Welcome to a look at Yuriqueur – Alcohol Yuri Anthology (ユリキュール アルコール百合アンソロジー), (as Sooz noted, “Yuliqueur,”) a book with an awkward name and an even more awkward premise! What can one expect from a collection of stories that all center being drunk? Let us temper (pun intended) our expectations.

While this anthology is probably not my absolute favorite of all time, it is also not the worst I have ever read. Drinking is featured in every story, but the creators mostly stayed away from sordid plot complications. There are no after-morning regrets, nothing non consensual and surprisingly little drinking to excess. Instead of celebrating partying til one pukes, these stories are more or less the same kind of thing as usual, with romance over a drink or two neither idealized nor excoriated.

The first story by 2C=Garua is from the bartender’s point of view, as she takes care of, in a professional way, a frequent customer who likes her women and her mixed drinks.

Mochi Au Lait pops in with a cute little story of a women who has fallen for her coworker and over drinks discovers the feeling is mutual.

My favorite story of the collection, primarily for the art “Angel Kiss in the Dark” by Yonurime, read exactly like a doujinshi story from a million years ago…you know, like 2003 or so. A woman going home after the bars are closed sees a woman in tears on a bench and takes her home. The weeping woman tells of her ended love affair with another woman. The women who found her listens and they part, promising to get together for drinks.

One last quite lovely piece by Miura Kozumi follows a couple as they make umeshu, as they do every year. This story is a celebration of their lives together and the passage of time, as seen by sharing a ritual of making ume alcohol.

Ratings:

Overall – Variable, let’s say 7

In all the stories I liked best, alcohol is the catalyst, but not the story itself. Nonetheless, I quite like the colorful sparkliness of the drinks on the cover art  by Kiriyama Haruka. ^_^

It still strikes me as rather fun that Yuri fans are practically buried these days under an avalanche of Yuri anthologies – and that so many of them are set in adult society among working women. ^_^ I can practically see myself in 2004 or 2009 or 2015, reading yet another collection that was so similar to everything else, that I just kind of snapped. But I kept coming back for more and so, I find myself today taking a look at another Yuri anthology set in working adult society. I am not complaining! (Not yet, at any rate. ^_^)

In 2018, I reviewed the first entry into this anthology series and found it entertaining. Today I am taking a look at Chocolat 2 Shakaijin Yuri Anthology ( ショコラ2 社会人百合アンソロジー).  The contributors are mostly names we’re very familiar with here on Okazu. Morishima Akiko starts off the anthology with a somewhat complicated relationship between two women who are balancing work-life-society issues.

Kashikase’s story takes a tried and true scenario – the unpaid therapy done by all women in the customer service industry – and turns it into a love story.

I’m reading a collection by Kiriyama Haruka and just finished a story last night that I really enjoyed – but was sure I had read before! Well I had…in this collection. A woman working for an insurance company comes face to face with the web idol she admires, in what I think is a very sweet little story.

A love that never quite manages to get past the gate is the subject of a sweet and a little sad story by Takemiya Jin.

For me, the stand-out story was the last one, by Shigisawa Kaya, called “Love Letter.” A deceased writer has left her unfinished manuscript to her former lover, also a writer, to finish. We travel the length of their relationship from when they met through their parting in this taught story about endings. This was, honestly, excellent. Shigisawa’s writing and art – which tends to center tension and discomfort –  hits exactly the perfect note of melancholy, unexpressed anger and love. Outstanding work by an artist I always want to like but often cannot.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

What this collection does is hold itself together by the thinnest of connecting strings. Other than the fact that these stories are all collected for this volume, there is nothing similar about them. Different art, different tone, and vastly different takes on the topic makes Chocolat 2 a superior Yuri anthology.

The “gal” is, in her own way, as stock a character in anime and manga, as the ninja. With her hair artfully asymmetrically arranged, her cell phones and nails intricately decorated, and her school uniform sweater tied around her the waist of her shortened skirt, we are accustomed to seeing the “gal” in a dismissive light, shone on teen girl culture by disapproving adults who nevertheless sexualize those same young women, even as they scold them for being young and carefree. The gal is Generation X’s “those kids are/do/too much…..”  You know, like…adolescent girls in every age. Creepy old dudes who creep, creepy old ladies who complain, when all the girls want to do is shop and eat, do karaoke and be left in peace.

So it was with some actual hesitation that I picked up SHIBUYA Gal Yuri Anthology (SHIBUYA ギャル百合アンソロジー), from Yuri Hime Comics. Named after the part of Tokyo which gals are mythically said to inhabit, was it gonna be filled with creepy hypersexualization or moldy morality plays about leaving that life? Thankfully, it was neither. With few exceptions, the stories in this collection are commitment free and fun and wholly lacking any kind of creepiness. I say with exception, because yes, there are a couple that are, by my standards, a bit creepy. YMMV.

I find I kind of like the one’s best where a gal has a normie alter ego, and then transforms into a hyper-fashionable gal at the behest of another girl. Which puts the first story of the collection right in my wheelhouse. Yoromo’s “Reverse Line” follows a gal’s encounter with a former Youtube Gal star at a makeup counter, which motivates the retired gal to resurrect her persona. It was very cute.

No surprise at all I liked the two older gals who live together and the story in which a gal changes a young woman’s life by visiting the izakaya she works at. I’m always going to be a sucker for food and romance between people who click. The final story, which follows a nice girl who falls for the gal at her school was surprisingly touching, as well.

Ratings:

Everything is variable as it is an anthology

Overall – 7

SHIBUYA is a pleasant, not-particularly-significant anthology exploring love between girls that includes gals.

Where I live, it’s spring and the flowers are blooming, and the trees are that particular shade of new-growth yellow-green that make you believe all is and will be well with the world. What better way to celebrate the energy and joy of this season than with an adorable anthology about lesbian weddings? Sadly we don’t have that, but we do have this lovely Yuri anthology – and it does actually include a lesbian couple. So, that works. 

White Lilies in Love BRIDE’s 新婚百合アンソロジー is one of the many current Yuri anthologies being heaved up by Kadokawa ASCII Mediaworks. Along with the multitudes from Ichijinsha and Futabasha, we are currently up to our neck in Yuri anthologies named after sweet and fragrant things. I am not complaining. ^_^

The first story takes a look at how important communication is in a new marriage, as newlyweds are not dealing with the gaps that have formed between them, and how they need to talk to work things out.

My favorite story, by the currently omnipresent relative newcomer, Miura Kozumi, (whose work I really enjoy) follows a couple who keep being completely blown away by seeing each other as their new bride.  I loved this story for so many reasons. The two actually came out to their families, they had a lovely wedding, parents bought them cheeseball wedding gifts… and they blush to their roots at thinking about how they are newlyweds. This one was cute as a boutonniere.

Tsuzura Ryo’s story was a close second. A young woman whose lover has died sees a fox’s wedding and is able to marry the spirit of her deceased lover. Of course, she’s left living with with both a fox and the spirit of her wife, but that’s okay.

In close third was Kiriyama Haruka’s story of a couple that fights over everything but are wholly suited for one another. I liked the art best from this story as everyone looked their (adult) age.

Ratings:

Art – Variable, none of it bad 8
Story – Same 8
Characters – Everyone is very earnest, except the art teacher 8
Service – 3 A bit
Yuri – 9

Overall, a strong 8

As a nice collection of Yuri wedding bedtime stories, this was top notch.