In Himawari-san, Volume 1, Matsuri discovers that a nearby bookstore is run by a quiet, pleasant woman. Matsuri falls for the woman, and starts hanging around the book store. Matsuri begins to help out around the store, even though she doesn’t really seem to enjoy reading, at all.

Himawari-san, Volume 2 (ひまわりさん) begins with a reaffirmation by Matsuri that her affection is rather for the bookstore’s owner than the store itself.  Among other things, we learn that Matsuri is not the only person who has had her life altered by Himawari-san. Her somewhat stand-offish classmate, has as well. We also learn that Himawari-san is so well regarded by the town that she can’t really just go out for a chore or two without being loaded up with a few kind extras.

But the real star of this volume of Himawari-san is Himawari-san’s origin story. Who knew that a quiet, bookish store owner would need an origin story?!? But indeed, Himawari-san does. It turns out that she was a taciturn young woman whose brother used to go to the store. She was not a reader at the time, and didn’t care, but was creeped out, then fascinated, then kind of taken with the owner…a woman called Himawari-san.We learn that Himawari-san is not the current owner’s true name, but one she has been given as the owner of the store. And so, we learn how the original Himawari-san befriended our current Himawari-san. In the meantime, our Himawari-san was a student in high school, with a sempai that actually cared for her deeply, and asked her to leave school to travel the world with her, as she took photographs. When the original(?) Himawari-san becomes too ill to continue, our Himawari-san suddenly decides what she wants to do with her life. She passes on her sempai’s offer and becomes the owner of Himwari Bookstore.

Matsuri, it turns out is definitely not alone in having her life changed by a Himawari-san.

A short extra makes it plain (sort of annoying, because you know, really it was obvious) that Himawari’s brother also liked the original Himawari.

And so a second volume of Himawari-san draws to a close. It feels like the ending of a British period drama. Who knows whether we’ll ever hear of Flambards again, but for that moment in time, those characters were important to us.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 1
Lesbian Favoring Bibliophile  – 10

Overall – 9

I was being snarky when I mentioned Flambards. It’s all Downton Abbey now, as if there’d never before been such an amazing series about people living in a manor house. But, there has been. Many. Grazillions. Flambards came first. So did Upstairs Downstairs and many others.

Many thanks to today’s sponsor, Okazu Superhero George R. for more pleasant time spent at the Himawari Bookstore!

Today is an extra specially lucky day for all of us – we have a new Guest Reviewer! Tomo K. has graciously offered to write up a review of Matsumoto Tomoki’s Prunus Girl. You may remember that Tomo told us about this manga, which runs in Square Enix’s Monthly GanGan Joker last month.

I hope you’ll all extend a warm Okazu welcome to Tomo! Kind words in the comments fields will be appreciated.

Prunus Girl (プラナス・ガール) begins on the day when the result of Maki’s senior high entrance exam is posted. He meets a cute girl and it looks like a fated encounter, but the girl, Aikawa, later turns out to be his classmate and an 男の娘 (otoko-no-ko: a male who looks/dresses/acts completely female).

I found it amusing how quick the other students adapt to Aikawa, with the girls treating him like a female friend, and the guys accepting him because he’s cute. Even the teachers let him wear a girl’s uniform at school, because what he is wearing is a school uniform after all.

Aikawa seems to like Maki quite a bit, telling Maki he’d prefer to be “a girl” in front of him, barging into Maki’s dorm room and insisting they sleep in the same bed, barging into the dorm room another time and borrowing Maki’s (male) uniform and wearing it to school the next day. Maki realizes he does enjoy spending his time with Aikawa, but he’s not sure whether it’s because Aikawa’s his best friend, or whether it’s because he sees Aikawa as a girl.

Now for the Yuri part. In vol. 2, Hanazaka, Maki’s friend from junior high, transfers to his class and introduces herself to everyone by tell them that she likes girls.

Then in vol. 4, Wakakusa, Maki’s first love and Hanazaka’s ex-girlfriend, transfers to the senior high as well. Wakakusa has chased Hanazaka to the school, demanding to know why she’d
been rejected.

Now Hanazaka turns out to be the only daughter of a company CEO. He expects his daughter to get married and have the groom be his successor, so of course he protests when his daughter declares she’ll never get married and will spend the rest of her life with Hanazaka. So Hanazaka had left to prevent a breakdown of her girlfriend’s family relationships.

In the end, the two do get back together, and Wakakusa tells Hanazaka she will make her father congratulate the two, no matter how many years it takes.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Maki and Aikawa’s relationship evolves, as the Yuri episode seemed like a foreshadowing of problems the two’ll face if they decide to go out as a couple.

In the latest episode in the magazine, Maki and Aikawa are dressed as groom and bride at the school’s culture festival, running from the other students, as the student council suddenly declars that any student that captures either of them will be granted a one-day date with them. So Maki is carrying Aikawa like a princess, and is dashing around.

Art – 7
Story – 6
Character – 7
Yuri – 4
Fanservice – 6
Overall – 7

Vol. 5 is scheduled for a spring release.

Thank you so much for this review, Tomo. This is exactly why a Yuri Network is so important – we would never have known about this series without you!

For fun, we unbagged/boxed all of our stuff this time, even the wife’s piles of stickers and postcards. Click on the picture for a larger image. Let the detailed examination begin!

Up against the pillow are all the calendars I got. I have more calendars than I have room for calendars….