I’ve talked about the problems with “happily-ever-after” many times on Okazu. And I’ve frequently mentioned that I love media that looks beyond it – “after-happily-ever-after.” And I’ve addressed the fact that looking past the princesses riding off together on the flying horse or whatever leads to a complicated series of questions and answers, most of which are about human society and politics and not at all romantic, so it’s mostly always handwaved away for “and they lived happily-ever-after.”

So, while the climax of Volume 3 (and/or the anime) left us with hope that Euphyllia and Anisphia would be able to achieve something together, it was a bit thin on details.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Vol. 4 not only digs deep into the practical matters of “happily-ever-after” and after that, it addresses all the actual political issues that lead to the bigger social problems and the smaller issues that made Princess Anis’ life a misery. Piero Karasu took time to address the rather large and complex issue of just how can magicology help people…but also took time to figure out how magicology could bring the Ministry of the Arcane together with Anis and Euphie. This is a major plot point and was handled thoughtfully. A pile of new characters (and therefore new future plot complication) were introduced, as well.

But best of all, this series really got into the weeds of addressing Anis’ and Euphie’s relationship. I heard that some folks were unhappy with them being formally made sisters. In Japan in 2023, where same-sex relationships have no national legal status, adoption is still a common method to give people a legal bond. So that was not unexpected. What happened in Volume 4 as Euphie is crowned – that was unexpected. And very welcome. So if you were among the disappointed, I recommend reading this volume. ^_^

In fact, so much happens in this volume, it’s easy to not see any of it actually *happening* as the modus operandi for most of it is people having much-needed conversations…like people do. What an actual pleasure. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7 Kisaragi’s art is better and more relevant this volume
Story – 10 Does everything it needed to
Characters – 9 Euphie finally steps up and we have two Queens to bring revolution to the world
Service – 6 Euphie’s “feeding” is not heavily veiled and we get an actual sex scene, mostly
Yuri – 10

Overall – 10

I can’t wait for Volume 5 which should be headed our way in August. ^_^