I am feeling like crap tonight on account of food poisoning last night and yet, here I am writing you a review. Aren’t you moved by my dedication and focus? Don’t you want to shower me with praise (and if you’re my wife, kisses?) I thought you might. Thank you.

Today we have Rose Meets Rose, a collection of several Yuri Hime phone comics, by Shinn Yui.

I was reading this book before bed every night and quickly realized that it might not be the best choice for that, as the stories are the opposite of relaxing.

The first story is particularly uncomfortable, as it follows the anger, denial and ultimately, love, between two girls who may well have been responsible for the death of a pedophile who kidnapped them when they were children. It turns out that they were not, in fact, killers, but somehow it didn’t sit well with me that they suddenly found comfort in each other, when five seconds before they loathed one another for the secret they had been keeping.

In the second story, Sen falls in love with a girl in a painting. When that girl, Mai, transfers to her school, she asks Mai to pose nude for her. Mai has a reputation for having had an affair with the man – her teacher- who had painted her, and Sen knows it, but can’t stop herself from obsessing about Mai. The rumors fly about Mai, while Sen tries to protect her from the fallout…and tries to get her to open up a bit. When Mai gets a call from the teacher, all of a sudden Sen sees what a transformation love can make. Taciturn Mai blossoms into a beautiful woman. Mai will be leaving to join her lover in Europe, but Sen never stops loving the girl in the painting. This was my favorite story of the collection.

The third story was sci-fi-ish. Two girls break out in “love” with a rose-colored and -shaped rash. The more intense the love they have for one another, the more of their bodies are covered. After a late-night swim in the pool they are completely covered, of course.

And, finally, a girl with the nickname Dorothy is brought back from wanting to die by a “cowardly lion.” This story was too reminscent of those bad-old lesbianism=mental disease days for me to really like it, even though it had a sweet ending.

In keeping with the rest of the Ichijinsha phone manga, I found this all to be not *quite* satisfying. None of it is bad, the art style is pretty classic – reminiscent of Kakinouchi Narumi (Vampire Princess Miyu, Uta-hime) and now that I think about it, the stories are a little reminiscent of her’s too. But the tragic heroines were too melodramatically tragic for me to ever truly enjoy it.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Stories – 5-8
Characters – 6
Yuri – 7
Service – 4

Overall – 7

So, not stellar, but not bad either. Definitely not relax-y bedtime reading though. ^_^

Knife-Edge Girl (ナイフエッジガール)by Furutsuji Kikka, is a collection of several graphic novellas that had previously run in Comic Yuri Hime.

The book begins with the titular “Knife-Edge Girl” a story about two friends with completely different approaches to life.

The second story is a personal favorite of mine, “Graffiti,” in which two women who use the same desk at different times of the day communicate in drawings on the desk top. When they finally meet in real life – purely by accident – the attraction is instant on Kana’s side…and maybe not on Rise’s. Or maybe, it is.

In “Torte Fromage” Miwa’s boring OL life is suddenly thrown into glamour and excitement when she meets avant garde actress Nakae-san.

And as an omake, we get Rise’s point of view on her relationship with Kana and how she saw it develop.

Of all of these stories, the closest to actually having a lesbian in it was “Torte Fromage,” in which Miwa is asked if she is Nakae’s new girlfriend in a way that implies that that would not be unusual.

This collection breaks no new ground, but with good art and new spins on “Story A,” I found the book to be enjoyable in every way.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Because of the difficulty in bringing adult books over here, if Seven Seas wanted to restart their Strawberry Line with more Ichijinsha works, I’d recommend this and Otsu’s Clover to begin with.

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