Once upon a time, a friend of mine told me a story about a guy she went on a lunch date with. When she inquired about the possibility of a second date, the guy said that he couldn’t. She asked why not, because she thought they had gotten on well. His reply was that they had and he really liked her and he could see himself falling for her and then they’d get serious about one another and maybe think about marrying and kids and he just wasn’t ready for that. She stared at him seriously for a moment, shook her head and said, “I was asking about lunch.” She walked away and never regretted it.

I have met many people like that man, people who construct elaborate fantasies in their heads about small things blowing into huge things, but the bulk of us can tell when we’re making it all up in our heads. I mean, we’ve all done it, haven’t we? Fantasized about “what we’d do if” somethingsomethingsomething.

In Kuchibiru ni Saketa Orange  (くちびるに透けたオレンジ), Chizuru is busy making up stuff about Kae in her head. In reality, she’s got Kae on a really high pedestal, and doesn’t even consider herself worthy of dusting the base. Chizuru is a child-faced incoherent who never quite manages to answer a simple question simply, but blushes and stutters and always lags behind.

Kae is perfect, according to Chizuru. She’s beautiful and smart and stylish. Chizuru’s goal is not as high as to be noticed by Kae – she just wants to have something in common with her object of desire. Her wish is granted in the form of an orange-colored lipstick.

Chizuru gets together with Kae, was there any doubt that she would? How, why…I’m not quite sure. They just do, because they have to. And they live happily ever after wearing gaudy lipstick, one supposes.

In the second story Miwako and Anzu are cousins and lovers. A misunderstanding about a boy threatens to break them up, but it was only a misunderstanding.

And in a final “Plot, What Plot,” best friends Rio and Yui have sex, because.

Now that I think about it, I think I read all of these same stories in Mist magazine, only with adults instead of young woman. I liked them better that way.

The title is translated as “A transparent orange in the lip,” so the book wins as the strangest title I’ve read in a while in both Japanese and English.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Characters – 5
Story – 5
Yuri – 8
Service – 6

Overall – 5

Check out the entries to  our “Orange In The Lip” contest in the comments!

I am feeling like crap tonight on account of food poisoning last night and yet, here I am writing you a review. Aren’t you moved by my dedication and focus? Don’t you want to shower me with praise (and if you’re my wife, kisses?) I thought you might. Thank you.

Today we have Rose Meets Rose, a collection of several Yuri Hime phone comics, by Shinn Yui.

I was reading this book before bed every night and quickly realized that it might not be the best choice for that, as the stories are the opposite of relaxing.

The first story is particularly uncomfortable, as it follows the anger, denial and ultimately, love, between two girls who may well have been responsible for the death of a pedophile who kidnapped them when they were children. It turns out that they were not, in fact, killers, but somehow it didn’t sit well with me that they suddenly found comfort in each other, when five seconds before they loathed one another for the secret they had been keeping.

In the second story, Sen falls in love with a girl in a painting. When that girl, Mai, transfers to her school, she asks Mai to pose nude for her. Mai has a reputation for having had an affair with the man – her teacher- who had painted her, and Sen knows it, but can’t stop herself from obsessing about Mai. The rumors fly about Mai, while Sen tries to protect her from the fallout…and tries to get her to open up a bit. When Mai gets a call from the teacher, all of a sudden Sen sees what a transformation love can make. Taciturn Mai blossoms into a beautiful woman. Mai will be leaving to join her lover in Europe, but Sen never stops loving the girl in the painting. This was my favorite story of the collection.

The third story was sci-fi-ish. Two girls break out in “love” with a rose-colored and -shaped rash. The more intense the love they have for one another, the more of their bodies are covered. After a late-night swim in the pool they are completely covered, of course.

And, finally, a girl with the nickname Dorothy is brought back from wanting to die by a “cowardly lion.” This story was too reminscent of those bad-old lesbianism=mental disease days for me to really like it, even though it had a sweet ending.

In keeping with the rest of the Ichijinsha phone manga, I found this all to be not *quite* satisfying. None of it is bad, the art style is pretty classic – reminiscent of Kakinouchi Narumi (Vampire Princess Miyu, Uta-hime) and now that I think about it, the stories are a little reminiscent of her’s too. But the tragic heroines were too melodramatically tragic for me to ever truly enjoy it.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Stories – 5-8
Characters – 6
Yuri – 7
Service – 4

Overall – 7

So, not stellar, but not bad either. Definitely not relax-y bedtime reading though. ^_^

Knife-Edge Girl (ナイフエッジガール)by Furutsuji Kikka, is a collection of several graphic novellas that had previously run in Comic Yuri Hime.

The book begins with the titular “Knife-Edge Girl” a story about two friends with completely different approaches to life.

