Series is suprisingly still going strong. The academy and the whole body swap thing was something I was expecting to get old pretty quickly but was actually a nice change of pace and added some good humour, definitely more comedy bits, but it never felt tonally out of place or jarring. But definitely the most positive surprise was that it was not the filler arc I felt it might be, the plot moved forward, and a lot more lore was dropped in a way that felt natural. Certainly pick this one up if you're a fan of the series or IF.

Characters and stories are well written, consistency is kept and more and more knots are tied across the books.

While I was thinking of a quick method to explain what I liked and disliked, I read another review that mentioned this being their second favorite in the series.

I can agree and safely say that Book 6 of Samurai of Hyuga is my 2nd favorite and I can quantify why very easily.

For context, my favorite book was Jun/ko's featuring book, Book 4. Some felt otherwise and may argue why it would be, but it finally gave character to one of the more interesting ones in the series and ultimately led me to keep playing and waiting patiently. It allowed me to actually explain why the MC didn't leap into relationships for my earlier playthroughs, while also making him feel a lot more "complete" and having to grow beyond that in Book 5 (which IMO is not great for how fast it butchers/rails some characters completely out of existence).

Book 6 does the same thing Book 4 did for Jun/ko but for one of the main characters of the franchise who has basically been a gag character. It's not AS good for the simple fact it fails to deliver on learning about Masami (and a male version I don't know the name of) as much as it could have despite having a LOT of opportunities to do so. This is likely because of the faster pacing of the academy arc, but it's even further exemplified by a recurring trend to bench one of the main characters of the franchise but give Kohaku screentime. If I had to make one major complaint with Book 6, it's that despite being a book clearly aimed at telling and expanding the content related to Masami, it basically just makes us realize how easy it was to pretend to be her while hinting at just how hard things were for her in the background this whole time.

To cut it short: Book 6 is great and definitely better than Book 1-3 (outside of initial story hooks, maybe, that set up/tie into Book 4) but is only JUST better than Book 5 while being massively eclipsed by Book 4. The shortness of its arc definitely helps keep it in the upper end of good quality.