YMC #84: Orange Cream (Part 2)

The time has come to finish my look at the Orange Cream manga-novel I had started sometime ago. Have my opinions changed since the last time I talked about it? Let us find out as we once again take a look at Orange Cream.

Check out Part 1 of my Orange Cream review HERE.

WARNING! Minor spoilers ahead. At least up to Chapter 5.

Genres: Drama, Romance, Yuri

Themes: Love Triangle

Number of chapters: 17 (14 main chapters, 1 mid-point extra chapter between 7 and 8 and 2 post-epilogue extra chapters.)

Plot Recap: Miyuki Ikeda is a transfer student who instantly became the center of attention because of her beauty and magnetic charm. She was quickly approached and befriended by one Yukino but the one girl who subconsciously captured Miyuki’s heart was the class representative Rei Asakawa with her own beauty and cold stare gave quite the first impression. Things heated up further when Miyuki showed prowess as a skilled basketball player and caught the eye of the resident b-ball hunk Yamato. That was only in the first two days. And to think all Miyuki wanted was a tranquil high school experience…Want more? How about the basketball ace Misato Fujiwara who took a strong interest in Miyuki after seeing her own mad b-ball skills.

The manga, written by Scarlett Bell with the drawings by Aeryn Sun, is presented in a manga-novel format where the story is told in a light novel style with occasional manga illustrations of certain scenes in the story.

Left to right, Misato, Miyuki and Rei.

Before we continue looking at the series here is a quick recap of my initial impression of the first couple of chapters.

• Yes. Orange Cream was definitely inspired by Saburo Uta’s Citrus with its art style, its two leading ladies Miyuki/Yuzu, Rei/Mei and the adorably sexy best friend Yukino/Harumi.
• The three may look similar to their Citrus counterparts but their personality traits and stories are different enough to be considered separate entities.
• Aeryn Sun’s art style looks great capturing the sexiness and fluidity of the ladies while not coming off TOO “Citrus-ey”.

Now let us continue with the review. The only theme I mentioned above was “love triangle”. There are several other themes but I left them out because they involve major plot twists and could spoil a lot.

Miyuki and Rei remain the same as I described them before, Miyuki is a skilled athlete trained from an early age to be awesome and she does not take crap from anyone. However, when it comes to her love life things get very complicated. Rei is an ice cold beauty. However, she CAN SMILE. To most she is a serious class representative but when it comes to Miyuki she is a playful flirt. Her advances start off as steamy flirting but as the story progresses…again, complicated. Next up is Misato, the sexy sports ace who is the idol of  both men and women. On the surface she may be the perfect lesbian girlfriend to Miyuki. She is practically everything a person who earns her affections could ask for but deep down, once again…complicated. Lastly there is Yukino. sweet sweet Yukino. As Miyuki best friend forever when not thinking about other important things she spends her time supporting Miyuki and cheering the women’s basketball team. However…actually no. Yukino is the least complicated of the four ladies. Her thoughts and feelings are easier to understand.

Blessed be Yukino, you sexy angel.

Then there is the elephant in the room…Mr Ryo Yamato. One would initially think Yamato is in the story to be the “sympathetic loser”, the guy readers feel sorry for that he lost. Nope, not the case. While he comes off like a nice guy at first deep down he is a douche. This is something I do not mind spoiling at all.

I used the term complicated a lot. That is because the secrets and twists are best described as such, complicated. Because of that I have to point out that this story is pretty much a telenovela, meaning there are a lot of skeletons, if you know what I mean. Having said that as far as telenovela style dramas go Orange Cream’s was well done. There were no instances while reading where I thought “This feels like padding/stalling. Let us get back to the main story“. Every scene had meaning and did not feel like filler. The few clues I can give to the interested  the following:

• Be careful what you do behind closed doors.
• High school and college students can get wild when it comes to understanding love.
• Egos can be easily fractured.
• The first taste is very delicious.

Rei comforting Miyuki while the latter cannot resist the former’s allure.

Like I said the steamy moments are steamy and get steamier as the plot progresses. It is best to not read this story at work.

Overall Orange Cream is a well written drama that feels like an intriguing lesbian telenovela. The story takes its time and gives enough charming, steamy and romantic moments without getting carried away with either one. Yamato may seem like a sympathetic character at first but he is not. Miyuki, Rei, Misato, Yukino and two other side-characters in particular are who matter. Readers who have read and enjoyed Octave will have less difficulty getting into this one. It is not for readers who prefer a straightforward drama.

The next time I discuss anything Orange Cream related will be the prequel story Orange Cream Flavored. Look forward to that in the future.

The Orange Cream blog can be found HERE. Keep in mind it is in Italian. Scarlett Bell can also speak English and Spanish.

As of this writing the Spanish translation of Orange Cream is complete and can be read HERE.

The English translation is slowly and steadily getting there. Those can be read HERE.

Note: The first chapter is at the bottom.