EVE AND EVE ( Eve X Eve), by Nagashiro Rouge. First published in 2018 and first published in North America in 2019.
PLOT:
This story collection follows women in love through scenarios as fantastical as space, divine curses, and the end of the world, but also through situations as ordinary as infidelity, hang-ups about sex and love, and even determining who's the top and who's the bottom.
STORY:
For those like me who were ready for some alternatives to the usual "shy high-school girls in love" premise, the Eve and Eve collection is a welcome change in pace. Like most anthologies, though, how welcome these changes are will depends a lot on which story you're reading and one's own personal kinks.
My personal favorites were those that found the best balance between some of the more fantastical or science-fiction-based themes with emotion and even humor. The stand out was easily "The Case of Eko and Lisa," where a hentai mangaka uses a sexbot as a live-in model and assistant but struggles with her own mental boundaries between sex and love along with the idea of loving a robot. It's a different take on exploring one's sexuality - in this case, not so much lesbianism, but demisexuality. It's done with sensitivity, grace, and a light touch overall. Speaking of light touch, I also enjoyed "Top or Bottom? The Showdown!" which plays on the cliche of fujoshi arguing about semes and ukes in a fun way.
Other rely more on more explicit and/or fantastical premises that may be a harder sell for some readers. To start with, there is not one but two different stories that end with same-sex pregnancy that kind of comes out of nowhere. One is more of a horror tale and thus is the one that comes closest to nonconsensual content; the other is happier (despite being post-apocalyptic), where a Japanese girl and a Russian exchange student fall for one another despite a language barrier. Both of them feel like they are targeted more towards a male audience, as the centerpiece for both is an extended sex scene that ends in scissoring. Then there's "An Infidelity Revisted," where two former high-school friends meet, cheat on their partners, and part. This one is actually pretty good, but it will depend on your tolerance for stories about infidelity and the sort of the bitter, complicated feelings that come with it.
In the end, these couldn't completely spoil the collection because it ends on a good note with the title tale. Like the better ones, this is a sci-fi story of two women so deeply in love that it can transcend both time and flesh, as well as a little bit of a flash-forward for some of the other stories here. It's a fitting endcap for such an eclectic collection of yuri.
ART:
Rouge's art is alright. The ladies are all very cute in a fairly generic sort of way and her composition is good. That being said, this collection's art actually caused a bit of controversy when it was first released. There was a tiny but vocal contingent who believed that the sex scenes were censored, as everyone involved has crotches like a Barbie doll.
This turned out to not be the case - this is how it was original presented in its original release - and I for one think that was a smart choice. The way those scenes are frame are already pretty darn close to hentai; drawing actual vaginas would have crossed the line into outright pornography. Plus, it's not like the internet isn't full of lovingly illustrated vaginas for people to consume.
RATING:
Eve and Eve isn't perfect, but it's a welcome change of pace for yuri manga releases in the US. I don't know if I would recommend it to a yuri newcomer, but there's enough good material here to make it an easy rec for dedicated yuri fans.
This book was published by Seven Seas. It is currently in print.
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