I actually bought this by accident, expecting the 5th volume of the novel series. The trouble with ebooks... it's a decent volume, and I was interested to see the art interpretations of all the characters. It's odd for me because the very game-style artwork fits the setting, but clashes with my mental picture of a much more realistic setting - for example, Aiz Wallenstein's armour makes no sense for actual protection. That being said, I enjoyed it. It's occasionally a little confusing about timing, because it doesn't necessarily make time skips obvious.

The section where Hestia throws a tantrum also felt more unreasonable and forced here (where it's necessarily compressed) than in the novels, which have a little more breathing room to put across the subtleties of the situation. She just randomly gets furious and instructs them to stop associating, and then equally suddenly changes her mind, and then Aiz says how kind she is - which doesn't strike me as a suitable response to what actually happens in the manga.

The action sequences here are relatively few, but there's a big fight scene at the end which is pretty impressively done. I also liked the more domestic scenes of character interaction and conversation.

On the whole, though, I feel like the sheer amount of explanation and dialogue makes this story more suited to the novel format, and I don't think I'll be buying any more if I can avoid it. ( )