It’s been two full years of Yuri Hime S (コミック百合姫S (エス)) now and, as I sit here re-reading this volume, I find that it is definitely showing signs of maturity. Relative maturity, at least. The propensity for the stories to include the most typical forms of service hasn’t gone away. We are still subjected to swarms of girls in uniforms, maid outfits, bloomers (long gone in the real world, but unfortunately lodged firmly in the minds of fanboys) and of course, an obsession with bathing.

Before I continue this review, my wife reminds me to mention that we saw some pictures of Takarazuka girls, though. They were part of a “women’s work in Japan” article. Very interesting.

Let’s talk perky-breasted 2-dimensional girls. Let’s talk Yuri Hime S Volume 8.

The cover is once again graced by two of the characters from “Honey Crush,” a story I wish I liked more than I do. I don’t hate it, but I wish I could love it. I feel like it has potential, but it isn’t allowed to move out of it’s own teeny-tiny frame.

Yoshitomi Akihito hits the pinnacle of his career with yet another story about two girls sweating, wearing bathing suits and eventually kissing in “Natsu no Hajimari.” Fans of his bathing-suit fetish will absolutely enjoy this iteration of it as they have so many of the others.

“Amatsubu Harmonia” tells the somewhat unrealistic, yet touching story of Yuuka, the “other daughter” who is left alone most of the time, and her completely sociopathic attachment to a waif she meets in the rain. The fact that she and the waif end up together is meant to be interpretated as a good thing. :-)

Nina reminisces about how alone she is and about the death of her mother in “Flower Flower.” Shuu once again is a really, really nice gal that Nina edges ever closer to one day being worthy of.

I give in. “Yuru Yuri” is like a 4-koma that’s drawn wrong. Anyway, wacky things happen – mostly in the mind of the Miu-like Kyouko. Take her out of the story and it’s basically about a bunch of girls doing their homework.

Madoka is contemplating suicide in “Honey Crush.” Having been betrayed by her love, her spirit has vacated her body – with the result that she can now see her stalker ghost. But ghost and Kyouko convince Madoka to live on and so she does – only now she can’t see the ghost who loves her anymore.

Uso Kurata skims the line of Yuri and every other possible relationship between females in “Linkage.” (It took me longer to figure out that title than you’d probably expect. lol) Rica Rozenberg is a genius scientist, with a painful past. She is convinced that she can program emotions into her robots and, with the creation of Elder, she has succeeded. But her success causes a crisis and Elder’s system fails. It’s only through the power of love that El is saved. If this ran not in a Yuri magazine, I’d see it more as mother/daughter big/sister/little sister thing, but whatever. It was cute.

“Minus Literacy” comes to a climax, when Matsudaira and the gang learn that a crisis has occurred at the “organization” Miharu left them for. The estate is taken over and we are all very shocked to find that the person who has taken control of Matsudaira’s debt is…Miharu. Shocked I say. ;-)

The position of student council president is an important one, but sometimes, there are needs that reside in a heart that cannot be expressed through churning, grinding paperwork. Or so I gather from “Omoi wo Mukou,” in which Saori convinces Yuki to abandon her work for a day and act out a play between the two of them. They take the stage with – and for – each other, for this once.

As usual, I’m skipping “Love Cubic” but there’s a love complication somewhere in between the usual stuff.

“Otome Kikan Gretel” was a chapter filled with egregious nudity, bathing, the implication of a 3-way relationship between the other group (not Yuu’s) and an admission by Yuu that she quite likes soft breasts. Well…duh… Nonetheless, it made me laugh. I have *no* idea why. :-)

Crisis in “Casseopiea Dolce!” Anna is ever closer to maybe, perhaps, one day confessing some small portion of her feelings to Elza-sensei, but a newcomer shows up on the scene to confuse things. Karen, who makes the glass eyes used by the dollmaker, decides she’s fallen in love at first sight with Anna. A timely and oh-so-realistic slip in the bathroom gives Anna a chance to convey her feelings in the most basic way. She kisses Elza, then runs away passive-aggressively.

“C de Onegai” is the same old schoolgirl story with hilarious love triangle hijinks, centering around a misunderstanding of the A,B and C designations used for sexual activity. (Analogous to our first, second and third base.) Kaede confessed her feelings for Meru three days ago, but has not gotten a response. When she does, it’s, “let’s take it from C,” which Meru thinks stands for “chuu” – i.e., a kiss. Things become complicated when Kaede passes a chuu onto Meru, but finds her best friend Aida giving her a chuu, too.

