What better way to keep a secret from a student than to get him involved with the activity that you don’t want known.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Syowmaru
Translation/Adaptation: Ex-s Woo
What They Say
When Takeuchi catches Miss Yuri masturbating at school, he keeps her secret in return for special lessons from his beautiful teacher. But he learns he got more than he bargained for when Yuri turns into an insatiable nympho, and her equally perverted former college mates join in the fray.
Packaging:
Icarus Publishing tends to have some appealing covers and this one is certainly no exception as it features Yuri all laid out on her desk with small hints of the classroom scene around her. Even better is that she’s got her top pushed back to expose her breasts and a nice panty shot as well since she’s wearing a short skirt. Icarus has also done a nice job with the logo design as it has a very cute feeling which plays well against the erotic element. The back cover isn’t quite as good as we get Yuri in just some black underwear that’s loose and exposing her as she lays on some white sheets. What usually disappoints me with Icarus’ books is that there’s little actual book information here to illuminate what’s inside. Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words but sometimes I like a bit more and adult copywriters tend to have a lot of fun with it. Overall, though, the front cover certainly sells the book quite well. Icarus also carries through with their traditional interior packaging laying with little slowing you down from getting into the book and the standard array of ads in the back before the well laid out “technical” page that runs through all the credits.
Artwork:
With this being my first exposure to Syowmaru’s artwork, I came away from it being fairly happy with it and enjoying his style overall. The artwork is very clean and the flow for it is quite good. You aren’t left with scenes that transition poorly or make strange leaps where you wonder how they got into that position. The character designs are fairly average in a way but they have their own personality and don’t quite feel like you’ve seen them in every other book. There isn’t much detail when it comes to the outfits and the like, though there is at least one nice piece of lingerie in here, but this isn’t a book that really seems to require a lot of detail when it comes to these things. Syowmaru’s work in the main stories is pretty solid while the backup stories are a bit weaker with a slightly rushed feeling for the first one.
Text/SFX:
Please Miss Yuri follows the standard template for an Icarus book which admittedly leaves me a little cold at times. Overall, things are translated well when it comes to the dialogue while sound effects are left untranslated without even a listing in the back of what they are. Of course, you can sort of figure out what most of them are and it’s hard to say whether it’s important to an adult audience that may just be looking for porn, but I can’t help but think that I’m paying twenty bucks for a book, you can translate all of it please thank you. The dialogue is pretty smooth in its flow throughout and nothing really stood out as awkward with its presentation.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The main portion of the book for Please Miss Yuri is covered with six chapters and two special chapters that take up about 125 pages. After that, there are three different short stories that finish out the book before the brief thank you and silly stuff that tends to be in books like this, especially for first compilations. While I enjoyed some of the backup stories, the real focus is on the main one and I came away incredibly happy with it. Generally, I try to read a chapter or two a night when it comes to adult releases like this but I ended up plowing through the entire thing in one sitting.
The story for Please Miss Yuri isn’t anything that stands out particularly strongly. The story revolves around school student Jun who is doing his best to avoid childhood friend Kaori who is intent on making him hers. She’s had a thing for him since forever but he’s got little interest in her because of the way she is. Of course, she’s an attractive little blonde girl so why would any guy be interested in her right? What throws a wrench into things is when he escapes from her and stumbles into a room where his teacher Yuri Amano is getting herself off. He’s flabbergasted by it and doesn’t know how to react and the only thing Yuri can think of doing is to, well, do Jun.
From there we get the sort of relationship that you would expect as Jun gets into being with her and at times handles it in a fairly dominant yet not creepy way. She’s understanding about things but that sets him off a bit since he doesn’t want her to see his inexperience as a bad thing, or that he’s incapable of pleasing her. The entire situation has her incredibly aroused which in turn only gets him more turned on. The illicit nature of it comes into play a little bit but they’re pretty flagrant about it when at school and you’re surprised they don’t get caught. They do take it out of the school and into Yuri’s apartment and that brings a slower pace to it as they don’t have to deal with the possibility of being discovered, even though that’s a big part of the turn on.
Thankfully, Please Miss Yuri isn’t all about just Jun and Yuri. Yuri actually realizes what kind of interest that Kaori has in Jun and she facilitates an interesting situation that brings all of them together. Of course, she can’t handle not getting any herself so that leads to Jun really having to build up his stamina. Where the book takes an odd twist is with the late introduction of Ogata, a former classmate of Yuri’s who has arrived as the new school nurse. She’s intent on outdoing Yuri in everything and that begins by taking dominance over Jun. Jun is fairly easily captured but his growing confidence allows him to actually get one over on her which she finds to be quite the turn on.
When it comes to the backup stories, it’s a real mixed bag as to what works and what doesn’t. The opening story is fairly bland as we have the attractive girl who will do anything for her sempai’s love with complete adoration. There isn’t anything that really stands out here and the artwork is decent but unmemorable. The Megane Drug story actually worked much better in terms of its artwork and it plays up the entire glasses aspect in a rather fun way. The female character in particular played to type by being small of build in almost every way but not in a really childish way that you felt creepy about. What really surprised me was that the last story, Preggo Pop, was enjoyable. It revolves around a pregnant mother of a teenage son and her husband is constantly away from work and won’t let her amuse herself. So what’s a rather pregnant woman going to do? Why, her son of course. The pregnancy factor was an interesting twist to bring into the incestuous relationship and they played with the sex well and all the intense aspects of the brief relationship. I didn’t expect to like the story from the start but it really hooked me with how it was presented, much like the Please Miss Yuri story.
In Summary
Much to my surprise, the bulk of Please Miss Yuri was very engaging and erotic in a fun way. I wasn’t left with a sense of being disturbed by creepy material or situations that made my skin crawl. The characters are doing things they shouldn’t, but there isn’t a sense of dread or despicableness about it which leaves it all in a very light and fun manner. Add in some attractive character designs, straightforward sexual positions and situations and it’s a good combination. Please Miss Yuri just clicked perfectly with me at the right time and left me a very happy camper. This is one of the few books worth the cover price.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: Icarus Publishing
Release Date: March 8th, 2008
MSRP: $19.95