Genres: Drama, Romance
Rating: Teen
Price: $7.99

Finally, the end is in sight for the treasured romance between Miki and her Deliverer boyfriend, Hiro, in Miki Falls: Winter by Mark Crilley.

It’s hard to imagine as the opening pages unfold that the love and relationship between the two will stand together for the remainder of the volume. And with the way Hiro’s Hold Spirit, Anra, has been acting, it’s not hard to see that there are still some very difficult obstacles left in their path.

As the two try to find their way to Otaru, where they can board a ship and flee on sea, they pass by a Deliverer camp, and Miki’s suspicions of Anra’s motives heat up. But soon Anra won’t go any further, and the two must finish the voyage on their own — or not at all.

But try as they might, Miki and Hiro are simply two people. They cannot fully hide from the long range of the Deliverer organization. And, soon, they find out how unbridled currents of love can be washed away for precipitating gloom.

Yet as bleak as events have turned on them, they’ll always have their love for one another. And for Miki, that’s hope enough that she’ll make the correct decision when the time comes.

The dramatic flair, perhaps not unsurprisingly, is at its best in this fourth and final volume of the series. The transitions, panel structures and other ancillary features add up to provide a heart-wrenching ride of emotion.

It’s clear that Miki has grown and that she has the ability to believe in herself and act for herself. But the decisions she makes in this volume can be so alarming that it shows she’s grown far more than at first glance.

Miki Falls: Winter is such an appropriately great ending for a very good teenage romance series. The drama is hyped up and the emotions are rampant, and that's what makes this volume good.

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