Citrus (manga)

Citrus (シトラス, Shitorasu) is a Japanese yuri manga series written and illustrated by Saburouta. The series began serialization in Ichijinsha's Comic Yuri Hime from November 17, 2012 and is licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment. An anime adaptation has been announced.^[1]

Plot

Yuzu Aihara, a fashionable, spontaneous and fun-loving city-girl, transfers to a new neighborhood and high-school after the remarriage of her mother. More preoccupied with boys and shopping than studying, Yuzu struggles to fit in at the conservative girls' school and frequently clashes with the student council—specifically Mei Aihara, the hard-working, beautiful but cold student council president. As it turns out, Mei happens to be Yuzu's new step-sister and Yuzu finds herself having to share a bedroom with a girl she absolutely can't stand. The series follows the evolution of the relationship between the two girls, with the animosity slowly lessening as the two begin to learn more about each other and confusion growing as Yuzu discovers that she is starting to develop romantic feelings for her new sibling.

Characters

Yuzu Aihara (藍原 柚子, Aihara Yuzu)

Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu (PV, Drama CD)^[2]

Yuzu is a self-proclaimed gyaru and is the story's protagonist and Mei Aihara's older step-sister. Her father died when she was young. It is implied that her hair is not naturally blonde, and she has green eyes. She is a daring, outspoken, and often shameless only child who transfers to an all-girls school after her mother remarries. She enjoys dressing up, wearing makeup and customizing her school uniform in ways that clash with her school's code of conduct, often leading to altercations with the student council. Although her former friends believed her to be quite experienced in dating and relationships, she confesses she has never had a boyfriend. Although she appears quite ditzy at times, with hard work she is able to achieve test results within the school's top 100, to Himeko's surprise.

Upon transferring Yuzu instantly befriends the like-minded Harumi Taniguchi, and the two are often seen breaking school rules together. On the other hand, she instantly dislikes Mei, perplexed by her cold attitude and random sexual advances. Despite this, Yuzu's frustration eventually turns into a strong romantic attraction, and she develops a protectiveness for Mei and a deep concern for her well-being. Despite Yuzu struggling with her romantic interest in Mei, she also tries her best to be a good older sister figure, doing her best to mend the relationship between Mei and her father and doing what she can to offer support. She has a childhood friend named Matsuri who lived close to her old house and used to be like a sister to her.

Mei Aihara (藍原 芽衣, Aihara Mei)

Voiced by: Minami Tsuda (PV, Drama CD)^[2]

Mei is the beautiful and serious Student Council President, honor student, school chairman's granddaughter, and now Yuzu's younger step-sister (although the two are in the same grade). She is stern, cold and composed, but has a short temper. Although greatly respected by the student body, she may on occasion act or speak cruelly. This trait, as well as the fact that Mei often makes sexual advances toward her simply to manipulate her, greatly frustrates Yuzu. Mei initially had some kind of romantic relationship with a young, handsome male teacher, although Yuzu discovered that he only intended to use her for her money and revealed his transgressions, leading to him leaving the school. As Yuzu gets to know her more, she is shown to be rather sensitive and lonely, which often stirs Yuzu's protective side.

Mei once looked up to her father greatly, believing that he would one day be chairman and herself after him. However, he instead left his position as a teacher and abandoned Mei to travel the world, making Mei the successor to the school and increasing her work load and burden because of it. Mei toiled for the sake of her father, believing that she should work hard and keep the school safe for when he came back, but when she realizes he has no intention of going back to work at the school she becomes resentful and their relationship sours. Although she wishes to better her relationship with her father, she struggles to accept who he has become, and feels she has nothing left living for as taking care of the school for the sake of her father had been her assumed purpose in life. However, Yuzu's influence leads her to begin repairing the damaged relationship with her father, as well as being to find her own purpose in life.

In later chapters, Mei appears to be reciprocating Yuzu's romantic feelings to some degree, becoming rather possessive of her due to Matsuri's advances on Yuzu; opening up to her, and feeling guilty when she believes Yuzu is troubled or sad because of her actions. She expresses to Matsuri she's thankful for having met Yuzu.

