Éclair Rouge is the fourth volume of the “Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart”, featuring works from new and returning artists. This volume contains contributions from seventeen artists. Some of the names will certainly be familiar to those who pay close attention to yuri manga.
Front cover of Éclair Rouge, featuring art by Kazuno Yuikawa
The emotions of girls burn bright, but love can be especially intense… Éclair is back in this fourth installment with an exciting new collection of impassioned romances. With chapters from returning artists like Canno (Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl) and Kabocha (Kemono Friends à la Carte), plus fresh additions like Akiko Morishima (The Conditions of Paradise), this volume is sure to thrill.
So first up, the artists that contributed to this volume are: Kazuno Yuikawa, Fly, Yutaka Hiiragi, U35, Musshu, Canno, Kabocha, Nio Nakatani, Ruka Kobachi, Haruka Kiriyama, Kagekichi Tadano, Hiroichi, Taki Kitao, Aya Fumio, Shuninta Amano, Akiko Morishima & Auri Hirao.
As with any collection of stories, there will be some that stand out more among others. Of course this will be a on reader by reader basis, but I will share the contributions that particularly stood out for me.
Of course Nio Nakatani’s I Am Custom-Made immediately jumped out at me; that Bloom into You style is pretty unmistakable. It also helps that it’s an amusing story.
On a similar note, Auri Hirao’s I’m Gonna Be a VTuber! definitely got a chuckle out of me, and not just because I’ve been getting into Hololive a lot over the past few months.
The stories in which girls get intimate with each other also tend to be stand outs, and Akiko Morishima’s When I Undo Her Button is one such example. There’s actually a bit of barrier between the two ladies in that story getting properly intimate with each other, but that adds to the appeal of the story.
All the stories in this anthology do prove to be entertaining in some way or another, though I wouldn’t say that they are all equal. Again, personal preference will play a part, but there are a few stories that don’t feel particularly conclusive when it comes to the relationships between the characters.
Some people may get more out of that than me, but it does feel nicer to have some kind of positive pay off.
Regardless, the Éclair yuri anthologies are generally worth looking into, even as just a way to discover yuri artists you might have never stumbled upon. That, or see more work from your favourite artists.
Overall, a decent addition to the Éclair series.
Rory Muses 