It’s a two-fer week this week on Okazu. Today’s review is another Hiyori Otsu collection! Where Orange Yellow was a collection of short stories, today’s book, Mizu-iro Cinema (水色シネマ) is a one-volume story in full.

In a seashore town, Tae runs into famous actress Yui…and accidentally loses Yui’s favorite necklace for her. To make up the cost of the necklace, Yui offers Tae a chance to work it off as her assistant. Tae, attracted by Yui – and by Yuri’s glamorous life – agrees.

Yui struggles to find her place in Yui’s life, both at home and at work. She tries too hard, but never feels like she’s tying hard enough. At home, she really doesn’t understand what Yui wants from her. She feels as if her feelings for Yui are not returned and she doesn’t want to be a burden. Laying bed next to Tae, Yui also feels alone – she wonders if she’s the only one feeling her heart pounding at the idea of them sharing a bed. At work, Yui doesn’t need Tae to *do* anything, really, she just wants her to be there for her.

When Yui’s former lover, Mizuki, arrives under the pretext of returning something to Yui, it seems obvious to Tae that the two of them will get back together. So, when Mizuki suggests that Tae really has no reason to stay here, she leaves.

Yui tracks Tae down at her seaside home and explains that 1) she lied about the cost of the necklace (duh!) and 2) she told Mizuki to go packing because she likes Tae (double duh!) And so, they agree to like each other simultaneously. The End.

This is not the strongest story Otsu has every written, neither is it the weakest. It has all the bells and whistles of a nice “Story A” with a warm side of “You can’t go home again.”

Ratings:

Art – 8 I found the art to be more expressive than Otsu’s usual mix of “unflappable” and “unreadable”
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 0

Overall – 8

From goofy to serious, Mizu-iro Cinema is a nice story, told nicely. I’d love to see a coda, where we seem them actually “together.”

We had been friends since childhood. After today we’re going to the same high school.

Embossed on the cover of Hiyori Otsu’s Orange Yellow (オレンジイエロー)
these simple words provide the driver of this collection of short love stories.

Myu and Jun have lived next door to one another since childhood. Myu has always been a bit of a doofus, but she’s a good girl and is totally loyal to Jun. And, she’s been telling Jun she loves her since they were little. Jun has always taken care of Myu. She once told her to go out with a boy if she wasn’t sure she liked him, so she could see if they clicked. But Myu never really clicks with any of the boys who ask her out – and she’s gone out with a lot of them. Jun surprises herself at how unhappy she is when she and Myu have a fight and is even more surprised when Myu kisses her that night after they make up. Jun tells Myu that their relationship has to stay secret, but Myu’s not so good at that and their “secret romance” is outed almost immediately. Jun gives in to Myu’s good-natured doofusy-ness good-naturedly.

Yamamoto-sensei once walked in on Mitsuki kissing another girl, but is shocked when Mitsuki graduates and becomes a teacher at the same school just to get an answer to her proposition from back then. Kei isn’t convinced that the “magic chocolate” her friend gives her can make her love her any more than she already does.

Ooishi falls in love with Mizuno, even when she realizes that Mizuno’s in love with their teacher.

In this collection of shorts by Hiyori Otsu, the same few scenarios are played from different angles by different  characters. It’s always pretty drama free in an Otsu collection and I, at least, find that and the almost complete lack of service refreshing.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 7

We walk hand in hand in the yellow morning sunlight,
and in the orange sunset…
What wonderful school days we spend together.

…reads the obi of the book. It’s as good a summation as anything I can come up with.

In Shoujo Holic (少女ホリック) Yui is an average middle-school student who suddenly finds herself in an awkward predicament when her parents inform her that they are moving to England. Yui decides that she will NOT be moving, come hell or high water, so she finds herself living with her very nice aunt out in the boondocks and attending her mother’s alma mater, a girls’ Catholic school.

(As an aside, it’s likely that if you total up all the nuns that make appearances in Yuri manga, they probably outnumber the amount of actual nuns in the whole of Japan by several orders. Just thinking out loud…)

On her first day, Yui meets, is befuddled by and befriended by Kaede, who strikes Yui as being rather monkey-like. She’s short for her age, energetic, tactless, has no boundaries and quickly becomes a very good friend to Yui. They grow closer as the book goes on, until suddenly Yui finds herself kissing Kaede – which throws poor Kaede into a tizzy. Kaede struggles with her feelings until Yui forces them both to confront the fact that they like each other…that way.

