[Manga] Yubisaki Milk Tea - panties and gender confusion with a warm heart

Yubisaki Milk Tea
by Miyano Tomochika

What the-
A romantic drama manga that features crossdressing, alleged loli and heaps of fanservice and yet Q loves it?
The world truly is coming to an end.



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A flashback, a childhood memory, of two young children bathing together.
The young girl, Hidari, is telling about how she dreams of the day her prince will arrive and how she will be a beatiful bride in a beautiful white wedding dress. The boy, Nori, then proudly announces that in that case he will become a more beautiful bride than her, while the dumbfounded Hidari manages to yell he was supposed to say he will be her prince on a white horse.
This is the beginning on Yubisaki Milk Tea.





Yubisaki Milk Tea is the tale of Yoshinori "Nori" Ikeda, his neighbor and childhood friend Hidari Morii, and his classmate and shy secluded girl Minamo Kurokawa and their ever changing relationship.

What could be a relatively engaging love triangle is further complicated by the fact that Nori also happens to have a slightly unusual hobby, in the form of dressing up as a girl and photographing himself in various clothing. It came about from having to once stand in for his sister for a wedding dress photoshoot, and looking female enough with makeup. Ever since then, he's been fascinated by the thought of become someone else just like that and does what he does.



Keeping it a secret from everyone but the owner of a photo shop, Nori unintentionally assumes the identity of "Yuki" when "she" is befriended by Hidari who finds herself admiring the mysterious, maturer-than-her woman greatly.

Minamo on the other hand is so pathologically shy and avoidant of others that the only way for Nori to properly talk to her was originally by befriending her as "Yuki" (though it turns out Minamo is the only one to easily see through the dress and makeup).

As the story goes on, Hidari grows to befriend and admire both Minamo and Yuki greatly, all the while wishing for Nori to see her as a woman instead of a girl, Minamo struggles with her feelings for Nori and her friendship with both him and Yuki, while Nori seems constantly confused and unsure how close he wants to be with either.



Other notable characters that pop up from time to time are Nori's older sister Miki, the photo shop owner who Nori part times and models for as Yuki, and Nori's classmate Wataru, who later becomes more important to the tangle of relationships.

It's a highly unusual setting for a romantic drama, and one I had a lot of doubts about upon starting, but strangely enough it works, and the manga has three very strong points.
One is a good healthy dosage of heart. The series is unusual, but it's a warm, funny, engaging experience that doesn't need to come up with tragic pasts for its likeable cast (a second strong point), wonderfully brought to life by the beautiful art (third). I keep thinking Tomochika's art style reminds me of some other series, but I can never think of anything. The character designs are lovely, layouts and panels neatly placed, but beyond technical greatness, the thin lines have a character and warmth of their own, which makes the title look so good.



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Originally scanlated by some group I forgot the name for, it was picked up by ADTRW by the tenth chapter, before being eventually cancelled by the 12th chapter when Tokyopop licensed the title.

Tokyopop has just recently gotten the first volume out, but I've yet to find out how good their release is. The book is rated ages 18+, so that gives me hope that none of the more "suspectable" material has been removed or altered.

I'd love to link you to torrents of the chapters, but I am unable to find any active ones. I've rapidshared the first 12 scanlated chapters for anyone interested, but I urge to check out the Tokyopop release as it seems no other scanlation groups are picking up the series anymore, so the books are the only hope for further english chapters.

Tokyopop

Rapidshare of chapters 1-12 - 6-9 are a bit lower in quality (still decent), only 1-5 were re-released in HQ before ADTRW pulled the project.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Oh come on, you know it just means double the pretty girls~
Nori doesn't actually want to be a girl, he's just fascinated by the idea of changing into someone else so easily.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I read the first Tokyopop volume a while back and so far they've done a good job. Though I did get a kick out of



They've kept most of the -kun and -chan suffixes and absolutely nothing is censored, so I'm looking forward to future volumes. They even have the two extra chapters that weren't scanlated.
The benefit of the scanlations not having gotten that far is that the english release will catch up fast (unlike something like 49 chapters of Victorian Romance Emma ;_;).

My only gripe about the translation is the cringeworthy localization attempts in some parts. There's a completely unnecessary Christina Aguilera reference outta nowhere in the first chapter and Nori keeps calling his sister a "ho", something that sounds far more hostile and contemptuous than anything in the scanlations and kinda damages his likeability a little.

Otherwise the translation is good and the dialogue flows well enough. A fine release indeed and well worth picking up. Hopefully volume 2 comes out soon~

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Small bump in the form of I just read Volume 2 and it was great. The printed volume goes a few chapters further than what had been scanlated and now I can't wait for the next volume.
The included bonus story "Reason" was alright, but not quite as sweet as the two extra stories in the first volume. The subject matter was pretty scandalous too~

Either way, another great volume and I hope Tokyopop keeps releasing further instalments as I love this series <3

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?