Archive for the Comic Yuri Hime Category


Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime 4, Part 2

April 26th, 2006

The second half of Yuri Hime 4 begins with the first issue of the new Hatsukoi Shimai arc. This was the arc I was waiting for – the one based on the Koi Shimai 2 Drama CD.

All the girls at the school are blown away when a hunky young woman arrives on motorcycle and asks for the staff room. They are wowed by her boyish charm and her openly seductive teasing – and even more wowed when it turns out that Hiiragi Touko has arrived to be a substitute teacher! Touko-sensei, for some reason, really rubs Akiho the wrong way and her bad feeling doesn’t get any better when Touko-sensei neatly inserts herself into Chika’s personal space at every possible turn.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this chapter was that it did not follow the Drama CD word for word, but elaborated a bit on some of the interpersonal relationships that have already been established. So we get to see Chika and Haruna have a quiet, romantic, moment together, something we never really had on the CD. We get to see Teshigawara yell at Chika – and hear the rest of the class teasing her about her ongoing issues with Chika. Touko, for her part, is smooth and sexy and pretty plausible, so that was cool. And Akiho’s instant dislike for Touko was a perfect prelude to her later involvement with the teacher. I was really happy with this chapter.

Following closely on the heels of such happiness came Morishima Akiko’s Yuri life illustrated column with 4 pages of eye-bugging “WTF? Is there really such a thing?” Spring has arrived and Akiko’s editor decides to take her out for a Yuri-ful adventure. (Bear in mind kids – this is all real. Akiko is a real person, her editor ditto, and she’s about to go to real places.) They start with “Imoutoke Cafe Nagomi” in which all the waitresses address you as onee-sama and act like your adorable little sister. Cafe Nagomi is in Akihabara – the address and phone is printed on the bottom of the page. Then, off to my beloved Ikebukuro section of town and “Maid Refloxology” at (I SWEAR I am not making this up!) M@IFOOT. It is exactly what it sounds like – a reflexology bar where maid-outfit wearing massage therapists rub your feet. I laughed for a solid ten minutes at the name “M@IFOOT.” Brilliant! Then, off to B:Lily-Rose, also in Ikebukuro. Take a deep breath. Sit down. Relax. At B:Lily-Rose, the hosts are women in suits, roleplaying Boy’s Love couples. The women in suit jackets are seme/tachi/butch/tops and the ones in vests are uke/neko/femme/bottoms. How very wrong is this? I am STILL laughing at the idea. Akiko-sensei, once again, I am insanely jealous. I really ought to write her and tell her so. ^_^

“Tsuki ni Onegai o” is the newest chapter in Morinaga Milk’s continuing saga of Hitomi and Nana. This one is from Hitomi’s point of view. She and Nana, now second-years at school, are desperately squeezing in time together at night after school and clubs and before dinner. Hitomi coments that she’d like them both to be grown up, so they could live together. Nana blushes, but does not protest. They’ve both matured and it’s obvious. Nana goes back to school and randomly asks Abe (her classmate and the protagonist of an earlier chapter herself) how old one had to be to be considered “grown up.” Hitomi finds herself the object of open akogare/admiration/desire from one of the new first-years on the basketball team. Hitomi wrestles with trying to find balance bewteen her desire to be part of a team and her desire to be with Nana. She has a little crisis, worrying that her limited time with Nana will drive her away. In the end, she is a happy young lady and decides that she can have it all.

In this issue’s “Nami to Misuzu” funny things happen. I don’t know what they are, because I find this particular series a tad tooth-grinding. If I ever read it, I’ll rewrite this summary.

I’m going to break this into three parts because I’m pressed for time. I’ll finish this issue up tomorrow, promise! (Yes, yes, Simoun!)





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime 4, Part 1

April 25th, 2006

This, the newest volume of Comic Yuri Hime once again proves that Yuri manga can be targeted to an audience of women (and judging from the letters section, mostly lesbian!) and be sexy, funny and a darn *good* read.

