This book is so huge, I have to get it out of the pile o’stuff to review, which is once again dangerously tall. The good news is – this book is *huge*!

Yuri Hime Volume 11 is about 460 someodd pages of Yuri goodness, plus an extra mini publication, Petite Yyuri Hime as an omake. There’s new stories, and continuing stories and a few series that end. Like all anthologies, you may not like everything in it – there are some stories I certainly do not care for – but with *so* much inside, there’s bound to be something you like. :-)

This volume starts off with “Sweet Peach,” a news series. Kisaragi Touka is in the infirmary and is a bit freaked out/intrigued by the doctor. And she can’t help but wonder who the mysterious woman in the infirmary is. She need not have fretted about that, because on the way home Touka is attacked by energy creatures of some kind and the doctor – now dressed as a maid, and the other woman – now with pointy animal ears and a Big-Ass Sword TM, save her. The doctor-maid take a few licks of the Touka-sicle and the swordswoman kisses her and takes her …somewhere safe. With no explanation, of course. But she has a magical mouse for company at least. To be continued – hopefully, to make some sense. :-)

“Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen” ups the service a few notches with this issue’s chapter o’bizarre. A kappa and a two-mouthed woman fall in love. Only, the kappa falls in love with the giant mouth on the back of the two-mouthed girl’s head. The front mouth on the face, is jealous, but the kappa only kisses the back mouth. So…the face decided that she wants the kappa’s lower lips. Irritatingly, the mouth in the back takes those too. And the whole time this is going on, Arare is trapped in the tree above, forced to sit through this extremely extreme situation. See, she was playing hide and go seek when the two below started to…and now… Kiri shows up, gets the gist pretty fast and asks if Arare want a little sumthin’-sumthin’ for herself. Of course not, don’t be silly, etc, etc. But Kiri kisses Arare anyway. To be continued, but never to be less freaky. :-)

This chapter of “Strawberry Shake Sweet” is the BEST CHAPTER EVER. *EVER*. And because it is, I can’t tell you a damn thing about it without spoiling it rotten. So here we go – prepare to be spoiled rotten. If you do not wish to be, skip to the second set of asterisks.

Preparing for massive spoilage…

***

The chapter begins with Julia and Ran’s staged kiss in what is a really nicely executed series of panels. The concert goes on, but Julia and Ran take themselves off to change. Julia, trying to convince herself again, talks about the kiss as good work, just a job, etc and Ran loses it. She blurts out her feelings about Julia. Julia being Julia, tries to convince herself that really Ran didn’t mean it that way. But there no putting cats back in bags, as we know. Watching the concert from above together, Julia *finally* tells Ran what she feels. And then immediately regrets it. As she hems and haws and thinks the usual “well, that’s it” Ran says her name. Julia looks up to find herself being kissed soundly by Ran. The two of them sort of wander their mental way to the place where they realize that yes, indeed, they do have the same feelings for one another…and Julia gets a grade-A nosebleed. Thus completely ruining the mood. LOL

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Saeki gets “a really bad feeling about this.”

***

More craziness to come, but seriously. Best chapter ever. Would that all “funny” Yuri be this good. And seriously, I have got to work on a short fan letter to send Hayashiya-sensei. Because she’s bring me a lot of joy these days. :-)

Morishima Akiko’s signature round, snuggly art fills “Star Princess”; a short, no-context piece about a girl who considers herself a prince to her friend’s princess.

“Creo the Crimson Crises” continues, but I’ve sort of stopped caring. Suoh is so weepy and soppy, and she appears to be getting smaller with each chapter. She’s practically a pocket pet at this point. One of Suoh’s school friends turns out to be a raging demon who, in “defense” of Suoh, tries to defeat Creo. Doesn’t work. The flaw with this kind of story is that Suoh, whom we are all fighting over, is as interesting as a rag. It’s a pretty common flaw in anime and manga and for me, it’s insurmountable.

Kiko loves Ohzawa in “Koi Wazurai Lovesick.” She tries to get the point across, but Ohzawa’s being a little dense. Frustrated with Ohzawa’s inability to understand what she means, and how much Ohzawa’s dating a guy from another class hurts her, Kiko has to find a way to make the point. She makes the point by kissing Ohazawa, then walking away. Ohzawa comes running up to return the kiss – and the emotion.

“Nanami to Misuzu” remains the hysterical confabulation of animal ears, siscon, maid and other fetishes that it always is.

Last year, Ichijinsha ran a “new artist” contest. The results of that contest are published – with an example of the art, a synopsis of the story and the exceedingly generous prizes offered. The winner has been published in this issue of Yuri Hime.

The winning story, “Daisuki” by Hanatsu Yaya, is the next story in the magazine. It’s…grim. A girl who is the punching bag for her entire school is in love with and lives with a girl who is actually a dragon. While the art in “Daisuki” is reminiscent of many josei artists and not at all bad, and the story has some unique twists, it is not a happy story.

Following that are lots of color pages which contain advertising and the next chapter of “Aoi Shiro.” Which turns out to be the last chapter of “Aoi Shiro.” Like the Simoun manga was to the anime, this is meant to be read as a complement to the game. There is no complete story being told. I kind of feel that that’s a bit of a cop-out. (I’ll pick up that thread again later, so let me hold off on the rant for now.) But, for what it’s worth, this manga kind of actually sets up the game, as far as I can tell. The game’s main character, Shouko, is introduced and given a back story. Sawacchi and Shouko learn to stand side by side and Momo sort of drops back to supporting actor. It’s a pat, but pleasant end – and presumably, a pat, but pleasant opening to the game.

