Finally finished this manga after forgetting about it at the tail end of the Taka arc.
It really lost the plot after that point, but even more than that, I feel like the author never really knew what they wanted the story to become.
The romantic threads with Usami, Reo, and Taka made it seem kind of like they were going to take it in a pseudo-harem direction like with Moteki, but nothing really progressed on that front after they nuked any romantic possibilities with Taka.
If I had to take a wild guess, I would say the unfocused, pointless filler chapters in Volume 10 probably did enough harm to reader interest that the manga was axed soon after. Even with the marathon arc it didn’t feel like the author had any clear idea of how to wrap up the series, and stalled on giving any of the characters’ growth or relationships any real progress.
Anyway, here’s my take on the ending if anyone cares to read it. I picture the story as taking place in 5 timelines:
- The original timeline, where the story starts and where Imamura briefly returns to
- The Again timeline, where the bulk of the story takes place
- The “Imamura dies” timeline, which branches off from the Again timeline and loops back into…
- The “Imamura lives” timeline, which branches off from the same point in the Again timeline - this is where Chapter 136 takes place up until page where Imamura jumps down the stairs and hugs Usami.
- The final timeline, which is identical to the original timeline except that the Usami from the Imamura dies timeline appears there and stops Imamura from going into his Again.
I’m not sure whether the Imamura lives timeline continues on with Imamura in it (since we don’t see any visual representation of Imamura switching timelines the way we have before, and it seems evident enough that he wasn’t going to hit his head falling down the stairs this time), or whether he does end up leaving/destroying the Again timeline and its branches by some act of conscious choice and “returns” to his original timeline without any memory of what happened.
This is up for debate. Regardless, Usami’s presence at the school and her recognition of Imamura and Fujieda shows that none of the manga was just a dream.
As for Usami’s pregnancy, which seems to be a point of concern for some readers for whatever reason, I think the filler chapter where she stupidly Agains herself, despite being as dreamlike as it is, does imply that this is what happened in the “original” timeline.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk. Reo best girl.