By the way I dunno if any of you read this series in tankobon. I bought a set, tankobon pages are tiny to begin with. Really reduced from magazines. There's a lot of dialogue and sometimes the little kanji and kana become microscopic in the balloons, and it's just impossible to read for me. On the plus side, it has a ton of furigana (little hiragana above the kanji). 1st-year Middle-school students would be able to read it easily, and us Westerners with difficulty.
What's really great is Akina's desperation. "Yuri" isn't a fetish for her. Her feelings for Kaede aren't "interesting," they're arduous. By the end of the series, I think Kaede was half in love and half, wow, real yuri! Even Makoto's otaku friends aren't bad, this is a very fluffy series. She really is a tsundere little sister, a lesbian, a champion athlete, and a scholar. All those fantasies are basically her life, and that's probably part of what made her dislike otaku stuff in the first place. It's also a great love conquers all series. And it's awesome that Kaede initiates their first kiss
I would have liked to see at least one Himejoshi. Yes, they are rarer and you'll much rather find girls who like both yuri and yaoi, but they still exist.
One of the reasons I thought Akina's quest wasn't in vain is that Kaede seems to prefer yuri, on balance. She is into Lord Atonbee, but she's more into PrePure, she wanted to read the next instalment of the yuri manga right then (before getting distracted by the R18), and when she does a tabletop game, it's 100% lesbian. She's clearly not thought much about her sexuality. Though arguably, more than Akina, who just assumed a boyfriend would wander into her life eventually before she met Kaede and realised that wasn't in the cards.
Nonetheless, I agree Himejoshi is a great subject. I think the real-life comic where the four yuri mangaka go to a strip club is pretty much there. I will eagerly read any such manga/doujin.
last edited at Nov 10, 2021 9:56PM
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