This week, I posted a discussion on the Okazu YNN Podcast about “problematic” themes in Yuri. ^_^ Topping that list was stories in which teachers and students become a couple. Two series I noted as examples in which we were presumed to – and want to – root for the couple, were Hanjuku Joshi (半熟女子) by Morishima Akiko  and Junsui Adolescence (純水アドレッセンス) by Kazuma Kowo. As I say in the podcast, “In series like Hanjuku Joshi and Junsui Adolescence we’re put in the position of rooting for the couple and, realistically how awkward is *that*?” ^_^;

In honor of this theme, I couldn’t think of a better manga to review than Kazuma Kowo’s newest volume, Junsui Luminescence (純水ルミネッセンス).

In Junsui Adolescence we met Nanao, a high school student who falls hard in love for the school doctor, Matsumoto. Nanao is very determined about her interest and her desire and Matsumoto just cannot not be swept off her feet.  They get together by the end of the first story, but what happened to them had to wait ten years to be told in the Perfect Volume, (the review of which is linked to above.)

But first, in Junsui Luminescence we are treated to “Rakuen made, ato…” a series of in-jokes in the form of short-shorts about Nonko, a doujinshi artist and her #1 fan, and lover. Nonko draws BL doujinshi of Rakuen-kun and other male characters from Rakuen Le Paradis magazine. Non-chan and her lover (whose name, I believe, is never given) are super dedicated to getting her work out to events, and equally as committed to testing out plot ideas. They are, overall, a very cute couple, but the story is clearly written for fans of her work from Rakuen Le Paradis. The doujinshi bits are a bit funnier if you know that Rakuen-kun is Nakamura Asumiko’s titular character for an ongoing series in the magazine and that Kazuki and Nagai are from Mizutani Fuka’s Love at Fourteen. 

In “Junsui Adolescence,” the final chapters of the series, (which was originated in Yuri Hime magazine 10 years ago,) Nanao is a senior, and she and Matsumoto are lovers. But. Matsumoto can’t keep her hands off Nanao in school and even though she is well aware that she’ll destroy her life if they are discovered, she doesn’t stop. And so, they are discovered. But the teacher who discovers them is Matsumoto’s friend and promises to not tell.

Whew…talk about problematic! Our skin rightfully would crawl if this was a real story, but here, we’re supposed to be happy about it! Ouch.

So Nanao enforces an embargo until she graduates – no anythinging until that’s over. Immediately Nanao becomes depressed, and avoids Matsumoto, because she hates seen the doctor being cheerful with the other students. Nanao’s friends can see that something’s up. She finally admits that she’s keeping a secret from them but doesn’t say what. In the meantime, her friends are fantasizing about wedding dresses and the future. Nanao decides she wants to marry Matsumoto, but gets a very tepid response to the idea. 

Nanao’s down in the dumps, but as she passes the doctor’s office one day, Matsumoto drags her in and starts to kiss her. Nanao points out that Matsumoto is the one risking everything here, and the doctor agrees, but say she’s been so lonely…. Nanao is actually kind of happy to know she’s not been alone in being miserable. 

Nanao makes herself plain – yes, she wants to marry Matsumoto. She wants plans a trip during spring break to be their honeymoon, before she graduates.

In the end of the volume, we see them for a few pages as Nanao’s grown up. The Perfect Volume ended with the image of the two of them in wedding dresses, which we see here, as well. We then get two new chapters. One, in which Nanao finally confesses her secret relationship to her 4 friends, only to learn that two of them guessed and the two of them were a couple all along (which I guessed). And the two that guessed had all the makings of a couple themselves.

Just to make sure this book is theme appropriate, the final pages show us Nanao and Matsumoto once more, this time in bed. The school doctor has her calendar marked for that trip, and we see Nanao, looking more mature than we’ve ever seen her, thinking, “I want to become an adult.” Well…..okay, thanks for that one last kick in the pants. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 9 -Kazuma-sensei’s art has improved so much in a decade
Story – “Rakuen made” is a silly 7 and “Junsui” is a fine, but problematic 8
Characters – 9 Although I sometimes really find Matsumoto vexing
Yuri – 9
Service – Um…yes. The whole premise is creepy service. 

Overall – 9

So yeah, this series is problematic up the wazoo, but I still like it anyway and I’m glad Matsumoto and Nanao get together. So there.

Neji’s Prisontown e Youkouso!, Volume 1 (監獄街へようこそ!),  is a Yuri youkai Alice-in-Wonderland-style story about a human, Akari, who finds herself on a late-night youkai train and falls into Prisontown, an otherworld underworld inhabited by demi-humans of many kinds, including her newly assigned “wife” Mary, the frankengirl.

Akari is cheerful about her new circumstances, and would like to be more friendly with Mary, but Mary is reticent, even standoffish. Where Akari is clumsy and fails at her assigned tasks (feeding the basilisk, I understand, but delivering stuff to the hunchback in the bell tower should not be that hard,)  Mary is competent, hard-working and cooks and cleans for the two of them. 

The Cheshire Cat (who naturally calls Akari “Alice”) lets her in on Mary’s secret past, but instead of driving the two apart, it may be the thing that brings them together. At the end of Volume 1, it appears that Akari and Mary have broken past the barriers between them and are now truly “wives.”

This story will be a natural fit for Seven Seas, who has already licensed Neji’s other Yuri demi-human romance as Beauty and the Beast Girl. Ten bucks says that the title of this one will be “Alice in Prisontown.” ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Fun if you like youkai-humans
Story – Slightly handwave-y, but srlsy, who cares
Characters – Akari’s sweet but clumsy, Mary’s competent and aloof. Guess which character I like.
Yuri – 7
Service – Some. A number of the demihumans are seductive-ish,if that’s your boom. Girls with horn, animal ears, tails and body parts, that sort of thing.

Overall – Fun, not my fetish, but as half-humans go, I like youkai over animals, so let’s call it a 7

The story is continuing in Comic Yuri Hime, so it might have to develop a plot, We’ll see.

If Seven Seas is still mining the monster girl vein, they should resurrect Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen, Volume 1 and Volume 2 from Yuri Hime, for some serious youkai-human Yuri interaction. That series was amazing. And horrifying.