YMC #44: Dandelion Among Lilies

The enjoyment of this manga will be determined by a yuri nation member’s experience with it and tastes. Read on to find out what I mean as we take a look at Dandelion Among Lilies.

Alternate Title: Yuri ni Tanpopo.

Genres: Angst, Adult Life, Drama, Yuri

Number of Volumes: 1. 6 chapters

Plot Summary: Kana just broke up with her boyfriend, when her older sister Mizuho calls her to ask for her hospitality for her and… her girlfriend. How will Kana, who hadn’t ever imagined her sister to be a lesbian, cope with this cohabitation?

Love the art style.

The main themes of the story are “relationship issues” and “fear of society’s view on homosexuality” and “My relative’s a homosexual.” There’s one woman, Ena, who is perfectly comfortable with dating another woman and then there’s the other woman, Mizuho, who rightfully fear society’s bias against homosexuals…but the way they choose to deal with both issues is flawed.

A majority of the story, rightfully so, revolves around their relationship; how it’s falling apart, the flashbacks telling their back story and whether the two will pull through or not.

Speaking of flashbacks, this is one of my main gripes with the manga. The flashbacks felt out of order. Sometimes I had a hard time differentiating between the past and the present. Heck, one particular flashback I didn’t even know that was Mizuho and not Kanae. Other than that, the present storyline did a good job telling a familiar story.

I can’t judge either Mizuho or Ena properly because both play exactly how one would expect both character types to play their roles, right down the middle. I will say seeing the two in action and how they react is believable.

That leaves the titular “dandelion” among the “lilies”, Kanae, Mizuho’s younger sister. She also acted exactly as one in her position would react…one who isn’t biased anyway. She’s a cool character overall.

A minor flaw with this manga is that the ending felt rushed. This does have a reason though. It’s backstage politics but unlike Galilei Donna, this happened in the middle of the manga’s production. There was more planned for this story and I am sure a certain fox would have wanted to see the rest of what the author had planned. It would have led to a fourth theme that would have been interesting to see play out.

Overall, as I told that certain fox: For veterans of the “Dating someone of the same sex is tough” storyline, it’s a decent read. If you’re new to it or love reading those kinds of stories, you’ll get a lot more out of it. What I’m saying is that it’s a good read but not amazing.