The second half of Yuri Hime, Volume 9 brings back the incredibly weird and wonderful “Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen,” with a splash page that is so horrible and distressing that it makes me laugh every time I look at it. It’s hot, Arare, Kiri and Pero comment, because, duh, it’s summer. But that also means it’s time for the summer sea to arrive here at the school for supernatural creature girls! Arare has no idea what that means, but when Pero takes her to look out the window, instead of a forbidding winter sea crashing against the rocks below the school, there’s a veritable tropical paradise. The rest of the chapter is taken up by Arare’s trials as she keeps ripping bikini bottoms in an attempt to hide the proof of her humanity, her belly button. It’s all goofy and creepy fun here at Monster High.

Mori Natsuko’s “Yuri Doujou” advice column takes a look at the continuing stories of some of the folks who wrote in for advice previously. It’s all pretty banal, but heck, love problems *are* banal.  ^_^

FINALLY!! In this chapter of “Hatsukoi Shimai” secrets and flings and crushes are flying thick and fast. Teshigawara’s crush on Akiho is made a little plainer for the idiots like me who thought it was on Chika. The mysterious girl who so troubled Teshigawara last issue reappears and sets her a-fuming all over again. Chika and Haruna spend the chapter being all lovey-dovey, sharing baby pictures and making us all ill with their cuteness. But, we learn that Haruna and Akiho do have a terrible secret! Shock! Chika must never find out! Touko-sensei is reminded that her time at Tsunojo is coming to an end, so she hares off to find Akiho in the Library (can I just say something here? I am clearly either a genius, or Japanese artists are plagiarizing the heck out of my fanfic. I wrote Touko and Akiho in the library before there was even a Hatsukoi Shimai manga.  More likely, it was so obvious that I and the manga writer just came to the same conclusion. But still, first Hana no Asuka-gumi and now this.) Akiho confides in Touko about her terrible secret, which I will not spoil, because it ain’t all that terrible, really. In return Touko moves in to kiss Akiho, *finally.* Geez. But Akiho pushes herself off and runs away. I’m just glad that Akiho and Touko’s relationship is getting some attention. I really want them to get together, despite the questionable ethics of the situation.

In the last scene Miyu is watching Kirika practice archery. There’s an exchange of words, Miyu goes to run off and as she leaps after her friend/lover to grab her, Kirika drops like a stone to the ground. Gasp! We must wait until October to find out what happens.

Some color pages on Soulphage, an apparently all-girl private school game, Blue Drop, an upcoming anime based on the manga of the same name and more “buy our game!” coverage of the Simoun game.

The second chapter of “Creo of the Crimson Crises” was not as fun as the first. Suou complains about having been placed in an unremovable collar. Creo doesn’t care, a magical mascot creature appears and gives an important message, Creo disappears. Suou’s best friend who has a crush on her tries to remove the collar. They both end up going to Suou’s older sister’s where they find Creo already there. Suou’s sister asks Creo to take care of Suou. Bwa bwa bwaaaaah…. There’s some portentous stuff in there too that I’m sure will be important later on. But Suou’s whining got on my nerves. lol

Mana and Chiyo are two little girls with more than little feelings for one another. They talk around it a bit in Takahashi Mako’s “Hitosubu no Umi.” I didn’t like it enough to bother translating the title.

“Mermaid Line” continues from last issue as Megumi goes out with some poor unsuspecting schlub as a beard for her real feelings, (even though she won’t let him tell anyone that they are going out) while Aoi is now as outcast as Megumi had been for being labeled “rezu.” (“Rezu” or “les” is kind of like lesbo or dyke in English. It’s meant to be understood as a slur in this case.) When her boyfriend makes a casual remark about their relationship, Megumi realizes that she’s lying to him, and herself about her feelings. Aoi finds herself looking at a picture book of the Little Mermaid story and berates herself for her stupidity. Megumi finds her there and complains that in that story both mermaid and prince were really dumb. As Megumi smiles at her, Aoi starts to cry at both of their stupidity. The story will continue next month, I’m interested to see where it goes now.

In Hakamada Mera’s “Kurozukme no Onna no Ko” a little black-haired, black-clothed girl is very overprotective of the woman she lives with – going so far as to drive potential suitors away and rubbing herself all over her friend. When the girl turns out to be a cat, I’m sure plenty of folks who were not me said “awwww.” (I had read a nearly identical story in Carmilla magazine ages ago. I kind of liked that one better, since there was a creepier vibe. The cat/girl was shown as a normal-sized girl, dressed all goth in black, with a collar and doing all the same cat things. It had a SM sort of vibe about it, which worked.) This one works too. And it isn’t a school story. It’s just not my cup of tea.

