Komura Ayumi’s popular series about a cross-dressing boy, En, has mostly flown under my radar. But, when I reviewed Girl’s Lily, a special focusing on two lesbian characters,  YNN Correspondent Nikki wrote in to let me know that they get some of the spotlight in the series, I thought I’d take a look at those volumes.
In Girl’s Lily, the point of view was Keiko’s brother. In Volume 10 of Usotsuki Lily (ăăă€ăăȘăȘăŁ), the point of view is once again that of a guy, Saotome Taiyou, the younger brother of the female protagonist, Hinata. Taiyou comes across a woman in tree who, as she shimmies down the trunk, slips and falls onto him. When she sees that he is bleeding, she invites him over to her shop, where she appears to sell hand-made crafts and knick-knacks.  To apologize for injuring him, the woman offers Taiyou a job. And that is how he meets Arimori Kanae.
The shop is quiet, no one comes to buy anything. Bored and with nothing else to do, Taiyou watches Kanae. It is immediately apparent when she brightens up because someone is coming. That someone turns out to be Keiko. It’s obvious right away that Kanae is love with Keiko and vice versa, but it takes a little fiddling, a handwave, and a unfortunate, yet successful, plot to make Keiko jealous, to get them both to admit their feelings.
Their arc in Volume 10 ends with Keiko vowing to snatch Kanae away from Taiyou, who doesn’t really want Kanae, but whatever, drama, etc.
Kanae is pleasantly flaky and Keiko is pleasantly not flaky and I look forward to them getting together.
Komura-sensei’s art is also pleasant, without being amazing. As a Margaret magazine romance, this series  – well, this arc, anyway – is reasonably unmelodramatic.
Ratings are for this arc only:
Art – 7
Character – 8. Everyone seems very nice in this arc.
Story – 6 ‘Story A’ with adults, and the handwave of young men as catalysts.
Yuri – 5 Same as above
Service – 0 Nada. Not even if you try.
Overall – 7
As we already know from Girl’s Lily, they will eventually plan on getting married, which makes me want their arc to be relatively painless. ^_^
This collection from Team PĂ€rvelö had so many qualities that I liked. Variety in art, and story and setting – protagonists of color in a queer manga anthology, how wonderful is that? (Finland seems especially good at diversity in representation.) Refreshing, delightful, fun, smart. Lepakkoluola is the kind of thing that gives me hope for the future of Yuri. I know Hanna-Pirita’s gonna have a heart attack when she reads this, but Team PĂ€rvelö – you did good. Your collection is #10 on this years’ list. ^_^ Please keep drawing and writing!
I wasn’t really sure that this was even a Yuri series after the first volume, but I liked the energy, and the characters and the use of the setting to tell some real, not always all that pleasant, stories about girls’ lives. And then it ended up being Yuri after all. And Morinaga Milk was once again able to draw girl cops. ^_^
Tanaka Minoruâs Rock It, GiRL! was different. The art was intentionally ugly, the characters, too, and the story never went where one might expect. And in the end, it was a loopy, quirky, and kind of charming look at nothing anyone of us would ever see. This isn’t cute idols or meteoric rise to fame – this was a story about blood and guts and singing your heart out and hoping like hell someone might listen, then being told you’re not good enough. I liked it precisely because it wasn’t the same story we’d seen time and time again.
This story was a bit of a dark horse this year. I figured it was a one-shot, lame Maria-sama ga Miteru clone, with no real meaning, but I was dead wrong. Not only was it delightful, it continues!
Amano Shunita’s Philosophia is, as I mentioned in 
I’ve raved about Takemiya Jin’s work a million times. I love, love, love her characterization, and she captures shocked realization in a way that I adore. What really sets this volume of her manga apart, is her unrestricted and unrepentant embrace of not only lesbian culture, but also otaku culture. This book is about us, with our fetishes, and our obsessions, our lusts and loves. Reading game is like looking into a disturbingly accurate funhouse mirror at ourselves, the otaku-rezu who read (and create and write and talk about) Yuri. ^_^;
From volume to volume I had no expectations for this series. I never knew where it might take me. And right to the very end, I had no idea whether it was going to string me along and dump me, or lift me up. As an emotional roller coaster, it was pure brilliance. The art, the story telling and the tension all combined to make this series one of my favorite manga of the year.
Whispered Words marks two major developments in English-language Yuri manga. A new publisher, One  Peace Books, is setting up shop on the block and a major Yuri series that I didn’t think we’d ever manage to get over here is here! Sasamekikoto explores every possible Yuri trope all at once and manages to be sad and moving and funny and wonderful. And now we have it. I can guarantee that unless something *amazing* comes out in 2015, Volume 3 will be my top slot next year. ^_^ The ending is just that good.
I’m unabashedly besotted with Nishi UKO’s artistic sensibility. Her people are people – okay, ridiculously beautiful people, but people, nonetheless. They can be petty, snarky, obsessed, in good moods and bad, hungry, lonely, and she communicates these emotions with simple, short stories, exquisite art and a mature aesthetic that is rarely found in manga, much less Yuri.
