Shino and the gang enter their third year of high school, and as in most similar manga, this brings a small tonal shift in the story. The girls know that their days together are numbered, and Aya in particular doesn’t want to spend their last year away from their friends. This also means the girls have to start thinking about their futures…or, you know, at least put a little more effort toward their goals.
So the gut-busting comedy has been dialed down a bit. In exchange, Kiniro Mosaic adds even more cotton candy sweetness. Friendship, romantic, it doesn’t matter; the way everyone interacts with each other is adorable. Aya is determined to stay up late and talk about love with her friends. Honoka wants a picture of Karen. Shinobu and the others try to get Alice the perfect birthday present. Meanwhile, the two teachers have new classes, and Kuzehashi has mixed feelings over not having to chase after Karen. If you’ve been a fan of this series, this volume brings more of the same sweetness and, of course, the occasional cultural gag. (Leave it to Alice to educate her Japanese friends about Japan!)
While much of the volume covers the school trip to Kyoto, I wouldn’t say that this arc is heads above the rest. Karen and Alice role playing as Aya’s little sisters while Shinobu plays Youko’s big sister was also a lot of fun. What really cracked me up though was the girls imagining themselves in alternate universes. Main character Shinobu would be reduced to an NPC in an RPG, but Youko’s dream involving “Magical Girl Ayaya” was the best. I wouldn’t mind this version of Aya being a recurring imagined character, a la Chiyo’s dad in Azumanga Daioh. Youko plays the perfect straight man to the magical girl who can’t even decide what her speech quirk is, let alone what genre she’s starring in.
There were a few parts where I wish Hara had let the gags play out a little longer. Karen half-jokingly says Alice was her first love, a story which Aya is very interested in. And…that’s it. Did Karen go off on some Karen-esque tangents? Did Aya ask anyone else the same question? Was there more of Shino and Alice fawning all over each other? Inquiring minds want to know! Instead, the manga skips to Kuzehashi busting up the slumber party, and it didn’t seem to be that late. If Hara had filled in these gaps with more girls’ love subtext or silly comedy, the volume would have been just about perfect. Some golden (pun intended) opportunities for both just slipped on by in the sleepover scene and elsewhere. Here’s to hoping the next volume will feature a little more detail…and the return of Magical Girl Ayaya, because magical girl parodies might be the perfect way to replace the dwindling number of jokes about the cultural barrier.