More like an extended epilogue than a climax for the series
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Go Ikeyamada
Translation/Adaptation: Tomo Kimura
What They Say
The Tohoku earthquake devastated Sendai and the surrounding region, but life must go on. Time is passing, recovery is ongoing, and Megumu and Mitsuru are building their new lives. But Megumu struggles with the idea that healing from tragedy must mean forgetting. Can she find a way to use her new success as a manga artist to honor all that was lost?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
We actually open this finale volume well into epilogue territory, with Megumu and Aoi’s wedding. Things progress steadily as we see that, then skip ahead to the birth of their child. It’s all plenty cute and nice, but it just feels a bit rushed. So it’s more like “these are things that happened” than actual events that get proper focus. Like, both of these events could and definitely should have been their own chapters if not longer, but because they’re crammed in here together, they just sort of come off as underdeveloped. Which isn’t to say they’re terrible or anything, mind, just that they’re robbed of a lot of their potential impact.
The final chapter, however, does at least feel a bit better. It’s more of a scattershot collection of events, but they feel less compressed, which is nice. We get to check in on the baby, and see Shino’s wedding, which gives a chance for a finale between her and Mitsuru. And then finally, we end on a children’s book from Shino and Megumu roughly telling the tale of the series, which is a nice little capstone.
To wrap things up, we get a little bonus chapter for Mitsuru and Azusa which is nicely done, followed by one for Aoi, Megumu, and their daughter. Oh, and then we get a cute little unrelated bonus story about an idol group.
In Summary
This last volume is really like an extended epilogue for the series more than anything else, and that’s… okay. The conflicts and struggles of the series are all over and done with, so pretty much all that’s left to do is put a nice little bow on everything. I’d say that’s done well enough here, but things feel sort of compressed, especially in the first chapter. Like, it jams too much into one chapter, and as a result, it all just feels underdeveloped. Fortunately the final chapter and the little bonuses feel better paced to fit in what they want to, and even have a few charming little character moments that I appreciate. Oh, and the completely unrelated short story included actually is pretty nice and cute, too. All in all, this isn’t a terrible finale, but it’s one that feels sort of unnecessary. It’s just sort of an extra little volume for fans to show a bit more that happened, more than any sort of climax to the series.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: October 3rd, 2017
MSRP: $9.99
