Welcome to volume 4 of From Far Away, or as I like to call it Izark, the Blushing Sky Demon.

When last we left our fine friends Noriko had made the acquaintance of the mercenary Agol and his Seer daughter Geena Haas, Gaya had watched as Izark was imprisoned and Lord Rachef was calmly sipping tea as he pondered who Izark was.

Rachef often calmly sips tea while pondering about Izark, I'm sure that means nothing.

It seems Izark found himself the new fighting toy of the usurper ruler Lord Nada. After refusing to fight Barago, Nada had Izark drugged and kidnapped, gloating about how he would make Izark grovel.

Izark meanwhile was somewhat more worried that he had made a grave error in leaving Noriko with Gaya since it seems Gaya embroiled her in the politics of the region.

All of that gets itself resolved to the point where Izark and his Merry Men wind up on the road to a monster ridden forest of pretty trees.

Noriko continues her campaign to be the most pragmatic shoujo heroine EVER and Izark tries on the brooding hero 'why do I miss her' mask. Lord Rachef is so busy thinking about Izark he barely bothers to talk during a representative meeting...but he's so damn powerful no one nay says him the moment he does. Also no one is allowed in his crib. Keimos is also dreaming of his wedding daynext fight with Izark, and it makes me sad since he'd be the prettiest homicidal murderer at the ball.

Honestly folk spend as much time contemplating Izark as they do Noriko. ( )

This seventh installment of Kyoko Hikawa's fourteen-volume manga epic, which follows the story of star-crossed lovers Noriko, a Japanese schoolgirl mysteriously transported to an alien world where her coming (as "The Awakening") has been foretold, and Izark, a wandering warrior destined to be transformed by the Awakening into a terrible sky demon, sees some key developments in the storyline. As Izark, having magically reattached his arm(!!) after it was sliced off by Banna at the end of the last installment, races to save Noriko from the demon Mokumen and his followers, who intend to use her as a sacrifice in order to increase their own powers, his strong emotions begin to transform him, and by the time he has confronted his enemies he has assumed the guise of the monster he fears he is doomed to become. It takes Noriko to bring him back to himself, but when the two escape from Mokumen's temple, and confront the seeress Tazasheena in the woods outside of town, her revelations about their respective identities sets a new crisis in motion. Will Noriko, now aware of who she is, and what she is destined to do to Izark, abandon her erstwhile protector? Will he let her...?

As the conclusion of this seventh volume marks the halfway point in the series, the answer to these questions is: obviously not! Clearly these two have plenty of adventures still before them. Action-packed and lots of fun to read, this episode contained quite a few exciting fight scenes, but it also included some lovely moments depicting the development of Noriko and Izark's relationship. Izark's confession, wrest from him in a moment of desperation, when he believes that Noriko is leaving him, that he wants to stay with her because he loves and needs her, not (just) because he is being "nice," is very well done, and the scene in which he kisses her is both humorous (her wide-eyed surprise!) and heartwarming. The separation of our hero and heroine from their erstwhile companions is somewhat sad, but then, I suspect they'll be reappearing in the story, at some point. In sum: a strong episode in an engrossing series! Now the wait begins for episode eight to arrive in the mail... ( )

Determined to protect the young Noriko, Izark finds himself pushed further towards his destiny as the dreaded Sky Demon. However, in an odd twist of fate The Awakening that is changing him is just as responsible for helping him hold on to his humanity, a catch 22 situation with no clear solution.

This volume held a lot of revelations and almost seems as though it might have been written as the last volume of the series. Thankfully that was not the case. Although the fight scenes reminded me a bit of the old Batman television shows, with the "Pow" and "Wham" words showing up everywhere I still thought that this was probably one of the best volumes of this series so far. It was certainly one of the most emotional. I also enjoyed the author's insites into the writing process used for the manga. ( )