おとといきやがってください

Comic YuriHime has been successful enough to try some interesting things lately. I haven't yet posted on the last three mooks I've received, so here we go:

Comic YuriHime VOL.8: Following from the first one to have characters not from Hatsu-Koi Shimai and the first one to not have two characters, this cover is not even by Ms. Hibiki! To tell the truth, I'm not a big fan of her style or that of Ms. Zaō, but they don't bother me for the most part. In any case, everything seems to be going as usual. (They even brought back Ms. Sudō (who hasn't been seen since the previous series's VOL.5), along with her hormones (which haven't been seen since VOL.4), if only for one page.) Coincidentally, this is the first time I've heard the term "se(x)frie(nd)," and in two stories in the same issue. . . . Strawberry Shake Sweet continues to up the story, introducing a mysterious villain who looks like she might be related to Ms. Asakawa (whose origins are still unknown)—but, then again, so does one of ZLAY's members. There's also some information on Aoi Shiro, and the new serials look really pretty (including yet another series where the main character's best friend addresses her with "-chan"-zuke ". . . desu wa"). Meanwhile, the cover story is interviews with the cast of the Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu drama CDs, including our beloved Ms. Kawakami: 「GLは初体験・・・」? Perhaps the big one doesn't count because it's not "only."

YuriHime Selection: The first half of this is a compilation of many one-shots that weren't big enough to warrant their own compilations, so you can get them now even though their original mooks are out of print. This is of course less useful to someone who has the entire set, like myself. Fortunately, the other half is other one-shots and bangaihen of stuff serialized in the main mook. We also see the cover debut of Ms. Eiki, who stated way back in her first appearance that she was collaborating with Ms. Zaō because she hadn't yet achieved "the power to draw cute girls." Her partner's influence is rather evident in the illustration style. Speaking of covers, a one-shot mook is apparently cheap enough to produce that they didn't need a CM on the back, instead covering it with the reversed names of the author/illustrators.

Comic YuriHime S VOL.1: According to a guide way back when, "S" (short for "Sisters") was something of a prototype for yuri (which still has strong sisterly overtones in many cases). It bills itself as a 「PURE★コミック誌」, but it still has a fair amount of sex and violence (including a series with combat elements, which is something that hasn't been seen before in this family of mooks), so I'm not sure what is supposed to differentiate this from the other serial and justify making another one in parallel instead of just releasing issues of the main one more often. (I never was clear about target audiences. In one of Ms. Morishima's one-shots, the heroine's "non-ke" friends were mooning over guys in Shōnen Chump.) In fact, it appears that Nanami to Misuzu is serialized in both. (Fortunately, it's rather episodic anyway, so continuity shouldn't be too big of a deal.) I like a lot of the new serials, of course, including two in particular. The first one is drawn with incredible technical proficiency—and who can resist a diminutive purple-haired aristocrat who uses the copula verb "ja" (no "warawa" this time, though)?

The second one is by Ms. Iwami, whom I know from Suzunari! I had a bit of a problem with the character designs in that (not sure why—something about looking a bit flat, perhaps), but her serial here looks flawless. It's set in another of those small fictional states that are never named (see Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Roman Holiday, Iono the fanatics, etc.). Unlike the others this one is apparently in East Asia (judging by the names of their royalty, which are based on the four guardian gods of ancient China and written in Chinese characters), yet very liberal—there appears to be no problem with the fact that the crown prince is a cross-dresser, or that (not much of a spoiler, given where it's serialized) the second princess (apparently she has an elder sister around here somewhere) gets married to another princess. It also appears to be ruled by dark-skinned people with funny-shaped marks on their foreheads*, despite the fact that the commoners are white. The more boyish of the two princesses also has a bit of a 「フェミニスト」／「王子様」 thing going on.

*Does anyone know what the thing in Hinduism is called? In Japanese media, I often see it replaced by birthmarks on the foreheads of (often dark-skinned) people of both sexes.

The aforementioned combat series is somewhat unpolished in its illustration style and has a lot of "service," but looks fairly entertaining. It looks like, as often seems to happen, the main tough young lady is going to be relegated to comic relief status. There are at least two obvious couplings visible even from the introduction—and a dark-skinned, pale-haired sub-chara with a birthmark on her forehead.

Fujieda and Takagi, two of the luminaries of shōnen yuri, only have four- to five-page introductions to their serials so far (the latter continuing his usual trend of maid uniforms and three-syllable names), but I'm sure they'll be entertaining.

Excerpts from two of the mook's unrelated serials include . . .
「松平さー・・・　んっ！？」
「ナギ・・・さ　んん！！」 (can't figure out how to type a small "n")

Addendum to the voice-actor comments earlier: Ms. Mamiya is back as another young lady who talks funny. Also, the heroine has quite a feminine name, but that appears to be a holdover from a previous life, where she had a very different personality.