Title: Shino & Ren Vol. 1
Author: Minori Chigusa
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
Genre: Yuri, Slice-of-Life
Publication Date: May 26, 2026
The Story
Hmm… I would say that there is a true story to Shino & Ren. If anything, I would say that the overarching story is that Shino and Ren are a lesbian couple, with Shino being the shy, timid one, and Ren being the outgoing tomboy. That’s the basics of what you’ll need to know heading into this volume.
So, if there is no overarching story, then what are we getting with this series? If you guessed episodic chapters, then you win a prize!
Here, we explore multiple situations with Ren staying the night over at Shino’s house for New Year’s, how they act around one another at school, a bit of a conundrum with Ren receiving a TON of Valentine’s Day chocolate due to her being popular, the ever-so-required beach episode (in the form of the community pool), the classic trope of the gym equipment storage shed, and many others. There are eleven total chapters in the first volume, each offering a different experience.
Characters
The focus (so far) just focuses on Shino and Ren, probably because it’s titled as such.
Shino, as I mentioned above, is our busty, shy, yet timid girl in the relationship; however, what I like about her is that she doesn’t stick to that role. During some of the more intimate moments of the volume, Shino prefers to be the one doing things to Ren. In fact, the book specifically points her out as being the “Top” in the relationship. Normally, someone with her characteristics is usually submissive, letting the more aggressive of the two do all of the work, so it was refreshing to see this side of her. Despite being timid, she’s also caring and understanding. She didn’t truly get jealous or bat an eye when Ren received a ton of Valentine’s Day chocolate, but in the instance where they were at the community pool, her bathing suit wasn’t as revealing as Ren’s, so she does have a bit of a self-confidence issue. She’s way more balanced than I thought she would be, and I like that a lot about her.
Ren, on the other hand, is exactly what you would expect from an aggressive tomboy character. She’s not mean, nor does she put Shino down (at least not in a serious way), but she does love to initiate intimate moments. The biggest one was when Shino had a headache, and she was resting up in the nurse’s office. She was embarrassed to let Ren see her, so she pretended that she was still asleep. Ren didn’t buy it and began to undress, engaging in some intimate acts to get her to “wake up.” So, yeah… she’s a pervert who doesn’t mind being forward. That sassiness is great because it’s not over-the-top, either. It’s muted, but not too much where she’s boring. It’s the perfect balance to a tomboy character that I absolutely love and enjoy!
Final Thoughts
There isn’t much to Shino & Ren, but there doesn’t need to be. The dynamic between our two main characters is very well done. As I said, I really enjoy Shino having more of a balance to her, rather than her just playing to the shy role the entire time. I probably wouldn’t call her shy, but more like she’s reserved when she wants to be.
While episodic, each chapter was pretty entertaining, but there is a common theme running throughout the book, which is Shino & Ren getting themselves into a certain scene, and using that scene to do something perverted. Whether it’s making out, teasing, applying suntan lotion, or what have you… Every scenario seems like an excuse for them to do something ecchi with one another. While this will satisfy a lot of ecchi fans, I wonder how long this can keep up before it gets old? At least the Valentine’s Day chapter was cute, as it just involved chocolates and how Shino would view Ren for being popular. We would need more stuff like this sprinkled in; otherwise, the intimate moments won’t feel as special. It’ll just lead to desensitization.
Outside of the episodic and straightforward nature, there were some pretty unique aspects to this series. It’s a mixture of black & white and full color. If you’ve read The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All, you’ll know what I’m talking about; however, in that series, they blended black and white with lime green. Here, we get full color pages at the start and end of each chapter, and the chapter pages themselves have black and white with color overlays. For example, the characters could be in black and white, but their eyes would be in color. Then, the panels will have a solid color background that matches that character’s eyes. Every chapter picks a different color from yellow, to purple, to brown, to sky blue, and more.
Furthermore, we actually open the book with a prologue, and then go into a first chapter that was a draft of Shino & Ren. In the draft chapter, we got to see the original character designs, and Minori Chigusa even talked about what parts of Shino’s original design became part of Ren’s final design. Even still, Ren is depicted with red (or light magenta) hair at first, but then she dyes her hair later to make it look like the brown with magenta undertones that are displayed on the cover. This was really cool as it gave a progression of the characters’ designs into their final form… and that is something I don’t think I’ve seen in a series before. I’m sure it exists, but this is the first time for me.
Overall, I would say we are off to a decent start. The scenarios are cute, the characters are the driving factor here, and the choice of mixing black and white with color was a bold choice, but it works incredibly well. If you’re a fan of yuri and want just a bunch of intimate tension, this is going to be a must-have, but if you’re looking for substance like an overarching story, then unless something comes later down the pike, you probably won’t get that with this one.
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press.
