The second half of Volume 17 of Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫) starts off with another very doujinshi-style story.

Which makes me wonder…why do I think of them this way? Probably because I first encountered them when I began collecting original Yuri doujinshi. These stories that I think of as doujinshi stories are almost always high school settings, almost always kind of imperfect, good-but-amateur-ish art and almost always about those first steps to admitting that the characters are in love. They end with the moment that both characters acknowledge that they feel the same way about one another. Rarely do they go much further than that, but I do tend to like it when the stories do. Kimochi no Katachi (originally published as the Tact series) by Sakuraike was one of those series, Volume 1 and Volume 2, but then spent more time looking back before Satsuki and Kino got together than forward.

In any case, in “Watashi no Kawaii Hito,” Ika met Sempai a while ago and, after Sempai confessed to her, they’ve been going out. But, when the other girls in class star trashing talking onna-doushi, and the teacher talks about “playing pretend” with same-sex relationships, she thinks she might be the only one who is serious in their relationship. She nabs herself a beard to stave off her own breakdown. Sempai fights back – literally, with a palette over the head of Ika’s hapless male companion, and the two of them have to face each other’s feelings head on.

Rina wants older neighbor Kana to take her to the festival in “Mizu Fusen, Kingyo, Ramune” but Kanna, who had a past relationship with another woman, doesn’t want to relive those days. When she gives in, her worst fears are realized, as she runs into her former lover.

“Tsumugi Ito” by Uso Kurata wins. It is something I’m not sure we’ve ever had in Yuri Hime yet – an adult couple who is together, has been together and is dealing with a very real and very grown up issue. (One story an issue – do you see the pattern? One story an issue is about adults, edging slowly closer and closer to that “L” word….) Kae plays the housewife to Nao’s businesswoman, but new responsibilities at the office keep Nao later and later, and she starts pulling away from Kae. Kae forces the issue and they face their actual, real, very grownup relationship problem – together. I love Kae laying it out on the line to a totally stressed out Nao. Great story, drawn well with a really satisfying – if slightly pat – ending. More of this, please!!

Kind of harsh story in the new “Nekodomekan” chapter. Suzune and Emi are lovers, but Suzune’s untimely death plummets Emi into depression, until she visits the Black Cat Mansion.

Sumika comes right out and asks Takase-sempai to be her lover in Kowo Kazuma’s newest, “Sayonara Folklore.” Sumika has grown to hate their school, which has really weird rules and traditions, but has definitely come to love Takase. They have an argument, but when they make up, Sumika gets her answer.

Amane fell in love with Yuki back in school and, after they became lovers, had to admit that she loved women. When “Sore ga Kimi ni Naru” takes place, Amane has been years out of school but, when an accidental meeting on the train platform brings her face to face with a Yuki look-alike, it all comes back to her.

The art of “Soulphage” repulses me. The characters look 5. I don’t care what they do or why. They could all get hit by a truck. Instead I have no doubt that the genki lead will get her sempai. Bleah.

Tae is still laboring away to be near Yui (and pay her back for he lost necklace) in the next chapter of “Mizu-iro Cinema.” Tae insists on doing something summer-vacation-y, but thinks it’s all coming to an end when Yui is told she’s returning to Tokyo. Tae’s all ready to say goodbye when Yui says, “What are you talking about? You’re coming too.” Well, DUH, Tae. ^_^

Class appeal rankings are the source of much contention in “20, 21” but after some wrangling with the numbers, Asagao and Fuji find each other.

In “Apple Day Dream,” Kaoru, with longer hair these days, makes the same jokes as she always has…

And in the Hana Monogatari-themed story of the volume (also a pattern I’ve noticed) “Cosmos no Saku Niwa” a sprit and a girl meet, then the girl finds the real girl behind the wandering spirit, for a happily-ever-after ending.

So, there was some really good, some really good that was also really bad and some really okay. Overall, an excellent volume, I just wish the cover story wasn’t so stabby-making.

Overall – 8

If some of those one-shots actually continue, I think the next volume (out October 18) should be quite good.

Welcome to Volume 17 of Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫), which was both very good and very bad – sometimes at the same time.

The cover story, and new series by Eiki Eiki and Zaou Taisho is…really frustrating. It’s the 22nd century, all the men are dead and women have, for some reason, reinvented hesterosexist society for themselves. Women are either “Adam”s who play the male role in a relationship or “Eve”s who are the female role. In effect, the entirety of human society has become Takarazuka. The protagonist of this story, Aoi, is an “Adam,” attending an “Adam’s” private school. The number one rule of this school is that Adams MAY NOT have relationships with one another – only with Eves.

