was hiding from her manager. She and Kirie live…shall we all say it together? Happily Ever After.

“Guilty Love” starts with a one-night stand. Niina is a single mother and she leaves before the dawn. because she has a child who needs her at home. When she takes Runa to school the next day, Niina is mortified to learn that her erstwhile lover is her daughter’s kindergarten teacher. Mayu-sensei has to jump a number of hurdles to prove that she’s serious about Niina, and in the end, the three of them live together as a happy two-parent family.

Kokoro, another hostess at Club Liliac, is in love with the club headliner and cover model, Kurea. But as Kurea’s career takes off, Kokoro feels as if she’ll be left behind. She won’t, of course. “Love Bites” ends as happily ever after as the rest of the collection. ^_^

The afterword is disturbingly populated by a number of animals who were apparently instrumental in the making of this manga. Amano-sensei is an exceptionally well-trained seal, who knew?

So, what was the one teeny thing missing that would have made this book perfect? The word “lesbian.” Not one of the characters was a lesbian, none were women who loved women. In fact, when Niina asks Mayu-sensei if she’s in the habit of picking up women, Mayu says that a friend owns the bar and she just happened to be there. If there was one moment in which I would have liked to see a single character own up to being gay, that was it. “Yes,” Mayu could have said. “I’m a lesbian.” And the rest of the story would have been identical and this book would have gotten a 10, instead of a 9.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 3

Overall – 9

A book about women over the legal drinking age, all of whom find someone shiny and perfect and successful…if only one of them had been a lesbian. Still, this is good Yuri.

Yuri Hime Selection, Volume 3, like it’s predecessors Volume 1 and Volume 2, is a collection of one-shot stories. A number of them are by participants in Ichijinsha’s manga contests which haven’t made it into the quarterly magazines and the others appear to have run in Yuri Hime S.

Of these, my favorite was “Hasunetsu” by Shin Yui, which had both plot and art that reminded me very much of Mist magazine. In this story, “Bon” (so nicknamed for her bouncy, curly hair) finds herself falling in love and lust with model and upperclassman Kyouko. This story is pure female fantasy and it works. The happily-ever-after ending helps. ^_^

Immediately after this was a not-quite-Yuricest story that wasn’t bad, and that was followed by a lovely little morality play in which a girl who is a prostitute because she can be, lets go of her attachment to money and finds true happiness in the love of another woman.

These three were my favorites, but there were certainly other stories of interest. Unlike Volume 2, I mostly had not read or did not remember the other stories in this collection, so for that reason alone it was fun. There’s a number of one-shots by more popular writers such as Akihito Yoshitomi, Uso Kurata, Mizuno Tokho and others.

I’ve been generally pleased at the Selection collections. I was a little concerned that I’d feel used, buying the same stories I already had purchased in the magazines, but other than the first (which wrapped up the old Yuri Shimai one-shots) I haven’t felt that way at all about Volume 2 or 3.

This collection has enough new material to make it worth buying, and enough interesting material that you won’t feel ripped off.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Once more, my sincere thanks to Okazu Superhero Dan P. – and my sincere apology that the items he’s sponsored off my Amazon JP Yuri Wishlist haven’t been crappier. I may have to thank him for something else, just to ensure that he maintains his inner Fanboy. ;-)

Each issue of Yuri Hime S becomes precious now, as we reach the end of its run.  In the case of Volume 13, the cover makes me really glad this magazine is going away. Following the cover is “Konohanateikitan” (of which there will be a second chapter later on,)  which I skipped, as I always do.

This takes us to “Fufu,” that pervasively cheerful story about two adult women in an adult relationship doing entirely domestic things together. In this chapter a surprise visit from Kina’s older sister turns a day off into chaos. We do learn that Kana, Kina’s older sister, is also a woman who loves women, so that particular hurdle does not have to be faced. Instead, Kana makes herself annoying in other ways. :-) This is followed by a few shorts in which we learn that Kana has considerable charm herself, and is not above taking what is offered freely.

The next few items I skipped, which brings us to “Marriage Black,” the Juliet x Juliet story starring crime family daughters Lu-Tei and Riricia. This story plays out like pretty much every other West Side Story out there, swinging from pointing guns at one another to near sex on the floor, with a promise of murder. There’s a good chance this is going to be obvious, but that’s okay. As long as the ride is fun.

