While we’re able to enjoy Makoto Hagino’s slow-burn high school Yuri romance, A Tropical Fish Years for Snow in English, there is another Shogagakukan title with a similar feel – the ongoing story of two young women in love for the first time. Nanoha is outgoing, Chidori is a bit more reserved, but they are both happily ensconced in their group of friends and doing fun things together. And, they are in live.

Hana ni Arashi, Nanoha to Chidori, Volume 4 provided another new flex when confronted with the “sempai turned me gay” script. Where Sayaka just flat out gets pissed off and is extra gay at sempai when they meet later just to freak her out, Nanoha is there for Chidori and the two of the let sempai know that they are, in actual fact, an item. So there. At the end of the volume, while fireworks explode above them, they kiss.

In Hana ni Arashi, Volume 5, (はなにあらし) they obsess about that kiss to the point of distraction, in the most adorable way. Then the school festival comes and huddled together under a sheet waiting to scare customers at the haunted house, they are wholly distracted by one another. But once they have a moment to talk about their feelings about the kiss, they end up kissing again.

Nanoha looks for all the world, like a cute energetic femme, but she was a boyish basketball star in middle school, we learn, as an old kouhai of hers transfers in. Mai was injured playing and has decided to distance herself from sport. Mai’s familiarity with Nanoha makes Chidori feel a bit jealous, but we can see she has good cause, as Mai is planning on stealing her beloved sempai away. I’m not that worried, conflicts in this series don’t last more than a few chapters, and Nanoha is more likely to state plainly how she feels about Chidori. We’ve dealt with Chidori’s past….now it’s time to set Nanoha’s past behind her, and move on to the future.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 2 Less service, but the gaze is still creepier than I like. But I feel that way about almost everything these days.

Overall – 7

I find this series less overwrought  and more service-y than Tropical Fish, but just as earnest, and a little bolder, ultimately. It’s hard to not like watching Nanoha and Chidori overheat at the memory of that kiss. ^_^ If Viz were to pick this up, I think it would do quite well for them.

Akira is resigned to being a loner. She doesn’t want to deal with real people and is content, she tells herself, with keeping her relationships 2-dimensional. So when transfer student Pure states that she is from the future, is Akira’s lover and she’s traveled through time to attend high school with her, “skeptical” doesn’t even come close to how Akira feels about it.

Strawberry Fields Once Again, Volume 1 looks and feels very shoujo manga (or seinen version of shoujo…). In this case, however,  even though it apparently walks and talks like a duck, it is not a duck. For this simple, goofy, instantly emotional premise hides a much more complicated tale. Believe Pure…this is a science fiction story with a pleasingly complex plot, wrapped in a Yuri romance.

I was surprised as heck to have heard Yen Press picked this series up, but I’m kind of glad they did, just because it broke my brain a few times in Volume 2 and repeatedly in Volume 3. In fact, as I said in my review of the Japanese Volume 3, it took me three readthroughs to make sure I had actually followed the plot. I expect it will be significantly easier in English, although the story will remain convoluted…until it makes sense.

Amanda Haley does a fine job with the translation and I wish good luck to her in upcoming volumes.  Absolutely no mark against Haley’s work, the translation notes coming before the extra chapter threw me off, but I did enjoy the extra chapter itself with the antics of a hyper Yuri fan, and Kinosaki-sensei’s amusingly meta rendition of the “the iconic Yuri couple,” the Queens of Yuri, as I like to think of them. ^_^ Abigail Blackman’s lettering has moments of excellence. I know it takes more time, but personally I wish companies gave letterers time and money to also rework the art/fx; it’s not a deduction for the letterer, but for the company.  Folks like Sara Linsley and Jeannie Lee are really pushing lettering into previously unseen excellence, which makes companies that skimp here look…skimpy. I’m always, always, always, going to push for the most authentic reading experiences possible, because I truly believe that is what fans want. Which is why I don’t agree with translating genre terms. We understand SciFi to be a a valid genre term, we don’t need it “explained.”. Yuri and BL are also valid terms.) Thanks to Yen for giving us an authentic manga reading experience here. ^_^

Knowing what I know, ratings have changed a little.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Character – 8
Service – 3
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

As a science fiction story, this series is messy and fun. As a Yuri romance, I find that I look back on it with more fondness now than I felt when I initially read it.  Thanks to Yen Press for the review copy – I’m looking forward to having a chance to reevaluate this series and see what I think this time around. Strawberry Fields wo Mou Ichido, indeed. ^_^