Review: CITRUS

As before, Bad Romance Month is not limited to straight romances alone.  That being said, normally yuri was a genre where one could be safe from such things.  As much as I might complain about it being nothing but shy schoolgirls in love, that at least is less stressful and uncomfortable than the excesses of BL and old-school shoujo.

Sadly, it seems that those same excesses are starting to bleed in, and on this side of the Pacific this was the work leading the charge.

CITRUS (Shitorasu), by Saburouta.  First published in 2012 and first published in North America in 2014.

PLOT:

Yuzu Aihara is dealing with a lot of change lately.  Her mother recently remarried, forcing them to move and Yuzu to be transferred to a stuffy all-girls' high school.  Her outspokenness and gyaru style put her at odds with her new classmates, especially the cold and severe student council president Mei.  Then Yuzu discovers that Mei is her new stepsister and that Mei's life is far more tragic than Yuzu realized.  Yuzu wants to help Mei and make her smile, but is she doing so out of sisterly compassion or because she's in love with Mei?