Yuri is a bit of a peculiar genre. Despite being primarily about female/female romance its not usually really for actual lesbians or for actual women in general. Most yuri is aimed at men who the common wisdom dictates anyway fetishize the purity and wholesomeness of relationships between women while at the same time not seeing them as real in the same way that they do heterosexual relationships you could it must be noted levy many similar criticisms at yaoi. Consequently most yuri is also written by men and regardless of its quality you can usually sort of tell. Even the best yuri in this style tend to have a certain ethereal thinness about the characters and there tends to be a bit of a preoccupation on not showing anything too racy unless its out and out porn. Then somewhere very far away from all that you have LOVE/DEATH. A very short manga that manages to finagle its way out of most of these criticisms and which exists in an entirely different universe than more conventionally romantic yuri. The premise really could not be simpler and its a wonder its not been done more often. Two girls both lesbians there is no coyness here. The two openly profess their love for each other about once per chapter who are also yanderes for each other. If youre not familiar with the yandere archetype its a wellworn trope in anime and manga and its not terribly uncommon outside of it either just not under that name. A woman so possessed of the fires of romantic love that it drives her mad a woman who is willing to do anything or hurt anyone to get to the object of her affection and it often follows if she cant have him no one will Thus its not uncommon for yandere characters to attempt to kidnap or murder the people they are in love with. As with all things this can be played various ways. Theres another universe out there somewhere where LOVE/DEATH is fifty volumes deep and is a psychological examination of its two leads and the horrific consequences of their twisted affection for each other. In our world however LOVE/DEATH is pretty much a straight comedy manga short sweet and to the point and if that comes across as a disappointment it shouldnt. LOVE/DEATH really only has one joke but it tells it with enough subtle variations over its seven short chapters that by the time it closes youre left with the feeling that its been stretched just far enough. The setup for each chapter is essentially the same. Our leads the blackhaired Shouko and the blonde Akira are dating. The first bit of the chapter presents them as a welladjusted couple that you might find in any number of runofthemill romance manga usually engaging in some innocuous activity going to a movie for example. Then there is some misunderstanding say: Akira seeing Shouko talking to a guy and assuming shes being cheated on and the second part of the chapter is devoted to the two fighting both verbally and physicallyusually causing shonen levels of catastrophic collateral damageand then in the final pages they reconcile. To be sure its not a terribly complex setup and itd be disingenuous to claim it was somehow much more than the sum of its parts. It is to be sure funny but more than that despite their relatively broadstroke characterization both of the leads actually do manage to feel real. Theres a genuine burning intensity to their passion for each other that makes their resorting to violence so often and so intensely feel less like a joke and more just the logical conclusion of these cartoony loons being in love. The characters work more because of their absurdity than despite it. The manga only really falters when the violence gets a bit too real. Its usually pretty nonbloody but there are a few instances in the later chapters where something genuinely gory happens the most egregious example being Shouko blocking one of Akiras knife jabs by having said knife stabbed through her hand and it jars the reader out of the cartoon violence of the mangas world enough to make them contemplate the leads relationship dynamics in a more serious light which is absolutely not something that a manga trying to be this goofy should be doing. Still these missteps are few and the manga is so short that its impossible to claim they impact the overall experience in a major way. Mangaka Kuzushiro is a mysterious figure and its plainly not possible to know if they are male female or something else but no matter how they may identify their deft comedic hand makes this an easy recommend for anyone whos not put off by the very premise. Its hard to believe that a cottage industry of two yanderes in love stories wouldnt get old quickly but perhaps writers of more traditional yuri could stand to pick up a few tricks from Kuzushiros work and for that reason alone the yuri enthusiast looking for something a bit hotter in the blood will find a good deal to like here.