I admit it – I’m reviewing in size order, largest to smallest. My parents are coming at the end of the week and I’m trying to get the piles down to a size my father can watch the TV over. No joke.

Today, I’m going to tackle the second largest object in the pile, Comic Yuri Hime S, Volume 2. ^_^

Just as a reminder, CYHS is the brother compilation to Yuri Hime, in which artists who are well known for drawing highly servicey, moe and/or fetishy Yuri for a male readers are drawing Yuri for a more mixed audience.

My opinion of this magazine remains the same – it’s not as bad as I feared, but it’s not as good as I hoped. The “moe” part of the fandom means that many of the characters seem waaaaaaaayyyyy ootsy-cutesy or baby faced and I just will never, ever find that appealing. Sorry. If you do, then you will like this magazine better than I do.

The magazine begins with a few color pages on the recent Blue Drop anime, once again mirroring our conversations on the Yuricon Mailing List.

The first story is “Cassiopeia Dolce,” by Takagi Nobuyuki, creator of Kokoro Library. Anna arrives at Dolce to be the new worker and is surprised, confused and alarmed by the fact that the dolls are people, the people are really strange, and the girls seem to be kissing one another, and her, with alarming frequency. The story was just sort of silly, until the saliva string length contest began and I checked out. Not sexy at all. Ecch.

Kurogane Ken’s story “Watashi no Kido” was kind of suspended between two things that weren’t fully developed. The end of the world is coming and a bunch of girls gather on the roof to greet their death. Just as the end begins, Misa spots Yuma, who she had never had a chance to tell how she feels. In trying to call out to her, Misa falls off the roof, but (no deus ex machina here) ends up floating as the multiple-kanji explanation is given over the world PA system that I didn’t fully comprehend. Yuma and Misa end up floating together in space and kissing as the world probably doesn’t end, but I can’t be sure. lol When I have more time, I’ll give this one a closer look. Despite myself, I like Kurogane’s work.

“Flower Flower” by Iwami Shouko pickes up after Princess Nina has established her seme role over poor Princess Shuu. Shuu struggles to find a way to make Nina be nicer to her, which succeeds, but only in private. Poor Shuu. Poisoning Nina seems like the easiest route. The art is cute, the story is sort of soppy and I can see it going on eternally like this. I don’t dislike this story, but I hope something happens. Passive-aggressiveness isn’t a plot.

“Yappari Idol” by Araki Kanao lost me right from the first page. You like loli/moe, it’s perfect. Grow these kids up so that they are not repulsively young and then maybe I’ll care. Young idol is a lesbian, so gropes and kisses another idol. Yes, young lesbians are known for this kind of behavior and not say, years of confusion and self-loathing. Reading this story made me feel ucky.

Still with the schoolgirls, but much less nasty was “Sketch,” by Yoshitomi Akihito (Blue Drop.) Rika asks Sae to do a portrait of her, so she can give it to the person she likes. Sae knows that Rika’s seeing a sempai. As she works on the picture, she starts to realize that she’s in love with Rika. As Rika goes off to go on a date with the sempai, she gives all the pictures to Sae who, after a moment of hesitation, kisses her. The story is given a little depth and humor by the addition of a great analogy about apples being eaten. This story was sweet without being sickly and I like Yoshitomi’s art.

“Otome-iro Stay Tune” by Fujieda Miyabi was hysterical. Back in the studio with Arise and Hina, Arise is voice-acting the very Yuri story of a shoujo manga series that takes place at St. Lotecia’s Academy. Hina’s surprised, she’s not really a shoujo manga fan. Arise segues into using the manga as a pretext for playing with Hina’s hair, but talking about it in a way that listeners would get totally the wrong idea about what was going on in the studio. ^_^ The program producer and director approve. The last issue was so short, we barely had time to see who was who, but this issue was much better. I can see that this story isn’t going to be deep or emotional, but as art, characters and story are all kind of fun, I’m okay with it. As “funny” teasing goes, this was WAY better than Nina heaving books across a room.

“Minus Literacy.” I just don’t know where it’s going. We pick up at the end of last chapter with Iinchou somehow having been involved in Takeyama’s family drama, in which her deceased family left her millions of dollars in debt with only a big house filled with priceless treasure and money – and a maid. I just don’t get it.

If you are fan of the Lucky Star art style, you will probably enjoy “Kokoya Riron.” I am not. Therefore this short story filled with adorable little SD creatures assumably doing incredibly cute, yet somehow Yuri things was completely lost on me. It started with a snake puppet hissing “suki” and just went downhill from there.

