Hanjuku Joshi
Hanjuku-Joshi

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This is one of my favorite yuri manga. Although I usually prefer romances between adults, the way the two main characters navigate their feelings for one another, and explore their feelings on gender and sexuality, is done in a way that feels authentically high-school—and I mean that in a good way. Since this is both the characters’ first relationship and their first girl-girl relationship, there’s a lot of clumsiness in figuring things out, and it’s portrayed beautifully.

Story: 8/10

The story sounds like so many other yuri manga: two high-schoolers in an all-girls’ school meet up and realize their attraction toward one another. As their relationship ... progresses, they wonder: Is she actually attracted to me like I am to her, or is she just being more affectionate because that’s what girls do? Since girls are more affectionate, will people realize we’re going out? What will they think, and how do I feel about it?

They’re ideas that have been explored many times in many series, but the writing is so good here that watching the characters answer these questions for themselves is refreshing and a joy to read.

As the two lead characters get to know one another more, they naturally become more interested in progressing their physical relationship, and the portrayal of this is incredibly well-done. Sometimes a character has trouble communicating a boundary, or feels guilty about not being comfortable enough to do something. Characters sometimes aren’t sure what is okay to do. They talk things out as their comfort levels slowly evolve over time, and their dialogue doesn’t feel overly awkward or preachy—it feels gentle and respectful. It’s sometimes clumsy—not because the writing itself is, but because it’s two young girls having these intimidating discussions for the first time. It all feels so genuine. Their physical relationship evolves along with their emotional one.

The progression of their emotional relationship is equally well-handled. Over time, the two learn of the traits they come to love in the other person. Through their relationship, the girls also become more comfortable with themselves. While there are occasional conflicts, they feel like actual high-schooler arguments, not as though they were just thrown in for the sake of drama. After each conflict, their understanding of each other grows and they come to love each other just a bit more. I’m sure I sound like a broken record at this point, but it just feels so well-done compared to so many other romances.

With all that said, the portrayal of their relationship isn’t perfect. While the progression of their relationship is one of the most organic ones I’ve seen in yuri manga, it, at the same time, would have benefitted from being stretched out over more chapters. You get the sense that they spend more time together than just what we see, and it would have been nice to see more of that. If this manga was 36 chapters instead of 18, I think it might have been as close to perfect as a romance manga can get.

There is a side-plot with a teacher-student relationship, and this is partly what kept me from giving the series an even higher rating. I strongly dislike this sort of relationship (especially when the student is a high schooler), so I did not enjoy their segments. Additionally, I wish the time devoted to Ran and Mari, the teacher and student, would have instead been given to Yae and Chitose, the leads. Then their relationship could have been explored even more.

Art: 9/10
The art is truly lovely. It’s soft and beautiful, and complements the writing wonderfully. Anatomy never looks ridiculous or overly-stylistic. Each panel is drawn with care.

The only reason I didn’t give the art a perfect score is that, occasionally, characters’ proportions will be inconsistent. This definitely wasn’t enough to detract from my immense enjoyment of the art. It doesn’t happen frequently, just enough to keep me from giving it a perfect score.

Character: 9/10

Even though there are only 18 chapters, the characters feel more “real” than ones from many, much longer manga.

Yae feels incredibly conflicted about her sex and gender. It’s not that she feels like she was born in the wrong body—she just doesn’t like the attention it brings to her. She doesn’t like the way people perceive her, as gentle or weak, because while she has a soft voice and isn’t athletic, she has an incredibly strong and determined side.

Part of Yae’s discomfort with her stereotypically feminine traits also comes from the fact that her first love rejected her because she was a girl. She came to associate her “girliness” with that negativity.

Chitose, in contrast, has never really had any negative experiences with her femininity—apart from students who want her to be their “boyfriend” or “prince,” which she balks at, because she’s a girl. She grew up in a house full of girls, and only ever went to all-girls’ schools, so she’s seen all different kinds of femininity, never taking the idea of “girl traits” and “boy traits” to heart, always shrugging off people who told her she behaved “like a boy.” Because of Yae, she examines these ideas about herself for the first time.

Chitose, unfortunately, doesn’t receive quite as much development as Yae, and isn’t quite as complex as a character. However, she does tend to be overly blunt and straightforward, and despite being generally confident, can be insecure, at times, when it comes to being in a relationship. These traits make for some very interesting and well-written interactions between her and Yae.

Although I didn’t enjoy the subplot between Ran and Mari at all, they are interesting characters. They both put on different fronts that crumble when they’re alone together.

Enjoyment: 9/10
As I said earlier, this is one of my favorite yuri manga. The characters are well-written and the art is beautiful. I enjoyed this manga so much that I reread it right after I finished it!

Even though I didn’t like the teacher-student subplot, this manga is still one of my favorites, because the portrayal of the relationship between the two leads is just that good.

Overall: 9/10

This is an excellent romance manga. If you are interested in romance, and are okay with manga of shorter length, I would definitely recommend this one. The art is lovely, and the relationship between the leads is done incredibly well. This lovely series is definitely worth your time.

Story-9: I have to admit, the concept for this story is pretty interesting, you almost never see girls who have feminine complexes in manga, and if you do, they always end up being colorful characters that you grow to love. And the side story with Mari and Ran was a little bonus that I enjoyed, teacher x student stories always end up being more perverted then they should be but this one was handled nicely with the student taking part as the seme in the relationship, which is another rarity, and as well as the student x teacher pairing being yuri, well that just makes ... the story all the more interesting and fun to read in my opinion!

Art-10: Okay, the artwork in this manga was just beautiful, all of the characters were adorable in their own ways and the author did a beautiful job with the landscapes and background as well as displaying emotions with the characters. I couldn't find a single error in the artwork and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Character-8: Okay, the characters are my favorite parts of this story. The first main character, Yae, is an adorable girl with a feminine complex and wishes that she could be a boy, she hates her short stature, her round face, and her large breasts (g cups...) Her lover, is her classmate, Chitose who is known around the school for being boy-like and is open about her attraction to girls and quickly took a liking to Yae. Seeing a relationship between those two is just adorable to me and I loved the way their relationship progressed in the two volumes. And the side story with Mari, a student who is known for being promiscuous and goes out with all sorts of different boys, and Ran, her teacher who holds unrequited feelings for her best friend that are soon switched to Mari. Now this relationship is very interesting since you hardly ever see a teacher x student story that is so sweet and loving and not overly-perverted like most stories with those kinds of pairings are. And the fact that these two are girls may just add to the sweetness of the story.

Enjoyment-9: I thoroughly enjoyed this story through and through. Each chapter was sweet and slightly short but the story was easy to pick up and enjoy with the casual pace and gentle aura that is portrayed through the story. I could not- for the life of me- stop reading this story until I was done with it because I enjoyed the story so much. The concept is original and the story is just wonderful!

Overall-10: I have to say, this is the best Yuri manga i have ever read. The story was sweet, the characters are loveable, the artwork is adorable, so this is highly recommended by me. If you can get past the little sex scenes and the nudity and the same-sex female relationships, you'll enjoy this manga! But if you're a close-minded person who doesn't like girl x girl sex scenes or don't like the idea of yuri, then I wouldn't recommend this series.

Yuri Manga. About Yuri Love. When I saw that it was, I wasn't too interested, but I read it anyway. It was short. BUT, it has pretty good characters, and overall, it really showcases Girls Love quite well; In a way that's natural.

Contains nudity, and 'softcore' material. And there is no obscene language.(yay) But these aren't the real focus, though if you didn't pay attention, it would seem that way. (^o^). Overall,I enjoyed it. It brought me some memories of some of my friends who have 'yuri' tendencies. And I think some more understanding ... of them came from reading this.

P.S. If your looking for fapping material, this probably wont do for you, unless you like sensual, softcore lesbian intercourse. Either-way, Ages 18 and up. Or at least 17. I'd consider this Rated R+ if it was an anime.