If ever there was a manga with “snark” built right into the title, it’s Chou no you ni Hana no you ni, which would translate into “Like a Butterfly, Like a Flower”. Or, maybe I’m reading into it. I don’t think so. ^_^

Kanda Itsuki is a suit-wearing playgirl, who has a lot of female fans in her office. She encourages them in every way, because she *likes* being the object of admiration by women. Her co-worker, Nishino Kyaka, is neither besotted by Itsuki nor interested in her, and is confused as to why the girls go so gaga over her, when she’s such a gigolo. Despite not being “interested” in Itsuki, Kyaka’s a good friend and an important tsukkomi to Itsuki’s boke. In fact, their dynamic leads to the one truly funny line of the book that is going to lose any punch at all in translation. Here’s the strip:

They are out on new Year’s day doing their hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year. The upshot is that Kyaka smacks Itsuki after she says something dumb, and answers her with a Osakan accent, to which Itsuki replies “Ah, so that’s your first tsukkomi of the year.” The joke is the phrase  “Shinnen hatsu…kkomi.” Which is a play on “first /whatever/ of the year” and tsukkomi. Anyway, it made me laugh out loud. (^_^);

One of Itsuki’s obsessive fans is part of the cast, and her creepy obsession is creepy and not really funny, but when one of Itsuki’s ex-girlfriends arrives, that is marginally more interesting. Up until that point we weren’t really sure that Itsuki was actually gay. Now we know she is, and later we learn that she had female lovers from high school on.

Annnnnnd…once you get a good look at Itsuki and Yamamura Mikiko, her ex, you suddenly realize that they are Sei and Youko. ^_^

The end of the book supplies one minor conflict. Kyaka is asked out by a guy. Kyaka takes pains to hide it from Itsuki, although she’s not entirely sure why. When the guy confesses that he likes Itsuki, Kyaka’s peeved, but also discombobulated as to who, exactly, she’s jealous of. When Itsuki arrives, saying she’s been trying to track Kyaka down, Kyaka’s half annoyed and half relieved. When Itsuki tells the guy to bag off, Kyaka’s more relieved than annoyed.

We then back up to when they met, and Itsuki’s unsuccessful macking on Kyaka, and the beginning of their friendship.

We’re *clearly* supposed to see that Kyaka has genuine affection for Itsuki and it’s entirely possible that Itsuki actually genuinely likes Kyaka, but that’s not the story, so any effort thrown into that direction is all but wasted. That’s what fanfic and fanart is for, after all. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 7 (8 if the fact that Itsuki is Sei and Mikiko is Youko and, if you want to go there, Kyaka is Shimako, means anything to you)
Yuri – 6
Service – 1 Loser FanGirl for Suit-wearing playgirls – 9

Overall – 7

In the mean time, Chou no you ni Hana no you ni is a 4-koma gag comic set in an office instead of a school. For that alone, I’m glad I read it. Like most other 4-koma gag comics, it’s not going anywhere, so the best thing to do is read a few pages at a time, and just relax….the gags are the point.

My very sincere thanks today to Okazu Superhero George R for sponsoring today’s review off the Amazon JP Yuri Wishlist! That was a fun read and I’m totally game for volume 2.

This feature is going to be updated irregularly as new titles become available, or the lists becomes untenably large as “The List” on Yuricon became after a few years. (And let’s hope that that happens very quickly!) Humans being what they are, whenever a new title is licensed, there’s an outraged cry of dismay, as the genre we love is actually made available legitimately. We’ve talked about the reasons for that many times and I don’t plan on beating that to death here. The other outraged cry often is “why did they get it and not us?!?”

What I’d like to do is give you an idea of what books are available where and in what format. Of course this list will never be complete, so if you know of another title, format, anything, let me know. The point is to show you that Yuri is growing – and that with your help, it can grow more.

Guidelines for entries:  I’m not including “manga with Yuri,” as opposed to Yuri manga. That is – no Morita-san ha Mukuchi, or Ichiro!. These have some Yuri, true, but they aren’t primarily about two females with feelings for one another. This also leaves out things like Sailor Moon, or Mai HiME and other manga “with Yuri”.  If we went there, the list would start off obscenely large. So, for sanity’s sake we’re keeping to stories in which the romance between the women is the main driver of the plot and not just a fetish in a list of fetishes. (You’ll notice I include one volume of Utena – the movie manga. Anthy and Utena’s relationship was a major driver in that story.) ‘Kay? Good.

I’ve also focused on volumes of manga that are either currently available (at least according to Amazon) or are coming soon.

Please make suggestions in the comments!

Many, many thanks to folks that have helped me add to the list!

Yurikan Miel (百合缶 Miel) is the second in a trio of Yurikan ~something~ Yuri anthologies. The first was Yurikan Feuille,  with opening story by Morinaga Milk-sensei.  Yurikan Miel doesn’t bring that much star power to the floor, but it’s not entirely worthless, either.

The cover is pretty effective Erica-repellent. Two baby-faced female-shaped creatures with disproportionately sized breasts did not give me a good feeling about the contents. But the first story, “Rabu＊Buri” was a silly and over-long single paragraph about a Princess in love with her female knight, which made me feel more kindly, until the totally un-sexy sex scene. So, now I was in a 50/50 mood.

A story or two passed without much notice, but…then!

We reach “Hyoko Zumai” and all was right with the world once again. This tells the story of a couple who have moved to the big city together; one a first-year college student and the other a newbie in a company office. The story shows how they grow from ugly ducklings into beautiful swans, and lo and behold! I loved this collection. This short was absolutely worth reading. The stress of their situations didn’t threaten their relationship, per se, but the lack of communication between them did.

This story was a lovely little break into realism from an anthology that otherwise pretty much stayed firmly mired in “I like her but she doesn’t like me the same way,” territory, with some really un-sexy sex scenes.

Ratings:

Everything variable, but overall, probably a 6.

“Hyoko Zumai” was worth the price of admission, though. I’m glad I read that story and will keep an eye out for others by Fujimori Yuyukan.