Really, the very worst problem with Yuri Hime is that it is a quarterly publication. I wait with baited breath for the day that it is a bimonthly – or even better, a monthly magazine. It hurts me a bit to know that it will be summer before I can once again enjoy these stories. Secondarily, not every single comic appeals to *me*, but I am not the world. ^_^ It’s a genuine strength of Yuri Hime that the types of stories and the art is varied enough that there are things I like – and things I don’t. This particular issue was overall excellent, with great things to come.

As always, we start with the cover. Haruna (left) and Chika (right), the leads in Hatsukoi Shimai grace the cover once again, this time in fetching spring ensemble. Gone are the days of one or the other looking surprised or vexed. They are shown here holding hands openly and facing us directly with happy smiles. Think back on covers of yuri manga…how many can you think of that show that? Not that many, trust me.

The first story is new, “Tokimeki Mononoke Jogakuen.” This is the story of a young girl on her first day at a new girl’s school. Her mother is sad that it’s raining on her first day, but Arera tells her that it’s okay – she is a rain fairy, after all. On the way to school, she take a short cut through a cemetery…which seems to go on and on and on and on…. Arera sees a beautiful woman, approaches to ask her directions and finds herself entwined by the woman’s long, stretchable neck. Arera is, of course, freaked, but more so when the woman starts to scream in pain and ask her to push the button on the back of her neck. Arera does, and the neck snaps back like a vacuum cleaner cord. Turns out, this is Arera’s teacher. ^_^ Her classmates are a cat girl, several oni, a bodiless head of smoke, and other non-humans. There’s a moment of anxiety when they mistake her for a real (tasty smelling) human, but she assures them she’s a rain fairy. She’s accompanied to her dorm (which she didn’t now she was assigned to and tries to escape only to find that she is inexplicably trapped on top of a cliff) to find that her roommate is a licking demon – a long-tongued female demon that enjoys, erm, licking. Yeah – more next issue as Arera deals with weirdness. The color page for this is exceedingly suggestive – remember, kids, all female demons have heightened sexual needs – that’s part of what makes ’em demons. ;-)

The climax of “Kotonoha No Miko To Kotodama No Majyou To” finds Letty facing down the god of Tsumugi’s shrine, in order to release the miko from her bondage to the place. The god appears as Tsumugi since, as she points out, the miko is the most important thing in Letty’s mind right now. The witch demands Tsumugi be released, and the god offers a deal – if Letty can handle her power, she’ll let Tsumugi go. The god blasts Letty with everything she has. Back in the room with Tsumugi and Suzushiro, the red thread that attaches Tsumugi to Letty snaps. Tsumugi wants to run off to the shrine to save the witch, but Letty reappears, weak as can be, but alive. The god takes Suszushiro as her next miko (which works perfectly, as Suzu was in love with Tsumugi from afar and can now worship her up close and personal as the god.) Letty and Tsumugi kiss, Letty makes a new red thread to bind them (and in the shape of a heart, I might add – Letty’s such a romantic) and the two go off after throwing us the boquet at their wedding.

Mako’s most recent contribution, “Michikusa” wasn’t as awful as her other stories, although her art will never really be appealing to me. We follow a couple who all the other students are making fun of, because they are always together and hold hands. One confesses that her feelings for the other are exactly what the other kids are implying. No crisis occurs and they continue to walk along the grassy path, doing flower ID, holding hands. Much happier than her usual fare.

“Goshuujin-sama to Issho” hits a whole LOAD of fetishes that aren’t mine. ^_^ In this story a rich young brat wants a puppy and gets a puppy girl who she instantly loathes for being a mutt. Muttgirl is clumsy and dorky and emotionally fragile and it kills her to see her mistress so unhappy (which brats almost always are.) Eventually they learn to love one another and live happily…but one will always have dog ears and a tail and a collar and somehow that’s just…yeah. If it’s your fetish, it’s adorable. Enjoy.

