Man, was Blue Friend (ブルーフレンド) depressing.

Where Nakayoshi‘s Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi is melodramatic in a Strawberry Panic! kind of way, and Ciao‘s Waza-ari Kiwami-chan is energetic and positive, Ribon Magazine’s contribution to the growth spurt of Yuri in shoujo manga trots out every nasty, tawdry, icky-feeling, angst-making trope it can find. And does it quite well. ^_^;

Ayumu is athletic, popular, smart. Misuzu is ostracized, unlovable, broken. Through circumstance, Ayumu find herself defending Misuzu against just about every jerky way school kids have to be mean to each other. And for her troubles, she is rewarded by a kiss from Misuzu. Misuzu, who hates boys, eventually admits that Ayumu – and only Ayumu – can be close to her. But this immediately turns possessive, when Misuzu runs off a boy who wants to become close to Ayumu. Even though it ultimately turns out that Misuzu was right and the boy was a jerk, the two cannot get their act together as friends or…whatever…because immediately a new threat appears. Someone who knows Misuzu’s dark past is determined to torture her with it. Notes threatening Misuzu appear in her locker. Ayumu can see something is bothering Misuzu, but does not know what.

The newcomer, Satsuki, who has returned from suspension for undisclosed reasons, clearly has an axe to grind and grind it she does, against Ayumu’s unknowing friendship and Misuzu’s already ground-down soul.

Thing come to a climax when papers identifying Misuzu as having had an affair with an older man, a doctor, and ruining him, are plastered all over the school. In Misuzu’s memory, we can see that this is probably not the whole story, but it’s too late for Misuzu, who collapses.

There will be a second volume, and there is an (apparently happy) after-story that has just been published, but Volume 1 is pretty much unremitting angst, no less angsty because you can see everything coming from a mile away. Ayumu is a bit too completely perfect, Misuzu is a bit too completely broken for my taste. But both are sympathetic in their own ways. I do hope for that happy ending, even if I know it’s not going to be them together.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 6
Yuri – 6
Service –  3

Overall – 6

If you loved Pieta, or any of the old, angsty classics of Yuri manga, you  should probably take a chance on Blue Friend.

I did want to mention that the obi that comes with this volume reads “This Yuri Manga is great” in Japanese. Now that’s kinda interesting, isn’t it?

Sengoku Hiroko’s Mikkazuki no Mitsu, (translated on the cover as Crescent Sweet Honey (三日月の蜜),) is a collection of short stories that range from the realistic to the fantastic.

The first several chapters are a short mini-series from which the book gets its title. Sakura-san (female) is in love with her coworker at the cafe, Sugi-san (male). Sugi-san has a thing for customer Momoko, but won’t fess up. When Momoko shows interest in attending a trade show, Sakura makes it a date, in hopes that it will motivate Sugi to say something. Only, by the time Sugi finally does, Sakura and Momoko are starting to like one another. Sakura admits to Sugi that she did it all for him, but he knows he’s lost the game. Now Sakura has to figure out what to do with the girl, now that she’s won her.

This was a cute multi-part story, it goes nowhere and runs over well-tread plotlines, but the characters are likable enough and the story is sweet, rather than tawdry.

This is followed by shorts about a poignant meeting between a girl and snow-boy, who will never see the spring together, a strange little tale about a boy and his bug, and a boy and his mermaid.

After this foray into the fantastic, the book returns to the tried and true world of schoolgirls, who see what love looks like from either side of a pair of glasses.

Then back into fantasy in a story where an angel follows a girl around, a cow and a bunny girl have a philosophical discussion, and a witch and a chef discuss…stuff.

A princess has feelings for her maid, which are returned with hesitation because of their situation, and finally the book draws to a close with two shorts stories about like between a boy and a girl in the more realistic venues of an amusement park and a kitchen.

Most of the stories in this books are short, some as short as 8 pages, which makes them feel very like fillers, but Sengoku does a good job of giving the characters life even in so short a space.

While it’s not going to change the world, Mikkazuki no Mitsu is a pleasant choice for before-bed reading.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Stories –  7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 7

Comic Lily Plus, Volume 2 (COMICリリィプラス) is the fifth of the Comic Lily anthologies. As a result, some of the stories that have been a little hard to follow are now beginning to gel into series that have some plot and character development. As with most quarterly anthologies, however, one struggles a bit to remember what the heck happened last time.

