Ikemen Onna to Hakoiri Musume, Volume 1 (イケメン女と箱入り娘) is written by Mochi_Au_Lait, and drawn by majoccoid for REX Comics, one of Ichijinsha’s other imprints. Honestly, I think both art and story are not bad. I kind of like this story and also it kind of bugs me, so I talked it over with my wife and I know why it kind of bugs me and why I kind of like it, but I still don’t know whether I like it more or don’t like it more. ^_^ Get settled and we’ll see if we can’t work it out, together.

Satomi is a college student who has fallen for Kanda-kun, a classmate. She asks Kanda-kun to go out and is thrilled when she says yes. Kanda Misaki is an extremely handsome and cool woman. Satomi is fine with that, she’s actually just happy to have a partner.

Satomi is very sweet and she really likes Kanda-kun. Kanda-kun is likewise quite nice, showing a lot of consideration for Satomi. Satomi is, yes, naive, but so is Kanda-kun and they are missing each other’s cues, which is about half the humor. Ultimately, they really do like one another, that’s obvious.

There’s just…something wrong with the joke. Update: I could have sworn that Kangda-kun actually mentions that she’s a girl, but I am apparently mistaken, which makes the joke even less funny.

Kanda-kun is perfectly fine going out with another woman, and doesn’t mind being treated like a boyfriend, but always thinks, “but I am a girl” when Satomi does that. Which gets tired.

In the final chapter, the what-might-be-a-gender-mindfuck-in-some-other-story sort of comes to a head when, at an arcade, Kanda-kun wins Satomi an ugly zombie doll and they are hit on by some guys, who turn out to be friends with Kanda-kun. She grabs Satomi’s arm and tells them that Satomi is her girlfriend. Satomi squeals happily and she and Kanda-kun have a private side conversation about Kanda-kun being the zombie doll’s “papa,” and Kanda-kun gently reminds the zombie to keep it’s eyeball attached and they laugh and head off, while the guys all act confused. “Does she know Kanda-kun’s a woman?”

So, it was a sweet story and I certainly want them to be happy….but it was often very annoying as well. Not because the character or situation is problematic. Kanda-kun is not hiding that she’s a woman, but she’s also wearing a corset (like an industrial one, not a Victorian one) to ostensibly “protect” her chest, because she’s so ticklish, and she wants Satomi to be able to hold her arm, which is the thinnest excuse I have ever heard for wanting to be bound in my entire life. And she’s not just telling Satomi.

I really want to like this manga.  The art being by majoccoid helps so much, I won’t lie. Kanda-kun looks cool when she’s supposed to. Satomis is cute. Mochi_Au_Lait just does not have the style for this. The characters are likable, the situation is not problematic, but it is, nonetheless, a problem.

Ratings:

Art – 9 majoccoid’s work is definitely right in my wheelhouse
Story – 7 *So* close to being good
Characters – 9
Service – 2 Light, nothing horribly creepy, more situational
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8

I especially enjoyed the fashion checks for the filler pages. There were no judgements about who was wearing what, just contrasting styles on display.

It was just so >close< to being really good. CW says that “as well as being serialized in Comic Rex, chapters go up on majoccoid’s pixiv and twitter. Chapter 11 is the most recent.”  Thank you very much!

In Volume 1, we met Okabe-san, a new manager for top model Yuria-san. Yuri appears cool and remotes but that may well be because she’s so beautiful no one will talk with her. Okabe-san genuinely likes Yuria and is absolutely also intimidated by her beauty, but slowly, Yuria asks, cajoles and need Okabe to be a friend to her.

In Volume 2 of Model-chan and Kimi Mane-san (モデルちゃんと地味マネさん) Okabe-san’s feeling are running ahead of her and Yuria-san isn’t helping by being in serious need of a kind and caring friend. Yuria-san takes her job very seriously, even to the point of not caring for herself. As Okabe-san gets to know her, she find she wants to take care of her charge.

Yuri-san asks Okabe to address her less formally. Okabe-san hesitates, not because she doesn’t like Yuria-chan, but but because she does. At a celebratory party for Yuria’s photograph book, Okabe is waned about becoming too close with her client. It all comes to a head on a winter night at a annual star-gazing event, where the lights go off so city dwellers can make out the night sky. Yuria is recognized and her poor manager is assumed by the Internets to be a boyfriend. Luckily, Yuria-chan is blithely unconcerned with the Internet and neither is their agency.

The omake is a short sweet story in which Okabe gives Yuria a present for her birthday. And that is where the story comes to an end, with Yuri and Okabe smiling and laughing with one another.

This whole story is making something from very little. For all of Okabe’s zOMG! reactions, little happened.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 5 Yuria’s trying
Service – 3 a bit of skin

Overall- a solid 7

In between that nothing, a story that might have been problematic – a manager and her client becoming an item – ends up sweet and harmless instead. Sure they might be a couple one day, but not today.

As you may remember, I’m a huge fan of Usui Shio’s series Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts. So when a collection of Usui-sensei’s work came out from Ichijinsha, I scooped it right up!

Today I’m looking at Kimi no tame ni Sekai ha Aru (きみのために世界はある). This single-volume collection contains six short stories that range in character age and setting. None of these are unique and, at first read, I felt like I had read all of them somewhere else, but…I probably had. A few of the setups are pretty well-used even now, like an ex-lover getting married in “Jewel of You,” or a boyish girl who actually likes girly things, in “Secret Closet.”

