| These stories are Flash fiction and in these stories we can see that how different pairs had to deal with problems by living together. There are couples who have recently moved together or lovers who had to face an envious pet dog and many more various short stories are there in this book. In literature we have many styles and two of them are Flash fiction and slice of life and when we combine them to write a story sometimes it works and sometimes it does not fit together. Slice of life is a style in which we focus on the random and minor details of a characters routine life and in other hand flash fiction is to write a story in minimum words. When these both styles are use together it creates a story it is usually felt that the story is incomplete and also there is some vagueness.
That’s the underlying problem in Yuri Life, creator Kurukuruhime’s first collection. (She did have a piece in the anthology Whenever Our Eyes Meet, also published in English by Yen Press.) Each of the chapters in this scant book are about a different couple doing something completely ordinary, and none are quite interesting enough to feel all that distinct from the others. While it doesn’t strictly fit the definition of flash fiction, with stories all being 10 – 20 pages in length (although for manga that’s fairly And that’s the main problem we feel in Kurukuruhime’s Yuri Life’s first compilation. Each story in this book is about a new couple doing nothing special and we can’t see something that will caught our attention which will help us to do and differentiation in each story. And these stories cannot come in the flash fiction style because in flash fiction we don’t see stories of 10 to 20 pages long. There is defficieny of action, excitement and improvement in characters which makes the stories to be in flsh style but at the same time it keeps stretching. But there is also a positive side that we can witness stories about women’s falling in love with each other and living together and leading their lives, which is quite an achievement for Yuri Life. In these stories we can feel content by witnessing that how these women’s are living they go to their work places, the do household chores, they go for a walk in park with their pet animals that is not witnessed in LGBTQ literatures. These stories just put forward the idea that lesbians are ordinary women’s they are just in relation with the same gender. And it’s just these stories are bit moving and inspiring and if we exclude one of the story all the remaining does not include political propensity or full of meaning messages that each and everyone should try to understand. These stories are simple and good. But for the booklovers good is not enough they wanted more in some stories. The most remarkable story of this book is story #4 named “Life with a Grim Reaper”. This story had fantasy factor in it, the story is about a office employee named Yuzu who is healthy enough. But one day when she comes home she finds a grim reaper named Saki who inform her that in a little while she is going to take her last breathes and she is here to make sure that Yuzu dies without having any disappointment in her heart. But then comes the twist when Saki falls for Yuzu and make sure that Yuzu takes care of herself and that’s how she goes very far from her life. This is a strange story but somehow it’s fun to read as compare to other stories because it is a fantasy story and the way it deal with its story. This story has also the same 4-panel style like other stories but it is still a bit different from other stories. |
The most interesting part is that every story ends with the same expression that the couple lived happily ever after whether the story needs it or not. Like the 6th story named “Life with a Yandere” should not include this expression where a girl Runa is very frightening and a bit disturbing and on the other hand Hina knows the affinity of Runa like Runa use to collect hairs of Hina in a jar and at the end of the story we wanted to yell at Hina to just leave that place but still it is considered as a romantic story which is a bit uneasy but what we can say that it maybe Kurukuruhime’s way of showing every type of couple. This can also be said for a story named “Life with Sensei” where we can see a student falling for her high school teacher. Further we witness that both of them start to live together which creates a point that the girl was still juvenile. Hence, it’s something which should not be believed but this story can be for those who are attracted towards love story between a teacher and a student.
The book has 127 pages. It is published in full-color, and is available at the selling price of $13 by Yen Press. The illustration is not that good by Kurukuruhime but the color combinations enhance it. Colors have been chosen wisely and skillfully. But the words were also written by colored ink which makes the words hard to read. But the appearance of the book is good.
Yuri life can attract the fans of Yuri manga. It’s not very bad but it is not that much interesting to read. And the characters and their lives are not well defined maybe because the length of the story is not big enough. The attempt by Kurukuruhime is good which indicate that he can be a good creator in future but this volume is not up to mark.