Hayashiya Shizuru continues the pre-New Year’s arc in “Strawberry Shake Sweet,” in which Ran has just made her modeling debut. It’s Julia’s worst nightmare – Ran looks gorgeous. She keeps herself going with the promise of seeing Ran someday soon, while Ran is doing the same thing, interspersed with work. Her new photographer and she are walking together when another woman accosts them. This was a former idol and someone the photographer “cultivated closely.” Now, spurned by the photographer, the former idol is bitter and obsessed. She warns Ran, who is clueless as always. Ran and Julia end the issue with separate, but mutual self-cheerleading and promises to be together – eventually, soon.

Chi-Ran’s story “Kanoujo ni naritai!” I think takes us back to an earlier couple. Either that, or all her stories are so similar that I’m having trouble keeping them apart…. Matsuri is a famous model. She and erm, the other one (sorry, I’m really, really tired today) are sharing a place to live for some reason or other. Girl is obsessively attracted to Matsuri and wants to be just like her, but really, what she wants is Matsuri, you know, naked and close. Matsuri seems to have either no inhibitions or is coming on so strong that only an idiot wouldn’t recognize it. Our resident idiot fights back her feelings just as long as she can until, while sharing a bath, she kisses Matsuri. They end up in bed (in a Chi-Ran story? shock!) and live happily ever after. This series is also upcoming as a collected volume, so keep your Yuri-dar on that for one too. ^_^

And that’s going to be where I cut for today. I’ll try very hard to finish part 2 (Touko-sensei! New Simoun!) before I leave for vacation at the end of the week.





Yuri Manga: Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo

March 14th, 2006

Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo comes with the English translation Kiss, Sigh and Cherry Blossoms Pink. Just so you don’t have to work at it. ^_^

This is the second (only because I got it second) volume of Yuri manga from collected from Yuri Shimai and Yuri Hime magazines. This is the first collection of the stories by Morinaga Milk which, while not really a series, are related by virtue of them all taking place at a single girl’s school. From now on, to make things easy, I am going to call the series, such as it is, “Cherry Blossoms”. If a second volume comes out with a different title, I’ll work out something later. ^_^

So, my first thought upon cracking open Cherry Blossoms was that the stories had been reordered from the way they first appeared in the magazines. I have a sneaking suspicion that that had more to do with the printing process and placement of the color pages than with any textual redefinition. But as the stories are, at least in the beginning, stand-alones, it didn’t affect the series’ continuity one bit. The color pages that originally ran in the magazines are here reproduced – and very lovely all over again. There’s an additional color page in the beginning, depicting Nana and Hitomi, as they walk through a wood filled with cherry blossoms – Hitomi gesturing back to Abe and Tachibana who are also enjoying the petals. Appallingly cute,as you can imagine. :-)

As I did with the first volume of Strawberry Shake Sweet, let’s begin from the beginning as if we have never read these stories.

Cherry Blossoms is a series of connected stories about girls in love at what is a private girl’s school. In and of itself, this is not an original idea. But these are well executed, with a variety of personalities, character types and situations, so unless one objects strongly to the idea of high school girls in love, then it’s a pleasant enough example of same.

We begin with Nana and Hitomi, two girls who have been in school together since time immemorial but, for mysterious (to Nana, at least) reasons, Hitomi did not go to the same high school as she. The story starts off with her dreaming of the time she learned Hitomi would be going to another school. She wakes in tears. Nana is a pleasant girl, and has made some friends in the new school, but she’s lonely without Hitomi. One Sunday she runs into Hitomi who, having joined the basketball team at her new school has shorn her locks, and seems to be very friendly with her teammate. Nana tries not to be jealous and stricken. Hitomi jumps unmbrellas to return home with Nana, ostensibly to see her new school uniform. Once home, Nana breaks down in tears, telling Hitomi how unhappy she is. Hitomi reminds Nana that her feelings and Nana’s are not the same. In middle school she had kissed Nana, only to have Nana ignore it completely. Because she could not be just friends anymore, Hitomi thought it would be better to not be near the object of her desire. Nana throws herself into Hitomi’s arms, declaring that her feelings *are* the same, she was just scared and…and…she kisses Hitomi. It’s okay, Nana says, if we’re not friends. Rabu rabu.

