I’ve been having bad luck with my Yuri Lately. I started watching Maria Watches Over Us but it wasn’t for me and I dropped it quickly. Yuri is My Job was a really cute manga but it got too repetitive and by volume 5 my interest sort of wane. Days of Love at Seagull Villa didn’t do it either. So wish me luck with Superwomen in Love!
Ok so on a whim a few months ago I decided to just buy a bunch of volume 1 manga that I didn’t know anything about and figured if I found something I liked I would continue it. This has backfired horribly. Not only did I like most of the series I started but I absolutely loved receiving a box in the mail full of manga to discover and going through them one at the time in the evenings. It was like a different adventure every day!
And then, I did it again… This is not a cheap hobby by any means! I should just read digital versions. I really really should. And to kind of slightly justify it in my mind, I want to at least share my experience with you guys!
Why I Picked up Superwomen in Love
I really was on a quest for a nice Yuri manga to enjoy and I thought the title sounded promising.
Official Summary
Superhero action meets romantic hijinks in this yuri manga series about a heroine and the villainess who’s fallen for her!
When the villainess Honey Trap defeats the superheroine Rapid Rabbit, she sees her nemesis’ face for the first time…and falls head over heels in love! Refusing to kill Rapid Rabbit, Honey Trap is cast out of Antinoid, an evil organization with plans of world domination. Luckily, a kind soul takes her in: Rapid Rabbit herself! Now Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit have teamed up to take on Antinoid. Can Honey Trap defeat her old colleagues and seduce the heroine at the same time?
My First Impression
Oh wait… this is funny!
What I liked
First Superwomen in Love is a parody of classic superhero manga. Or a loving deconstruction. It isn’t mean to the genre it simply gently pokes fun at it and I thought it was surprisingly witty in the approach. I actually giggled out loud a few times!
This is one adorable romance. Despite the fact that Rapid Rabbit and Honey Trap start off as mortal enemies (one being a superhero and the other a supervillain), all the abuse, jealousy and non-consent tropes that tend to show up in the genre are completely absent.
In fact, a lot of the charm of Superwomen in Love lies in the supreme gap moe of Honey Trap. She is the boss b villain archetype. She’s tough, no-nonsense, efficient and stands her ground. And she melts into a puddle of ooey-gooey feels whenever it comes to Rapid Rabbit. Her first reaction when seeing her is to blush, run away and the start thinking that she wants to talk to her and be friends… ‘Cmon, that’s adorable. And it stays adorable.
Any drawbacks?
Not really. I mean this is one of those Yuri stories that exist in a universe devoid of men or societal pressures so it’s just the fluffy Yuri fantasy stuff. But honestly, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It could be a drawback if you are looking for realistic love stories, but then again, you probably wouldn’t pick out a manga called Superwomen in Love for that.
The first volume is really more about Honey Trap’s journey. So far Hayate (Rapid Rabbit) entirely made out of sweetness but that’s about it.. Like her entire personality is that she’s impossibly nice and pure. We don,t really get to know her motivations, desires, likes and dislikes or anything about her really. And that works great for volume 1. She is pretty and sweet enough that you can understand why Honey Trap is all smitten, but she’s essentially a blank slate that feeds into that one-sided crush dynamic the narrative establishes.
However, I’m not sure how sustainable it is in the long run. I can see it working for another couple of volumes, in the end though, it’s never good for one of your two main characters to be the most boring person in the series.
Conclusion
Look, I liked it. It was cute. Was it amazing, OMG drop everything and get this? No. But it was really fun. Granted, there were a few series that started off great, Yuri is My Job for instance, but sort of lost momentum. There is always a risk of that happening with Superwomen in Love as well. There’s a risk of that happening with any series really. But as far as this first volume goes, I had a blast. Would recommend for Yuri fans.
Oh, I forgot to mention, this is an entirely pg sort of story. Just in case that makes a difference in any way.
I always love to pick out a few fluff manga to read and was in love with this one as soon as I finished the first few chapters. It’s just silly, fun romance, and is a great way to cap off a stressful day!
That was exactly what I thought of it. Just silly fun and that has a charm all its own.