I love when we get to see Mia's diary and it's a week straight of detailed entries about food and then all of a sudden she goes "so anyways there was this crazy international conspiracy that I just dismantled, I had this amazing stew while at it..." Solid motivation.
There are some very interesting developments happening in this storyline! They are surrounded by cute fluffy story development, and this is just a pretty relaxing addition honestly! It's essentially a dramatic beach episode!
I loved this volume, Esmerald went from being annoying to becoming my second favorite character of the series, I loved her arc, and her friendship with mia is simultaneously hilarious and also one of the most wholesome things in this super wholesome series, I hope we get to see more of it in the future too.
this series stays surprisingly consistently great at developing its characters.
I'm really enjoying delving more into Tearmoon Empire's nobles in this volume. Each character is great, if not eccentric in their own way, and makes it really obvious just why Mia struggled to try and save the Empire in the first timeline once she realised she had messed up. There's a lot she couldn't have known and a single action really ripples out to effect the rest of the continent in this story. It's so clever and fun to see!
Similarly to the previous volume, the fifth book of Tearmoon Empire is also split into two arcs. In the first half of the book, we see the conclusion of the summer vacation with Esmeralda. Since they kept talking about a cult, I was expecting them to run into some shady cult members on the island… but they don't. Instead, they find something that reveals the link between the Chaos Serpents and Tearmoon's first emperor. Which really explains the state of the empire. But this being a Tearmoon Empire book, the summer vacation safely ends with Mia recruiting Esmeralda as an ally. It seems that even in the preview timeline, Esmeralda had a lot of regrets about fleeing the empire with her family. She was previously a comical, stereotypical, bitter ojousama who just wants Mia's attention, but this book gives her more depth as a character.
Esmeralda isn't the only one joining Mia though, because after the second arc, Ruby from the Redmoon family also becomes an ally. Based on her portayal in the previous book, I really didn't expect her issue to be so focused on romance. Actually, the issue itself is romance. Which seems to lead to a happy ending, based on what the book says about her future. It might not be for everyone, but I personally find it cute. Mia has been unknowingly getting in their way, both in the previous timeline and the current one. It led to an especially terrible outcome in the previous timeline, and since Mia has matured a lot, she immediately realized where it went wrong. But as the Japanese saying goes, those who disturb the love of others shall be kicked by a horse and die. And that's what happens to Mia. Except she doesn't get kicked and doesn't die. Instead, she gets sneezed on by horses. For many, many times.
The Princess Chronicles book does change and says Mia is going to die soon though, after the upcoming Holy Eve Festival. The reason is not divulged in this book, so I can look forward to that in the next volume. While we still haven't learned anything about the Yellowmoon family, we do get to meet their daughter, Citrina, who is now best friends with Miabel. Overall, it was a really fun read with a lot of horses and cute moments. Can't wait to see what's going to happen to Mia next.
The plot thickens! In this volume you find out a little bit of the history of the Tearmoon empire, and find out how deep, and how old, the corruption of the empire is.
This was a great volume! We learn some big things that pertain to the overarching plot in the midst of character development, seeing moments from the Princess Mia Chronicles in action, and (of course) much laughter. I really enjoyed reading this, would recommend it to fans of the previous volumes, and will be reading volume 6! 4.5 stars.
Reread in Japanese November 15th-30th, 2022 This was a fun reread! I read it while listening to the audiobook (at 1.0 speed!) and it was overall pretty easy Japanese-wise. The audiobook narrator is very talented - she does different voices for every character and perfectly captures the emotions in each scene. It's quite impressive.
Audiobook aside, this is a pretty significant installment in the series. It marks a turning point in the overall story and has some pretty groundbreaking information. It also introduces an important side character. Of course, the usual humor and hijinks are present too! Definitely recommended! 5 stars.
Less than half way through, the original story arc comes to a nice, satisfying close, and overall I just didn't feel like delving into the next arc. It's only awkward that this transition happened at about 1/3 into this volume.