The second story tells us of a ghost of a girl who attended the school in the past, and who now hangs around the school doctor. By accident, the ghost is absorbed into the body of a student who, all of a sudden wants to hang out with the doctor all the time. The ghost tells us of the time that she attended the school. She was very ill, and the girl who is now the doctor spent time with her every day. Ultimately the ghost grew to love her. Her friend went on to become the doctor to spend her days in the same office they had been in together. As they talk, the doctor realizes what has happened, and she addresses her friend by name. They kiss briefly, the ghost leaves the student’s body and all returns to normal…except that the student now has an inexplicable crush on the doctor. ^_^

The next chapter is probably my second favorite, and the couple I most hope we get to see more of – if only because they are perfectly unsuited for one another. Abe and Tachibana are practicing for the school play. Abe says that she can’t quite get into the head of the bound princess, so Tachibana removes the ribbon from her own hair, ties Abe’s hands behind her back, undoes her braids and says there! – now you’re a bound princess. As Abe recites her lines, Tachibana is moved to kiss her. When the rest of the theater club gets there, Tahibana has to explain that Abe burst into tears and ran off after she untied her. The club members are appalled. It turns out that Abe is in Nana’s class. Innocently, she asks Nana if she’s ever been kissed. Nana explodes, but Abe changes the subject before Nana is forced to prevaricate. In her mind, Abe says that she’d always imagined that her first kiss would be a prince – or at least a nice guy…but the image of the prince in her mind changes to Tachibana. The senior members of the club catch up to Abe to try and convince her to come back to the club. Tachibana overhears them – so when Abe bursts into tears, she grabs the younger girl and takes her away. Tachibana tries to apologize, but it seems to make Abe cry even harder, when she realizes and says out loud that she likes Abe. Tachibana asks what she can do to be forgiven. Abe tells her to say that she likes her once again. At the school play we see Nana and Hitomi in the audience and there’s just enough time for hijinks and goofiness before we cut.

The next story is probably the least comfortable or cute of the collection. Chisato had, when they first met, tried to help an outsider, Mizuki, but had been rudely rebuffed. Now in their third-year, Chisato still remembers that day, and can never quite take her eyes off of her classmate. Chisato falls ill with a cold; upon going to the doctor’s office, she thinks Mizuki is the doctor – apparently their voices are very similar. Chisato lays there, thinking about how her dream had been to be close friends with Mizuki….but that had never worked out. Chisato stays out of school for a few days, and is very surprised to have Mizuki drop by to see how she is. Mizuki apologizes for her behavior so long ago. She had just tested into the school and was being treated nastily by the insiders. She had kiss marks on her neck – when Chisato had offered a bandaid, she was just in bad mood and took it as more teasing. Chisato returns to school, but she’s still sick and ends up once again in the doctor’s office. There she talks to the doctor through the curtain about how she could never get Mizuki out of her mind. The doctor, who we can see is really Mizuki, tells her that some day she’ll have a wonderful love. Chisato thinks about that and wonders if, then, she’ll remember this – her first love.