Madoka has a boyfriend. In any other world, this would be a good thing, but if you are the ghost protagonist of “Honey Crush” by Tsubaki Asu, is it not. You would be reduced to playing mean-spirited little tricks on your love and her boyfriend in hopes of breaking them up. Kyouko arrives in time to stop ghost girl from kissing Madoka after inhabiting her boyfriend’s body. Kyouko confesses to Madoka, who plainly says she’s not interested. In the end, neither ghost nor girl are willing to give up on Madoka. Why? I have no idea. :-)

“Nanami to Misuzu” remains exactly the same as it always is. Goofball situations with Bwa-wa-waaaah punchlines. A new character shows up, in lieu of a plotline, a cute ninja girl this time.

In “Kuroi Hitomi no Majou” a serious first-year confesses to Satomi, who reacts coldly, then tortures herself about it. In the fine tradition of shounen manga, her “no” is completely ignored, because you know, she really didn’t mean it. Or something. Two Hakamada Mera stories where the girls didn’t skeeve me. It’s a miracle. They still have huge cabbage patch heads, though.

And last of all, the one story I was most looking forward to, the second chapter of Sudou Kaoru’s “Otome Kikan Gretel.” We last left Yuu in a state of complete and utter confusion as she inexplicably defeated a gigantic monster with powers she is now informed are “Aube” – Appearance of Unlimited Bio Energy. In other words, Nagi explains cheerfully, we’re all witches here. Mariya and Nagi defeat the big-ass monster, but it’s not really dead yet, so Nagi commands angry Mariya to kiss Yuu – deeply. It turns out that Yuu’s power is to absorb the powers of anyone she kisses, so…. The kiss occurs, Mariya and Yuu combine to defeat the plug-ugly Formica and thus it is that Yuu’s all-girl school life begins. This story is so dumb, I love it.

While Comic Yuri Hime S isn’t as full of joy for me as Yuri Hime is, it’s not bad, either. I’d like to see a lot less of the moe/loli/cute, but there’s just nothing I can do about that.

Overall – 6

I forgot to mention this yesterday – for some reason, in both YH magazines, there’s a bunch of reviews of manga that in no way at all look Yuri. Now, to be fair, I didn’t actually read the descriptions, but it really looks like a rattlebag of manga with no rhyme or reason. I suppose I should read the reviews to find out why they were mentioned, but I’m not going to. ^_^

Yuri Hime, Volume 10 comes in at a bulky 400 pages. Wow. Despite that, I’m going to try and review it in one post, because I have a gigantic backlog of things to review and only a week before I go away and don’t care for a while. So, let’s see if I can keep the story synopses short and sweet. (But not alliterative, because that would be annoying.)

To begin with, this volume comes with a lovely clear file with the cover picture of Seriho and Sarasa (in tie, notably designed by Alice Quartet. AQ is another Fujieda series about five clothing designers. Yes, five.) Very nice.

The volume starts out with “Clover” the beginning of a new series by Hiyori Otsu; a tale of four sisters, a transfer student, an embarrassing situation and whimsical desire to ride on the luggage rack of a subway car. Thumbs up as always from me for Otsu’s art and characters.

“Arcadia” is a story of love between Yui-chan, a typical schoolgirl and Nanako, a wandering spirit that loves her. There was nothing particularly stand out about this, nor was it in any way horrible. Sweet and forgettable.

Ash and Towa play out two parts of the same story in “Epitaph,” in which chance(?) encounters bring a mother and daughter together.

Miura Shion’s Yuri essay covered a story I had never heard of – “Honey Honey-Pie” from a collection called “So Long.” I’ve got it in my Amazon JP cart now.

“Apple Day Dream” continues as Kaoru attempts to find the guts she needs to tell Mayu how she feels, while Mayu takes the opportunity on their date to explain that she is neither tsundere or an ice queen – it’s just in her nature to be that way. I almost liked this chapter. The clothes were nice, at least. (This is meant to be ironic, as the story *is* about clothing designers.)

The newest chapter of “Cleo the Crimson Crises” (still a great title) follows Suo’s friend Momo as she’s approached, glomped and “befriended” by newcomer Kiki (whose name screams “watch out – bad thing lives here!) while Cleo hugs Suo in lots of interesting poses. I keep waiting for something to happen, but the art is such a train wreck, I’m not sure I’ll notice when it does. ^_^

I was surprised to find that Kazuma Kowo’s story was continued from last volume in “Tsumasamadachi October.” Nanao meets Mastumoto-sensei by chance and when the teacher’s friends make fun of them, implying a crush, Nanao is fast to deny it. But Mastumoto is just as fast to say that she’s damn sexy and she can prove it. Nanao is left with a drunken teacher sleeping it off on the sofa. Personally, I’d write on her face or something. lol I liked this story for reasons I can’t quantify. I just liked it.

Chi-Ran has a story in which two girls are in love and they kiss. Brilliant! “Himitsu Shoujo” is pretty much like everything else she does.

