What can I say? I find myself really loving this series. Much more so than I initially expected.

If it wasn't for the fact that I found a used copy of the first volume (not the omnibus), and bought it on a whim, most likely I would have continued to overlook this series. One could be forgiven, when looking at the cover, to expect something like an Utena clone or a shojo drama along the lines of 'Maria Watches Over Us'. Even if one later finds out that this is actually a shounen series focused on sword duals, it wouldn't be to hard to not get jaded into expecting another battle/friendship series that's been getting too common lately, even if one is not a Bleach, Naruto, or a One Piece.

Instead, what I discovered was a series with the perfect balance of pure hilarity, mixed with action, packaged with interesting characters. As the back blurb describes it, this is an 'action-packed romantic comedy romp, with hints of yuri'. While they might be overstating the yuri (which is always used as a lead in to a joke), and I'm not sure about the romance, I can definitely attests to the 'action-packed' and 'comedy romp'.

However, if there's one thing to be critical about, it's the lack of Translation Notes for this omnibus release, that were included in the individual volume set (at least based on Volume 1). I don't know if this was an oversight or just a way to cut corners in cost, but this deficiency might come to be a problem for those not familiar with Japanese cultural terms or phrases (things like 'tsukkomi', 'boke', or 'owarai' come to mind).

Still, this is a series that I really enjoyed and highly recommend. I'd hate to see this fall on the wayside. ( )