Chiharu has always loved her friend Misato from a close distance. She loved the way Misato played the flute when they were younger, and now, after an injury has kept Misato from playing, Chiharu loves Misato’s home-made sweets. But really, more than anything – she just loves Misato. During a conversation at school, she’s lead to believe that the feelings are one way – and over the following days Chiharu can’t help but feel a little down. She is over Misato’s house to make sweets when Misato breaks out her flute and plays for the very first time in a long time. Chiharu is all starry eyed all over again. Misato says that she’s noticed that Chiharu was a bit blue and her music always seemed to cheer her up – but she’s gotten rusty since she stopped playing. Chiharu disagrees. Misato continues – she wanted to thank Chiharu for always keeping her spirits up when she was injured. Chiharu finds strength in this, “accidentally” downs a glass of wine (kids don’t try this at home!) and decides to bare her soul. As we cut out, Chiharu tells Misato that she has something important to talk about…

Nana and Hitomi kiss in full color! And, in the following pages, do more than that. But it’s all a naughty dream and Nana is appalled at herself – right in the middle of midterms, too. Sure enough, distracted as she is, she does badly and has to take a retest. This is all complicated by the fact that Hitomi has bluntly asked for them to do more than kiss. It’s not that Nana doesn’t want to…it’s that every time she gets a look at herself, she frankly cannot believe Hitomi wants a clod like her. She imposes a Hitomi ban upon herself, studies and takes the retest. It’s been a week – Nana hasn’t even answered her email. She calls Hitomi, only to hear the other girl’s phone ring under her window. Hahaha. Hitomi was in the bushes. Once safely in Nana’s room, Hitomi admits to being impatient – she couldn’t stand not being able to talk to Nana. Nana admits to feeling inadequate, which Hitomi forcefully denies. She thinks Nana is cute, and kind and beautiful, etc, etc. So, eventually, they do more than just kiss.

When Michiru, an underclassman, approaches and asks out Nosaka, an upperclassman, it throws Nosaka’s world into a tizzy. She wants to be friends, but Michiru insists that they are dating. After an attempted kiss is rebutted with a slap, Nosaka feels awful. She meets Michiru with new short haircut and thinks it’s her fault. But Michiru says it’s not. In the end, Michiru decides to be by Nosaka’s side, and plan her college encounters for her. Of all the stories, this one was the weakest, IMHO.

The postscript has a nice romantically sexy picture of Nana and Hitomi. ^_^

As with Strawberry Shake Sweet, the quality of reproduction is very good – no complaints there.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – Various, say 7 on average
Yuri – 9
Service – by virtue of being Morinaga Milk works, full of rosy-cheeked schoolgirls, 7

Overall – 8

Well worth your money, as long as you don’t mind schoolgirl Yuri.





Drama CD: Hatsukoi Shimai, Volume 1

March 13th, 2006

Whee! I am so happy to be able to review the first Hatsukoi Shimai Drama CD, Tenshi no Present!

There’s more positives than negatives, so let me get the negatives out of the way quickly. For one thing, it’s too short. I don’t know how long it is, exactly, because there’s no total on the disk, liner notes or product info, and I never bothered totaling up the tracks, but even it had been three hours long, it would have been too short. There wasn’t enough Touko/Akiho and Haruna *still* hasn’t said she loves Chika – at least to her face.

04/14/06 Note – upon relistening to the earlier Koi Shimai Drama CDs, I realize I have been a bit harsh on Haruna. She’s more expressive than I originally gave her credit for, calling Chika her “important person” in the first CD. And, in the second CD when Chika said it would be nice to be Haruna’s sister and be with her always, Haruna replied that she cared for Chika alot, but NOT like a sister – more than that. Chalk it up to my insufficient Japanese comprehension the first time. That having been said…Haruna still does not say she loves Chika directly to her face.)

That about covers the negatives.

Right from the beginning, the language used on this particular CD, like that of the original Koi Shimai CDs, is basic. If I were fluent, this would be a negative. As I am not – and am thrilled to be able to follow much more of the story than usual – this is a definite positive. If you’re learning Japanese and want a fun and Yuri-ful way to practice your listening skills – this is just what you are looking for!

Let’s start with the cast:

Matstusato Chika: Nakahara Mai (Mai from Mai Hime/Mai Otome)
Kanzaki Haruna: Chiba Saeko (Natsuki from Mai Hime/Mai Otome)

Hiiragi Touko: Park Romi (Maki from Air Master)
Kanzaki Akiho: Nonaka Ai (Konoka from Negima!)

