Once again I’m sharing a @Goyavoyage post with one of her yuri manga recommendations, because I think these are great and deserve a wider audience. I like to add a bit to what she writes, so . . .

I’ve embedded above the 5-minutes-plus-credits “Kase-san and Morning Glories” video that @Goyavoyage mentioned. You can think of it either as a teaser trailer for what later became the Kase-san OVA or as a music video that stands alone. Either way it’s a lovely video, and you can tell that the people who made it really love the manga and put their hearts and souls into animating it. I’ve embedded the official Pony Canyon version, which I’m pretty sure won’t disappear. Unfortunately it doesn’t have English subtitles; here’s one that does.

One thing that is a virtue of the Kase-san series that I think eventually becomes a weakness: the series has a bright and rose-colored view of the world that is very endearing and inspiring. Pretty much everybody loves Kase-san and Yamada, both within the story and without. So whatever conflict and angst exists arises primarily from internal sources, e.g., Yamada’s fears and jealousies.

This works well while their relationship is being established, but once they become a couple for real and the story moves to them attending university (i.e., in the Kase-san and Yamada sequel) it gets to be a bit contrived and repetitive. It might have been better if Takeshima had turned the manga into a pure slice-of-life rather than trying to periodically inject fresh doses of drama into it.

But that’s a minor quibble. Overall the entire series is one of the best (if not the best) examples of “wholesome yuri.” (I mean, even the sex scenes are wholesome!)