I am very, very happy today for two reasons. One, this manga was a delight to read. Secondly, I didn’t have to review it, because George R. valiantly offered a guest post in which he says everything I might have, if I had written it. But I didn’t have to. ^_^ Take it away, George!

My copy of Himawari-san by Manami Sugano, arrived a couple days ago and a quick flip through sent it straight to the top of my to-read pile. Not only is the artwork well done, but the setting strongly reminds me of the old neighborhood book shop near where I usually stay in Tokyo. Sadly that shop did not have an owner as lovely and lovable as Himawari-san and is no longer in business. I spent many a happy time perusing those shelves.

Himawari-san runs an old, small book shop directly across the street from school. Everyone calls her this because the name of the shop is Himawari-shobou [Sunflower bookstore]. She’s a kind, long-haired woman, definitely an adult out of school but still young from my point of view. She typically carries a hataki for dusting the shelves, a book she reads and offers quote from, or both. She enjoys life at her own pace, and though she is occasionally gruff, “if you’re not a customer, go home,” she really does care for and encourage the girls who frequent her bookstore.

This manga is a collection of short, sweet stories about Himawari and her customers. The principle customer is a lively, though not intellectual, freshman from the high school across the street. Kazamatsuri Matsuri (and no, I didn’t stutter there), enters the tale with a bang, bursting in and declaring, “Himawari-san! I love you!!” She fell for Himawari when she came in to purchase a study guide for her entrance exams, and spends a lot of her free time at the store, but it is not books or the store that she loves but Himawari herself. Himawari was the first person to encourage and believe in her, even counting her parents and teachers.

Other customers we meet include Nana, the class president who dislikes rainy days enough to cause an incident at the school library; Sakura, a grade-school girl to whom Himawari teaches lessons about friendship, apology and how to repair manga with tape; and Fuuko, Matsuri’s younger sister, who isn’t as angry and “too cool to care” as she first appears, merely a bit jealous of all the time her dear sister is spending at Himawari-shobou. She helps each of them with words of wisdom and encouragement.

Himawari has quite the reputation for finding just the right book for any customer, and she is well known and loved by everyone in the bookstore district. It was to show Matsuri a shop specializing in photo books that Himawari brought her to this district. And, yes, these books are perfect for Matsuri.

There’s not much explicit Yuri here beyond Matsuri’s obvious crush. Himawari puts Matsuri on cloud nine asking her to go out with her. Is this just shopping? Is it a date? I know what Matsuri would like it to be. Himawari’s feelings in return are ore open to interpretation.

She finds the store overly quiet the week Matsuri was preparing for the school festival and didn’t come to the store. Her feelings on meeting Matsuri at the end of that week are drawn in her expressions and actions rather than stated in words, but her smile when suggesting they watch the fireworks together is genuine. She seems to enjoy their time together.

In the last two chapters we meet Himawari’s older brother who’s a light-novelist. The two don’t get along, having some past history between them. She even tells him to never come to the bookstore. Sugano-sensei gives us some hints at Himawari’s past, but I want to know more than just these hints: how did she take over Himawari-shobou? What was her relationship with the previous owner? How did she change from her non-bookish self back in school? On the other hand, her brother can’t be all bad, as Matsuri stays up all night, enthralled, reading his book. Matsuri, being the good kid she is, even manages to begin Himawari’s reconciliation with her brother.

Sugano-sensei’s artwork holds up to the promise of the cover. Her depiction of the bookstore and streets echo reality to me, but she only uses detailed drawings when needed to set the scene or the mood, and they do that well. Her character art style also works for me. I’m a sucker for bijin with books, and keep looking back at her drawings of Himawari. I like her outfits, good looking yet practical. They’re a welcome change from school uniforms.

I would also recommend this manga to any who are working on learning Japanese. It has full furigana, so you can take the easy way out on looking up kanji, and avoid lugging a second dictionary around while you read.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 1

Overall – 9

I quite enjoyed reading this volume. It combines artwork I like, nostalgia for that very type of bookstore, with characters and atmosphere I enjoy. I can easily understand why the rest of the cast falls in love with Himawari-san; I did too. But, I was left wanting more. With that “more” I could see my story and character ratings climbing a point or two.