Hiyori Otsu’s “Proof of Love” is the second teacher crush story (assuming one doesn’t count “Hatsukoi Shimai”) and of the two, the one I like best. A teacher is sitting down having a smoke, when she is approached by a young woman who asks, “do you remember me?” The teacher (who I don’t ever think gets a name) flashes back to five years previously when she entered a classroom to find two girls kissing. One of the two takes off immediately, but the other, third-year student Haseno sticks around. The teacher asks her if she likes the other girl, to which Haseno replies no, that was a “give up” kiss. In the course of the conversation Haseno kisses the teacher, then admits that she likes the teacher…but will not give up. Now, five years later, Haseno is a new student teacher at the school, and she wants an answer to her proposition. :-) The end. More and more I’m coming to like Otsu’s work. She tends to have older characters and even though there are often set in schools and colleges, they are not always same-old retreads of school girl crushes.

In “Apple Day Dream” it’s time to go to watch fireworks and Kaoru dreams of getting Mayu in sexy yukata and having her way with her. She comes closer than usual, but is interrupted by coworkers. At this point I can’t really tell if Mayu is actually uninterested or not, since as a passive-aggressive character her job is to protest all the time. Kaoru, of course, is always so pervtastic that it’s not unreasonable for Mayu to protest. Personally, they exhaust me.  ^_^

The last story, “Butterfly 69” is, in my opinion, wonderful. I cannot express how much I enjoyed it. At a private music school for girls, half-Japanese, all-punk bad-girl Maria is pretty outcast, but she doesn’t care. Her love is given to her rock band and to the president of the student council, Ageha. Ageha not only returns her love – and desire – she basks in it. Ageha supports Maria in everything. But when Maria’s band, Butterfly 69, starts to sell out performances and gets a deal with a recording company in the US, she tells Maria that she won’t be going with her, her family is a main sponsor of this school, and she plans on remaining here after graduation. She insists that Maria goes, though, and become the singer she wants to be. Ageha takes Maria’s earring and pierces her own ear with it, then stops talking to Maria at school completely. Maria, suffering in silence, one day overhears a teacher badmouth her; then overhears Ageha’s response, which is to rip the teacher a new orifice. She calls the teacher jealous of Maria’s voice – a voice which could change the world. As a going away present, Maria’s band hijacks the senior concert and does a live performance, where Maria sings her heart out, hoping that Ageha will hear her message of love. She does. In the final few pages, the school is in an uproar – the massively famous lead singer of the number one band Butterfly 69 is at the school! Ageha comes out of the school to find Maria standing in front of a Porsche in the parking lot. In front of everyone, she launches herself into Maria’s arms for a passionate welcome home kiss. A perfect end to a great story and a really strong ending to the book. While the art is in no way clean, the energy it conveys to the characters is a perfect fit. I’ve liked both the Yuri Hime stories by Natsuneko and look forward to more.

As always, while not everything was to my taste, I liked well over half of the 300+ pages and about a third I really liked or loved. So, a strong thumbs up from for Yuri Hime 9!

Yuri Hime, Volume 9, starts off with a not horrible poster by Sakura Kinoshita of – I know you’ll be shocked – school girls. (I say “not horrible” because with *every* issue of Dengeki Daioh magazine, I open the book, look at the posters, cringe, then vow to burn them. It’s made me wary of those first-page posters.)

We move right into a new manga based (probably pretty loosely) upon a new game by the same folks that brought the world the lily-scented vampire game Aka Ito. “Aoi Shiro” follows Akita Momoko as she enters the girls’ private school that she has aspired to. When she enters her room, she finds a girl sitting there, looking pale and tragic. After a short time, Momoko decided that she likes her roommate, Aizawa Yasumi, and thinks that she’d like to see the serious girl smile. The two become closer, mostly due to Momoko’s irrrepressable good nature. Momo gets “Zawachi” to smile eventually. Ultimately, Yasumi confides in her. When end of term comes, and Yasumi admits her grief at the loss of her mother, and the loss of an admired sempai, Momoko is right there to pick up the pieces. This is a first chapter with a low Yuri quotient. But it’s a nice friendship, with a lot of embracing and we’ll see what progresses.

