O Maidens in your Savage Season Volume 4 Review

While the anime adaption for O Maidens in your Savage Season may have come to an end, the manga continues to make its way to the West. This month we hit the fourth volume of the series, which marks the halfway point for the series. Let’s find out what’s happening to our favourite maidens this time around!

As we reunite with the cast we find that the school cultural festival is quickly approaching and the Literary Club has been challenged to come up with a romantic legend for the event. While dealing with their own romance and romantic issues, the group are well prepared to take on the task but their ideas are repeatedly shot down and it’s not long before they’re struggling to hit on something just right.

Luckily for the girls, they’re allowed to go on an overnight trip to get their creative juices flowing. However, with Kazusa worrying about her growing feelings for Izumi (and jealousy toward Nina) and Sonezaki trying desperately to keep her relationship a secret, the trip may prove dramatic as the girls release their hidden feelings.

This volume marks a significant struggle for Kazusa, Nina and Sonezaki. Up until now, Nina has been playing up her feelings toward Izumi to get Kazusa to confess her own, but what started as a well-meaning push is quickly becoming muddled. The more time Nina spends with Izumi the more she begins to fall for him herself. While Nina grows closer to Izumi, Kazusa’s jealousy only grows until she’s frustrated and angry with both Nina and herself.

Meanwhile, Sonezaki has yet to tell anyone about her relationship with Amagi. They’ve been keeping it a secret so that Sonezaki isn’t teased about it by the rest of her classmates, but Amagi is beginning to wonder if that means Sonezaki doesn’t want to be with him. This storyline, in particular, does a good job of showing the muddled feelings many teenagers have if they get into a relationship while at school and the fears that spawn from burying your emotions in a social setting.

It’s completely reasonable that Amagi would have concerns about Sonezaki wanting to be with him, but it’s equally understandable why Sonezaki is finding it difficult to show him her true feelings. Thankfully it does seem that a resolution is in sight, as Sonezaki wishes to make the romantic legend of the school festival a success. With more couples (hopefully) popping up from it, she’s aiming to tell everyone about her and Amagi then.

By the end of Volume 4, it’s clear that Volume 5 is setting up to finally have Kazusa make a move on Izumi. Having spent four volumes with our protagonist struggling to come to terms with her feelings and figuring out what to do, it feels like something needs to happen. Whether Izumi rejects her or shares her feelings remains to be seen (although anime viewers like me will know the answer), but either way, the current stalemate has gone on long enough. With a confession made, perhaps the series can shift its focus to Hongo and Momoko who have been on the sidelines for a couple of instalments now.

This volume of O Maidens in your Savage Seasons comes to the West thanks to Kodansha Comics and has once again been translated by Sawa Matueda Savage. The translation reads well and is problem-free. Volume 5 of the series is set to be released on the 17th of December.

Overall this volume of O Maidens in your Savage Seasons spends most of its time setting up for the following release, which is by no means a bad thing. Fans of Sonezaki and Kazusa will enjoy Volume 4, but those looking for focus on the other girls might be disappointed.