I know, I know. I said I was done with this series. I say that sometimes. But then I need another item or two to make an order on Amazon JP worth it, so…

Anyway, here we are in Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 6 (百合姫 Wildrose) and while I am not dancing a joyful “this is it!” dance, I’m not gritting my teeth or anything, either. And perhaps the folks at Yuri Hime are getting comments that echo my own, because in it’s own PWP way, this volume of Wildrose steps up its game by a notch.

This is most apparent in the first story of the volume, “Yume no Hanashi,” in which Naho is moved to tears when she realizes that she is not alone in her school as a girl who loves other girls. Given that recently the US is dealing with reports of young gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth struggling against  prejudice and abuse from not just the people around them but from the leaders of their communities, who don’t seem to care that their casual homophobia is inciting acts of hate and intolerance…this message is an incredibly powerful one. And, given that Wildrose does tend to be rather more superficial than sensitive, and almost all Yuri avoids complications of awareness and identity, this simple acknowledgement of how alone a LGBTQ young person can feel and how important just knowing that you are not alone, is an amazingly powerful statement. It was a strong opening for the volume.

Again, in “Moment Like Fireworks,” the continuation of Nanzaki Iku’s ShizNat-esque couple, Sayo and Ritsuko’s story, Sayo first introduces Ri-chan as a friend to an old classmate , then corrects it to a “good friend,” and then backtracks, explaining that she and her girlfriend would like some alone time to engage in some love talk. Sayo later apologizes for not making the point right away, but Ritsuko expresses understanding and gratitude.

There were a few stories where younger women had to work a little harder at getting their point across to their older lover, and one story in which a Devil tries to ruin an Angel, only to be thwarted by her purity and love (a very cute story, I thought. It seems obvious to me that the real danger is that the Devil will start to feel “Love” and go good.)

There are a few stories which are not “good” in the big picture – one in which a not-very-veiled threat of suicide brings two lovers back together did not, to me, seem to be a good ending to a relationship that just needed to end. Relationships do that sometimes.  But then there’s something like “Houkago Berry Girl” which was just…silly. It made no statements, had nothing deep to impart, but was cute.

My major complaints about the Wildrose stories are that they have basically been retreads of “Story A” and left me feeling empty at best and quite often icky. This time I felt like they had actually stepped up their game, with more established couples and even some “lesbian identity” in a few of those stories.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

I’m back on the wagon for Wildrose 7.

Girl A – /meets/is in love with/argues with/falls in love with/is going out with/drugs/ – Girl B.

They have sex.

The End.

That’s it. I’m totally done with this series. I don’t get why anyone likes this crap, it’s irredeemably dull and utterly unsexy.

I think I’ve been more than patient with this series, waiting for it to develop some character, some depth, some strength of conviction, and all it’s done is move further and further backwards into the most banal of “Story A” territory.

Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 5 (百合姫 Wildrose) is an entire collection of “Plot, What Plot?” stories that are well beyond uninspired, a veritable fanfiction.net of a Yuri anthology.

I have five volumes (1-5) of Yuri Hime Wildrose here and I’d like to get rid of them, because they stink. In the comments field, write me a Story A romance in two sentences, in Mad Libs^TM form:

Girl A (verb) Girl B. They (verb). The End

Don’t be gross, vulgar or pornographic. I won’t approve comments like that. Be creative and funny (unlike the stories in this collection) and you win all 5 books.

Ratings:

UGH

“Body and Heart entwined Bathtime” reads the obi copy.

UGH

Headslap Update: If you plan on posting as “Anonymous” could you sign off with a nickname or initials or *something* so I can tell you that you won and not some other Anonymous? Duh…!

Second Headslap Update: I should probably point out the obvious and say that you need to be over 18 to be part of this. If you are under 18 and entered, wtf were you thinking?

It’s pretty evident that I’m not the average Yuri fan. I don’t read Yuri looking for titillation, I don’t particularly care if a story has sex in it or not. What I’m looking for is a good story.

Short stories are harder than long ones. You have less time to make a reader care about the characters, and less time to develop the situation. A lot of short stories that include sex scenes read like “Plot, What Plot?” stories – even if they aspire to be more than that.

Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 4 (百合姫 Wildrose) is a collection of PWP stories and frankly, it doesn’t aspire to much more. This is a collection for the Lowest Common Denominator who want sex in their Yuri and don’t really care much about story, character or plot.

The only stories that stood out to me were Nanzaki Iku’s attempt to *not* do another ShizNat-style story, Morishima Akiko’s story for being something I actually disliked from beginning to end and Takahashi Yostsu’s gang parody.

Nanzaki’s story shows us the relationship between a woman who works at a pet store and one of her customers. It’s sweet, a little dopey and has obligatory sex. It was a refreshing change from his usual. In balance I find myself starting to recognize patterns in the sex scenes he draws and that disturbs me a bit.

Morishima Akiko’s story is set in France, a girl who has to leave takes advantage of the girl she loves in a story that really put me off. It’s classic Cream Lemon, with a super whiny, yet willing to rape to get her way, protagonist. And it’s fake rape, you know, because the other girl wanted it, really. UGH

Takahashi Yotsu’s story was silly. Arisa is the leader of the Wildrose gang, but she falls in love with Serika, they hypercompetent employee at Ichinjinsha bookstore. When Arisa decides to leave gang life for Serika, she finds that her love is actually the Yuri Hime gang leader. Bwah wah wah~~

Other that these, the stories are a mix of unpopular/popular girls, and other blandly typical stories, with sex.

Ratings:

Art – Variable, but I don’t think it got better than a 7.
Stories – 4-6
Characters – 4-6
Yuri – 9
Service – 10

Overall – 5 for me, but more if you think Yuri equals girls having sex.

If having sex is your number one criteria for a Yuri anthology, then this is probably a book you will like. If you’re looking for something with a little character in the characters and oomph in the plot, give this one a miss. I was going to stop getting this series with this book, but Volume 5 is already looking intriguing, so I’ll give it one more try.

Let’s get the most damning thing about Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 3 (百合姫Wildrose) out of the way right up front. When I picked it up today to review it, I couldn’t remember a single story in it, although I had only re(!)read it a week ago. After I picked it up and flipped through the volume I remembered a few of the stories, but having set it down again more than ten minutes ago, they are already slipping from my mind. This is not a good thing. But that aside, it’s a fine addition the the Wildrose series.

Mistukuni Hachime, of Gokujou Drops fame, brings it on with “Netemo Sametemo,” which seems just about the most straight-on schoolgirl item in the book.

“Closet Daisakusen’ started off with action and I thought, “woo-hoo, we’re gonna get us some girls with guns,” but no, it was a peeping tom/sex in the closet story.

Nanzaki Iku, aka Doropanda Tours, brings in entirely new, yet completely identical ShizNat stand-ins for more semi-public sex and a mild plot complication.

Amano Shuninta’s “Sweet Exercise” was quite…sweet. A curvaceous woman, Umi, worries that she’s too heavy and tries to diet herself thin only to learn that her curves are what her girlfriend Morii likes.

There were a number of other stories, of course, but none that really stepped up to be more than the sum of its parts.

The impression left behind by the overall volume is one of what the Japanese and many western fans refer to as “ecchi”-ness. It’s titillation of the “sorority sisters’ lingerie party” sort. There’s peeping and cosplay and teasing and bonbons and teacher/student and a bunch of other sorts of tee-hee kind of stuff. Much like Volume 1 and Volume 2. This is what Yuri Hime Wildrose is. It’s a collection of twitter, twitter “ecchi” stories. As Monty Python so brilliantly put it, “wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.”

Ratings:

Art – Variable, as good as 8 at times. Which times are entirely up to personal taste. ^_^
Stories – 6-7
Characters – 6-7
Yuri – 9
Service – 10

Overall – 7 for me, probably 8 or 9 for others.

Before you ask – the reason it gets a 9 for Yuri and not a 10 is because the sex seems more for intended for the reader than for the characters. The cover art says it all – they are looking at us, not each other. And that, in a nutshell, is why I like but do not love the Wildrose anthologies.