When she was a child, Miu's mother told her that she needed to be cute all the time, because she could meet her prince at any moment. Now that she's in high school, Miu understands that her mother's attitude is a bit old-fashioned, but that hasn't stopped her from taking her advice to heart. She really wants to meet her prince someday and get married.

However, she's currently attending an all-girls school, so it's unlikely she'll meet her prince anytime in the near future. The person she meets instead: Fujiwara, a popular member of the volleyball club. When Miu witnesses Fujiwara accidentally break the principal's expensive vase, Fujiwara begs her not to tell, saying she'll do anything Miu wants. Miu sees this as an opportunity. She asks Fujiwara to go out with her, explaining that it would be good practice for when she finally meets her prince - she'd already know how to be a great girlfriend. Fujiwara agrees because the activities Miu says they'd be doing - walking home together, eating lunch together, texting each other good night, etc. - sound like exactly the kind of friendship activities she has always felt she's been missing out on, due to the way all the other student put her on a pedestal. But what happens when their fake relationship starts to feel real?

I went into this expecting ridiculous and adorable fluff and was a bit surprised when it got a little heavy at times (content warning:

attempted suicide - a character threatens to jump off the school roof

(spoiler show)

). Considering the premise, I thought some of the implications would be flat-out ignored, but, oddly, Morinaga opted to bring some of it up but just...not fully deal with it all?

I'm torn on this volume. Miu and Fujiwara were cute together, and I loved the way Miu struggled with her gradually shifting perception of her own sexuality after years of her mother's heteronormative pep talks. Her journey from viewing her and Fujiwara's relationship as practice for her eventual "real" relationship with a guy to realizing that she was in love with and attracted to Fujiwara, and that romance between two girls was real and valid too, was nice.

Unfortunately, there were too many details that I didn't think Morinaga properly dealt with. For example, I initially rolled my eyes at the premise, wondering why it didn't occur to Miu that her practice relationship might get her a reputation as a lesbian and hurt her chances at eventually getting a prince. Then there was the possibility of homophobic reactions from others. I figured that Morinaga was just going to ignore those possibilities, and I'd actually have been fine with that. Sometimes it's best if cute, fluffy fiction ignores uglier realities.

Homophobia came up, however, after Miu made her and Fujiwara's relationship public. At first it appeared to just be slight jealousy - Miu's friends viewed Fujiwara as an untouchable idol, and Miu was breaking unspoken rules by actually dating her. Eventually, though, it became clear that jealousy wasn't the only issue. Several of Miu's friends announced that they were no longer going to be Fujiwara's fans because, well, it was a bit weird now that she was publicly a lesbian (those weren't the words they used, but that was the implication - my guess was they were worried they'd be viewed as lesbians too). I'd have expected Miu to be hurt and taken aback, because their rejection of Fujiwara for being a lesbian also indicated, on some level, a rejection of her as well, even though they continued to speak to her and be friends with her. I found it odd that this implication was never addressed or dealt with.

There were a few other little annoying things that weren't really dealt with. For example, one of the maids at Fujiwara's house indicated that she'd been worried when Fujiwara announced that she was bringing a friend home. If the person had been a guy, she wouldn't have allowed him in, but Miu was fine. There was no indication that her view of Miu changed after Fujiwara and Miu went from being in a fake relationship to being in a real one and it made me wonder, a little, if the maid and possibly others were still viewing Miu and Fujiwara's relationship as something less real than a similar relationship between a boy and girl. There was also the implication, in another part of the volume, that romantic relationships didn't really count unless they included physical components, like kissing and sex.

I don't know. It was nice and sweet overall, but there was so much that I felt needed to be properly addressed that wasn't. I wish Morinaga hadn't brought some of that stuff up at all if she wasn't going to do anything with it.

Extras:

"After School Girl," a short manga about an all-girl chemistry club with one particular member who looks a bit like a stereotypical juvenile delinquent and doesn't seem to care about chemistry in the slightest. This isn't explicitly a yuri story, but it could be interpreted as the beginnings of one.

There's also a 2-page author afterword comic that includes a sweet little story from the author's time at an all-girls school.

 

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

 

From Milk Morinaga's Secret of the Princess. This very thinly veiled reference to My Neighbor Totoro made me laugh.

 

Sorry for the terrible quality, it's a very tiny part of a larger panel in the manga.

Well-this just wasn't quite as cute as the first volume. Made me sad :(

Review for the complete series (Vol.1 and Vol.2).

This was a cute manga, but a bit short and there were various things I didn't always like. The first volume is mostly about introductions, the romance, the relationship between Yuuko and Chihiro. Mostly the romance or actually the stalking comes from Chihiro's side. But in the second volume we see a shift. Now Yuuko is also thinking of Chihiro, slowly accepting things from her. The second volume also focusses on Yuuko's studying (she is after all 3rd year) and her entrance exams.

In overall I really liked the series, however Chihiro was just annoying, especially in the first books. I didn't like how she acted and how she did things. Maybe if she had done things differently Yuuko would have fallen for her faster, or at least without all the drama. I still don't see how she got to join the club, since she was pretty horrendous with cooking.

Yuuko was cute, but I felt she was a bit too uptight, and too busy with things to have actual fun.

The whole romance thing? It fell a bit short, there are some kisses, some things happening, but nothing really much. I had expected more, we have so much drama, so much things happening between those two, yet I miss the actual spark, the actual kisses. The manga is said to be 18+, but with the exception of a few small scenes, nothing happened. I would deem it more 16+.

Also, one thing I didn't like was the fact the characters look really young. I expected them to be around 13/14, maybe 15 max, but in reality Chihiro was around 16, and Yuuko around 18.

Other than that, the art looked really nice.

All in all, I would recommend this manga, it was fun to read.

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/

I absolutely adore everything about this short series. Girl Friends is a sweet lovely story of two girls who start as friends but slowly discover what they feel is more than friendship.

Outgoing Akko has been eying shy bookish Maki eat lunch alone all semester and when she makes an offer of friendship Maki is a little surprised but happy. Akko helps Maki transform from a wallflower into a cutie and before long the two girls are best friends. As time passes and Maki finds her feelings for Akko changing and growing, it's so sweetly handled. She get's jealous when she thinks about Akko's past boyfriends and feels sad when they're apart, just like when you first begin to fall in love.

When they finally come together it's magic-it feels right. A young love full of yearning, tenderness, uncertainty, it's all so new and fragile. How can your heart not race when Akko makes her declaration of love to Maki?



It needs to be said that this story is not for everyone as it has adult themes and a same sex relationship but if you are looking for something salacious you will not find it here. There are some sexual scenes but they are lovingly and beautifully done.



There was so much to love about this series-from the art to the sweet and tender story. I will be saving my pennies to purchase copies for my own personal library and that's saying something because I buy very few manga and this series is a keeper!




Buy this title at Powells Books.