Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: 13+
Price: $10.99

The Rain Goddess Sora is back and she has help in Gimmy and his friends in trying to get her tree spirit back. The group travels to an annual festival, where they think they will be able to meet the amefurashi of the land. Hopefully that god will be able to assist them in their quest to get Sora's tree spirit back.

Unfortunately, things to go as expected for Gimmy, Sora and their group. (Do they ever?) Not only is the amefurashi quick to dismiss the validity of Sora's claims, but she's inclined to leap to judgments before learning the truth.

Eventually, though, the group learns of a ship that crosses the desert. By crossing the desert, they could make their way to a capital where they have greater hopes of obtaining more information on the one who stole Sora's tree.

The trip through the desert and the fallout from it consume most of the volume. And it brings about in infusion in the plot, which gets an assist with a new character, although it's somewhat predictable how that character is connected to the plot. Still, it's fun, lighthearted, and helps greatly to deepen the relationship between Sora and Gimmy.

The relationship between Sora and Gimmy in particular is what the second half of the volume focuses on. Unfortunately, that's because this volume is the last in the series. And what was a nice, touching element -- the Sora-Gimmy relationship -- is overshadowed by the pace of the series. The second half of in particular seemed hurried, and it's a bit perplexing when this could have been a very nice story.

But the hurried, frenzied action detracts from that. The ending suffered, too, although not as much as the Sora-Gimmy relationship. The last pages seem pulled together; this series should have been stretched out a bit to be a 3- or 4-volume series. It would have given more depth to the main relationship and relaxed the frenzied ending feeling.

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