The rest of the book follows the reasonably natural evolution of a relationship. There’s nothing out of the pale for two girls in love, until their relationship is threatened not by graduation, but by Yui’s parents returning to pack her up and take her to England with them. In the only semi-significant handwave of the story, Yui and Kaede both take the exams to get into school overseas and move in together as roommates. A totally forgivable and acceptable handwave, I think, as it allows them to live happily every after. :-)

Aoii Hana’s art is not exceptional, nor is it terrible and it certainly was expressive enough to capture the emotions on display during this story. On its own, I’d probably not sing paeans of praise to Shoujo Holic, but compared to a lot of the Yuri Hime cell phone manga this story was sweet, sincere and pretty much right on the mark for a Yuri schoolgirl romance.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Characters – 8
Story – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 7

Overall – 7

I’m really over using “holic” in the title of a manga series, now. It’s time to let that one go, folks.

The second half of our overview begins with Takemiya Jin’s “Kirakira,” in which Saya befriends Mari, the plain sister of magazine model Ria in order to get closer to the famous sister, only to find that her interest no longer lies with Ria at all.

With the kind of synchronicity I’ve come to expect from her, Miura Shion’s Yuri essay discusses Ohana Holoholo.

The “Para Yuri Hime Ten” strip is about a girl who discovers Girls Love manga and life in elementary school.

Meiko is 28, and she’s having an affair with Yukari, a girl years younger than she in “Lunch Box.” She feels a little guilty, then a little jealous and then mightily annoyed, when Yukari tells a friend that she’s not seeing anyone. It was just a case of miscommunication, though.

“Mizu-iro Cinema” comes to a close with Tae leaving Yui to allow her to get back together with Akane, without asking Yui if that’s what she wants. She doesn’t and they end up together. Phew.

In “Moso Honey,” Nonoka’s Student Council tenure seems to involve her being depantsed/deskirted rather more often than you’d expect. Nozomi-sempai is cool, because we’re told she is.

Fans of service will enjoy the color pages, wherein the Sono Hanabira, Ikkitousen XX, Shin Koihime Musou Otome Tairan and other anime and movies are discussed.

Mist-a-like, “My Unique Day” brings star actress/dancer Miki into the orbit of her admirer Sorako, and their brief mis-start before they both find the right method to fit their relationship.

Hayase-sempai rises to the occasion with an impassioned, if fictitious, defense of Mashiro when they are both dressed down by a teacher for having a relationship out in public where peeping toms and jealous classmates can tattle about it. Hayase says that she coerced the younger woman. When Hayase returns to argue their case, since it was in fact the jealous classmate who tattled, the teacher shuts her down. Crisis looks like it might actually loom in “Sayonara Folklore.”

And at last, a story I skipped. I’m finding the bittersweet not-quites of the Black Cat Mansion series to be pretty dull.

“DNA Double XX” returns with a chapter that has a lot of potential and fails almost utterly to maximize any of it, cashing it all in for a pile of cliches. Aoi cleans up nice for the dance with the Eves, to learn that the Adam’s plumage is not the only thing they do to attract mates in this society of peacocks. There will be duels, we are told, so it’s no surprise when, after Aoi disses Erika for her unkindness to a clumsy, sincere, bespectacled girl who wears underwear which we are forced to look at repeatedly, Sakura appears to defend the Eve-in-chief. Duel? Do ya think?

Skip the next, as “Hime Koi” has roundly failed to capture my interest.

And lastly Hakamada Mera’s “Kimi ni Naru” goes where we hoped it would go, as Amane spills to You just what her history with Yuki was. It turns out to be slightly more seedy than expected, as Yuki became pregnant by her tutor. You offers herself to Amane as a stand-in for her lost love but, after a rather hot kiss, Amane reels herself in. She pours cold water on both of them by telling You that she can stay the night but after this, she doesn’t want to see her ever again. Understandably, I think, since it would take a seriously strong person to avoid that particularly slippery slope. I want to categorically say that between this story and “Kaichou to Fukukaichou” in Yuri Hime S, I’ve come around to Hakamada. Her characters still have giant heads, though.

The ad for the next issue offers a 5th anniversary special “surprise.” Along with all the usual fun, there’ll be a pin-up by and interview with Aoi Hana‘s Shimura Takako. And, most importantly, from this issue forward, Yuri Hime is moving from a quarterly to a once-every-other-month format, so 6 times a year from the current 4. I hope you’re as excited about that as I am.

