Fujiwara is the school's most admired student and captain of the volleyball team, but her reputation is at risk when she accidentally breaks the principal's most prized possession, a priceless vase. Fellow student Miu witnesses the accident, and Fujiwara begs her not to tell. In exchange, she'll do whatever Miu wants. It turns out that what Miu wants is to date Fujimaru! Although this wasn't an arrangement that either girl expected, the two soon discover that breaking the vase may have been destiny's way of bringing them together.
This is my favorite Milk Morinaga title thus far - it not only tells a sweet love story, but it also shows how social expectations can blind someone to what they truly want, making this a winner all around.
This could have been better. The whole time the character told how her mother created her saying that she needed to be girlish and always in her best appearance because of possible suitors. I believe that the author wanted to put, in a not so open way, about the cultural problem of Japanese society in which girls are created to always be delicate and lovely. However, the author has sinned by not discussing this problem. Another thing that bothered me, as in most manga yuris, is that the sight of butch lesbians is not taken seriously or is strongly countered by other characters who "force" the tomboy girl to wear dresses and these things. Anyway ... An okay reading.
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: ). 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.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Seven Seas delivered this to me.*
I am a huge Milk Morinaga fan. Ever since I read Girlfriends a couple years ago, I have been waiting for new books from her to be published in English. I preordered this as soon as possible, and read it as soon as I got it in the mail.
A sweet book, even if I was a little sad by the inclusion of a trope that is all too common in lgbt stories: the suicide in face of never being loved. It’s trite in the best of cases, but it feels inevitable in lgbt love stories. I wish it wasn’t, I’m tired of it. Tragedy needs to stop being so common in stories about marginalized orientations, gender alignments and intersex folks.
My friend would say, maybe that's how the story came to the author. Well, I don’t want to read stories like this anymore.
In sum, I am still a huge Morinaga fan, but I am very glad that this book, sweet and affirming as it is, is a one-off. I hope to see fewer storylines like this from the author.
*I was not compensated for this review in any way.
Insanely sweet, as always with this author; if you like simple love stories, this will surely make you smile. The characters were a bit cliched, and it follows a predictable path, but it's still so well put together that it works as the pretty fairytale it is.
More like a low 1.5. Cute but zero substance and nuance. Also, so much drama (). And the main character realizing she loved the "prince" from the beginning and lied to herself and everyone, rather than developing feelings as she gets to know her, could have been an interesting story line, if it had been complex and nuanced. As it is, it felt superficial, and certainly renders the "fake going out" blackmail actually disturbing.
I didn't love the "pretending to date to practice for a REAL boyfriend" premise, but other than that, this was very sweet, and I really enjoyed watching as the two girls figured out that they were in love. Also, the last page is surprisingly racy considering the entire rest of the book, with them naked in bed.
Very cute, very short story The art style was not of my absolute taste, but it was good. The characters were a tad flat as they didn't really explore their personalities that much, and the relationship moved a bit too fast for me. But I enjoyed it nonetheless.
TW: suicide. Did a good job of showing how homophobic people can be. How they get uncomfortable being around you, stop doing things they used to do with you, avoid you, etc. without actually saying they hate lgbt people. It shows how fans/fujoshi’s like idols teasing about being gay, but are against actual living lgbt people. Her friends are messed up. They ask her if her girlfriend has a boyfriend because they don’t see a w/w relationship as a real relationship. It’s amazing to see how much some fans think they can dictate to others who they can and can’t date. It also mentions one of the characters is multiracial(has a white ancestor), the fans see it as a plus because they think that’s where she gets her height from. I’ve read about how actual multiracial people living in Japan are bullied and harassed, especially so if one of their parents is African. They’re told they aren’t really Japanese. I’ve noticed in manga when characters are multiracial they usually have a white parent or grandparent, like tamaki from ouran high school host club, mikasa from AoT, maka from soul eater, josuke from jojo’s, or Anna from when marnie was there. It’s like being multiracial is only acceptable if one of the ancestors is white. The only dark skinned multiracial anime character I can think of is chad from bleach. Kissing someone while they’re asleep is just icky. The suicide attempt was ridiculous. They didn’t actually address the homophobic friends and fans.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Miu is focused on being a cute girl so she can attract a "prince" in school and be a cute bride. But how's she supposed to do that at an all-girl school? When she sees popular Fujiwara accidentally break an expensive vase, she sees an opportunity to practice with the closest thing to a prince at her school. Fujiwara agrees to the pretend relationship because she doesn't have any close friends and wants someone to see movies with, walk to school with, and other totally normal things that friends and lovers do. Because they're at an all girl school, it's easy to be close but not that kind of close. Or to be that kind of close but be seen as just close. But both girls find themselves not wanting to pretends.
This is very sweet and fast-moving. Not a lot of angsting or even much questioning. Mui definitely didn't have an interest in other girls before and it's unclear if Fujiwara did but they both grow to like each other and Fujiwara isn't big on what other people think or doing what's expected of her.