Harumi Taniguchi (谷口 はるみ, Taniguchi Harumi)

Voiced by: Yukiyo Fujii (Drama CD)

Often referred to as "Harumin", she befriends Yuzu on her first day of school, calling herself a "gyaru in disguise" and showing Yuzu the ropes at her new school. Although she has adapted to fit in at the school, Harumi was also a transfer and is quite different from the conservative girls around her, taking no interest in fawning over Mei Aihara, the student council president, and often breaks the school rules (carries a phone, goes out after school). The student council vice-president, whom Harumi refers to as "Glasses-Senpai", remarks that Harumi seems to be more cheerful of late. She is perky, kind, perceptive, humorous, easy-going and an overall good friend towards Yuzu, often lending her comfort and aide in the wake of the ups and downs of Yuzu's life. She often packs many items within her cleavage and, apparently, she has a sister whom she is quite fearful of. Upon meeting Matsuri in chapter 9, she is instantly wary and suspicious of her and tries to prevent Yuzu from being alone with her.

Himeko Momokino (桃木野 姫子, Momokino Himeko)

Voiced by: Yurika Kubo (Drama CD)

Himeko is a Student Council Member and Mei's childhood friend and current right hand. She is from a very wealthy family, having a chauffeur and at least one butler. On weekends she can be seen wearing lolita fashion. She is stern, forward and jealous, and has quite a volatile personality. She is in love with Mei and is very possessive of her, becoming jealous when Yuzu enters her life. As the series progresses, Himeko's role becomes less antagonistic and she comes to be more accepting of Yuzu's presence, although still being frustrated by her constant breaking of school rules. She has a small dog named Pucchi.

Matsuri Mizusawa (水沢 まつり, Mizusawa Matsuri)

Voiced by: Sayaka Horino (PV, Drama CD)^[2]

Matsuri is an only child, whose parents are always working and don't really pay attention to her. She is Yuzu's childhood friend who lived close to her before she moved to the Aihara residence, and a second-year in middle school. Matsuri makes her first appearance in chapter 8, appearing to have a very manipulative and sly personality. She comes across Yuzu and Harumi at an arcade and invites them out to karaoke. Harumi appears to be quite wary and suspicious of her.

Upon deducing the nature of Yuzu's feelings towards Mei, Matsuri professes a romantic interest in Yuzu and kisses her in front of Mei, and then actively tried to manipulate them to keep them away from each other and severing their bond. Later it is explained how lonely Matsuri was feeling, and how the idea of losing her "older sister" Yuzu to Mei simply scared her, which led her to acting so wrong. She realized how Yuzu, and even Mei cared for her feelings, so she stopped thinking about her as a rival, to see her as another older sister.

She sells masturbation videos she finds on the Internet to old men through a phone app, and tells them they are hers, as a means of income.

Sara Tachibana (橘 サラ, Tachibana Sara)

A young-looking silver-haired girl who Yuzu befriends in the Tokyo Train Station after they both miss a train (coincidentally, to the same place, Kyoto). Sara believes in things such as fate and soul mates, and as such believes she and Yuzu were "destined to meet". She had previously met Mei and had a crush on her, and as such dated her briefly, but gave up on her so that Yuzu and Mei could be together. Before finding out they were in love with the same person, Sara supported Yuzu to confess her love. She is Nina's older twin sister, despite looking younger.

Nina Tachibana (橘 ニナ, Tachibana Nina)

Sara's younger twin sister, who is skeptical and does not believe in fate. She helped Sara and Mei getting together, and tried to prevent Yuzu from getting in their way. She tried to force Yuzu to accept their relationship by making Yuzu promise she'll support Sara's love no matter what, but Yuzu decides she can't keep that promise.

Release

Citrus is written and illustrated by Saburouta. It began serialization in Ichijinsha's bimonthly magazine Comic Yuri Hime on November 17, 2012,^[3][4] and it has 15 chapters as of April 2015. The first tankōbon volume was published on July 18, 2013;^[5] the third volume was released on November 18, 2014.^[6] To advertise the third volume of the manga, a PV covering the story up to that point was uploaded to Ichijinsha's YouTube channel on November 18, 2014.^[2] A drama CD will be released with the fourth manga volume on July 18, 2015.^[7] The manga is licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment, who began releasing the series from December 16, 2014.^[8] It has also been licensed in Germany^[9] and Thailand.^[10]

Chapters not yet in tankōbon format

These chapters have yet to be published in a tankōbon volume:

 17.5. "Chapter 17.5"

References

External links

• Citrus (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia