This series has recently been what I read when I'm in a situation where I can only pay half attention: at work, before going to sleep, etc. I don't expect books in this context to be great, just engaging and entertaining. So, for that, it gets 4/5 stars.

The story is often compelling. The author does a good job of falling back on minor character arcs in between conflicts within the main story. There's almost always some kind of tension or conflict that keeps me interested in the story. That the story is slice-of-life helps, since the battle stuff isn't exciting or dramatic to me. The "rabid anti-hero" trope those manga often deploys is played out to death. ( )

Better than the last volume. I read it in a single session. A bit dramatic, but not unrealistically so, and I enjoyed the interplay of the various characters and their personalities in dealing with events as they thought best. It was also nice to see the main romance getting a bit less exaggerated as the characters are growing up, though a shame there wasn't more of the subsidiary ones. The bit-characters continue to be interesting, which is always good, and the professional versus pastoral versus personal three-way conflicts made for some interesting reading. ( )