Suzuki-san remains bad with dogs and Saori collapses in another pulse-pounding chapter of “Konohana Link.” I keep waiting for anything to tie together, but nope – not so far!

Miduki Maya provides a silly look at the line between roleplay and delusion in “Hakushaku no Okinihairi.” The “Count” takes a great deal of interest in one of the first-years, and it turns out that, despite the Dracula roleplay, she actually *is* interested in the first-year. No, really.

Fukukaichou has seen her world crumble and now she sits, alone, crying at her own stupid feelings when Kaichou walks in on her. “Kaichou and Fukukaichou” face a crisis, as Kaichou asks what’s wrong and refuses to accept the usual, “nothing” response. There’s not nothing wrong, she says, if you’re sitting here alone, crying. Fukukaichou, beyond the end of her endurance, leans forward and kisses Kaichou and immediately knows she’s ruined everything. Despite myself – despite the fact that I know what Kaichou’s reaction is going to be – I’m actually looking forward to the next chapter of this.

And last, Natsuneko tells the story of a miraculous meeting of two women who have had their hearts broken and are now contemplating suicide in “Yaneura no Kiseki.” I won’t give away the twist in the story, but it was snort-worthy.

So, looking back at it, this was probably the most enjoyable volume of YHS so far. Sure, there’s still a ton of service that does not serve me, particularly and a somewhat tiresome lack of adult women who like other adult women, but hey, that’s why I publish Yuri Monogatari. For a maid-, schoolgirl-, bathing suit-, bath-filled rubbish magazine, it was quite enjoyable. :-)

Overall – 8

The second half of this volume of Yuri Hime (百合姫) picks up with “Mizu-iro Cinema,” a little ditty about popular actress Yui who, after a day’s shoot decides to take a walk along the beach. As she stands looking out over the water, a voice impores her to not jump and she is tackled, then accidentally pushed in, by a girl school uniform. Tamae takes Yui to her house to warm up and dry off. Yui and Tamae realize they are the same age, and during a discussion about school, Yui reminisces about her former schoolmate…and lover. Upon returning to her hotel, Yui realizes she has lost a necklace given to her by that former lover and rushes back to see if Tamae found it. Tamae leaps into the water to find it when she realizes that the necklace holds meaning for Yui, but as the other girl looks for it, Yui thinks that maybe, it doesn’t have that much meaning after all. The end of the story asks “Has a new love begun…?” But really if it weren’t by Hiyori Otsu, running in Yuri Hime and they didn’t say that, I’d say, “Not really.” But what do I know? ^_^

“Sei Ippai Suki to Uso to” is by another new winner of Ichijinsha’s manga contest. Kayo and Miya meet on the first day of school and become love rivals for the hand of Rinko-sempai. Only, Miya has fallen in love with her rival. Happily, Kayo is also in love with Miya, so it all works out. The best thing about this story was that the art reminded me of Raku-Gun’s, but wasn’t as angular and cynical.

Oh look at that. “Nanami to Misuzu” is still running.

This is followed by color pages hawking Ichijinsha properties. Then moving on into “Sweet Peach” which completely fails to capture my attention. The splash page offers gratutious bathing scene for those who really like that. Touka is thrust into another confusing situation as treasured companion to Amateru-sama and surrounded by maids and handservants. It makes about as much sense as any other scenario in this story has.

“Shirogami” allows the editor to include another “wounded girl” story. Minaho has no memory of the past two years, not even a glimmer of recognition for her best friend Takako. In her mind, she’s still in her third-year of middle school. Takako comes by bringing books for her all the time. Minaho wonders why she likes them so much, but Takako’s answer throws her for a loop – Takako knows her likes and dislikes and holds books she knows Minaho will like to forward them to her. The messages on her cel phone to “that Minaho” – her self previous to her accident – from Takako puzzle her. She deletes them, until she comes across a picture of her and Takako…kissing. At school she confronts Takako with that picture, insisting that she is not “that” Minaho. In tears, Takako apologizes for upsetting Minaho. Minaho gets a heartfelt mesaage that Takako misses her and the next day, Minaho waits for her, sending her a message that she wants to see her too.

