The second half of Volume 18 of Comic Yuri Hime is what you’ve all been waiting for – Sarasa and Seriho’s first official date, in this chapter of “Ame-iro Kouchakan Kanadan!” Fujieda does what he he does best – he shows them wandering around, shopping, eating and generally doing the kind of stuff my wife and I call “Playing House.” You know – the stuff you almost never see female couples doing in Yuri series. Sarasa is wholly unaware that Seriho has an agenda, trying to suss out Sarasa’s feelings for her. So used to hiding what she feels, Sarasa has no idea that Seriho thinks that she, Sarasa is, “normal” and the only one in love is Seriho.

Ayumi likes Miki in “Yuri Yuri,” but Miki tells her it’s gross. They play passive-agressive for a while, until Miki’s homophobia turns out to really be sublimated love for Ayumi. Bwah-bwah-bwahhhh.

In “Apple Day Dream” Yuma is marginally less passive-aggressive to Kaoru than usual. And I swear her name has been Mayu this whole time, until now, so either I’ve been dyslexic this whole time, or it suddenly switched for some reason. Either explanation is probable. :-)

In this chapter of the Nekodome Mansion saga, a younger girl finally gains the courage to tell the older girl she’s loved since she was a child know how she feels – just in time to see her married off by her father. But don’t worry, they can have their little something on the side, after all, it’s a marriage of convenience and they really love each other. Stories like this make me wonder about that age-old double standard for men who are, in most cultures, encouraged to have women on the side, but women aren’t supposed to ever cheat. Once again, I really don’t get you straight women, putting up with that crap.

Kagura makes cookies and Sukune-‘neesan eats them, but still has no idea who Kagura is in “Soulphage,” which is failing to appeal to me on any level.

Creo’s breasts are suddenly three times larger than ever before in “Creo the Crimson Crises” and frankly, I was so distracted by and distressed by this I have no idea at all what happened. It involved Suoh crying a lot.

There’s a little series of reviews about Yuri series that make you cry. I can honestly say that none of the series I’d read in the section made me even a little weepy. :-)

In a surprising turn of events, Hakamada Mera’s “Sore ga Kimi ni Naru” pairs unlikely couple Kyou and Amane, the older woman who burst into tears ar seeing Kyou last chapter, over a meal. Kyou is smart enough to see that *something* is up, but Amane really surprises her by coming right out and saying that she was once in love with a girl who looks just like Kyou.

Tae is having an even harder time than before finding her place in Yui’s life, now that they’ve returned to Tokyo in “Mizu-iro Cinema.” Yui’s busy on shoots and Tae’s flailing a bit trying to figure out where to be and what to do. When rooting aimlessly around Yui’s apartment, Tae finds a discarded photo of Yui and another girl. She keeps it in order to have a photo of Yui, but perhaps missing the larger implication. Coming home from a day out together, they are both – for different reasons – surprised to find the girl in the photo standing at the door of Yui’s apartment building. Here’s my new rule for series like this – it can do anything it wants right now, but it *may not* make Tae cry. Or I will be very unhappy with it.

“Himekoi” has a lot of screaming and pages of breast obsession. I note that “Nanako to Misuzu” has left the building. I guess it found a better reception over at Yuri Hime S. “Himekoi” seems to be the replacement “crrrraaazzzyyyy, wacky things and lots of screaming” series.

Adrienne is a cameraman on a shoot for an ero-photo book and finds herself improbably involved with one of the models in “Aka-me Adrienne.”

Definitely more good than bad and some interesting things going on in the pages of Yuri Hime these days!

Overall – 9

Volume 18 of Comic Yuri Hime once again has cover art from Eiki Eiki and Zaou Taishi’s “Love DNA Double X,” series and wow, have they laid the lilies on thick. Literally. The lily flowers practically crowd Sakura and Aoi off the page. In case you love the picture a lot, the extra for this volume is a postcard of the cover image.

The first story begins with a girl recounting her many, all female, loves.

We then break for some advertising and a chat with the Sasamekikoto voice actresses, in which they say the typical things about a Girl’s Love story.

Back to Shiroishi explaining to her friend that, yet again, she has fallen for a female classmate – this time the stylish, popular and apparently cold-hearted Midori. Tsubaki is incensed – she confronts Midori only to have the obvious pointed out to her – Tsubaki likes Shiroishi. I’m thinking of calling this plot complication “Crisis in Infinite Schools.” What do you think?

Mistue Aoki’s “Bankara Otome Gakuen” details the relationship between Yanki girl Shio and her ditzy friend Makiko. Smart, rich Yuka wants Makiko in the worst way – and is willing to kidnap and tie her up to get her. But Shiho saves the day and Makiko gets the girl. I so so so wish this would continue. It’s a perfect setup for Shiho to be cool and keep re-winning Makiko over and over. But it was so goofy and condensed, I’m thinking one-shot.

“Love DNA Double XX” does three things. It establishes Aoi and Sakura as friends, introduces Sakura’s posse, and gives us a glimpse of the backstory that sets Sakura up as Aoi’s enemy and reason she’s here at the school – to gain revenge.

Takase-sempai is the object of Mashiro’s interest and desire, but is having a hard time wrapping her brain around it in “Sayonara Folklore.”

“Delicious Time” was a great “Story A.” A girl stops by the bakery every day to get a single mini-croissant. The baker’s daughter, finds “mini-cro” fascinating. It’s obvious that the girl attends the same school she recently graduated from so, when an opportunity to attend the school festival presents itself, she takes it. Of course they meet up and share their darkest secrets – as the daughter of a baker, the protagonist prefers rice and, Sakura, who is the daughter of a rice dealer, prefers that morning mini-croissant…and, the woman who sells it to her. As a way of expressing her own feelings, the baker creates a rice-bread to celebrate their meeting. Brava! Encore!

The essay and “Para Yuri Hime” remains unread. I have had several weeks of hard labor and simply haven’t had time.

The next story is kind of odd and interesting. “Roku Tatami-han Shukai Osore” follows the relationship between a very outgoing, extroverted high school girl and the older shut-in she’s seeing. Ito-chan, the shut in, finds herself inevitably pulled outside by Hatoko.

Arare and Kiri have a fight in “Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen” and as Arare runs after the creature she loves, she finds herself – and Pero – unexpectedly back in our world.

In “Chinchin Puipui” bar Mama Michiko appears to magically transform into a cute, young woman and whisk miserable Kana away on a series of dates. Only, it wasn’t that kind of magic at all.

Morishima Akiko continues her new series about adults with “Renai Joshika.” It initially appears to be one of “those” series, where everyone in the series is going to be paired up. But, the first story belies that. Hirano falls for Shirohane, but finds out that she’s already got a lover. Hirano realizes that her choices are not limited to one gender and that Shirohane is really a good person that she would, potentially, like to be with. She decides that her love battle has just begun.

This is a good place to stop for the day, I think.

I’ll do my best to finish this up tomorrow!