Yubisakikara Suberiochiru Valetta (指先から滑り落ちるバレッタ), transliterated on the cover as “Valletta that slides from a finger-tip,” by Tsuitsui is a collection of stories that ran in Comic Yuri Hime magazine. 

In the first story, two female friends go to a love hotel together because they want to try staying at one.  Although nothing happens between them, they become a little closer as a result, and recognize that they care about  – and maybe for  – one another.

A businesswoman takes in the high school girl who is seeing the college-age guy next door as she sits out in the rain, giving her s cup of hot coffee to warm up. They become friendly, and when the guy dumps the girl (after sleeping with her of course) Yui is there to help pick up the pieces of Konatsu’s heart…until they fight and Konatsu stops coming by. Yui brings herself to ask the guy next door where Konatsu’s school is. They make up and will once again be able to share a cup of coffee.

Nagano is being bullied by Miyuki, but Nagano doesn’t care. She tells Miyuki she knows she was behind it and Miyuki wants to know how to make it up to Nagano. “Pretend to be my friend,” Nagano replies. As they pretend to be friends, Miyuki’s old friends ostracize her and start bullying her. But Nagano is there for her and Miyuki finds that she just doesn’t care any more about the old friends, either. She and Nagano exchange pretty barrettes, from which the title comes, (although mistransliterated for English. It ought to be “A Barrette That Slides From Fingertips.” The addition of “my” or “your” before Fingertips, while not literal would be more poetic. “The Barrette That Slides From My Fingertips.” is what I’m going with…thinking of this from Miyuki’s perspective, as Nagano first bought her a barrette, which precipitated her falling out with her henchchicks.

The final story follows a “tough-as-nails” businesswoman who has held a torch for her old school friend for years, but when her friend says she’s getting married, Mei is able to see that the clumsy, sincere woman who works for her seems to actually like her. They might even get together.

I quite like Tsutsui’s messy, sketchy art. And the story-telling basics are solid. 

Ratings: 

Art – 6 It’s got issues, but I like it anyway. Needs maturing, and some work on the eyes, particularly
Story – 5 Basics for the qualifying round. Now it’s time to move on
Characters – 8 Definitely the strength of the volume
Service – 4 There is some
Yuri – 7 There is some. Mostly feelings, very little relationship

Overall – 7

I’d like to see the artist get a whole volume’s worth of story down, now that we’ve got the compulsories out of the way.

There are days, here on Okazu, when it’s a little harder to not be just a tad snarky or cynical about Yuri manga. In fact, I suppose it’s something that every generation does – going through all the various contortions of growing up, coming out and being a gender, romantic or sexual minority and then being all world-weary when the next generation does it all over again. In regards to Yuri manga, I’ve seen roughly three or four “generations” of artists “discover” that girls fall in love with each other sometimes. And yes, there are days that I shake my head with  an amused smile at all the sincere doujinshi and manga that have hatsukoi or hajime(ru/te/ta) in the title. But I never, ever want to be this guy, acting like his own personal journey marks the end of all similar journeys and be a jerk about a sincere story

With the build-up of yet another Story A in Aoki Toshinao’s ripple (リップル), (with Shimura Takako’s name boldly labeled on the obi for very important marketing reasons,) you might even have forgiven me for rolling my eyes just a bit. But, I didn’t, and I’m glad because yes, ripple is indeed another Story A and no, it breaks not one panel of new ground and yes, it is very banal…but I liked it anyway. Apparently, every once in a blue moon sincerity is a replacement for competence. 

Neither art nor story here is exciting. A girl named Minami falls for a girl in her school named Nami. Their courtship is typical, their relationship follows all the general patterns of all relationships. Nami has a secret which is painfully obvious to us from the first mention – she’s liked a girl previously, and that girl broke her heart, a story she admits to at the climax of the volume. Again, you might forgive me for eyerolling, and again I say…but I didn’t.

Minami helps Nami to shed the baggage of her former relationship in a full-color final chapter. They like each other, and they sleep together and they are happy together, the end. And it was not creepy, nor painful nor boring. Just all pleasant and human and real.

Ratings:

Art – 6 better than I could do, but not great
Story – 6 Girl meets and falls in love with another girl
Characters  – 7 Likable and sympathetic, acting their age, which is sort of nice
Service – 3 A very little partial nudity in the final pages, So sex, but not sexed up.
Yuri – 9

Overall – 7

I believe, from the bottom of my heart we will always need stories that tell the basic plot of “there is a girl who likes a girl. The other girl likes her back. They like each other, the end” because there will always be a new generation of readers who have never read that before. And there is always someone who has not seen their experience in a manga before. And so, no matter how far on we have come in our personal journey, it’s important to remind ourselves that yes, stories like ripple should always have a place in our genre.

Kuroyuri Gakuen Ooku Gakka (クロユリ学園大奥学科) by Yoshizawa Miyabi runs in Young King Ours magazine. Maybe that means little to you, but it meant that I kind of knew what I was getting into when I started reading this. What it meant, specifically, was it was likely to be weird and sleazy. ^_^;

Kuroyuri Gakuen Ooku Gakka was, in fact, weird and sleazy. ^_^

Minazuki Miu, whose hairstyle indicates that she’s a “gal,” finds herself at Kuroyuri Gakuen, a school for (apparently) well-trained rich girls, blah blah. When the Student Council President demands Miu present herself for acceptance into the “Seijyo” (which could mean order of holy women, or female saints of Vestals or anything you feel like translating it as because the word is irrelevant to the circumstance,) Miu finds her life getting substantially unbalanced. First she’s ordered to strip. And bathe. In front of the President who approves of her “mark of the Seijyo.” We are eventually shown a number 6 on her shoulder blade.

Miu appears to be befriended by another first year, who then starts to harass and bully her because…she’s a split personality. Oh, okay then. Miu fixes that  by being extra decent. The mark of the Seijyo disappears from her new friend’s body.

From then on Miu alternately seduces (without particular enthusiasm) or befriends others, but mostly she ceases to care what bullshit the others pull. The book ends with an orgasm-off for reasons I barely cared about in the first place and don’t remember now. Miu won and evil #8 loses her mark.

The art is ornate without being good, the story is meaningless drivel and both nakedness and sex are insincere. And yet, it’s at least slightly original. If the characters were more interesting, I might even read the next volume. I still might if I can find it at a used book store. ^_^;

Ratings: 

Art – 6 Competent
Story – 5 Less so
Characters – 2 I have rarely cared so little for characters in a story. Miu’s lack of fucks is the best part.
Service – 10 Sex, nudity and lasciviousness of many kinds
Yuri – 6 See above, without a shred of affection.

Overall – 5

It’s half “what did I just read?” and half “why did I keep reading?” ^_^; There is a Volume 2 for those of you inspired to read it for yourself.