It’s a two-fer week this week on Okazu. Today’s review is another Hiyori Otsu collection! Where Orange Yellow was a collection of short stories, today’s book, Mizu-iro Cinema (水色シネマ) is a one-volume story in full.

In a seashore town, Tae runs into famous actress Yui…and accidentally loses Yui’s favorite necklace for her. To make up the cost of the necklace, Yui offers Tae a chance to work it off as her assistant. Tae, attracted by Yui – and by Yuri’s glamorous life – agrees.

Yui struggles to find her place in Yui’s life, both at home and at work. She tries too hard, but never feels like she’s tying hard enough. At home, she really doesn’t understand what Yui wants from her. She feels as if her feelings for Yui are not returned and she doesn’t want to be a burden. Laying bed next to Tae, Yui also feels alone – she wonders if she’s the only one feeling her heart pounding at the idea of them sharing a bed. At work, Yui doesn’t need Tae to *do* anything, really, she just wants her to be there for her.

When Yui’s former lover, Mizuki, arrives under the pretext of returning something to Yui, it seems obvious to Tae that the two of them will get back together. So, when Mizuki suggests that Tae really has no reason to stay here, she leaves.

Yui tracks Tae down at her seaside home and explains that 1) she lied about the cost of the necklace (duh!) and 2) she told Mizuki to go packing because she likes Tae (double duh!) And so, they agree to like each other simultaneously. The End.

This is not the strongest story Otsu has every written, neither is it the weakest. It has all the bells and whistles of a nice “Story A” with a warm side of “You can’t go home again.”

Ratings:

Art – 8 I found the art to be more expressive than Otsu’s usual mix of “unflappable” and “unreadable”
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 0

Overall – 8

From goofy to serious, Mizu-iro Cinema is a nice story, told nicely. I’d love to see a coda, where we seem them actually “together.”

We had been friends since childhood. After today we’re going to the same high school.

Embossed on the cover of Hiyori Otsu’s Orange Yellow (オレンジイエロー)
these simple words provide the driver of this collection of short love stories.

Myu and Jun have lived next door to one another since childhood. Myu has always been a bit of a doofus, but she’s a good girl and is totally loyal to Jun. And, she’s been telling Jun she loves her since they were little. Jun has always taken care of Myu. She once told her to go out with a boy if she wasn’t sure she liked him, so she could see if they clicked. But Myu never really clicks with any of the boys who ask her out – and she’s gone out with a lot of them. Jun surprises herself at how unhappy she is when she and Myu have a fight and is even more surprised when Myu kisses her that night after they make up. Jun tells Myu that their relationship has to stay secret, but Myu’s not so good at that and their “secret romance” is outed almost immediately. Jun gives in to Myu’s good-natured doofusy-ness good-naturedly.

Yamamoto-sensei once walked in on Mitsuki kissing another girl, but is shocked when Mitsuki graduates and becomes a teacher at the same school just to get an answer to her proposition from back then. Kei isn’t convinced that the “magic chocolate” her friend gives her can make her love her any more than she already does.

Ooishi falls in love with Mizuno, even when she realizes that Mizuno’s in love with their teacher.

In this collection of shorts by Hiyori Otsu, the same few scenarios are played from different angles by different  characters. It’s always pretty drama free in an Otsu collection and I, at least, find that and the almost complete lack of service refreshing.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 7

We walk hand in hand in the yellow morning sunlight,
and in the orange sunset…
What wonderful school days we spend together.

…reads the obi of the book. It’s as good a summation as anything I can come up with.

In Shoujo Holic (少女ホリック) Yui is an average middle-school student who suddenly finds herself in an awkward predicament when her parents inform her that they are moving to England. Yui decides that she will NOT be moving, come hell or high water, so she finds herself living with her very nice aunt out in the boondocks and attending her mother’s alma mater, a girls’ Catholic school.

(As an aside, it’s likely that if you total up all the nuns that make appearances in Yuri manga, they probably outnumber the amount of actual nuns in the whole of Japan by several orders. Just thinking out loud…)

On her first day, Yui meets, is befuddled by and befriended by Kaede, who strikes Yui as being rather monkey-like. She’s short for her age, energetic, tactless, has no boundaries and quickly becomes a very good friend to Yui. They grow closer as the book goes on, until suddenly Yui finds herself kissing Kaede – which throws poor Kaede into a tizzy. Kaede struggles with her feelings until Yui forces them both to confront the fact that they like each other…that way.

The rest of the book follows the reasonably natural evolution of a relationship. There’s nothing out of the pale for two girls in love, until their relationship is threatened not by graduation, but by Yui’s parents returning to pack her up and take her to England with them. In the only semi-significant handwave of the story, Yui and Kaede both take the exams to get into school overseas and move in together as roommates. A totally forgivable and acceptable handwave, I think, as it allows them to live happily every after. :-)

Aoii Hana’s art is not exceptional, nor is it terrible and it certainly was expressive enough to capture the emotions on display during this story. On its own, I’d probably not sing paeans of praise to Shoujo Holic, but compared to a lot of the Yuri Hime cell phone manga this story was sweet, sincere and pretty much right on the mark for a Yuri schoolgirl romance.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Characters – 8
Story – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 7

Overall – 7

I’m really over using “holic” in the title of a manga series, now. It’s time to let that one go, folks.