Okura

I think this was my favorite volume so far. It dealt with the topic of liking someone that may never like you back, and how that can feel. The struggle of a heteronormative society/community that does not recognize the appearance of queerness, and when it does, it is seen as more of a fetishization of the queer body.

I think it's also nice to get a little bit more insight into Yuri's character, and the societal gendered view of friendship. In many ways I think I get Yuri the most out of the show more all the other characters. I only really had female friends, I still only really have female friends with a handful of male and nonbinary friends as well. Much like Yuri people thought that I was dating some of my friends, or thought that I needed to have a relationship with them. They sometimes did have feelings for me, but I never felt the same, and would have to tell them something like Yuri does.

It was just a really heartfelt volume that I think was done really well. I look forward to the future volumes and hope they come out soon! show less

Another gentle slice-of-life volume with the mother who thinks her son is gay. Her son joins a school choir to be close to the boy he has a crush on unaware that the girl next door has done the same to be close to him. Super low-key hijinks ensue. It's cute and amusing.

As always, the shadow looming over this series is the father with his casual homophobia. Fortunately, the mom is pushing back against that crap harder every volume.

The humor is very gentle and a bit repetitive but still exceedingly cute as a doting and accepting mother suspects her son may be gay due to constant slips of the tongue and lack of poker face when he talks about or sees that one certain boy. The slice of life adventures are divided up into six-page strips with an emphasis on laughs and sappiness. An often absent and oblivious father is set up to provide a potentially dramatic turn in the story in some future volume.

Definitely watching out show more for the next volume. show less

This is the first volume where the chapters felt frustratingly short -- most are four or five pages, but there were a few of only two or three pages. Mom barely had time to form a coherent thought about her son, and several of them were sort of weak.

There was a weirdly meta moment where the mom questions the morality of a show that speculates whether a certain person might be gay . . . in a book where the mother spends every page wondering if her son is gay and effectively invites the show more audience to join in.

Throughout the volume an overarching story is told in tiny increments about a complication in the relationship between the woman's son and the boy she suspects is his crush.

Throw in dad's ongoing homophobia, and this volume is less cute and amusing than previous ones though still engaging enough for a thumbs up. show less