“Tokumei Prologue” tells the story of how Nanao met Matsumoto, before the stories that make up Junsui Adolescence. It was love at first sight. ^_^

In “Past Heaven” Yuu has never had the chance to go to a friend’s house so when Ayumu invites her, she’s very nervous – and even more so when she realizes that they are alone. But Ayumu is Ayumu, so Yuu-chan is happy, until Ayumu pushes her back and asks her to go out with her. Yuu replies that she doesn’t do that kind of thing, and Ayumu immediately relents. But at school the next day, when Yuu greets Ayumu, she’s greeted pleasantly – with her family name instead of her given name. Yuu guesses correctly that she’s hurt Ayumu. She finds the other girl smoking behind a tree, and learns that Yuu resembles (heavy sigh) a girl she used to be in love with. They were discovered kissing by a parent, who separated them immediately. So when Ayumu came to this chsool, she was immediately captured by Yuu, who resembled her girlfriend. Yuu says that she really doesn’t think there’s a difference between being friends and going out, but Ayumu says that it is different. Yuu declares that she can’t become Ayumu’s former gf, but will make sure she’s not alone. They end the story eating warm taiyaki together.

And finally, “Apple Day Dream.” In between being reminded that Mayu has a big chest and Kaoru loves big chests, we learn some incidentals about the cast, like family members and favorite flavors. Mayu give Kaoru Valentine’s Day chocolate, but really doesn’t expect anything in return.

Overall – 8

This issue probably had fewer stories I genunely didn’t like then any other. Overall it’s a neat bell curve – a few to love, most average and a few to dislike.

I’m away this week, hopefully kicking back and relaxing as you read this. :-)

The cover of the winter issue of Yuri Hime (百合姫) evokes Valentine’s Day hijinks with Kiri and Arare from “Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen,” chocolates and the joys of licking the cook. ^_^

The book starts off with “Kaminaga Hime” the next chapter of the Black Cat Mansion saga. In this story, a boyish hairstylist falls in love with one of her customers, only to find that, at the end of it all, she is loved back.

In “Creo the Crimson Crises,” stuff happens that involves Creo snuggling Suoh a lot Suddenly, for reasons that would be apparent if I was actually reading this story, Suoh transforms into a bustier, older, sexier, but no less soppy, version of herself.

In the next chapter of “Kono Onegai Kanau nara” the awkward love triangle continues as Tsukiko attempts to confess her feelings to You-chan, but does not manage it. The third point in this triangle, whose name escapes me, overhears and reacts with jealousy and frustration. Tsukiko tries again, this time coming much closer to making her point. Time will tell how this painful situation will shake out.

The Essay on Yuri Manga by Miura Shion touches on the recent series Girl x Girl x Boy, which I reviewed and found to be better than the sum of its parts. ^_^

The cover series appears! In this chapter of “Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen” Arare is tortured over her desire for Kiri and her fear of becoming a O-bake. Having made her decision that hot lesbian sex is more important that staying human (and who can blame her?) she runs into kogal Akina who, it turns out, sold her humanity for a little nookie herself. Akina warns Arare from doing it, then says she was lying, it was the best thing evar. She jumps Arare, who runs out into the night, only to face the inhumanity of her schoolmates. She wakes from a dream of being attacked by Pero, and runs out of her room to Kiri’s. Will she make the fateful decision? Tune in next month to find out!

“Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan” manages to be even cuter and fuzzier and warmer than usual as Sarasa and Seriho have a conversation that is long overdue. Sarasa explains that her one true desire is to be by Seriho’s side, making the tea shop work. And so, she has chosen to attend a local trade school to become a pastry chef. Seriho refuses to pretend that she is anything but thrilled at the decision, and the scene ends with them side by side, looking at a future together.

“Urbane” tells a somewhat trite story about a girl who appears at a winterbound village and is just a little scary (and cool.) Miyuki becomes known as the local Snow Woman, but Kuriko warms up to her anyway, only to be shoved roughly aside when she tries to heat up their friendship. Miyuki finally admits that Kuriko reminds her of the girl she was in love with, confessed to and was rejected by. They decide to thaw their relationship and Miyuki admits that her real name is Miharu, preaging a beautiful spring for them both.

In “Nostalgia” a crush on an older married woman becomes a point of contention, then the kernel for a deeper familial love. Kyou met Konomi when she was 8 and Konomi was a newlywed at 17. Her older husband, a loving and dedicated man Takuto, has now been dead for 14 years and Kyo really wants nothing more than to be the one that Konomi looks at with that expression. And, it could happen. But Kyou realizes that their bond was never really meant to be as lovers, and so she recreates it as “family.”

That takes us about halfway, so I’m going to cut out here and pick this up for tomorrow.

In Kowo Kazuma’s Junsui Adolescence (純水アドレッセンス,) Volume 1, we meet Nanao, a high school student. She doesn’t seem to be particularly special in any way. Decent student, head of the club that assists with the Infimary. But secretly, she’s fallen in love with the school doctor, Matsumoto. In traditional tsundere fashion, she responds to these confusing feelings by being mean to Matsumoto.

