Girl Friends

This review is for both volumes.

The orginal five volumes have been published in the west in two omnibusses by Seven Seas Entertainment (who are doing a great job bringing manga to the west!), and I had as much fun reading them in print as when I read them online. Mangaka Morinaga Milk manages to combine adorable art with an in-depth story of two girls falling in love with each other.

Kumakura Mariko (Mari) is a shy, silent student who is at the top of her class, but has to do a make-up test because she was sick at the day of the first test. To her surprise, Ohashi Akiko (call me Akko) asks her if they can go home together. It turns out that Akko wanted to talk to Mari for a while, but never had the courage to approach her.

Mari agrees, and soon after, the two girls are inseparable best friends, and together with Akko’s friends Sugi-san and Tamamin (and later Tagushi and Kuno-san) they transform Mari to a fashionable, cute girl. Thus starts a journey through high-school, that will transform their lives.

The first two volumes focus on Mari, who delights in having friends, and a very close friend in Akko. She’s happy, but why does she get anxious about the upcoming class changes and the very real possibility of her and Akko ending up in different classes? And why does it bring her to tears when she imagines Akko getting a boyfriend? Mari is very confused about these strange feelings, but no matter how hard she tries to dismiss them, those feelings grow stronger and it culminates into doing something that changes her entire life.

Mari’s and Akko’s story is a long one, and in places it can slow down a bit, but the range of topics that the girls go through is quite extensive. Friendship, first love, career choices and what it means to be ‘Girl Friends’ (especially in Japanese society) are all seamlessly interwoven into the story. I think Girl Friends is a tribute to friendship, highschool and first love, and a must-read if you are considering trying out Yuri manga.

If I were to have one complaint, it would be that their third year as highschool students is squashed into a single (final chapter). There’s a hint of ‘where are they now’ but not nearly enough, in my opinion. The mangaka kind of acknowledges this, saying she had many more topics and characters she wanted to explore. But, a 5-volume yuri manga is something of an achievement in of itself, so I can be OK with it.

Although the series began in 2006, the art and the story are holding up pretty good. The only thing that gives away its age, are the flip phones.

Definitely recommended.