Kirika: Satou Rina (Tsutako from Maria-sama ga Miteru)
Miyu: Ohara Sayaka (Alicia from Aria/Layla Hamilton from Kaleido Star/Ezra from Vandread)

Not too shoddy, huh?

Okay, so let me back up two steps. If you recall from my four million times explaining this, the characters all originated as character designs from the covers of Yuri Shimai, Volumes 1,2 and 3. The couples above are listed in order of their appearance. The character designs are by Hibiki Reine, the artist for the Maria-sama ga Miteru novels.

The stories of how Chika met Haruna and Akiho, and how Touko-sensei interfered with them and ultimately ended up with Akiho, are all told in the Koi Shimai Drama CDs, and the first bit will be Volume 1 of the upcoming Hatsukoi Shimai manga.

(I always feel a little breathless discussing this series, because of its fractured history.)

Miyu and Kirika, the third couple have only appeared on the cover of Yuri Shimai 3, and in the little story inside the cover. Until now.

So, here’s the story of this CD:

Haruna and Chika are living in blissful oblivion. We get a whole scene of them enjoying cookies together. Whee! We also get a really nice scene between Akiho and Touko, where they meet at a cafe, ostensibly so Touko can check Akiho’s English homework. Touko spends a little time flirting with the waitress, and getting Akiho jealous – and she is quite surprised when Akiho really *does* want her to check her homework!

Miyu asks Kirika to please, please come to her birthday party. Kirika agrees, but is mortified that she has no present for Miyu. Miyu insists that Kirika coming is all the present she wants.

One day, Chika, on her way to meet Haruna, accidentally runs into another student, who drops the doll she is holding. It’s a glass (probably porcelain?) angel and it smashes as it hits the ground. The student, Kirika, tells Chika to fix it – to put it back the way it was. This is, of course, impossible. So Chika decides to make a beaded kimono as a replacement. Haruna helps her – more bliss. But Kirika rejects that as well – Chika was the one to break the doll, she has to replace it by herself. Kirika insists that Chika find an actual replacement – and do it herself. And as a penalty, she can’t spend time with Haruna until she does.

After Chika says she’ll do it and leaves, Haruna asks Kirika if the angel had been a present. Kirika says yes, for the person she loves. And she asks Haruna if she loves Chika. Haruna says she does, totally.

Miyu finds Chika and asks what’s up. Chika has no clue who she is, but Miyu tells her about the birthday party, and how she and Kirika have been together forever – and she goes off more than a little annoyed at her lover’s behavior.

Chika heads out to the shops, but has no luck – which is not surprising, since Kirika bought it off the TV. As she wanders looking for the angel, Touko roars up on her bike and offers Chika a lift. Touko also says she has an idea where to find the angel.

Haruna comes home, depressed and missing Chika, and wanders into Akiho’s room, where she finds her little sister online. Akiho has hunted down the glass angel and sent Touko off to find Chika and get her to it.

Chika and Haruna go off to locate Kirika to give her the angel, and finds Miyu giving Kirika what for, because she (quite rightfully) feels that Kirika was a jackass about the whole thing. Chika is totally honest and tells her that Touko helped. Kirika accepts the doll – shocked that Chika was able to find it at all. Haruna prompts Kirika to give it to Miyu, who is quite overwhelmed. And to boot, Chika gives her the beaded thing she and Haruna made too.

Epilogue:

Haruna and Chika, are making beaded phone straps for each other. (Haruna, btw, is a total maroon about this, and keeps dropping beads). Little by little, Chika tells us, like beads being added on to the strap, she and Haruna grow closer.

Akiho is on the phone with Touko, who tells her several times how much she likes Akiho. Akiho plays, to my dismay, hard to get, but does ask if they can talk a little more.

And we all live happily ever after.

