くまクマ熊ベアー 5

A filler volume sets the stage for more adventures down the line

This one felt more like an epilogue to volume 4 than a story that stands on it's own, Crimonia takes Mirira into its territory and we get a lot of the nuts and bolts of who's going to be in charge of what, the repercussions of Yuna's tunnel, etc. The middle picks up a bit with a little subplot about Yuna trying to secure some honey but after that it's straight back to the sea town, though we do get to catch up with Fina for the first time in a while. The bonus chapters at the end about Horun, who Yuna taught some magic to in the bonus story of the last volume was the most adventurous-feeling bit. This is probably the nature of longform serialized narratives, eventually you have to do some cleanup, but it wasn't the most exciting volume though I still enjoy the characters and it's good comfort reading in the sense you generally know what to get. Volume 6 seems like it'll be more of a classic Kuma Bear adventure.

Language-wise there were still some tricky bits but each volume has gotten easier for me than the last. This volume introduces some good recurring words and phrases that ended up sticking, including some good tool words like Axe (which has an uncommon kanji) and I learned a great Japanese meme: 働いたら負け (if you work, you lose).