Soon her feelings overflow her ability to hide them, and Nanao and Matsumoto find themselves in a relationship that must be hidden, even if they do a darn bad job of it.

The handling of this student/teacher relationship is a little pat. Of course. We don’t want our love story being interrupted by charges of statutory rape or professionally unethical behavior or other annoying real-life complications. No, we really don’t. We *know* it’s a bad idea for a student and the school doctor to fall in love. They know it too. That’s the whole point.

So, Matsumoto, despite every logical thought she has, find herself involved with a student. And Nanao flounders while trying to establish a real and lasting place in her lover’s life. It’s a harder journey than either expect. And to be honest, I didn’t see a happy ending at the end of this story. But luckily for all of us, I was wrong. :-)

Because this is a story of internal battles and small victories, I really don’t want to spoil too much. Let me leave it this way – if you don’t mind the problematic nature of the relationship, then you are likely to find yourself *dying* to see what the future holds for these two at the end of this book. (Sadly, I don’t think we get past the “happily ever after” but hey, at least we get “happily ever after.”)

Ratings:

Art – 6, but it grew on me
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 8

This was a series that I kept forgetting was a series while it ran in Yuri Hime and when I finally clued in was thrilled that it was ongoing. As a collection it’s just that much better.

Color pages in Comic Yuri Hime S (コミック百合姫S (エス)? Why yes! The characters of “Yuru-Yuri” are *so* excited that even the voice balloons are in color! But mostly they sit around and talk in a classroom, so it’s kind of a waste. lol Luckily, Ichinjinsha has lot of exciting things to sell tell you about, so all that color isn’t entirely blown on abstract backgrounds. There seems to be some Yuri of some kind in the story, too. Mostly in the form of fantasy and wishful thinking.

In “Flower Flower,” Shuu has something else that worries her now. I really don’t care what it is. I’m starting to think that what she really needs is some Xanax. And Nina’s on the up-side of her bipolar disorder, so Shuu can freak out about that, too.

Flashy Matsuoka is in love with wallflower Tomoko in “Kikoeru Suzunone.” Tomoko can’t really believe that Matsuoka likes her, so she concocts a low-self-esteem version of their relationship, but has to acknowledge that she’s plain old wrong when she overhears Matsuoka talking to someone else about her. Tomoko and Hiromi end up celebrating a romantic Christmas Eve together, with a solid forecast of “happily ever after.”

“Tsukiko ha Bakakawa” involved really cute girls doing cute things cutely. Sometimes they hug.

Summer – what does it mean to you? In “Natsu Toieba,” Sakura and Fumiko have a checklist of things “summer” means to them. They proceed to pound through the checklist, which includes things like somen and yukata and watermelon and fireworks and all that. At the end they are able to add the most important list item of all – “love.”

Suzuki *finally* learns that there are two Kuse sisters in “Kotohana Link.” And, she learns that one, Miyako, is a “bad girl” who is openly a lesbian playgirl. After Yoriko admits her sister’s bad behavior, Suzuki admits that she too liked a girl….

Anna’s having issues in “Cassiopeia Dolce.” She really, really, really likes Elza-sensei, but sublimates her desire for the Master in her desire to own one of her dolls – which coincidentally looks just like Elza. She gets the doll, and maybe a step closer to Elza.

In “Minus Literacy,” Matsudaira begs the Yakuza boss for Miharu to be returned, but Miharu blows her off and drives away with the boss, the car symbolically splashing Matsudaira as they spin off and leaver her on the sidewalk in the rain. Cue the violins and clarinet.

Once again, I will skip “Love Cubic.”

The Vice President of the Student Council is very cheerful and relaxed today, and goes so far as to offer sweets to go with the President’s tea in “Kaichou to Fuku-kaichou.” But her good mood crumbles when she find that her beloved President has stood next to a boy in a puricula booth. The Treasurer rubs it in, declaring that he looks like a great boyfriend, but it turns out that the Treasurer also desires the President *and* saw the VP and Pres together during orienteering. She’s determined to keep them apart. Ominous music plays as the chapter comes to a close with the Vice President’s tears.

“Beautiful Pain” is another half-sisters in love story, this time brought together by a truck accident. Sean – this one’s totally for you. Both “she got hit by a truck” and “happily ever after,” …as long as they stay inside the bedroom. Reality is so going to be a bitch.

“Nanami to Misuzu” is ‘Nanami to Misuzu”-like.

It’s a small volume compared to recent ones. The stories are so varied that surely, if you are Yuri fan, you’ll find *something* to like.