I knew that leaving off in Volume 4 with Hanzo's comment that Usagi was 30% fatter than she was when she left that this one was going to annoy me to some extent. I was not disappointed in that respect, although I'm reserving judgment in favor of continuing the series and seeing where the manga-ka goes with it. In this volume Usagi has returned to Hanzo's home, still wondering who is bride intended is. When Hanzo's sister, Suzune, unexpectedly shows up Usagi is thrilled when he introduces her as his intended. That is, until Suzune takes an immediate dislike to her and Hanzo returns to his original "I will only marry you if you become a ninja" shtick. You'd have thought since he was the one to first realize and encourage Usagi's true strengths that he wouldn't do this, but he did.

As Usagi tutors in cooking and household maintenance under the hateful Suzune, little Mamezo has troubles of his own with Suzune's equally hateful children. The torture is almost painful to watch as the Hanzos all (including the uber cute one) manage to pull down both Mamezo and Usagi's sense of self worth. In an attempt to lose weight Usagi goes from starving herself to binge eating. I kept waiting for the inevitable seeming purging, but that part didn't happen.

I was relatively happy with how Usagi eventually worked things out with respect to the sister issue, although Hanzo's expected revelation of how much of a jerk he is was sadly missing (I'll be waiting for it in future volumes). In the end there is a dramatic cliffhanger which I'm looking forward to seeing resolved.

Overall I still do like this manga and think the artwork is very appealing. I'm curious to see how the manga-ka will work out the issues that bug me. I have a feeling the next few chapters will probably deal more with the "white goblin" issue than Usagi's weight which should be exciting. ( )