Romance is hard, especially when  you aren’t really sure if she feels as intensely about you as you do about her. Or so Kayoko believes. To make things worse, when she’s thinking she’s lost her love, an old friend whom Kayoko really cares about offers to be her girlfriend. She has to refuse.

Relationships are difficult enough, but having to deal with all your old classmates talking about getting married when you don’t feel wholly comfortable sharing your life with them, is almost intolerable. Or so Kaori thinks.

In Inui Ayu’s Teiji ni Ageretara, Volume 3 (定時にあがれたら), Kayoko struggles with unwarranted jealousy, while Kaori trying to figure out what she really wants from her life. In the end, they find one another and are able to find comfort and joy in one another’s arms.

Generally speaking, I find jealousy arcs in media to be superficial and sadly, this particular arc was even thinner than usual. Kaori was being her usual nice self to coworkers, which throws Kayoko into a tizzy. I know that this exists in the real world, but come on, they have to talk to other people sometimes. Nonetheless, I liked that Kayoko is offered an alternative choice and has to think about it. In order to say no to her friend, Kayoko must come to grips with what – and whom – she wants.

Contrarily, I usually find “being annoyed at friends getting married” arcs wholly sympathetic, but Kayori’s reticence to tell them truth (which is entirely my issue, not hers) and her lack of awareness about Kayoko’s state of mind (which was entirely her issue, not mine, ^_^) was grating on me. I was very glad that they are given time to talk things through before a gentle reconciliation, if you can even call it that.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Still a little soppy
Story – 7 Nice, quite, mostly relatable
Characters – 7 Same
Service – 0
Yuri – 7 Take a step back, then forward

Overall – 7

People’s lives together are not always high drama and this series really highlights the internal conflicts, the smalls highs and lows of a couple in love.

Last month, as I dug through Bruce’s collection for books to pack into Lucky Boxes, I found a book that I remembered reading, but had never reviewed.

One of the early names among Yuri Hime contributors was Shinonome Mizuo. I’ve review a number of their titles here. Especially notable among them was the ongoing, media-hopping tale Hatsukoi Shimai, which finally wrapped up in one of the most satisfying Drama CDs I’d ever listened to. But shortly after, Shinonime-sensei left Yuri Hime (or was left ) and I haven’t heard the name in a while. In actual fact, Shinonome-sensei is still creating – their current work, Hakoniwa Salome (箱庭のサロメ) is being serialized on Amazon JP Kindle. Sadly it is not available on Global Bookwalker, so I haven’t read it. Nor is today’s manga available on Global Bookwalker, although Hatsukoi Shimai is. So why am I reviewing it? In part, because why not? ^_^

Yuri Shinjyu ~ Nekomedou Kokoro Tan (百合心中~猫目堂ココロ譚) is a collection of short stories that ran in Yuri Hime, Comic Yuri Hime‘s predecessor, each featuring a couple who has not managed to find happiness together for some reason. One of the couple follows a black cat to the Nekomedou Kokoro Tan, a building that houses a flamboyantly dressed girl and a black cat, Over tea, for no apparent reason, the girl will pour her heart out and having done so, will return to her lover and they will find happiness. Apparently we all need therapy with a stranger over tea.  Thinking about it, I guess that’s not that far off, sometimes. Having someone to listen to is pretty powerful.

When I read this book back in 2009, I was on the cusp of having utterly burnt out on moe art, characters of no age, no queer identity and no depth. This book flew under a line that has shifted multiple times in the 11 years since. And, upon re-read, I think I gave it a raw deal originally.

The characters here are a little facile, yes, but this is a collection of one-shots and at least a couple of pages of each have to be dedicated to following the black cat and learning that one has arrived at Nekomedou Kokoro Tan, which allows even fewer pages for the conflict to be explained and then resolved. The very first story in fact deals with bullying at school because the protagonist is perceived as gay, before she has a chance to come to grips with herself at all. Further stories address jealousy and  violence. Yes, every story has a happy ending, but for a 2000s Yuri collection, this one holds up pretty well.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Stories – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 5 There is a bit, some nipple-less nudity and implied violence, sometimes contemporaneously
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

So, 11 years too late for print, but maybe Ichijinsha might make this book available digitally, if we ask nicely.

When I discovered Nishio Yuhta’s After Hours (アフターアワーズ) back in 2015, I really enjoyed the quirky adult life relationship. Not set in an office, it delved into less regulated lives, lives that were built up on the fly. I was very excited that it was licensed by Viz Media. And, once it was done, I was very much looking forward to Nishio-sensei’s next work. Mizuno to Chayama (水野と茶山) is that next series. Volume 1 and Volume 2 came out simultaneously in Japan.

Mizuno and Chayama are schoolmates. Their families are rivals; competing for political power and social standing, as well as natural resources in the form of their companies. But Mizuno’s family is clearly on top of the hierarchy, while Chayama’s struggles to hold their position. The kids in the school respond to this with violence and bullying, locking Chayama in the trashed bathroom, beating her after school and generally making her life a misery.

What their schoolmates don’t know is that Mizuno and Chayama are lovers. Yes, it is a modern Romeo and Juliet. Thankfully, without the dire ending.

Although a particularly mean bully keeps torturing Chayama, long after everyone else has stopped, it’s Mizuno that finally fights back. Mizuno does what she can to help Chayama get out of their shitty town and away from their shitty parents.

This series was a little heavy on lowest denominator service and was not at all respectful of the characters’ bodies, something I had found very appealing in After Hours. The ending a was little less ridiculous than After Hours‘, but I’m not entirely sure you could call it happy, though.

I don’t really know what to say about this series. The art was pretty good – it fit the tone of the story, but I didn’t honestly enjoy reading it all that much. I wanted Chayama out of there, but really out of there, far away, safe, taken care of and never going back to that shitty town. Your mileage may vary, of course. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 5
Characters – 6
Service – 8
Yuri – 8

Overall  – 6

This past March I became enamored of Akegata Yuu’s Tsuki to Suppin, a Jousei Yuri manga from Feel Comics, about Akari and Shiho, an odd-couple who are nonetheless very happy together. We ended Volume 1 with Akari taking Shiho to her hometown to meet her parents, which went very well.

In Tsuki to Suppin, Volume 2 (月とすっぴん), we meet Shiho’s sister with whom Akari gets along famously…to Shiho’s vague concern. ^_^ You know how it is, if your lover and your relatives are laughing together, its a good bet that they are laughing about you. ^_^

We watch Akari and Shiho move through the year together, through holidays and birthdays and sick days. There’s no doubt that they love each other, although we rarely see them engaging in anything more intimate than hand-holding or a kiss – a choice I appreciate. In fact, there is a vignette in which Shiho is getting a solo photography show and she is asked if the show can use some of the photos she’s taken of Akari on vacation. She talks to Akari about it, but ultimately decides that her private life is private and chooses not to use them…even if they are great photos, they are great photos for her and Akari’s own enjoyment. Which is how this story plays out – we see that they love one another and are in love, but that is as far as we have access. I like the restraint of that access. I don’t need to see them having sex to know they are intimate. It feels very adult and very much like we are friends, rather than voyeurs.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 10
Service – .5 Cat ears for Halloween is about as racy as this series gets.

The story is ongoing, and you can read new chapters (in Japanese) on Manga Jam on Pixiv. I recommend it highly for relaxing Jousei Yuri manga.