There is a bonus track, in which the seiyuu all discuss gift failures, which was funny, as was to be expected.

Along with the original voice cast and art by Hibiki Reine, the other thing that migrated whole from the original CDs is the musical theme. It’s so silly a thing, but I was kind of glad when I turned on the new CD to hear the same piano theme in the background.

The cover of the CD is reversible – a new picture of Haruna and Chika, and the cover of Yuri Hime 2 with Chika and Miyu. And a postcard.

Ratings:

Story – 5
Characters – 7
Yuri – 8
Music – 7

Overall – 7

The *best* thing (other than Touko’s sexy voice) was how NOT stick-up-the-butt Haruna is in this new incarnation. I totally approve, even if it has made my fanfic for the series obsolete.  ^_^

 





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 3 (Part 2)

February 9th, 2006

Thanks to everyone who wished me well. I’m still sick, but the fever’s gone down and I can concentrate enough to type. Lucky you. :-) I’m also breaking in a new pair of glasses – bifocals. Feel free to snort. But damn, this feels weird. What you lose with bofocals is that middle distance – you know, the distance at which you stare at a computer, or, say, watch TV. Whee.

Anyway, we left off with the climax of Hatsukoi Shimai. From now on, I am just referring to it as Hatsukoi Shimai, unless I am specifically referring to the first two Drama CDs, so as to avoid insanity. Yours or mine.

Starting the second half of Yuri Hime 3 off strongly, we have the newest chapter of “Strawberry Shake Sweet.” This, as I mentioned in my review of the first collected volume of this series, is a New Year’s gag, so we still don’t know what happened to Ran on the eve of her debut. In this chapter, an exhausted Saeki comes home on New Year’s eve to find a drunken Kaoru on her doorstep. Saeki offers Kaoru a cup of something hot, but wants her to go home quickly. Kaoru gets maudlin, and tells Saeki that’s she’s lonely. Saeki wonders why she’s not with Haruna. Kaoru tells her that Haruna is on an extended job. Saeki immediatley berates herself for discussing a lesbian relationship as if it’s normal, at which a still pretty drunken Kaoru decides that it’s her job to “turn” Saeki. By the time Ran and Julia show up to toast the New Year with Saeki, they find their manager standing over a bound, half-undressed Kaoru and immediately misunderstand the situation in time-honored fashio. My description doesn’t do the gag justice – this chapter was damn funny.

Oh my god – I totally forgot. After the color pages of Hatuskoi Shimai there’s is an interview with the seiyuu for Haruna and Chika for the upcoming Drama CD. Haruna’s voice will be done by Chiba Saeko, the voice of Natsuki in Mai Hime and Mai Otome, and Chika will be voiced by Nakahara Mai, who did Mai in Mai Hime (and, assumably, in Mai Otome when she appears.) The point of all this is that during the interview, the seiyuu are asked, naturally, what they feel about playing girls in love for the Drama CD. And, quite naturally, they say, love is love and who cares if its a woman or a man? Well…it’s not like they are going to say. “It was gross. I was totally squicked the entire time.” I personally interpreted their comments to mean, “It was a paycheck.” LOL

The next essay, by Miura Shion, was about her early love for the characters of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon – especially Sailor Saturn. And her ultimately futile search for a Silence Glaive (and a Princess to worship) of her own.

This is followed by Morishima Akiko’s “Yuri Life” comic. Unmotivated to draw over the cold winter, Akiko-san’s editor decides to stimulate her yuri skills by forcefeeding her yuri anime and games. It’s pretty funny. Her fanboy nosebleed at Kannazuki no Miko is pretty much everyone’s reaction. lol Her evil editor stops her from going out to enjoy the day, instead compelling her to draw. (As ALC may be the benefactor of that evil editor, I thank her from the botttom of my heart!)

