Yesterday, I started my review with “I have never before been so disappointed with a Yuri manga.” Today, I’m starting with the opposite. I have never been so pleasantly surprised with a Yuri manga! To say I was dubious about Yuri Kagi ~ Sempai no Himitsu wo Nozoitemita~ (百合鍵 ~先輩の秘密をのぞいてみた~) is a tremendous understatement. The cover screams” stalker Yuri” and corporate sempai x kouhai love in the age of #metoo is well past the border of ick. But, there are plenty of things that are ick in real life that one may allow, if one is inclined, in shitty entertainment…and one of those may be sempai x kouhai affairs at the workplace.  So, I gave it a try and what I ended up with was indeed an absurd creepy stalker first chapter that almost immediately switched to a kind of sweet, weirdly idealized sempai x kouhai relationship that ended up in a love story that didn’t make me feel icky at all. 

In this Pixiv comic by Yuri doujinshi artist, Seta Seta-sensei, Asou is a young female employee at a big company. She’s assigned the cold, bitchy, demanding Mochizuki as her sempai. And, at first, everything is as Asou fears. Mochizuki has Asou taking care of her pets and getting her coffee, while sharing none of her accumulated organizational wisdom. One day Asou is still in Mochizuki’s apartment when her terrifying sempai comes home. She panics and hides. What follows next is so absurd I almost gave up on the spot. Mochizuki turns out to be a human, and eventually gets into bed, right next to where Asou lays – without noticing another person in her bed. 

But this is the true low point of the manga. Asou learns that Mochizuki does indeed have foibles and weaknesses and strengths and friends and, ultimately comes to realize that her sempai is admirable and she’s falling a bit in love with her. 

Mochizuki starts to cultivate Asou’s abilities – and supports her in a really major way a few times. At the end of the book Asou is over Mochizuki’s apartment – as a guest, not a servant – and takes an opportunity to confess her feelings and kiss Mochizuki, who admits she returns the feeling…and asks for the key to Asou’s apartment. The ending was both cute and satisfying. 

I like Seta Seta-sensei’s art; it’s solid jousei-style, with a frisson of men’s magazine. As silly Yuri office-worker fantasy, I was pleasantly surprised. The volume came with a little extra comic on card stock as an added bonus. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Starts at 5 but climbs to 8
Characters – 7
Service – 5 Some underwear and bathing
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7

I have never before been so disappointed with a manga as I have with YuriNatsu -Minshuku Kagaya– Volume 1 (ゆりなつ-民宿かがや-).

The story has what might have been a nice setup – a family-run ryoukan at which visitors find Yuri love. Sounds nice, right? Could have been absurdly cute like Konohana Kitan, or sexy, like Kiseki Goten. Instead, we are introduced to a family whose members are more interested peeping and videotaping the guests than I think makes for a good story. 

Primarily we follow the Kagaya sister named Kou, whose interests include filming guests in the baths, setting them up as couples and allowing herself to be manipulated into compromising sexual situations by her youngest sister. 

This was not for me. It might be for you. 

Ratings:

Art – Yotsuba-level simplicitly
Story – Made me want a bath, but not at this inn
Characters – The aunt was okay
Service – Implied, rather than seen, but implied a lot
Yuri – Well, yes

Overall – 5