Kaito, a high school student who idolizes the heroic English pirate, Captain Drake, plans to take advantage of his summer vacation to go on a pirate tour. However, in Plymouth, a place associated with Drake, Kaito is swallowed by a dimensional rift and is transported back in time to the Age of Discovery! He is rescued by Geoffrey, the captain of a pirate ship, who works for Captain Drake. The pirates led by Queen Elizabeth and the invincible Spanish fleet unfold in this maritime love romance! Th...
(Note: as of this review, spoiler tags are broken in at least Firefox. So for those using that browser, this entire review contains spoilers through the end of the book. Do not read ahead if you're reading the series and/or don't want to be spoiled on certain things. I'll add some spacing just in case.)
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I have to say, this was a great round-up of everything we've been through so far, everyone we've met so far, all that 松岡先生 has been building up to for a good two or three volumes by now, at least in terms of Kaito's reunion with Geoffrey. She's been putting in a ton of work getting us set up for the Armada invasion, and that might be my biggest criticism of the series so far (besides that it's not harem :P): these books sometimes feel like they need to be twice the length so she can properly set up scenes, let them breathe, and avoid having slower books drop the overall pace of the series. Don't get me wrong, I love all the setup and political maneuvering, it makes the quiet scenes all the better, but just in terms of general pacing (from a learner's perspective, at least), they do tend to feel a bit jarring. (I'm pretty sure I'd be singing a different tune in English, though, so take all that above with a grain of salt.) As always, her character relationships are perfection; I've been on the fence with how she intended on resolving Nigel's angst in regards to Kaito, and so far it looks like she's kind of sidestepped it, honestly. Nigel's just going to continue ignoring his feelings, apparently, which I suppose is all he can do if he doesn't want to break with Geoffrey entirely. And while I 100% appreciate having a solution where all (/most) of my favorite boys can continue living together in harmony, it still makes me feel a bit sad to see Nigel essentially sidelined yet again. This is for you, Nigel. 😘 Kaito showed a great amount of growth and pro-activeness from all that he's learned through the series in this volume as well; it'll be fun to have him hopefully be a bit more of an active, rather passive recipient of events going forward. Not that most of the previous stuff was his fault, of course; Kaito's has terrible luck, haha. I'm going to need to make sure I'm in top shape for future volumes so I can keep a close eye on the Armada activities and all the political maneuvering I'm sure they'll be going through. 👁️ And come on Vicente, you still haven't taken another look at Kaito's note?! You're killing me, man, go solve it with Leo, Alfonso, and Cervantes. 😭