In “Futari to Futari” Yoshitomi Akihito replays his current fetish. Again. There is a happy ending and I hope we can put this behind us and move on to a story that doesn’t suck now.

“Kaichou to Fukukaichou” does something unexpected, in the form of the President doing something unexpected.  During the school festival, the butchy President ends up wearing a maid outfit and the rather femme VP finds herself decked out as a cool latter-day samurai. In some kind of climax, during the opening ceremonies, Prez emphatically states in front of everyone in the school that the VP is hers!  At the end of the day, the VP asks what she actually is to the President. I await the answer anxiously.

In the next story I read, which was “Shinigamai Alice,” the protagonist puts herself in harm’s way to draw her death-god love interest to her. That works, and they spend a night in domestic bliss as a reward.

“Osanajimi to Yobanaide” continues to be a drippy looking story about a love polygon at school, by an artist who draws drippy looking stories about love polygons at school.

I have got to stop reading “Cassiopeia Dolce.” I have no idea why I do read it, except that the art and font are clean, so after something like “Osanajimi to Yobanaide,” it’s easy to read. Anyway, Sonia leaves never to return, until she returns and becomes a permanent member of the staff at the store

For the twelfth chapter of “Flower Flower” in a row, Nina’s behavior towards Shuu starts to thaw.

It’s a truism that nature abhors the lack of a Prince at a girl’s school, so when their prince leaves to go to the Sakurazuka school, the characters in “Okkake x Girls” have to rush to fill the void.  Mayu is happy to oblige.

EVERYTHING in “Zettai Shoujo Astoria” is DRAMATIC and people SCREAM alot and there’s the PENDANT that is very SIGNIFICANT and perhaps, one day, we’ll LEARN what it is all ABOUT. (Or not, my wife points out.)

“Honey Crush” comes to an end as Mitsu finally ceases to haunt our world and passes on to the next. I hope Enma is kind to her. Kyoko will probably become a telephone psychic and do a late night TV show.

Which brings us to the huge 2-page ad that informs us that Comic Yuri Hime, Volume 21 and Yuri Hime S, Volume 14 will be one and the same.

I very much look forward to the consolidation and hope that Yuri Hime trends toward adults trumps Yuri Hime S‘s butt. More “Fufu!” “Less Yuruyuri!” <– New battle cry.

Ratings:

The stuff I read –  Average of 7

Like the first volume of Yuri Hime Selection, Yuri Hime Selection, Volume 2 is a collection of the random widows and orphans of the two Yuri Hime magazines. These are one-shots that didn’t have enough longevity to manage volumes of their own.

The collection itself is a nice, thick volume of a little over 360 pages. It’s smaller than the magazine issues, about A4 in size, so it feels less cumbersome to lug about. It contains 14 stories, almost all of which I remembered as soon as I began reading. Amazingly, not all of them are stories about school girls. Not all of them – but most of them, let’s be real – are Story A, either. However, even as Story A, they were more fully formed than just about anything in the first volume of this reboot anthology.

As I say, there are several stories that focus on adults, including at least one by Hiyori Otsu, “Maple Love,” which was amusing right up until the last bon mot when it tanked (although not fatally.) This trend also includes “Imprinting no Coffee” by Yotsuhara Furiko and Uso Kurata’s “Kusari ha mou Iranai,” among others. There’s a number of May-December romances – it’s up to you to decide if they count as “about adults.”

Overall, this was a pretty strong volume, with stories by some of the best-selling names Yuri Hime has to offer right now. There’s a decent variety of art work, and because many of the artists have had time to grow more confident and the genre as a whole has evolved since those early Yuri Shimai days, this collection functions well as a “glimpse into the state of Yuri” and a nice introduction to the YH lineup.

If you’re not sure you’d like Yuri Hime, this would make an excellent collection with which to test the waters. It’s much stronger and more entertaining than the first volume of this series.

Ratings:

Variable, averaging 9

As an anthology of Yuri one-shots, and despite the not terribly convincing cover that proclaims “Our secret love,” Yuri Hime Selection, Volume 2 is very good. I wasn’t running to read Volume 3 (I have to budget myself a *little*) but it is on my Amazon JP Yuri Wishlist. I’ll make you a deal – if you get it for me to review, I’ll send it to you when I’m done with it. This way you get my review and the book! ^_^