Not only is this ridiculous, it does something I am simply unhappy with – it turns this story into a BL/Yaoi story since it is *painfully* obvious that Sakura and Aoi will be the main couple here. I find this vexing. Severely vexing. Frankly, it just pisses me right off. I have nothing against BL. I understand that Eiki and Zaou specialize in gender-bendy stuff. But. I do not think this is as cute or clever as they do. Gender is, IMHO, far more complex an issue than sexuality. Yes, it is true that anyone with anyone in this manga will be “Yuri” by default, but the faux-heterosexism and overt “homo”phobia annoys the hell out of me. Editorially, it’s sheer genius. Nonetheless, I am irked and disappointed by it.

In fact, so much so that I find myself obsessing about the lessons I’ve learned about all-female societies when the men are all dead, from comics:

1) Women will be unable to restore any of the existing infrastructures – even after several years. (Y The Last Man)

2) Women will become drug-addled and power addicts with a penchant for dressing as if it was the eve of the French Revolution. (Project ICE)

and, now…

3) Despite the fact that there is only one sex, women will mandate a two-gender model and make same-gender relations illegal.

(Do NOT suggest early feminist sci-fi to me. DO NOT. The all-female societies of almost all of those sounded worse than death too. I read them all and hated every one of them. Such bitchy politics. UGHUGHUGH.)

I ask you – is it so wrong to want a story about an all-female society where the women are like, say, women? Guess so.

Moving on before I bust a capillary, “Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen” follows Arare as she gets really, really, *really* close to going all the way with Kiri, but doesn’t.

New series “Himekoi” lost my interest in, like, the first page. Girls wear underwear. Yahoos. One of the characters wears a kind of S&M-ish thing. I don’t know or care why. Goofy chibi art and BDSM are not a match for me.

The essay this month is about “Infimary after school” a story I don’t know, which is kind of cool.

“Para Yuri Hime” is sort of a comic essay/story kind of thing that you might find in Mist or Anise and one day I’m sure I’ll sit down and read it all the way through. ^_^

“Graffiti” is *exactly* the kind of doujinshi story that works best for me. Two girls are writing messages to each other on the desk they both use at different times. They meet, becomes friends and fall in love. I would so very much like to have this story continue, but it probably won’t. It was my favorite of the new works.

A very short “Sweet Peach” chapter that was almost, but not quite 4-koma-esque. More a survey of characters than a chapter of the story.

Next up is a side story from “Yuru Yuri” which read just like a chapter of “Yuru Yuri.”

Some time ago I reviewed Papaya Gundan by Aoki Mitsue (Volume 1 and Volume 2) and found it to be good. I’m glad to see Aoki joing the ranks of the the Yuri Hime team. The story is quite typical; smart girl Yuri and dumb girl Hime are childhood friends. Not only does their time together pull Hime’s grades up but, when it comes to love, she’s the smarter of the two.

And we’ll end off on a also-kind of typical, but pleasantly doujinshi-like “Back Shot.” Ema sits behind Kanae and finds herself fantasizing about her. When she gets a glimpse of Kanae’s breast under a sleeve, or bra under her sweaty shirt, Ema pretty much looses her cool. Because they have to work together, Kanae soons discovers the truth and has to confront her own feelings. Another Hatsukoi has begun. (That’s like 4 “first loves” in the first half of this magazine.)

Although the Eiki/Zaou story is stylish, it put me off. I’m glad to see some new artists, some new, if kind of the same, stories. There’s some excellent (and not so much) stories to come in the second half, so tune back in tomorrow!

Yuri Hime S, Volume 9 (コミック百合姫S (エス)) is…Yuri Hime S.

I keep wanting to like it, I really do. And mostly I kind of sort of enjoy it. But it is not for me and I am reminded repeatedly of the fact as I face chapter after chapter of stories like “Yuru Yuri,” “Love Cubic,” “Minus Literacy,” “Cassiopeia Dolce” and the new series “Konohana Teikitan.” They are simply not for me. Like or not like is beside the point. I’m the older sister reading a younger brother’s Yuri and just not feeling it.