Okay, now here’s the WTF bizarro coincidence of the season. When I have time and energy (a rare combo these days) I have been reading Maria-sama ga Miteru: Manatsu no Ichipeeji, the thirteenth novel of the Marimite series. During one scene, Yuuki is talking to his friend Kobayashi and he brings up a Japanese fairy tale called “Naita Akaoni” (The Red Demon Cried.) And not two weeks later, here is that exact same story in Yuri Hime. Two weeks earlier and I would have had no idea what this story was about. How weird is *that*? Anyway, the basic plot is that there was a nice red demon who wants to befriend the local humans, who are naturally wary of demons. So the red demon’s best friend, a blue demon, offers to terrorize the humans, so the red demon could drive the blue demon off, and be a hero to the humans. This all happens as planned, and the humans come by to eat the red demon’s sweets, but the blue demon tells the red one that he has to leave forever, because the humans won’t understand that they are friends. So the blue demon tells the red one that they’ll be friends forever, and leaves. And that is why the red demon cries. Okay – now, make the demons girls, add in a cute human girl and the “terrorize” part becomes sexuall harrassment, and you’ve got the yuri-fied version. The pictures are rather amusing. Of all the yuri fairy tales so far, I’ve liked this one best.

I admit to waiting with bated breath for the next installment of “Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majo to”. So much so that I have FINALLY translated the title. Let’s call it “The Literary Miko and the Soulful Witch” – the point being a contrast between the witch as going by feeling, and the miko working on learning from the book…sort of opposite of the way most people think of witches and shrine maidens. Anyway, it’s not a title that translated easily. SO anyway, Letty and Suzu argue over Tsumugi’s fate. Tsumugi wakes and tells the heart-rending story of how her mother left her at the shrine to save her life when she was a little girl. Now that she’s left the shrine, the disease she was suffering from is back – let’s call it tuberculosis, since it comes with a hacking cough. Letty decides to go back to the shrine to make the shrine spirit give Tsumugi up, to be Tsumugi’s prince. Letty conjures up her armor and horse (witch’s costume and broom) and rides off to confront the evil ogre of the shrine. She forces the spirit to become visible and finds herself face to face with…Tsumugi!?! End of chapter. Damn this magazine for being quarterly, is all I can say. I’ll look forward to any collection of this story the future might bring.

(I’m giving up on the bifocals for the moment. My eyes are, not surprisingly, fubared.)

For those of you who can read Japanese – or are trying to learn, I strongly suggest reading Mori Natsuko’s advice column, “Yuri Doujou.” This paerticular issue has a letter which made me gape and go, “Whoah!” as I was reading it. And Mori-san’s comment? “Whoah!” It’s the last letter – the really long one. This is high lesbian drama at its silliest.

“Nanami and Misuzu” remains impenetrable to me, but funny. In this set of gags, we learn that there is a series of tunnels under the school that leads to, apparently, Nanami’s kotatsu table. Inexplicable and bizarre, but funny.

Chi-Ran has reinvented the wheel once again with “Beginner’s Luck.” In this rehashing of the same old story, Saki is in love with Misono but doesn’t have the guts to tell her. Eventually Misono kisses Saki and they fall into bed. We live happily ever after.

Last up is the continuation of “Voiceful”. We learn Hina’s backstory – and why her songs feel so sad all the time. Kanae isn’t sure she has the right to be part of Hina’s life, until she returns to the computer and finds that Hina has emailed her a zillion times. The last lets her know that Hina is about to do a “live.” What will happen? Will Kanae gain enough confidence to face Hina again? Will Hina reach her with her voice? I look forward to the climax next issue.

And there you have it – the most recent Yuri Hime from beginning to end. A great read all the way around. Good art, for the most part and a nice mixture of the horribly trite and the amusing and the original I’ve come to expect.

You can get your copy of Yuri Hime 3 from Amazon Japan through the Yuricon Shop – and your support is greatly appreciated, believe me! Feel free to come over to the Yuricon Mailing List to chat about the series in Yuri Hime or other fun Yuri anime and manga!