By Kyosuke Kamishiro and TakayaKi. Released in Japan as “Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.

So first of all, I’m going to be blithely ignoring the cliffhanger ending of this one, as well as its “oh no, it ends sadly after all” implications. First of all, no it doesn’t, and secondly, now that this series is down to once a year, we’re not gonna have to worry about it for a long, long time. Instead, let us revel in this book, which gives us a whole heaping helping of Isana. We even get a flashforward about four years, seeing her talking with a junior and seemingly having her life a lot more together than she does now. We also get a new girl added to the mix, who does us the courtesy of falling for Mizuto immediately, and so hard that he actually notices and rejects her. Of course, no fear, that takes the entire volume, because yikes, he’s still Mizuto. When Yume calls him Enemy of All Women she’s not kidding. This guy will be cripplingly nice at you until you have no recourse but to fall over dead.

It’s the Culture Festival, and Mizuto’s class needs to come up with something nifty. an escape room is a good idea… that everyone else is also doing. But hey, maybe if they have art by Isana! Yes, she’s outed at last for being a brilliant artist by hyperactive, scatterbrained Yoshino, and will thus be doing art for the day. She’s already stressed enough, as she has a job offer to do a light novel series, but is afraid of taking that big step. Meanwhile, Yume and her student council election rival are in charge of the entire festival, meaning Yume’s stressing out a bit as well. And then there’s the girl writing the play for her freshman class, who is a great writer who lacks passion, and ends up having Mizuto making some really good but really ill-timed advice. As for Mizuto… well, same ol’ same ol’.

This series has always been really heavy on the fanservice, but I was very impressed with this book, which not only stars Isana in terms of the plot but in terms of the artwork. Isana wears farmer’s overalls that emphasize her chest… and then back in her room, wears them without a bra or shirt. Towards the end of the book, we also see her in her underwear. The big fanservice, of course, cannot actually be drawn, alas, but at least she got her groove back. I also really liked her mother, who is well aware of Mizuto’s “kindness” in helping his friend being incredibly cruel in many ways as well. He deserved to be hit, to be honest. The idea they have for the escape room, with it essentially turning into a multiple endings sort of thing, is quite clever. Best of all is Isana coming to terms with the fact that people like her art, and while it may be embarrassing, it’s her, and she needs to embrace it.

And now we wait, and see if the author actually does pull the trigger on that cliffhanger. Till then, this is saucy romcom fun.