Kurokiri Misao’s Inferno Girl (インフェルノガール) is a collection of her Comic Yuri Hime shorts. It has no defining theme or factors, but has a few notable selections.

The first story, “Gateau Foret Noire” is a fanciful little story about love and desserts, in which a younger twin has to twist the arm of her older sister to get her to return another girl’s heartfelt feelings. I want you to understand that it took me longer to find the correct spelling of「 ガトー・ド・フェルノワール」 than it will to write the rest of this review. ^_^; I liked the sister forcing her twin to own her own feelings, although the rest of the story was a bit thin.

“G.G.P” was, erm..an awkward story about condoms, why sex education should probably not be left to classmates and another couple who is reluctant to admit what they feel. I was pretty much okay with it, until the final page, when I just felt that the condom imagery was taken one step too far into, “get the fuck out of this book.” ^_^

“Ningyo Plastic” almost felt like it was going to have strong impact, as it touches briefly on being outcast and outsider in school, but it never really gelled for me.

Two idols meet up professionally, but their relationship blossoms privately in “Prism Emotional.” This was probably the most solid story of the collection. Certainly the most entertaining.

The final story honestly made me cringe when I read it in Comic Yuri Hime.”Lobotomy to Kowareta  Kajitsu” is a ham-handed look at a rape survivor and the friend who means well, but would probably not really be very helpful.

The final story is an epilogue to “Gateau Foret Noire”.

As I type this, I suddenly realize that almost every story in this collection meant well, and tried to touch on a real, important topic; Abandonment, Rape, Being Ostracized, but the moe art, the short page count and a clear lack of conviction meant that they fell short of the intent.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Well executed, typical current style, but not to my taste
Stories – 7, which is to say they were really 6, plus 1 for trying
Characters – 5 Probably with some time, a few of them would have been great
Yuri – 8
Service – 4 Some partial undressing, rape implied not shown

Overall – 6

I wish one of the stronger stories had been better, or the one good story had been stronger. Instead, in the middle of all Kurokiri-sensei’s hard work, the dumb story about the idols is the best. orz

The June issue of Bessatsu Hana to Yume includes a special edition collection of Takao Shigeru’s Yuri short “Aishi no Salome”.

I first read the news about this collection on Comic Natalie, but the short description did not particularly thrill me. Two “contrasting” girls in a boarding school meet and fall in love. Okay, great! Then what? Nothing, as far as I could tell, so I wasn’t rushing off to get this volume. But there I was in San Jose, CA in a Kinokuniya and there was the volume and I thought, “Oh, okay.” ^_^

Takao Shigeru doesn’t usually draw Yuri, she’s best known for Teruteru Shonen and has a historical drama series “Madame Petit” running now. I guess that’s the big draw of this story, that a manga artist that is relatively well-known drew it.

Aya and Sango are two girls living at a dorm who have something deep and intense between them…but for the life of me, I have no idea what. The 40-something pages of this story contain two screaming matches and at least one emotional breakdown per character, but we have to do a lot of work to imagine that their relationship is worthy of all this drama. But, let’s just presume it is and that when Sango and Aya run away at the end to live together, their kiss is a signal of “happily ever after.” Why not? There’s no reason to assume it is but equally, there’s no reason to assume it’s not.

Ratings:

Art – 9 a pleasant mix of classic and modern
Story – 6 Weaksauce but it was meant as a short
Characters – If only we knew ye
Yuri – 8
Service – 5 Wedding dresses

Overall – 6

It wasn’t bad, just a little confusing. How did this get a special edition?