YMC #6: Strawberry Shake Sweet

Genres: yuri, slice of life, comedy.

Number of Volumes: 2. 17 chapters + 2 extras.

No NSFW content whatsoever.

Plot summary: Julia Tachibana, an experienced idol/incompetent idiot, takes in new talent as part of her job, but ends up falling head over heels for her junior, Ran Asakawa, the airhead.

As mentioned in the short summary, this is the story of a romance between an incompetent idiot and an airhead: the idiot who blatantly loves the airhead to the point of everyone else easily noticing her feelings, except of course for the airhead who eventually develops feelings for the idiot but takes a long while to realize it. In short, it’s a waiting game. You’re gonna have to be really patient with this one. Lo and behold as we witness the idiot constantly talk about all she wants to do with the airhead, all while giving her uptight manager numerous headaches. Hmm, maybe patience was the wrong noun to use, teasing is a more appropriate one as it’s a running theme throughout the entire story. Almost every single lesbian in this manga is blatantly and inadvertently being teased by the women they love.

The comedy does its job; whether you’ll laugh or not depends on your sense of humor. Myself, it’s okay for the most part.

Sure, it feels like it’s dragging on and on, but compared to the likes of Aoi Hana and Sasameki Koto, it’s not as contrived. I’m not saying the two aforementioned manga series suck.

In conclusion: Not much else I can say. If you enjoy romantic comedies where the protagonist(s) have obvious feelings for one another but it takes a while for their feelings to be reciprocated and you are patient, then give this one a try. If you suffer from ADD or are ambivalent, skip.