In Kumosuzume’s Shiori o Sagasu Page-tachi, Volume 1, Chitose is a nice kid. She’s not bad in school, and she likes to read. She loves the library, in part because she’s got a thing for the nice older girl who works there. Chitose and Touka talk every day. And when Touka lends Chitose one of her own books, she’s over the moon! Chitose can’t wait until she’s in high school, where she can at least see Touka in the library. 

Only, when Chitose gets into high school, Touka is not at all the way she was over the summer. In fact, instead of the gentle, kind upperclassman Chitose fell for, Touka’s rude, – even worse, downright cruel – to the younger girl. Chitose falls into a funk and her best friend Rikako is really worried about her. But Chitose is so focused on what’s going on with Touka, she doesn’t even notice.

Eventually, Touka seems to unfreeze and Chitose is thrilled; the older girl even goes so far as to ask her on a date. (This is where a real-life older lesbian might be useful. “Walk away, Chitose, this girl ain’t no good,” sounds like the beginning of an awesome country song.) 

And on the date, Chitose learns the awful truth about Touka and exactly why she her personality has changed so much. Since this is the actual plot of the story, I’m not going to spoil. You’ll just have to read this book to find out. But you can probably guess if you’ve read enough novels. ^_^

Kumosuzume’s art is evocative and the story is pretty gothic and overwrought. It’s not my cup of tea, but if you favor soap opera, this is a solid entry with a nice touch of “oh!”

Ratings:

Art -8
Characters – 6 I am rooting for Rikako to…no, wait, I’m just rooting for Rikako, full stop. 
Story – I cannot imagine where it can possibly go from here, even as I read it in the magazine
Service  – Not really
Yuri – Sort of

Overall – 7

Volume 2 hit shelves last month, so I have to play some catch up. ^_^

In Volume 1 of Roid (ロイド), by Shiroshi, we meet Futagami Yui, a genius android developer, dedicated member of her school robotic club. Due to an attack by a malfunctioning android when she was young, Yui uses a wheelchair. She and her kouhai in the club, serious, glasses-wearing, Kazumiya Reina who is a talented AI architect, are working on a lifelike humanoid android that looks remarkably like Yui. In fact, the original idea had come from Yui looking into ways to build new legs, but instead they end up with what they all are forced to think of as more like a sister. 

The story has to, almost immediately, delve into the bottomless pit of what makes us human – what is identity, what is humanity, what are morals and ethics and how, when we cannot define them for ourselves, do we program them into artificial intelligences?

The android starts off a little tentatively, but when Reina unfreezes and offers a name, Futagami Anna – Futagami is Yui’s family name, ‘An’ from android and ‘na’ from Reina – Anna accepts both the nod to her existence as a unique individual, and as an addition to the family. 

Anna almost immediately encounters humans at their worst, and robots that hurt and are hurt by their humans. And we can see that there is some…organization or group, maybe?…with a very uncomfortably intense interest in Anna. Who they are, what they want and how it will play out awaits us in the future.

But here we are in Volume 1 and we might ask ourselves, so where is the Yuri? Well, honestly I hope it’s between Reina and Yui, but I have a feeling that’s not where it’s going to go. Why do you say that Erica? Because Yui and Anna are virtually identical (with some functional and aesthetic “improvements.” Anna is taller than Yui would be if she could stand and has a slightly larger chest, we’re told)  and people who are not me go there. Almost every time.

In the meantime, I genuinely enjoy this comic and it’s discussion of the ethical and moral boundaries we make and break all the time, through the eyes of an android trying to understand why she was created and what she is meant to do. 

Yui and Reina are also excellent characters and I look forward to spending more time with them. I wouldn’t mind at all if Reina fell for Anna, instead (or as well, because that would also make sense.)  We’ve also met a police detective and club president, as well as shadowy stalker group. This is a solid Volume 1, and I look forward to Volume 2 as the plot develops. I honestly have no idea what’s going to happen – and that’s exciting.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Good but not outstanding
Story – 7 with great deal of potential
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0 at the moment. I honestly don’t know where it will be found.
Service – Not really, only as a joke here and there.

Overall – 8 And I really want to know more.

This is exactly the kind of story I want more of in Comic Yuri Hime – not a romance, and a definite departure from ‘Story A.’

I’m reading a lot of AI-centric novels and comics this week, so it seems like I’m on a boom. I’m just about to start the next Murderbot novel, Exit Strategy by Martha Wells.  I still don’t know if the trend is general, or I’m just reading a lot of it. ^_^

I love Goodbye Dystopia (グッバイ・ディストピア) by Hisona. Lovelovelove. Of the manga running in Comic Yuri Hime magazine that I adore, this is by far and away one of the best. 

It begins with a girl waking up after having fallen asleep on a train. She finds her head in the lap of completely strange woman. The girl and the woman get off the train and start to walk together. Where? Why? Who are they?

The girl has left home, because home has left her. The other woman is a wanderer, hunting down mysteries. They walk through abandoned landscapes, find empty homes filled with other people’s possessions, and they speak of very little of importance. After they have traveled together, the wanderer tells the girl that they haven’t shared their names. She, the girl is told, looks like a “Mizuki.” And she can call the other woman “Asami.”

And, so, Mizuki and Asami travel together. They find places to sleep and eat, they take the train and shop at malls, they talk on the phone, and are completely alone with the landscape more often than not, even when there are people around them.

By the end of volume 1 we know almost nothing of substance about either of them. Except, though, that both of them have memories of women in their lives who have, we assume, broken their hearts. Mizuki seems to be running from a failed love, perhaps Asami is running from a loss. We don’t know anything beyond what we see.

Hisona’s art is the exact kind of loose sketchiness I like best, with a heavy focus on plants and overgrown roads and rails as a constant companion to the two women. 

I love that we know so little of them and that they still know so little of one another. I love that, in current chapters, Mizuki is trying to fill in the missing spaces in Asami’s story, and Asami is doing the same about Mizuki, without asking anything, without prying – without ruining what they have right now. 

And I love that, because of the title of the story and the two women’s reliance on themselves, it came as a blow to the head when we saw that phones work and net cafes exist and the mall sold fashionable shoes. Suddenly dystopia looked just like anywhere with (perhaps) more abandoned houses. 

Ratings:

Art – 9 YMMV, but this is right in my wheelhouse 
Story – 10 There is none. I love it.
Characters – 8 
Service – 0 
Yuri – 2 At the moment, it’s in flashback and memory only

Overall – 9

On shelves that are dripping with stories that look and sound eerily similar, this book stands out as truly unique. I will be content to travel with these two as long as they are on the road.