Nicola Traveling Around the Demon’s World Volume 4 Review
Nicola no Oyururi Makai Kikou
ニコラのおゆるり魔界紀行

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It is difficult to believe that it has been roughly 3.5 years since I last read this series. As I unpacked a box of manga to put in my bookcase, I unearthed the series. Immediately, I put all four volumes on the nightstand so I could reread the first three volumes and finally read the fourth (and sadly final) volume of the series.

The Story in Brief

Nicola, Simon, and Bruno find the cave that leads to the hidden human settlement in Makai. The humans here know Nicola’s mother, Arma. To that end, they treat Nicola with great respect, showing her how their enclave survives in such a harsh land for humans. Eventually, the trio set off for the capital, Central Dark, Arma’s last known destination. To that end, Simon books a first class vessel to take them there. Nicola imagines a nice, sailing ship. Instead, the vessel is a giant fish.

Initially, Nicola isn’t impressed. However, the cabin Simon booked allowed them to have a glass ceiling for when the fish swam underwater, giving them an amazing view of life under the sea. The group reach the capital and The Cambell Magic Research Lab. Here, Nicola is reunited with the young demon mage, Glen Rodd. They see his master, Toto Cambell, who says Arma was researching how to return to the human world. Toto figures that Nicola’s arrival through the tunnel was a fluke, which is why she could find it to return.

Nicola attempts to learn a tracking spell, but it only causes her flower magic to go awry. The trio look through the city with no success. Simon carries the sleeping Nicola on his back. Her flower spell combines with the tracking one, creating a trail of flowers to follow. Mother and daughter are eventually reunited at a tower Arma resides in. After a time, Arma casts the spell that allows her an Nicola to return to Earth after Nicola says goodbye to the friends she has made.

A year later, Simon sees a trail of flowers come to him. Nicola returns to Makai with her mom’s blessing. Simon agrees to resume journeying around with Nicola again.

A Touching Ending

I’m glad that in Nicola Traveling Around the Demon’s World Volume 4, Nicola finally reunited with her mom. There’s a strange dichotomy in this volume where there’s a clear push to reach an ending, but at the same time, there’s some mark time moments to prevent us from getting there too quickly. I suspect that Miyanaga-sensei had X number of chapters to do to fill the tankoubon, thus the stories we got.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the touching reunion of mother and daughter. I liked how they bonded via the flower magic. But I am disappointed that Nicola mostly seems to do stuff accidentally rather than intentionally. At least at the end, Nicola could use the flower magic to find things, in that case, Simon.

While it is sad to see such an adorable manga come to an end, at least Miyanaga-sensei made sure to wrap up all of the major loose ends. But the ending is a bit odd to me. I get Nicola’s sadness when she had to leave Simon. After all, he became a father figure to her. And I get Nicola wanting to see Simon and the other friends she’d made in Makai. But this makes it seem like Arma is just letting Nicola roam Makai with Simon again, and not just for a visit. How is Nicola to ever return to her mom?

That aside, it is a minor complaint in what was otherwise a lovely, final volume.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Nicola Traveling Around the Demon’s World Volume 4 brings an end to a lovely, wholesome, little manga series.