Rae continues to pursue Claire in her role as maid and Claire is… really putting up with it. We also see the boys that this otome game is actually supposed to be about, plus some straight talk about being gay. Then monsters attack for good measure.
Take one of my favourite light novel series and give it gorgeous artwork and you get this manga, which is another delightful volume of incredible gayness and ridiculous antics.
Rae and Claire’s back and forth has gone from Rae being very forward and Claire protesting to Rae being very forward and Claire protesting as much as usual, but with subtle alterations to her attitude and responses.
I recognize that Rae’s attitude is problematic to some, but I do feel that the cafeteria scene goes a long way towards balancing that. It was that scene that made me really go all-in for the series in the novels and the version here is just as well done.
Yuri stories don’t often address homosexuality head-on in any meaningful way and the approach here is really well done, especially since it gives Claire a moment of her own while also illustrating that gender preference isn’t always down to just ‘this or that’ binary choice.
And Rae isn’t out to turn Claire or anything, but she loves her and won’t deny that part of herself. She’s there for Claire’s happiness, whatever it might be, although as we see later she certainly won’t go out of her way to abet it. I think that it definitely makes things less predatory, but your mileage may vary.
The manga version gives the guys a little less fleshing out, thus far, than their LN versions, but the counter to this is how much more of a sense of character for Rae’s long-suffering roomie Misha we get instead. It’s a decent trade-off and the guys are just coming into the narrative, so no surprise there.
We get an excellent action set-piece here with some really cracking magic and the introduction of one of the most adorably silly mascot characters in the form of a wee slime who gets an unsurprising name and quickly ingratiates itself to the cast. She comes back in a slightly lascivious bonus story (that I actually bothered to read this says everything) that’s a fun bit of silly.
The big fight proper also features the most serious crack in Claire’s facade yet, which is a very nice little touch. It’s also nice how Rae can only be goaded so far in these little competitions as well, she’s not a total doormat to love.
It’s just a great version of this story. The bonus pages are fun (the butler game one made me laugh out loud), the author’s notes are a hoot, it focuses on slightly different things than the novels and is gorgeous doing it.
5 stars - my fave scene in the series and all this great art? Forget it, I can’t pretend I have any chill here. This isn’t my favourite LN series, but it’s up there, and I hope this adaptation keeps going.