Overall – 9.5

So, 5 years into this experiment, we have a solid handful of some really decent art, storytelling and by god, adult women in relationships. Now we just need to get it over here legitimately and we’ll have arrived.

If there was ever a volume of Yuri Hime magazine worth buying, Volume 20 is that volume. It was the most stellar issue to date. I’ve mentioned that I have now taken to skipping any stories that simply don’t interest me – out of 18 stories, I skipped only 2 and liked or loved all of the ones I read. This was a great volume from beginning to end.

It begins with cover art by Fujieda Miyabi of Sarasa and Seriho from Ame-iro Kouchkan Kandan, and moves right into a pin-up by Morinaga Milk on one side and Dite on the other.

The first story, “Tsuki to Drop” is a variation on the group date gone wrong plot, when Nobara gets jealous of the guys paying attention to Tsuki at the gokon.

In “Mukou no Budou”, Itsuwa is regretting not taking the chance to reach her hand out towards Mitsue, when she had it back in high school. Seeing Mitsue with a lover now hurts more than she was prepared for.

Miwa-san is a typical OL, whose life changes when she quite accidentally meets actress Nagae-san. Suddenly, her life is filled with new people – and new feelings. These last two stories are both stories about adult women, so of course they made me happy.

And, although “Yomijinrazuno Tsukari Desu” is back in a school setting, there was something so refreshingly goofy and fun about it that I liked it anyway. When Tsukasa gets a love letter from “S”, she thinks it’s from Sumika, and goes the old-fashioned route by befriending her to get closer to her. However, she completely misses the fact that the writer of the love letter shares the same initial with her best friend, Sakurako.

Morishima Akiko’s series about grown-ups, “Renai Joshika,” brings two of the couples together in a business overnight in a cheap hotel in Hokkaido. This story has a number of things I’ve never seen in a Yuri Hime manga before, including some very clever fourth wall breaks and femme drag for the two butches, Mitsuki and Saki. And it looks like Mitsuki and Kaori are reigniting their old relationship. It’s been 15 years since they were lovers – I’ll be interested to see how their adult relationship works out.

“Yr Yr” covers that awkward space between a confession and a response.

And we’re going to end with an utterly squee-worthy chapter of “Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan” about which I can say very little without spoiling it. Sarasa and Seriho go out on a second date. To say that Seriho brings a U-haul would not be that far off. lol Seriously – this chapter is worth the price of the magazine. (I’m a little shy of halfway, but pressed for time today.)

Speaking of the price of the magazine. I know that many of you would purchase it if it were cheaper to get but sadly, the reality is that unless you live in Japan, it has to be shipped, until they – and we – have a model that works for legit digital reproduction (something I am working on, because it’s time to stop discussing the problem and start talking about the solution.) The magazine is about $9 USD and the shipping can be twice that easily. As you know, I always link to the Amazon JP entry for the magazine, because I have an affiliate account. I know it’s pretty steep shipping from there, but that cost per item goes down when you buy many items at once. A 20-item order can have a cost per item of about $4 USD, depending on what you get. Here are some other options:

BK1 books has more shipping options, so you can go a slower/cheaper route. You do need to know some Japanese to use their site, where on Amazon JP you can check out in English.

Also, if you live in a major city, a large bookstore can potentially get a subscription for you. And, if there is a Japanese bookstore anywhere in or near your town, they probably won’t have any difficulty getting it for you. Asahiya, Kinokuniya and Sanseido all have overseas stores and all are glad to provide subscription services. It helps to show up with a cover, or a printout of the title and/or the ISSN for them. We speak with an accent. :-)

There are also an online subscription services available from Sasuga Books and CD Japan, although neither have Yuri Hime listed, I’m sure they will be glad to assist you.

J-List does have Yuri Hime listed in their magazine section, and a subscription is available through them.

And Anonymous tells us that HMV JP also has an English-language interface, with a caveat that HMV’s overseas shipping is EMS only, no SAL. Thanks Anon, much obliged.

So, there really are a lot of options for you to buy Yuri Hime, and make the point that there is a legitimate overseas market. The more we buy, the more our voice is heard. In the near future I’ll expand about how this can change things for all our benefit – and talk about the solution I mentioned above. :-)

Part 2 tomorrow!