One of my top three stories in the book, “20 musume x 30 otome” (The 20 year old girl and the 30 year old virgin) by Morishima Akiko follows the trials and tribulations of 30-year old art teacher Keiko, when she agrees to go out with her 20-year old student Emi. Blinded by Emi’s shinyness and youth, Keiko comes to face with lots of issues she didn’t know she had. It’s cute, it’s about grownups and it’s got a sweet ending.

Takahashi Mako once again explores the world of neurotic Yuri in “Kumo no Ito”. It was yuck – creepy horrible kids doing creepy horrible things, but hey, it’s LOVE! Gah.

“Strawberry Shake” was brilliance. Best chapter yet. Hayashiya Shizuru’s art is really peaking. Love love love, is all about as Julia and Ran learn what Zlay band lead Ryou wanted with them after all. And once they clear the level of dealing with the clothes – which were great, btw – they run into the big boss. They are being asked to kiss on stage. This precipitates a major crisis and an even more major confession. It was a terrific chapter from beginning to end. It was worth getting the book just for this.

But, since we *have* the book already, we also ought to enjoy “Ameiro Kouchkan Kandan” by Fujieda Miyabi. Sarasa barely notes the fun of the school trip, so focused is she on things at home. The other girls aren’t stupid – they recognize love when they see it, but Sarasa is still mortified when Haru fills them in on the fact that it’s someone older. Meanwhile, at the tea shop, two customers ask Seriho if she misses Sarasa, ’cause she seems out of it. Seriho agrees that when Sarasa’s not around, she let’s things slide, but the two women, who admit to having been together for 15 years ,say they they weren’t talking about the shop. When Sarasa returns, Seriho has a suprising (and happy-making) question for her. Wonderful chapter. Wonderful story. I love Fujieda’s ability to do Yuri with high moe content that is neither fetishy, nor shallow.

Ryounosuke tells us a bit about himself, and his life, before he considered becoming a woman in “Mermaid Line.” He tells Mayumi that he’s considering beginning hormone therapy, but has some issues – and obviously, so does Mayumi. Will this bring them closer or break them up? You’ll have to read the chapter to find out.^_^ I like how this story is dealing with deeper feelings, and confusions and worldviews, without being strident.

“Nanami to Isuzu” remains wacky without being funny. I’ll be honest, I barely skimmed this one. If you want to tell everyone how it went, feel free to do so in the comments field. ^_^

Plot complications fall thick and fast, as we get a load of tragic Yuri backstory for Sawacchi in “Aoi Shiro.” Luckily, as quickly as she burdens us with her past, she sheds it in the face of Momo’s cheerfulness, until…gasp! A relic of the past comes back! Shock! Confusion! I found this to be a realllly long chapter for some reason. It wasn’t bad, but it dragged. Maybe half a dozen plot complications at once was a bit too much.

“Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen” reaches a new level of bizarre as Arare is confronted by her classmates who are distressed at the idea of running a marathon. “If you’re a rain fairy, make it rain,” they say. Sadly, her advice turns them into a room full of teruterubozu, thus practically guaranteeing a beautiful day and a weird-ass end to the chapter. Pun intended.

Morishima Akiko weighs in again, this time with the next droolly-faced entry of “Yuri x Yuri Mimasen.” This time she and her editor take a break from creating Yuri, to attend (and throw lots of cash at) the all-Yuri doujinshi event, “Maiden’s Garden.” Jealous? Who, me? Grrrrrr.

Drama scatters like falling leaves in “Hatsukoi Shimai,” where Miyu and Kirika share memories of themselves as children and face a crisis in which Miyu, who has been given the role of the Princess for the school play (again) runs away form the Drama Club. She is sick to death of playing princesses and wants to do something else, but when she expressed this, she seen as being too big for her britches. She resolves her angst by deciding to play a very tomboyish princess. Akiko learns that Touko-sensei’s time at the school is coming to an end (nooooooo!) and Teshigawara gets extra grumpy to drive of the cute younger girl who’s been hanging around her. Haruna and Chika plan an afternoon of relaxation in their secret place; Chika runs off to get drinks when out of her past comes Haruna’s evil plot complication, erm, sempai. As always, I really like this. But if Touko-sensei and Akiho don’t get together soon, I may be forced to pout.

Hakamada Mera’s “Ame to Hatsukoi” follows the usual progression of rain=angst, sharing umbrella=love, to a first kiss that threatens to become a lot of kisses. Yukari-chan runs away into the rain, terrified of her desire, but Ebi-chan follows with an umbrella of love and more kisses.

Good volume? Yes. Absolutely. Percentage-wise, there was significantly more I loved than any other volume previously. I figure if there’s three stories I really like, then a magazine’s doing good – this one had 7. And the clear file. Yay.

I really wish this magazine would go monthly, but I don’t know how they’d do it. The artists already have brutal schedules.

Overall – 8

If you’re not getting this magazine, then you *are* missing some of the best Yuri out there. Sure, scanlations are nice for you, but I want the artists to be able to pay their bills. Buy it.