Teen star Julia has won a trip for two to a high-end resort in this issue’s “Strawberry Shake Sweet” and she asks recently debuted idol Ran to come along. Ran initially says no, thinking that the two of them alone would be a bad thing, now that she’s decided that she’s in love with Julia, but the idea of Julia going alone is even worse so…. Now both Ran and Julia fight off temptation as they travel to and arrive at the resort. Just as they relax for a second, they are shocked to find that Ryou, the lead singer of the all-lesbian band Zlay, is sitting a floor below them. When Ran comes to the balcony, Ryou’s gaydar tingles visibly. She asks if they have plans and, when they say they don’t, asks them to join her for a consultation. The chapter ends there, and I have to admit – I’m intrigued. What could Ryou possibly need to discus with Julia and Ran???

“Summer Window Syndrome” is one of two teacher-crush stories in this volume. In this case, school doctor Mastumoto-sensei is speaking to student Nanao, who insists that she not be called by her given name. When pressed as to why, she admits that hearing Matsumoto-sensei say her name, she begins to shake in a distinctly crush-y way. Matsumoto kisses Nanao, and later when the teacher is asleep in the bed in the health office, Nanao returns the favor. Matsumoto awakens, asks her what she’s doing. When Nanao says she was just playing, the doctor tells her to do it seriously. It’s a nice, if provocative, one-shot.

“Epitaph” continues from last issue as Ash fights off some threatening behavior from adults who ought to know better. When they return to their home, Towa flashes back to her lonely existence at a hospital sans family. She was rescued from her loneliness by Ash. When the same two men attack them later, Ash defends Towa, who licks Ash’s wound. That night Ash kisses a sleeping Towa, affirming that their life together is what saved her too. So, the Yuri quotient is up, but my opinion is still in reserve on this series, while I wait for the plot to arrive. (Good god, I’m being hard on this series. lol)

The essay on Yuri manga covers Himitsu no Kaidan, which I have reviewed here, as well.

This issue’s “Nanami and Misuzu” is comprehensible for a chance, but not any funnier than usual. Nanami’s cat ears appear to be missing. This puts the class president (who has cat ears) into a near hysterical state and forces her to be bedridden. But, oh, wait, the ears were there all along – they were just under Nanami’s hair. … Ha? …

Next up is “Soshite, Bokura ha Ai wo Mezasu” (“I’ve got our love in sight”, or something close to it). This comic has Morishima Akiko’s trademark chubby-cheeked faced characters. For the adult scenes it’s a nice look, but the kiddy scenes look a bit Hakamada Mera-ish for me. Shinobu is a successful career woman who lives with her sempai, whom she met way back when she was 13 and Lalaa was 17. Despite the four-year difference between them, Lalaa looks much younger than her age. She works at a cosplay store and is, no doubt, very popular because she looks underage. But in their relationship, Lalaa is still sempai. Shinobu flashes back to their meeting in which Lalaa was her savior, when she became emotionally overcome from family situations and fell in the rain. Now, as an adult, the rain still affects Shinobu the same way. When a downpour arises, she collapses to the ground, only to have her beloved Lalaa appears and rescue her once again. It’s a love-love ending all around.

I’ll end today’s review with Chi-Ran’s “Dream Drops.” Miki is in love with Yui, but can’t tell her. On the way home, a magic urchin offers her the deal of the year – a little bottle full of candy that will give her dreams that will be her desires. Miki buys the drops and immediately dreams of her and Yui becoming friends…then more. When she and Yui meet accidentally at school, Yui reddens then runs off and Miki is mortified to think that her fantasies have been discovered. After her last dream drop shows Miki the two of them happily holding hands, she throws caution to the wind and confesses. She shows Yui the bottle the drops came in. Yui’s response? “You too?” We can only assume that they are destined for happily ever after. ^_^

Fundamentally, the first half of this volume was pretty strong. Other than “Nanami to Misuzu” which…well, I won’t beat this horse anymore. It’s just not funny to me. Otherwise, it was a nice variety with some non-school stories to break up those ever-present schoolgirl crushes. And the art was, by and large, decent and variable, with probably something for everyone. I favor Hayashiya’s clean, open art over something like “Aoi Shiro,” but in general, a really strong level of variety. And as far as I can see, the second half continues the trend, so check back tomorrow for the rest of the review.  ^_^