In “Esu to Emu to Etosetora” (S and M and Etcetera) Mashu is trying to get her own feelings for Satake-san organized, but it’s not easy when she’s being “helped” by a number of friends with their own agendas and I find I can’t remember any of them…

A new series, “Motto Motto” is a bit easier to follow, as it starts from the very beginning, with Chisato asking Mari out, and the two of them figuring out what, exactly, that means to them. I have no idea if this will continue, but it was a sweet first steps sort of thing.

“Summer Vacation” continues the dorm love drama that has been running in all of the Lily volumes. In both art and content, it reminds me a lot of a Bonnie Bonny doujinshi I have that deals with post-Marimite life for the couples of the Yamayurikai. This chapter ends with 2 couples good and one sort of ambiguously having issues. More to come, one presumes.

Tsune’s continuing drama, “Enka to Mai no Himitsu no Koubo” has turned quite dramatic, as the old lady, Enka’s aunt, gives up her own painful lost love story…and it’s not just random confessions, either. It’s directly related to Enka and Mai’s recent tiff. Of all the random bits that hadn’t really come together as a story, this one stood out as suddenly doing just that.

Most of these stories, and the others I didn’t touch upon, are still firmly in “Story A” territory, but most have settled down a bit, giving them a feeling of stability and a chance to actually play out over a number of chapters, instead of being one-shots that get sequels.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

In no way do I consider Comic Lily Plus a must-read,  but I’m willing to stick with it and see if it matures a bit. There’s hints here and there that it might just.

In Hoshikawa Ginza 4-chome, (星川銀座四丁目) Hoshikawa Minato cares about her students. So, when she learns that problems between her mother and father were keeping Matsuda Otome out of school, she went over to have it out with the parents. The result of her taking the piss out of Otome’s parents? Hoshikawa-sensei takes Otome out of the house altogether, becoming her guardian.

Otome still won’t go to school, so Sensei homeschools her. Time passes. 6 years in fact. And Otome has gotten into the habit of cooking and cleaning around the house to pass the time (often when she should be studying.) A number of people comment that Otome is like a wife to Sensei….

A crisis rears its head when *Sensei* starts to skip school. In an emotional moment, Hoshikawa-sensei says that she’s lonely since Otome isn’t going to school, and finally, after so many years of not attending, Otome returns to school. Where she shows herself to be a responsible and reliable student.Other teachers comment that Sensei’s company has been good for Otome.

But another crisis, one that threatens their relationship in a far more concrete way, is looming. Both Hoshikawa-sensei and Otome are starting to have decidedly not-teacher/student feelings for one another. Sensei is also keenly aware of the age difference between them and the multiple problems that can cause for both of them.

This situation threatens to become drama when an old college friend of Sensei’s arrives and puts two and two together. She’s not cool at all with it, but she does tell Otome more about how Sensei used to be – and why, exactly, she’s not cool with it. Neither Otome nor Minato seek to reassure her, but basically say, look, this is they way it is between us. It’s our issue and in every other way, we’re totally functional in our lives. The friend’s presence makes them both think about their feelings more, talk about them, and explore the boundaries of what they are and aren’t willing to address.

While they acknowledge their feelings, by the end of the book they have not done more than kiss  – and that only in totally not-adult, nothing-you-couldn’t-do-with-a-relative way. And so, while the situation remains problematic in nature, it’s handled sweetly and honestly and with an agreement that they will wait until Otome is older, the end.

Ratings:

Art – It’s Kurogane Kenn, so for me 4, but for many others 8
Story – 8
Characters- 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 10

Overall – 8

The one thought I had over and over while reading this was that, although this book may not itself come directly under the rubrick of the Non-Existent Youth Bill, that if that thing should pass (for the sake of the children!) Kurogane Kenn will be without a job, permanently. And for those of you who think that just because a book you own does not, in fact show a non-existent youth, or a non-existent adult drawn youthfully in a sexual situation, let me assure you that the Mayor of Tokyo and designer of the Bill has also recently stated that he believes that homosexuals being seen on TV being gay openly is a symptom of the collapse of Japan’s society. And the bill includes books that incite children to violence or anti-social behavior, which he has made clear includes homosexuality in any form.

In other words – don’t think this doesn’t mean *you* and the books in *your* collection.