It's a major reason of why I go to the shoujo-ai/yuri genre, the intrinsicly greater insecurity. Though here, at least until ch 9, that's not realy a source of the angst.
This is really nice though it's kinda a surprise when the sex scenes come up (using 'sex' liberally seeing as how sensual the kisses are). [EDIT 2: this decreases [i]dramatically[/i] during the series]
Oh, and the art is freaking fantastic. (Yuzu's determined running pose aside, which looked kinda like... stock design.)
EDIT: Ok so 8 years later I finally finish it. So thing is, this manga used to be quarterly, iirc. i.e. one release every THREE months! So I lost track of it with med school and such. But I also lost track of it because of a certain development in chapter 13/14 that I really didn't like, it just felt really cliche. The
love rival
trope. Thing is, turns out this gets resolved in chapter 15! If I had just stuck for one more chapter...
See what's interesting is that I felt like Citrus was going downhill for the past few chapters but it turns out that from chapter 15 onwards it actually gets better!
No longer is there sexual assault between the two leads, which was icky and really the most disturbing thing in the series. There's no cliche characters acting as convenient plot obstacles. It's just...it just becomes character-driven, mostly, and it's really quite nicely done. We also finally get more insight into Mei as her walls come down and she becomes more expressive.
And goddamn, there's a certain 'letter' chapter, I think it's chapter 36, that's done [i]EXTREMELY[/i] well! You'll probably pick up what's going on in the first couple pages of the letter but go back and reread it from the top of it and you'll pick up on the hints.
All in all, this series started good. Had a couple dips and highs, art was amazing, especially Saburouta-sensei's depiction of the sexual tension and the girls being turned on (seriously, may be the best in a yuri, or any non-porno manga out there) and in the coloured pages. And then from chapter 15-ish things just get better.
I do feel the 'call in the cavalry' chapter near the end could been paced a little slower, but that's a pages/chapter issue rather than a chapter/series issue, so it's out of the mangaka's hands.
Anyway, 10 years later I finally finished this series (damn 10 years) and it's worth the read for fans of shoujo-ai/yuri at the least, perhaps romance in general. I would've given it a 7.5 in the first year, a 7 before I lost track, but now that i've read 15->end I think I'm comfortable with an 8.5. There is some really good writing (with some overdramatic parts, too, of course) and moments in here. Almost cried many times.