It's interesting that some of their classmates get obsessed with other girls but find the possibility of two girls being together to be wrong. Maybe they're just jealous ^-^
Very cute...but very short story! In a way I like these shorter books as I tend to reread them immediately as they’re short and SO enjoyable. I’ve currently read this book three times and totally have the urge to read it again!
The whole premise of the story is one I feel I have seen done in American “rom coms” with the one exception that the popular student and the nerdy student both happen to be females...making this a queer teenage romantic comedy! This would totally make an adorable live action adaptation I’d love to see.
I’ve been reading a lot of “Yuri” lately so much of the story events felt familiar...but some things do happen I didn’t expect and the two characters are very likable. Their interactions/behavior with each other was just so cute and Miu did something for Fugiwara that totally melted my heart.
It’s cool that this was a “one off”...however I’d love to read a follow up story about the two perhaps in their adulthood.
Another sweet story from Milk Morinaga! She is definitely an auto buy for me and you really can’t go wrong with any of her titles. This is complete story told in one volume and because it is not told over several volumes, it does feel a little more rushed compared to her other works. It ends in the traditional “and they got together” fashion instead of showing how they navigate a relationship, which something Milk Morinaga is very good at. The art is lovely and dialogue smooth. I do like Seven Seas translations and that they keep the honorifics along with the “reverse” manga style. If you are looking for a quick and easy gateway into yuri manga, this is a good way to go. Quick note: always read her author notes at the end but especially this one. It had me laughing.
This book is out of physical print but is pretty easy to find used. You can buy it as an ebook if you have an issue finding it.
WARNING: It is unusual that I need to add a warning to a Milk Morinaga title, but this one does have a threat of suicide. It isn’t graphic, the character is distraught and thinks it is best if she just “disappears.”
This manga is so much cuter than I could have ever imagined. It is a sweet story about a girl who pretends to date a female classmate as a favor to gain more experience in the dating world so when she meets her prince, she will know what to do. But, as one may expect, said girl falls for her pretend girlfriend. The romance is really cute and sweet and it also sort of doubled as a coming out story. To which everyone was pretty cool about . It surprised me and made me smile.
Okay, so rather mixed on this one. It's certainly cute but as it is a one shot, the romance is flying at high speed so it can reach the needed conclusion. There's moments which could showcase internalised homophobia, with Miu being convinced she'll marry a man and the fact that she was raised by her mother to be delicate and demure so she can appeal to men. But it's not really delved into and the way the story is set up, it's not wanting to go into the nitty gritty of that side of things. Things get wrapped up pretty neatly for our leads with a metaphorical bow on top. There's a fair amount of troupes but it's certainly not bad, just rather middle of the road.
I really wish we had half stars here because I found myself on the edge of a 3 star. The story became better the more I read it but the beginning felt very classic yuri. Lots of "I couldn't like a girl" and random drama that centers around simply not admitting queerness to ones self. However, in the end I found myself really loving how they stuck the landing in the final chapter. This is a great example of how a really good ending could save a story. I still feel like I'll be flipping between 3 and 4 stars but if you want Yuri this isn't the worst one to turn to.
I picked this up to read because the art looked cute, and was so rewarded by this! This is a 'fake-dating until they fall in love for real' love story, and it is indeed exceptionally cute. They're both charming characters, and I was rooting for them the whole time (and so were all of the secondary characters, which was great); there might have even been a bit of squee-ing by the time I reached the end. If you want a cute girls love story, this one is great.
3 stars. Didn’t love this. The characters were nice enough but some of the discussions of gender were off to me. Also, what’s the obsession with making clearly butch/masculine presenting girls having to dress “normal” in dresses and skirts and stuff? Cut it out. That happens quite a bit in Yuri and that’s not my favorite thing. Other than that this was just okay. I liked the fake dating aspect but yeah this wasn’t a favorite of mine.
No es un manga de 5 estrellas como lo es "Girlfriends", pero es bastante bueno. Lo malo es que es cortito, pero tiene situaciones cómicas y bonitas como a las que nos tiene acostumbradas Morinaga, así que si quieres leer un yuri ligero, puedes empezar por éste. Espero que siga sacando más yuris en un futuro próximo. Esta mangaka nunca decepciona.
Basic characters? Yes. Almost no plot? Yes. Pure fluff? Yes.
If you wanted a in depth dive of lesbians who have personalities with a nicely crafted plot, then go look elsewhere. This isn't really that lmao. It's cute and that's it. It does try to say some of the issues in Japan's society but eh no. It barely scratches the surface.
Such a fun yuri. It did start off a bit slow but by the 30% mark it picks up in speed pretty quickly. I honestly almost cried twice at the end, it really tugged at my heart strings 💝. Well worth the read and it's not too much of a commitment since it's a stand alone. I hope that Milk Morinaga makes some more great yuri, and maybe even some in a non-school setting. Milk's work is so good.
Morinaga is great a recapturing my childhood dreams
meet cute. giving so much feeling. I love this book. the bonus stories were the best for me who is a lover of chemistry. and the cool girl falling for the traditional girl rocks