Exams are coming up, and so that can mean only one thing. Cosplay day! Er, I mean, cat cafés! Um, duels! Anime! Poems! Oh, there it is: studying!
…And now Aya and Karen are stuck in a real-life escape game.
Okay, so exams and studying don’t go hand-in-hand for the girls of Kiniro Mosaic. And that suits me just fine.
Of course, when it comes to things getting off-track, there’s usually one person to blame: Karen. (“Karen ruins people!” Aya says in shock as everyone relaxes at Karen’s house.) But in truth, everyone is to blame for the craziness. Honoka can’t figure out how to deliver Aya’s book of poems that she found and secretly read. Kana worries about whether a certain anime means she’s an otaku. Alice can’t believe Shino would steal her pudding. Karasuma decides to cheer up Kuzehashi. Shino wants to be a real senpai — preferably to a blonde harem. Of course, Karen finds her way into many of these situations and creates her own (like challenging Youko in a series of events or helping Shino find a kouhai), but she’s not always at the center of the craziness.
So with the graduation slowly approaching, the ending can’t be too far behind. But this volume almost has me waxing nostalgia, as this eighth volume delivered so much charm. Even the bonus story, which is often the weakest part of Kiniro Mosaic, was very good. Let’s just say that Aya dresses the wrong way for a day with Youko. Plus, even though Karen is the queen of avoiding responsibilities, even she is worried a bit about the future. (Well, about as worried as Karen could be.) It’s just a lot of fun for everyone.
Pretty much the only section I didn’t care for was Youko’s sister worrying about her chest. Even then, though, she delivers some very blunt assessments of her sister’s friends. In the end, she realizes that the older sister she has may be the best one after all. It’s still cute enough that even this chapter doesn’t bomb, and the manga bounces right back into excellence territory with a harebrained scheme to raise Shino’s popularity. This and Kana’s induction ceremony to the cult of weirdos (aka joining Karen and the others as oddballs) are topics I hope Yui Hara comes back to.
Otherwise, the combination of humor, cuteness, the still-adorable art, and the still-solid adaptation means Kiniro Mosaic volume 8 is bound to be a hit with fans. If you don’t believe me, then you’ll be glad to know this famous fortune teller assured me you’ll like it.See? Why wouldn’t you trust her? So don’t make Karen turn out to be a liar and go pick this one up.