Scenario staleness notwithstanding, I genuinely enjoyed this collection. I like Usui-sensei’s art, the gentleness with which the characters are treated, even when they are processing hurt or anger. This is not emotional torture porn, it’s situations we are supposed to know, and have felt inside ourselves. And forgiven ourselves for.

The women in this collection learn to accept the parts of themselves they have been denying and I do not mean just their sexuality when I say this. In some cases, that’s not the issue at all.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Variable
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 mostly on principle, there’s nothing really

Overall – 8

Just learning to love one’s self is still a powerful story and Usui-sensei understands that.

In Volume 1 we met Nanoha and Chidori, two girls who have a secret – they are lovers. They aren’t lovers, but they are in love and they dating. In Volume 2 and Volume 3, they are still dating.

Together they do normal teen stuff. They go out with friends and hang out, they visit the beach and do school things. It’s all very pleasant, very noncommittal and very low-key. In fact, I was describing it to my wife as a series in which basically nothing happens. For a Shonen Sunday Comic, it was satisfactory. Only a little service, no weird manipulative characters, no gods-help-us-its-not-funny comedy. Just blandly pleasant schoolgirl Yuri.

And then we hit Hana ni Arashi, Volume 4 (はなにあらし) and something happened.  In comparison with the little happening in previous volumes it seems really big, but wait for it, because it is, kind of, really big.

It’s summer and Nanoha and Chidori go to the beach with friends and we spend a little more time looking at girls in bikinis than I care to do. Then we return home and the school festival is upon us. Chidori is representing the literature club when her old sempai shows up. We understand immediately that sempai is Chidori’s ex who took the time honored hoary route of seducing Chidori into a lesbian lifestyle, then chickening out on it herself.  Sempai dismisses Chidori’s feeling with a snide, “Are you really onna-doushi?” which proves that the folks at Shogakukan are stuck back in 2000 or so in terminology. Sempai uses the phrase the way you might expect an actual human to use “queer” or “lesbo” or something more pointed.

Chidori is fairly paralyzed by the reappearance of Igarashi-sempai and we are given a chapter to see that sempai was a fairly stereotypical Yuri villain, steamrolling over Chidori’s objections, time and time again. Like Sayaka, Chidori has learned to love herself. When Igarashi-sempai appears to be ready to tear Chidori down once more Nanoha steps up and does the thing. “Yes, we’re onna-doushi,” Nanoha takes Chidori’s hand and faces Igarashi…and here’s the thing that happens….Igarashi suddenly discovers that Chidori and Nanoha are not hiding from themselves at all. Her expression is one of shock. Up to this moment, she has bought into the idea that her feelings for Chidori had to be – must be – temporary. And here is Nanoha, without that illusion at all. Igarashi-sempai asks, her eyes wide with shock as her world crumbles…”Are you going out for real?” “Yes,” Chidori affirms.

To her credit, Igarashi-sempai covers her nervousness with a bit of normal teasing, but as she leaves, she realizes that she might well have made a terrible mistake with her life.

And, finally, later than night at the festival fireworks, Nanoha and Chidori kiss.

So, aside from the now-outdated terminology (which, to be fair I absolutely would expect nothing else from publishing behemoth Shogakukan,) this was a pretty meaty moment. Firstly, Nanoha rescues Chidori, then the two of them admit their relationship to anyone at all, and affirm that it’s real, and the result is that a girl who had been lying to herself is suddenly unable to do so anymore.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 6
Service – 4 Bathing suits and showers. So…ugh

Overall – 6

For a series which, until this moment, had climaxed with hand-holding, this was a big volume.

In Volume 1, Himari saw Yori up on the stage playing with a band and was blown away by her. When she told Yori-sempai, Yori replied that she’d fallen in love at first sight with Himari. So the two of them agreed to hang out and see if Himari would return Yori’s feelings.

Now, in Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau, Volume 2 (ささやくように恋を唄う), Himari definitely has feelings about Yori-sempai, but she has no clear idea what those feelings might be yet. She’s not sure what love ior, how she’s supposed to feel…or if her enjoyment of Yori’s company is enough. It’s her best friend, Miki, who comes up with a brilliant plan…if Himari and Yori date casually, it will let Himari understand her feelings a bit more.

Yori knows she likes Himari, but also knows that Himari likes her when she plays her guitar, so she accept the bands invitation to join them for the school festival. Himari, unable to meet Yori after school, joins a club of her own, where she can make tasty sweets for Yori. But now Yori has a new problem as she’s jealous of Himari’s club sempai. And yes, she knows she’s being ridiculous, she confides to band member and her best friend Aki.

And then it’s Aki’s turn to be jealous. She comes home to find Himari visiting her sister Miki, and while Himari waits, alone, she tells Himari that she, Aki, is in love with Yori and won’t Himari just…let her have her?

The epilogue gives one more twist the story…Himari’s new club sempai, Momoka appears to have an entanglement with the band’s vocalist Shiho, who is always draped around drummer Mari.  So we’re at one of those all-Yuri schools, apparently. ^_^

I really like Takeshima Eku’s art. It’s got a dramatic quality, especially in the musical performance scenes, that I find very appealing. The characters are all likable, the story isn’t so overwrought that it becomes a burden to read, nor is it so banal that it leaves no impression. While “I’m not sure what ‘love’ is,” is the new Yuri flavor of the day, I have no objection to that. It’s actually reasonable for a teenager to ask themselves if they have any idea what they feel, as opposed to holding hands at the end of several volumes and calling it “love” and assuming thst it’s forever.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

Happiness is a hell of a drug and I’m coming back for more.