The election story arc is turning into a deathly dull quagmire for this series as too many characters engage in too many secret plans and alliances. Ho hum.

It doesn't help that the game du jour is an acting contest that just comes down to a bunch of bluffing. Though it was interesting to see a fully enraged Yumeko Jabami; it was a striking contrast to her usual dreamy and sensuous personality. ( )

note for future me: the last translated chapter was ch. 55.

After the anime got me fixated again I read these really quickly, so this review covers the entire series so far...

There are some lessons here:
- having an all-capable, all-powerful, all-knowing, unconquerable protagonist who never fails is so boring
- without showing the consequences of failure, the stakes mean nothing - which really doesn't work in a story completely based on stakes
- and, if you do those things but completely populate the story with fascinating, complex, (and kinda evil), female characters, I will tear through the series in a week

I was kinda able to set aside my irritations when I decided that Yumeko was as much an audience surrogate as Suzui - they're both tools with which to let us the rest of the (far more interesting) cast at their extremes. Getting into the arcs with any other pair as the focus - Mary and Ririka, or Yumemi and her secretary - the story got a trillion times more compelling. Maybe Yumeko is just like a stage-setter? Either way, I can't care less what happens to her, but everyone else is duking it out on the character bias list.

The main attraction point is still the art, though. It's just getting better and better!! (despite some moments in which they completely forget what a breast is & isn't capable of doing.) I feel like I don't deserve the amount of detail and effort that went into even the little panels...much less the full-page spreads... ;-; I may go back and read the sections that I went through in the anime because I want to see more of the art.

It's not subtle, it's kinda manipulative, it's screaming at me with stakes and consequences and fears I don't care about, but the pure viciousness of the cast and the little games within games (that are getting much better as we go on) are really fascinating. Now I'll wait out chapter 56...whenever the heck they update. ( )