The second story is a personal favorite of mine, “Graffiti,” in which two women who use the same desk at different times of the day communicate in drawings on the desk top. When they finally meet in real life – purely by accident – the attraction is instant on Kana’s side…and maybe not on Rise’s. Or maybe, it is.

In “Torte Fromage” Miwa’s boring OL life is suddenly thrown into glamour and excitement when she meets avant garde actress Nakae-san.

And as an omake, we get Rise’s point of view on her relationship with Kana and how she saw it develop.

Of all of these stories, the closest to actually having a lesbian in it was “Torte Fromage,” in which Miwa is asked if she is Nakae’s new girlfriend in a way that implies that that would not be unusual.

This collection breaks no new ground, but with good art and new spins on “Story A,” I found the book to be enjoyable in every way.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Because of the difficulty in bringing adult books over here, if Seven Seas wanted to restart their Strawberry Line with more Ichijinsha works, I’d recommend this and Otsu’s Clover to begin with.

Sweet Guilty Love Bites, by Amano Shuninta, is currently a candidate for my top ten manga of the year list. It is so very, very close to the kind of thing I want out of Yuri. All it would need is *one* little thing to make it perfect.

The book follows the trials and tribulations of 4 hostesses at Club Lilac. In “Sweet Guilty,” Kirie has had a bad night and in a fit of pique kicks a pile of garbage only to learn that it was wrapped around a person. Myata settles into Kirie’s life so quickly she barely has time to get used to the feelings she’s having for her, when Myata suddenly leaves. But Myata isn’t really homeless, she’s actually the bassist for a popular band who was hiding from her manager. She and Kirie live…shall we all say it together? Happily Ever After.

“Guilty Love” starts with a one-night stand. Niina is a single mother and she leaves before the dawn. because she has a child who needs her at home. When she takes Runa to school the next day, Niina is mortified to learn that her erstwhile lover is her daughter’s kindergarten teacher. Mayu-sensei has to jump a number of hurdles to prove that she’s serious about Niina, and in the end, the three of them live together as a happy two-parent family.

Kokoro, another hostess at Club Liliac, is in love with the club headliner and cover model, Kurea. But as Kurea’s career takes off, Kokoro feels as if she’ll be left behind. She won’t, of course. “Love Bites” ends as happily ever after as the rest of the collection. ^_^

The afterword is disturbingly populated by a number of animals who were apparently instrumental in the making of this manga. Amano-sensei is an exceptionally well-trained seal, who knew?

So, what was the one teeny thing missing that would have made this book perfect? The word “lesbian.” Not one of the characters was a lesbian, none were women who loved women. In fact, when Niina asks Mayu-sensei if she’s in the habit of picking up women, Mayu says that a friend owns the bar and she just happened to be there. If there was one moment in which I would have liked to see a single character own up to being gay, that was it. “Yes,” Mayu could have said. “I’m a lesbian.” And the rest of the story would have been identical and this book would have gotten a 10, instead of a 9.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 3

Overall – 9

A book about women over the legal drinking age, all of whom find someone shiny and perfect and successful…if only one of them had been a lesbian. Still, this is good Yuri.

Yuri Hime Selection, Volume 3, like it’s predecessors Volume 1 and Volume 2, is a collection of one-shot stories. A number of them are by participants in Ichijinsha’s manga contests which haven’t made it into the quarterly magazines and the others appear to have run in Yuri Hime S.

Of these, my favorite was “Hasunetsu” by Shin Yui, which had both plot and art that reminded me very much of Mist magazine. In this story, “Bon” (so nicknamed for her bouncy, curly hair) finds herself falling in love and lust with model and upperclassman Kyouko. This story is pure female fantasy and it works. The happily-ever-after ending helps. ^_^

Immediately after this was a not-quite-Yuricest story that wasn’t bad, and that was followed by a lovely little morality play in which a girl who is a prostitute because she can be, lets go of her attachment to money and finds true happiness in the love of another woman.

These three were my favorites, but there were certainly other stories of interest. Unlike Volume 2, I mostly had not read or did not remember the other stories in this collection, so for that reason alone it was fun. There’s a number of one-shots by more popular writers such as Akihito Yoshitomi, Uso Kurata, Mizuno Tokho and others.

I’ve been generally pleased at the Selection collections. I was a little concerned that I’d feel used, buying the same stories I already had purchased in the magazines, but other than the first (which wrapped up the old Yuri Shimai one-shots) I haven’t felt that way at all about Volume 2 or 3.

This collection has enough new material to make it worth buying, and enough interesting material that you won’t feel ripped off.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Once more, my sincere thanks to Okazu Superhero Dan P. – and my sincere apology that the items he’s sponsored off my Amazon JP Yuri Wishlist haven’t been crappier. I may have to thank him for something else, just to ensure that he maintains his inner Fanboy. ;-)