When you turn to the very first page of Mushroom Girls in Love, you immediately see a LGBT wedding and two girls kissing, which is pretty much the greatest thing ever for a yuri fan. However, Kei Murayama’s one-shot is nothing like your typical yuri story; there are no high school girls struggling with their sexuality. Instead, it’s about a planet full of intelligent, human-like mushrooms and fungi, where every single one of them is female.
It sounds odd at first, but it’s actually fascinating. The story follows two mushroom girls who get married. Arriala is a herder who lives in the forest and tends to cattle, whereas Erriela is a scribe who works for the royal family. Through certain circumstances, they stumbled upon each other and fell in love. But their marriage isn’t without problems. It turns out that the royal princess is infatuated with Erriela (the scribe) since they grew up together. So, the princess devises a scheme to kidnap her, and Arriala (the herder) needs to get Erriela back.
Because of this, there is a fair amount of action in the book, which is refreshing – it’s not something you usually see in most girls love series. And you also don’t usually see political themes either, but Mushroom Girls in Love is chock full of them. However, this isn’t too surprising considering Kei Murayama is also the creator of A Centaur’s Life.
The political themes are actually one of the most unique aspects of the manga. For example, strict roles exist in the mushroom society; normally a scribe (like Erriela) is higher in the social hierarchy and wouldn’t marry a herder (like Arriala), who is lower on the scale. As the story progresses, we learn about the history of their world and how the mushroom society operates. For such a short series, Murayama put a lot of thought into the story’s world. There is also a fair amount about how mushrooms and fungi function as organisms, which I found really interesting, despite the fact that I think fungus is… like really gross.
Overall, the story is about 50% political and 40% yuri. And the last 10% is… mushrooms. It makes for a very different type of girls love story. Although yuri isn’t the main focus (it’s more of an added bonus), this manga has some very interesting views on lesbian relationships. Since everyone on the planet is female, it’s normal for women to have romantic relationships. It was wonderful to see women having such relationships without them being constantly questioned by others or by the characters themselves. Another cool element was how they had children. Because mushrooms reproduce asexually, women couples can have their own kids! Well, at least most of the time. Although this fungi world may seem like a yuri paradise, it is far from perfect, and some parts of Mushroom Girls in Love feel like a social commentary about our own human society.
My only complaints about the book are the ending, the characterization of Erriela, and the romantic development. Things just wrap up too quickly at the end. This is probably because the series is short, but it still felt rushed. The ending would have been much more satisfying if the conclusion had a couple more pages; the last chapter was much shorter than all of the other ones — probably only a quarter of their length. It also would have been nice to see Erriela fleshed out a bit more; she is portrayed as smart yet clumsy, but in the end, she just kind of falls into the role of damsel in distress. We see a lot more of Arriala since she is the heroine.
And finally, I would have like to have seen their romantic relationship developed more. It’s obvious they really care about each other, but some more background information or even more flirting would have been a nice touch.
Despite its English title, this manga has a lot more going on in its story – like the troubles of a conflict-ridden society – than just, well, mushroom girls in love. If you want to see more in-your-face yuri, it would be better to read something like Citrus or Bloom Into You. But if you want a different, thought-provoking, and all-around unique story with some yuri (and mushrooms) thrown in, Mushroom Girls in Love may be worth picking up.