While this is not labeled “volume 1”, I hope Sugano-san gives us another volume. That would be the ideal spot to delve deeper into the “more” I was left wanting. I would say this volume functioned very well as hors d’oeuvres, and now I’m ready for a full meal with these characters in their neighborhood. She hasn’t published much else, so perhaps she has more of Himawari-san ready to flow out her pen. I hope so.

Erica here: I wasn’t kidding, George really did say everything I would have said…except for one thing. Not only is Kazematsuri Matsuri’s name redundant, her sister is named Fuuko…the “Fuu” of which is the same word as Kaze. So her name is redundant too.

Thank you George, I agree wholeheartedly that a few more hours browsing the shelves of Himwari Shobou would be extremely enjoyable.

Choir (ちょいあ!), Volume 1 was an easily forgettable 4-koma manga centered around otaku activities of a bunch of girls who hang out and do otaku stuff together. It had a Yuri romance and, at the end of the volume, Shousei and Mayuko are indubitably a couple.

I know I read Volume 2, but did not review it here. I believe that was because in Volume 2 the fanservice switched with the Yuri, so that Yuri was pushed to the background and moe lolicon cat-ear-wearing became the focus. In fact, I cannot remember exactly what happened during Volume 2, which is always a sign that it wasn’t very good. ^_^

In Volume 3, Yuri and fanservice collide in a massive matter/anti-matter explosion of drama without content. Given that the premise of the series is “a bunch of girls hang out” and the drama is “they all want the loli” it gets pretty tired, pretty fast. Complicating factors for me is that Shiroyuki and Shousei look so similar that I have to keep checking which one is with Mayuko at any given time.

In the other Yuri affair going on, Mawata is a inconsiderate Dom to Kyouko’s very sensitive Sub, and I found myself repeatedly frustrated and annoyed at the way Mawata treated Kyouko. When Mawata consented to pay attention to Kyouko, they weren’t a bad match, but quite inexplicably, Mawata insisted on pursuing Mayuko.

The tedious fanservice is at red-alert level. If naked moe loli cat-ear-wearing girls is high priority for you…this is the book you’ve been waiting for. They all go to a hot springs so they can be naked for many chapters.

The drama is mostly “everyone in the series pursues Mayuko,” who also drove me crazy with her inconsistent affections. She was not a particularly riveting character and seemed to be appealing to everyone only because she was the loli. In every way she’s just…annoying.

Mayuko and Shousei end up still together although I have to be honest and say, I don’t know how. Shousei is practically a non-entity in this volume and Mayuko treats her terribly. In my review of Volume 1, I wrote, “Mayuko appears to find it amusing to string Shousei along, then push her away. (Run, Shousei, run! Don’t do it!)” and I stand by those words here in Volume 3. Shousei will be better off after she graduates and finds someone less of a tease than Mayuko, Shiroyuki will be better off with anyone than Mayuko, and Kyouko will be better off with someone other than Mawata.

Ratings:

Art – 3, unless you like moe loli with characters that are hard to identify
Story – 6 It’s situation comedy.
Characters – 5 After repeated “treating their partner badly” scenes Mayuko and Mawata drop down to a 3
Yuri – 8
Service – 9

Overall – 6

Isn’t Lesbian Drama hi-larious?

College student Maki meets and clearly falls for the new student on campus, Kanna. But, like a good little lesbian, she prefers denial to pursuit, even when her best friend, Lilia, pushes her to make a move. Thus begins Rikachi’s Ibara no Namida (いばらの泪 ).

It’s very apparent to us and Lilia that Maki is attracted to and intrigued by Kanna. But, for whatever reason, she just can’t seem to make that move and, as we and Lilia watch, she loses Kanna to another woman without having said a word. As Maki suffers, Lilia suffers twice as much, because – it is apparent to us from the very beginning – Lilia is in love with Maki.

Miserable from her loss, Maki thinks back on previous aborted relationships she’s had and, we learn that this Maki is in fact the same Maki as Hiromi’s best friend from Sora-iro Girlfriend. We relive Hiromi’s and Juli’s relationship from the point of view of the best friend who was cut out of Hiromi’s life by a jealous girlfriend.

After moving on to a new school, Maki meets and becomes friends with Lilia. She also meets a very cool, popular and fun classmate, Yuki. Without realizing it, Maki starts to compare Yuki to Hiromi and slowly, finds herself interested in the other girl. Lilia warns her off, but it’s not until Maki learns Yuki’s secret that she gives up.

Which brings us back to the present. Maki is mourning having yet again lost a girl without ever having her, but Lilia is trying to fill that space in her heart. So caught up in her own issues, Maki is inadvertently heartless to Lilia. And then…Lilia disappears.

Maki suddenly realizes the extent to which she had been selfish and inconsiderate to Lilia – and she realizes just how self-absorbed she’s been all this time. Although she’s been friends with Lilia since high school, Maki realizes with shock, she knows just about nothing about her. A handwave meeting saves her and off she runs to make it up to the best friend who has been by her side for all these years. The story ends with the retelling of Sleeping Beauty as the Princess wakes the Princess with a kiss and they live happily every after.

The final chapter is from Lilia’s point of view, expressing her desire to wake Maki from her Sleeping Beauty phase and make her aware that there was a princess willing to wake her with that kiss right in front of her all along.

While I did not love Sora-iro Girlfriend, I very much liked Ibara no Namida. There’s no doubt that Maki did far, far better for herself than Hiromi did and Lilia was all kinds of sympathetic and likable in a way that Juli never was. Lilia played the lovesick best friend in love with the lovesick best friend, a take on that particular trope I’ve never seen before. I found it kind of charming. And this story was set in college, which appeals to me more than a high school setting.

Maki made it a little hard to like her, being at first apparently wimpy, then serially kind of pathetic, but I find that at the end, I felt she and Lilia felt more three dimensional than anyone in Sora-iro Girlfriend.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 1

I’ve always had a softer spot in my heart for Sleeping Beauty than Romeo and Juliet, and I’m always pleased when the Princess wakes the Princess with a kiss. ^_^

Last year, Ichijinsha announced that the Yuri Hime Wildrose series would be undergoing a name change. And so, the Girls Love series was born. Japanese bloggers had some issues with the title, due to the missing apostrophe in the English-language title. Most of them weighed in with a preference for Girl’s Love, but I think I probably would have used Girls’ Love, if I was going to insist on the apostrophe. It’s all moot because Ichijinsha didn’t ask any of us and so, Girls Love it is.

More importantly, the question I had was, was the newly re-named publication going to be better (or at least different) than it’s predecessor?

Unequivocally, the answer is…no. Girls Love is the same kind of “Plot, What Plot?” porn shorts that I found almost entirely unappealing in Wildrose. As I read stories by Rokuichi, Mikuni Hachime and other Comic Yuri Hime regulars, I thought a bit about what, exactly, kept me from enjoying the stories in this series. I mean, these folks are pretty popular and I like some of them. So…what is the problem?

Upon reflection, I’ve come up with two distinct issues that I have. Neither is true for every story, but one or the other is true for most.

The first is – the art. In many cases, I find the art to be actively unappealing. Some artists that are popular with other readers, absolutely utterly fail to be sexy to me. When the stories are merely meant to frame the sex, this is problematic.

Secondly, and again, I realize that your mileage may vary on this but, quite often I find the way the characters maul each other to look, well, painful, rather than sexy.

Either one of these can kill a story for me, and together they kill most of the stories in the book. Combine this with the unfortunate tendency of most PWP stories to pretty much suck as stories and you basically still have a book that wastes a lot of talent for very little return, IMHO.

That having been said, this volume had a few stories that were notable for one reason or another.

“Junjou Playgirl” by Asagi Shinobu has a typical setup of quiet girl getting seduced by the school playgirl, but she turns the tables on her seducer in a rather cute way.

Morishima Akiko’s “Omoidasu Musubi” was sweet, a little melancholic and I wish there had been a resolution, rather than a fadeout.

“Yume Miru Yoake” was just…I don’t know what it was, but I liked it anyway.

Saida Nika’s “Amai Namida” was also another same-old setup, but I liked the ending quite a bit. It almost had a feel of after happily-ever-after.

Like all the Wildrose volumes that came before, it’s not like every story sucks, it’s just that after I’ve read them, very little sticks in my brain and too much of the sex looks uncomfortable and painful for it to be fun to read.

Overall – 6