I think I’m going to stop here, but there’s a lot more to go, so don’t forget to check back tomorrow – and thanks to everyone who continues to support Yuri by buying Yuri Hime and other Yuri Manga. :-)

I was happy to pick up Yuri Hime S, Vol. 3 while I was in Tokyo and scan through it one evening at my hotel. Now, after a more thorough re-read, I have to say that it was a slightly mediocre issue. One of those issues between this one and that one, when plots are still developing and some of the stories are shortchanged as others get more page count – you know how it goes.

Iwami Shouko’s “Flower Flower” starts off the magazine with color pages and more of Princess Nina’s tsundere ways. Shuu continues to be sincere and lovable, and for a moment we think Nina’s thawing, but no, she’s just drunk. Hopefully this story will do something soon, because “I like you, no I don’t” doesn’t really count as a plot to me.

And *speaking* of twincest, “Himawari Saita,” by Kuromasa Shisei is a story drawn in that drippy-wet style, about twins. One twin, Himawari, is desired by an obnoxiously persistent sempai who will not take no for an answer. But Himawari does not want to be severed in any way from her beloved sister, Nasuna. Nasuna has a brain cell, however, and explains patiently to her older twin that its a good thing that she find someone else who loves her, differently than she can. Nasuna gives her blessing to Himawari to find love, and walks off thinking that she also ought to find a nice person for herself. This was quite possibly the first twincest story I’ve ever actually enjoyed, mostly because of Nasuna’s emotional maturity. The art all made them look wet, though.

Kurogane Kenn hit his stride with the completely characteristic “Konohana Link” which appears to be the first chapter of a series. Two stories parallel each other. In one, a student confesses to her sempai, in the other, new student Suzuki Chieri comes to the school. The two girls are kissing when Chieri sees them, as she walks around the school. But, as she watches them making out, she can’t help but notice that one of them is looking back at her! Kurogane does slick PWP work, but the salaciousness factor on his stuff is high. I wonder if he can manage to make his characters 3-D enough to satisfy a female audience….

“Cassiopeia Dolce” continues to be a typical Takagi Noboyuki story with lots of underwear, maid outfits, bathing, Yuri and doll-faced characters. His art has always left me cold and this chapter doesn’t move the story forward at all. In it, newbie Anna stresses about the many girl-girl kisses that are going on here at the store. Olga seems to be okay with all the kissing, but Elza seems to have selective memory – worse, Anna’s starting to fantasize a bit about Elza. And she does a day’s work, too.

Finally! A Hakamada Mera story I *liked*. It had to happen one day. “Kaichou and Fukukaichou” was cute. The Student Council President is gaga over her Vice President, but the feelings may or may not be returned. In the meantime, it’s up to the Fukukaichou to keep the flaky Kaichou on track. The characters almost looked their ages and for some reason, I just liked this story. ^_^

Koumei Keito’s “Hana no Yurina-gumi,” which is probably meant to spoof “Asuka no Hana-gumi,” I pretty much skipped. It’s one of those stories with a shrieking hysterical “cute” munchkin of a creature that dogs the steps of normal looking characters. I just couldn’t do it. I’ll never be able to.

“Tainai Kaiki” by Yoshitomi Akihito managed to be fetishy and still not suck. Two girls are in the school pool when it begins to rain. They end up in the curtains in the multipurpose room. Mayu had previously confessed to Akami, but had been rejected as a lover, although not as a friend. But for some reason, Akami is moved to kiss Mayu today as she sleeps. Mayu wakes up, asks if she was kissed and when she is told yes, takes control of the situation. They kiss until the heat inside the curtains is intolerable and when they go outside, the walk on the water in the schoolyard together.

“Nanami to Misuzu.” Another skip. Something about sleeping arrangements.

Kaori has fond memories of a girl she knew when she was younger – and she remembers the day she gave that girl a pair of earrings. Imagine her surprise when Ayabuki shows up at her school in Kurata Uso’s “Pierce.” On the night of the school festival, Ayabuki arrives at Kaori’s fortunetelling booth with a guy she likes and Kaori falls apart. But Ayabuki pursues her and at least they can be friends…and maybe more?

“Girls Love” by Morishima Akiko is a series of 4-panel comics about Hana-chan’s not at all secret crush on Kaori-chan. Every single person in her art class knows – including the very enabling teacher. Everyone except for the seemingly clueless Kaori. And of course Hana doesn’t have the guts to tell her.

There is nothing wrong with “Minus Literacy” per se. I just can’t figure out what the hell it’s about. But hey, I’m not alone, because Iinchou is still figuring it all out. If Matsudaira is the head of the household, why does it seem that her maid, Miharu runs the place? And what on earth is going on with the girl with mad miko skills? I’m kind of on Iinchou’s side on all of the madness.

“Gretel” by Sudou Kaoru opens with Yuu waking up to find herself sharing a bed with a provocatively clad Nagi and Mari and her brain full of memories of kissing them both deeply and fighting off monsters. Mari wakes to find Yuu in the middle of a puddle of nose blood, in front of Nagi’s prominent breasts. Then we shift scene to get some exposition about the Formika and magic use at the school. At which point our resident Goth-Loli girl shows up in cat paws and ears so thems as who likes that can squeal or whatever.

And finally, Tsubaki Asu’s “Honey Crush” is a few pages of reaffirming by Kyouko and the ghost that they think the girl they like is worth pursuing, even though she isn’t.

In retrospect, I’m not sure that the volume was really mediocre, just that I had hoped that “Gretel,” and Kurogane Kenn’s story would have been given more pages – I’m not loving “Flower Flower”. And I was disappointed that there was no “Otomeiro Stay Tune.” So let’s revise mediocre to vaguely dissatisfying. :-)

Ratings:

Overall – 6

The next post will be my 900th. Huh. How ’bout that. That’s a lot of anime and manga. And btw – 263 posts in 2007. That’s about two every three days.