The pacing and jumping around in this book was super weird. There was also a super incredibly awkward scene that just made no sense to me, even looking at it from a fan-service standpoint. I had to re-read a page or two leading up to it a few times to see if I missed anything, but nope it was just a very forced awkward moment. It still had its good moments, but definitely a dip in the series for this volume.

Finally dove in to this classic CLAMP series, but to be honest it was okay. I think the pacing of the series really was the biggest fault of this book. It just kind of kept jumping ahead so quickly from plot point to plot point. There was no real travel time, to let the characters really build a relationship or even converse with each other. I get the theme of friendship, but damn was it super forced in the quickest way possible. I felt like the series could have used a bit more length to really help build relationships and even world building.

Like most CLAMP projects, I always enjoy the character designs, and the world they put in to images. The characters themselves were very interesting, with Hikaru being best girl. Also I like da lot of the humor, especially surrounding Umi and Mokona. Also the way CLAMP can switch to goofy chibi forms in a blink of an eye is great.

I'm giving this a 3 star, even though it's more like a 3.5... but I don't feel comfortable rounding up for one of those rare times.