There are three chapters here and then a side story. Author Komori mentions the latter was an addition to the book version, which okay, is common when a serialization gets a collected release. But Tinaris’ “Me at Age Sixteen – Part 1” was also not in the web version. The final chapter was also supposed to be a part of Reincarnated as the Last of my Kind volume 5, but instead, this series will have at least one more addition.
All of those things are reasons why this volume is like a puzzle with a beautiful image, but one whose pieces just weren’t cleanly cut.
Tinaris and her allies await the day when the Sugula is close enough for Renge to defeat, and while she works hard purifying monsters and making tonics, there is still the day-to-day and personal stuff. Like the fact her sister Nakona is now engaged. And Tinaris herself is tackling her own love issues with her crush on Renge the Mythical. Any romance though may be moot if Marcus and others can’t convince humans to stop worshipping false gods to prevent evil from growing.
You may be thinking there’s a lot of the proverbial calm before the storm here, and yes, that’s true as characters balance worrying, doing what they can, and just living their lives. However, to clarify, there are actually two storms here. One is against the Kaguya with a Will of its Own, of course, but first, it’s the country of Edesa Kura. This crisis happening could only have been more obvious if the book somehow summoned a “BAD DECISION ALERT” alarm. But at least the predictable trouble injects good tension into the story. It also introduces a rare character who doesn’t fit in the strict good vs. evil categories — maybe True Neutral on the D&D alignment chart? He doesn’t particularly care for his country but rather his own endeavors. It’s a nice shakeup when most are aligned with Tinaris and the Mythicals, the ones aiming to save the world.
The drama with Edesa Kura doesn’t last too long, but readers probably expect the drama to soon cede to the approach Sugula. But…it’s short. I guess it’s good the author didn’t leave the confrontation as a cliffhanger only to wrap it up a few pages into volume 6, but for a series where Tinaris can narrate for paragraphs about recipes, you’d expect the same level of detail about a day of destiny. The novel provides a reason for this good fortune in the event covered immediately prior to it, but that left me confused. As a comparison, volume 5 reminded me of Avengers: Endgame. A good time, but you also want to chat with someone to see if they caught something you missed either here or in the previous entries to explain why “don’t do this” seemingly turned into “I’ll do this”. Plus this is followed by the least interesting side story to date.
That being said, this volume of Reincarnated as the Last of my Kind has a lot of great character interactions. Tinaris and Renge have several moments of fluff, and those who have been invested in their relationship won’t be disappointed in how it develops here. Tinaris and others are taken aback by Nakona’s ideas about confessions and romances. Even unnamed leaders of countries have an all-too-real conference about the future. But Marcus’ chapter gets a special shout-out from me. He would readily agree he once was a lousy father, but we get to see him now have sweet heart-to-hearts with his children — biological and otherwise.
These conversations (and internal monologues) made volume 5 so endearing, but I don’t know if some of the changes the author made to accommodate expanding the story affected the flow of the book or what. Going back to my puzzle analogy, it’s like the novel has a bunch of attention-grabbing sections, but once you put them all together, the cracks and seams are exposed and detract from an otherwise great product.