“We are having a well-balanced symbiotic relationship.” 

This week, it was my sincere pleasure to announce the new venture by GL Bunko, who are  releasing Yuri Light Novels in English and Japanese on US Kindle. The first foray for this venture was GIRLS KINGDOM 1 & 2, by Nayo with illustrations by Shio Sakura, translated by Momoko Saito. 

The story follows Misaki, a student entering Amanotsuka Girl’s School. As she jumps the wall to make the entrance ceremony, she’s discovered by a beautiful student who asks her to confirm that she doesn’t want to become a maid. Easily enough confirmed, Misaki finds that she has actually agreed to be Himeko’s maid because, in this school there are only girls in the Socialite course who are rich and girls in the Home Economics courses who vie to serve them as maids. 

Misaki, enrolled in the Home Economics course, doesn’t want to be a maid and Himeko, who is a Socialite, doesn’t want a maid, so they agree to pretend to be maid and mistress. And it all works out. 

Except that Misaki – who doesn’t want to be a maid – is not great at all the maid things she’s expected to learn. And her roommate, who wants desperately to be a maid, is envious to the point of mania. Kirara begs one of the Socialites in order to become her maid, so a test is set in which she  – and Misaki – will prove their fitness to be “Seraphs,” maids who serve the Socialites, for a promise of a maid’s job after graduation. (Other students agree to become maids for the duration of school only, as “Exousia”*.)

GIRLS KINGDOM 1 & 2 was a lot of fun, with some important reservations. The art is satisfactory but, as might be expected, illustrates scenes that might not need illustration. Of these, the illustration of the first part’s climactic moment was the most satisfactory.

The translation is not polished. It’s not incorrect, per se, but it’s not grammatically correct English, either. Everything in the book is completely understandable, but the individual phraseology is sometimes strained or fantastical. On the other hand, some of those phrases end up being brilliant, such as Misaki describing the Socialites as “surreallistically wealthy.”  The book also needed a bit more proofreading, as small typographical errors are frequent.  

Adjacent to this, the story-telling is the kind of overblown tropes made so popular by years of derivative “girls’ school Yuri” narratives, such as Strawberry Panic!. So, along with the maid/mistress plot, we get the pleasure of an extended scene of buying underwear at exorbitant prices, so we learn – in detail – that the wealthy girls are surrealistically wealthy and all about the underwear Misaki is wearing. It’s critical to the plot though…is a thing I’ll never say. ^_^;

A climactic “battle” of table manners fill the final pages of the book. If you did not already know how to eat escargot when you begin this book, you will by the time you finish. 

I don’t want to say “nonetheless” but, nonetheless, given the book’s technical and narrative shortcomings, I enjoyed it immensely. I say that with all sincerity.The unpolished translation actually served the comedy aspect of the book well. What might be less beneficial if the book were to have been a drama worked here…presuming that this was meant to be a comedy. If this book was meant to be taken seriously, (as some reviewers on Amazon JP do,) then maybe it didn’t work so well. But one can never really tell with reviewers, can one? ^_^ 

Yuri was confined to a fantasy ideal of maid/mistress relationships, but Himeko and Misaki are kind of cute together. This book is firmly in “parting the gauze curtain” territory of girls’ behavior. There is no reality here, in setting, speech or behavior.

I had a lot of fun reading this novel, despite the underwear (what is it with Yuri novelists and underwear? It’s not that interesting, folks) and random groping scenes. There are 7 parts of this series available in Japanese, of which this is 1 & 2, as stated in the title.  I will definitely read the next one in the series. 

Ratings:

Overall – 7 Not “good,” per se, but very enjoyable.

Thank you very much to the folks at GL Bunko for the review copy.

If you have picked this up, I will be very interested in your thoughts in the comments! 

*Because I can’t help myself, I learned that Exousia (ἐξουσία) is a feminine Greek noun meaning “conferred authority.” But you know I thought of Exodia from Yu-Gi-Oh every time I saw it.