Review by Frank Plowright

The young Alpi is among the rare people who can actively intervene in lives after death, aiding trapped spirits in their onward journey, hence her Soul Sender title, but it’s a trade equally respected and feared. While dedicated to her task, she also wants to locate her parents, also Soul Senders, and in Vol. 3 learned a little more about them. Following their trail has led to the town where Alpi is seen at the start of this volume. However, her innocence doesn’t alert her to the disguised sinister intentions of the local librarian, with whom hospitality comes at a price. Having established that, writer and artist Rona switches back to the past and the visit of Alpi’s parents to the same community hoping to research at the library.

Rona’s artwork for Alpi becomes ever more impressive. Scenes of ordinary conversation are occupied by delicately drawn people seen from a variety of viewpoints, and the use of tone and shading supplies a depth absent from the isolated figures of many other Japanese comics. When Alpi needs to protect herself Rona indicates movement via panels with angled borders, and there are occasional pin-up pages supplying stunning decorative detail.

The ongoing theme of Alpi is the power of innocence. Alpi knows what’s right and stands in the way of what’s wrong, even at cost to herself. Here, uncovering the librarian’s sinister research she’s horrified, both at the nature of that research and at how the librarian could have been dragged down such a perverted path.

A continued melancholy infuses Alpi, who’s left disillusioned and disappointed about any poor behaviour, and Rona is decidedly unsentimental about the cast. Due to the accomplished art this may look like a Disney fantasy, but the mood is anything but. Once the action is over, the key moment concerns an ethical decision. Should Alpi pass on bad news of what will inevitably happen, or should she withhold the information to ensure a happier, if curtailed life?

The interplay of darkness against Alpi’s light is consistently well conceived, and the series becomes ever more reflective, and ever better.