Content Warning: Nudity, mild gore, and wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff
Here we are, the end of the road. The last volume. The end of this weird story. And it’s going to an odd ending, which shouldn’t be surprising, after everything else we’ve seen. It’s going to be a bit of a tough read, but let’s get started.
This volume begins with the aftermath of the last volume, with an EMP knocking out most of the technology in Tokyo. People are commenting on the fact that the US launched a nuke against the ETE satellite, with PaPiCo still aboard. Rei starts crying, begging that Chiho is alright. Three days later, power is restored to Tokyo and it is confirmed that PaPiCo died aboard the satellite, and she receives a state/global funeral. Meanwhile, Rei falls into a deep depression, unable to cope with the loss. His memories of Chiho brings him to her apartment, where he ends up FINALLY watching the DVD from volume one. I KNEW that was going to be important! I didn’t forget about it.
While watching the DVD, we discover the Space/Future Weirdos original mission: stopping the death of a Professor Banner in a freak accident. It’s believed that he will program Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics into Socrates and Plato and change the future. If you’re unfamiliar with the Three Laws, look them up on Wikipedia, they’re famous. Anyway. After making this discovery, Mochi reappears. Remember how the dog traveled to the future? Well, the future is now. Rei has a light-bulb moment and realizes that the other little button thing will take him back in time. Rather than doing the smart thing, like going home and using it, he uses it right then and there in the apartment, and has to get away before Chiho’s former (now current) shitty boyfriend discovers him.
Now that he’s in the past, and he knows that the Space Weirdos aren’t going to save the Professor, he does it himself.
After saving Professor Banner, he’s chased down by the original Space Weirdo that we saw die way back in volume one. Rei explains to him what happens and he waits for the other members of the team to arrive. I find it interesting that they’re still able to come back, given how the future they came from doesn’t exist anymore (at least, it appears that it doesn’t, given what happened). This the wibbly-wobbly stuff I was talking about.
But, here’s the thing, now that things have changed, Rei will never meet Chiho.
Using the button, he returns to the time that he left from, but he never met Chiho (which makes me wonder about those signs that were put up back in volume one, perhaps it was something done by Socrates and Plato?) but everyone is alive and the ETE stuff also never happened. And robots start integrating into society. Safe, sane, and helpful robots.
As Rei adapts to this reality, he sees Chiho saving the city in his mind’s eye, and remembers their conversations about how they would find each other if they were reincarnated. He does go to her apartment, seeing her outside, but her boyfriend is there, too. Their eyes met for just a second and she just looks away, with no recognation. But he just can’t forget her. He misses her. And, after a dream where she tells him to come and find her, he sets his life on a path to do just that.
The final chapter begins with someone asking Chiho if it’s true that she was an AV actress in the past, while doing her makeup. She confirms that she was, and that she broke up with her boyfriend last year. She also got a call from a movie studio, as there’s an up and coming director who wants her to star in his new film, his student film having won an award. Yeah, hold on to your butts…
We see Rei again, and he’s got long hair and glasses, and we see Chiho again, who’s also got longer hair, too. When they meet, she realizes that she’s been invited to the role because she was in porn and Rei admits that he used to be a fan. She says it’s the first time she’s ever been glad she did that gig. If you haven’t guessed it already, the movie Rei is making is their story, the story we read until Rei went back in time and changed everything. He’s had to cast someone to play him, but these are his memories, being made into a movie. As the movie filming continues, Chiho starts acting… Odd. She points out that she once had an outfit like the one the manga started with. She kind of confronts Rei, asking in a joking manner if he’s her starker, as the movie is her, through and through. He, like an idiot, spills the beans about how he changed the past and because of that, they never dated. She seems to take it as a joke and says she’ll give her best the next day.
While filming the scene where Chiho is going to go up and confront Socrates and Plato, she somehow remembers this reality she never experienced, but she remembers her love for Rei and his love for her. Crying, they embrace, and kiss. Meanwhile, everyone else looks around going “WTF?”
And that’s pretty much the end of the series. There’s a few other scenes before the end, but there’s no text, so you should read it yourself.
Whew. I started this whole blog because I wanted to talk about this series and it’s over. I know it’s taken a long (long, long) time get done, but I really had to wait for it to cool in my mind before I write this. I was angry the first time I read it, until the end, and then was sad the second time I read it. This series has been all over the place, but in the end, I’m glad I picked it up and I really hope you give it a chance.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: Buy it. Buy them all. Let’s hope they make an anime, because the length of the story is just perfect for a 12 episode run. Maybe expand the future stuff at bit (a pair of bookend episodes at the beginning and end would do it) and there you go.
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| Me, finishing this series <.< |