It’s not even that the golden allure of schoolgirls’ thighs are nothing to me, it’s just that there’s nothing *happening* in these stories, because the fetishism fills the pages so full with cat/wolf/elf ears and bathing suits and underwear that the characters don’t have any time to develop. Take “Shingami Arisu,” a story that had a pretty bloody opening in which our protagonists meet over a murder. Well, in this next chapter…our protagonists meet over a murder. It was pretty much the same *exact* chapter all over again.

Or take “Flower Flower” for instance. In the beginning Nina was tsundere, Shu was all sincere and hopeful and her sister was kind of weird. Now, Nina is intermittently tsundere, Shu is all sincere and hopeful and her sister is really weird. There’s been almost no progress or change.

Many of the stories feel less like a story and more like a story idea repeated over and over.

Which is not to say that there aren’t some good stories here.

Uso Kurata’s “Apocalypse” is pretty standout. Two classmates play an MMORPG and find that their characters’ relationship is several step ahead of their own, but their feelings for one another are totally in sync.

Natsuneko offers a nastly little BDSM short that I would have liked more if it had more body to it.

Orange and Yellow, by Hiyori Otsu was an entirely predictable doofus best friend story that was made enjoyable by the art.

And most standout for me was the massive multi-crossover chapter by Fujieda Miyabi in which characters from Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan, Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to, Iono-sama Fanatics (unnamed, because the characters are owned by another company), Alice Quartet and “Otome-iro Stay Tuned” all meet for tea. It’s noted that the Amber Teahouse seems to be REALLY popular with female couples….

Overall – 7

It’s not awful, really. I just keep hoping for better and getting more baths. Sigh.

Oh and utter fail is Yoshitomi Akihito’s “Futari to Futari” which is a rehash of the same story he’s doing for Tsubomi. He’s getting paid twice for the same story, what a cunning plan. Snooze.

Butterfly 69 is everything that is good and right about Yuri manga. It makes me happy to be a manga reader.

Right from the first panel of the first story that ever appeared in Yuri Hime, I found Natsuneko’s art appealing. It has vibrancy, an energy that lacks in most manga these days. It’s not just that there’s action and energy depicted. The characters feel lively and real – even when the situations are ridiculous and unreal. Which they mostly are. ^_^

In “Butterfly 69,” the title story and one of my two favorites, we are introduced to Maria, the mixed-race singer of Butterfly 69 and Ageha, the prim and proper President of the Student Council at the elite music school Maria attends. Maria is an affront to everyone and everything at the school, with her crazy clothes and earrings and wild not-really Japanese self. Unbeknownst to the student body and staff, Maria and Ageha are engaged in a passionate love affair. Maria is given the opportunity to make it big overseas, but will have to leave Ageha behind, so she says goodbye the best way she knows how to – with a concert that rocks the school to its core.

Sakura is a young dress designer and her lover Dahlia is a model just about to become the Next Big Thing in “Quilt Queen.” This story reminded me strongly of Mist magazine stories, with the dress designer theme and a conflict straight from the pages of The Well of Loneliness.

Two sisters share a delusion in “Beautiful Pain.” My favorite part of this story, honestly, is that not just once, but twice, someone is hit by a truck. Made me laugh. I know, I’m a terrible person. :-p

In the unique, funny and offbeat story, “Okujou no Kiseki,” two women meet as they ponder committing suicide by jumping from the same roof. The joke is on them because they have been jilted by same girl. What makes this story really different, aside from the silly-awful premise, is that both women actually say they are Lesbian. Mind you, its sort of spit out as a little bit of self-loathing right before they throw themselves off a roof, but hey…. Oh and by the way – the story has a happy ending. Just in case you were worried.

“Spicy Sweets” was the first Natsuneko story to run in Yuri Hime and, as I said, I just liked it instantly then and no less now. Aki is a high school student with the dream of becoming a pastry chef and Yuu is a runaway daughter of a Yakuza household. There’s basically no reason to think they could ever live happily ever after, but they do. ;-)

As an omake for this collection, we get “Butterfly Effect” in which thwarted plans and jerky people keep Ageha and Maria apart – but not for long.

My *only* complaint about this volume is that they should have dropped the sister story and included the vampire story. It was much stronger.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 10
Service – 3

Overall – 9

The art is not at all moe, the stories run the gamut from classic Yuri to funky weird to absolutely silly, and in every case are thoroughly enjoyable. The manga is an easy candidate for my Best Manga of 2009. I very much look forward to more from Natsuneko.