I’m Luce, here to cover the next two volumes of the manga I have ‘shortened’ to ‘Best Friend Girlfriend’ by Syu Yasaka. Let me know if you have any better suggestions…

In the first volume of Syu Yasaka’s series, we met Minami and Yuzu, and after figuring out that she likes Yuzu romantically, Minami decides that she’s going after what she wants. The volume ends with them going on a date to the planetarium, and happening upon their friends afterward…?

In volume 2 of How Do I Turn My Best Friend Into my Girlfriend?, we get the aftermath of the date, in which Minami comes clean to Unohara, the friend she told about the date, but not that it was with Yuzu – luckily, she’s supportive. Later, when Minami asks Yuzu if she’s interested in anyone, she says Hinori! What does she mean by that? Finally, the group pass their exams, so it’s onto summer – that means the beach, but Yuzu doesn’t do well with the sun, sea, sand and crowds. Will she cope to have a trip with her friends?

In volume 3, Minami and Yuzu take a bath together, and the group go to a festival – it seems Nitori is in a similar situation to Minami. Returning to school, the cultural festival is coming up, which makes the cover make more sense – the theme is animal maids! Minami’s on the committee, and one of the first years has her eye on her?

This manga could do with a character chart. Different characters call each other variously by first names and family names, so it can be a bit hard to tell. Plus I kept getting Hinori/Unohana and Yuzu/Nitori confused, although I’m not quite sure why – my tip would be to focus on their fringes, not that it always helps. That aside, what I do enjoy is that they are a group of friends, and they have different relationships with each other. It feels less like them having token friends to chat to and more of a group of people that naturally came together.

Of course, we get the ‘interested in someone else but not actually’ plot. I’m not a great fan of misunderstandings as a plot device, but at least the people around Minami are pretty blunt with her about the fact that she’s being a bit ridiculous. Hinori is straight up uncomfortable with Minami pushing her and Yuzu together – what I really like though, is that Minami actually apologises for her behaviour. I don’t need or want perfect therapy speak from characters, but it’s nice to see characters actually admit when they’ve done something wrong.

We find out that Nitori seems to like Unohana, mostly because she asks if Minami likes her too. Maybe Minami has it a bit more together than it seems if Nitori didn’t guess, because on the page she’s nearly always melting down about something or other. Her loving Unohana is actually confirmed in Vol 3, leading to a nice moment between her and Minami, commiserating on falling for their best friends.

Kamiya, the ‘rival’ introduced in volume 3, was a little on the pushy side, but equally, it was nice having a character that knows she’s into girls and says it? This also forcing Minami to basically admit she’s Yuzu-sexual, which is… not a favourite trope of mine, but at least someone in this manga seems to actually identify as a lesbian – or a wlw, because the word ‘lesbian’ doesn’t come up. I quite liked Kamiya by the end of the volume, so I hope she pops up again in a friendly capacity. Maybe with a girlfriend.

Towards the end of volume 3, prompted by a bit of a push from Kamiya, we finally get Yuzu’s side of things, to a degree. There were hints that Yuzu is not as chill with Minami-related things as she seems to be, and I really liked the subtlety of that. It makes you wonder about the things you said meaning one thing that were taken a different way. That said, way too much emphasis on what young kids say. Not that they don’t mean some things, but to take anything like that as a lasting commitment… Use your words, Yuzu! And Minami!

Finally, I want to praise the translation, done by Matthew Jackson- it does a good job at sounding casual without being too ridiculous. The lettering (Giuseppe Antonio Fusco) and retouch is also great, I couldn’t pick any faults with the out-of-bubble words, and the type facing matches well, too.

Ratings:

Story – 7, the old classic childhood friends will-they-won’t-they
Art – 8, bright, peppy, cute! My only fault is I’m not very good at telling the characters apart
Service – 4 In these two volumes, there is a bathing scene, beach and therefore swimsuit scenes, and Minami has a few imagine spots… But none of it feels particularly skeevy, and feels more ‘teenagers dealing with emotions’ than anything else
Yuri – 9 (I’m sure there are boys in this. They’re in the backgrounds)

Overall – 7

An enjoyable Yuri romp that feels pretty fresh. My hope for this series is that one they get together, the series will continue, at least for a bit, as I think navigating a relationship would be interesting to see. Minami is definitely not emotionally prepared for it.