Hynavian

Murasame Sumika is the perfect girl. She gets top marks and on top of that, she also has excellent physical abilities with a black belt under her wing as her family runs a karate dojo. But she has a secret. Sumika is hopelessly in love with her best-est best friend, Kazama Ushio, who only likes cute girls.

Sumika is nowhere near cute. She is heroine-like as she defends the weak and would beat bullies into a pulp if there’s a need. She is the reliable class representative, an awesome friend a girl can get and thus, Sasameki Koto [ささめきこと] is the story of Sumika’s unrequited love towards Ushio. Set in a co-ed school, the plot revolves around friendship, lots of humor and her unrequited love towards Ushio. Ushio falls in love with cute girls, falls out of love and then falls in love again but Sumika can only watch over her.

The opening chapters are frustrating to read with lots of unrequited love but their relationship progresses sweetly as the chapters go. The intention to confess by Sumika often comes up but is chucked aside as Sumika chooses to become the guardian angel and maintains best-est best friend status quo with Ushio.

Though their relationship progresses slowly, things take a turn when Sumika and Ushio caught 2 of their fellow classmates kissing after class one day.

And the same 2 caught Sumika & Ushio doing the same thing in class on another day.

Knowing each other preference, Tamae Miyako and Hachisuka Tomoe befriend Sumika and Ushio. They become friends who offer Girl Girl Relationship (GGR) advices and are fun folks to hang out with. Throw in Yamasaki Akemiya who is so in love with Sumika to the extent that he cross-dresses to attract Sumika’s attention; we have a truckload of girl love and an ultimate trap for this series.

Trap disguise #1

Trap disguise #2

What makes Sasameki Koto so sweet is that it touches on friendship between people and the development of love between friends where falling in love unknowingly is most beautifully presented. Supporting characters like Tamae and Hachisuka spice up the yuri department while Kiyori is an awesome eat-till-you-drop buffet character who pops in now and then to create humor. As for Aoi Azusa, I’m still having problems liking her but I’ve grown to like the way the characters in general contribute to the good and bad moments by the time I get to the end of volume 2.

There’s news of the anime and even the official site is up but there’s no official release date yet. Hopefully there’ll be some concrete good news soon but there’s still the nicely drawn (I’m a sucker for this style) manga by Takashi IKEDA for now. With kissing and hand holding the furthest the characters would go, Sasameki Koto is a light hearted and sweet yuri series that would make one smile any day.

Geez, can’t wait to get my hands on volume 3.