Review by Frank Plowright

While Pili and her protector Oak are both ostensibly searching for Eden, a sanctuary for witches, they have different priorities, and their clash of opinions comes to a head early here. Pili is kindly, rescuing and escaping with Karen, an ill witch in Volume 3, but Oak perhaps represents the impatient reader wanting to be there as soon as possible rather than revelling in the journey and Pili’s personal growth along the way. It leads to a good discussion of priorities, with writer and artist Yumeji showing how far Piri has come because she’s no longer overawed by Oak.

It’s not long before Piri encounters the character seen on the cover, a lone armoured warrior living in a deep crevasse. There’s uncertainty at first, but he proves like no soldier Piri has previously encountered.

Although Volume 4 does supply danger, it’s at nowhere the levels of the previous volume, and so returns to the coming of age story showing Piri learning as she explores a world that’s pretty well new to her. She’s always keen to learn, with Yumeji having a habit of showing new knowledge practically applied. After the initial conflict Oak keeps his thoughts to himself, and that Karen is given a flashback explaining her behaviour indicates she’s going to be part of the series for a while. Yumeji changing her appearance indicates her progression over this interlude volume.

The feeling is that Yumeji has a broad mythology planned and is feeding readers small portions at a time, which is what you want from a saga. Conversations take place and add to the bigger picture both for Pili and for readers, and the final sequence restores the danger and uncertainty, excellently stoking up the anticipation for Volume 5.