Did Shuu really survived? I don't think it matters to the story. I found that these stories tend to have a line in between: stories about the world (the society, human nature etc...) and stories about the characters. Here, we can see the author is more concerned with telling the story about human society than about an insane sniper in the desert. I always think of Desert Punk against this. They both have vaguely similar themes but the difference between the tone and focus is very clear. Both are enjoyable but the survival of the characters in desert punk is much more integral to the story than this. You can even include Gunnm. The point is there's a knock on effect for this. Commentary stories like these are usually planned out pretty well to have a beginning and an end. When we write an essay, we are expecting to have our points all planned out. Compare that to characters focus, journey based stories like Gunnm, Desert Punk or the ultimate journey that never ends: Berserk. They can sketch for hundreds of chapters because life can be very very long if we write it down in comic form. This is why I admire Jiro. While his stories have always been sexual, confusing, controversial and even sadistic, he's not afraid to create a project that has a beginning and an end. All of the aforementioned character focus works are awesome, epic and worth every piece of papers but since they have been writing for so long, it muddled their message. Jiro can do new things with each new works while Miura has been occupied by Berserk for 30 years now! Sometime, a work of art should be a reflection of its time. A work spanning 30 years in this ever changing world would inevitably change the spirit of the creation somewhat. Many consider the Golden Age arc to be Berserk, well, golden age and that was released in 1991, 2 years after its inception. I would describe Gunnm the exact same way. Gunnm is most memorable within its first 5 volumes. In fact, had it ended at the head guy revenge at the end of Vol.5?, it would have been sufficient. But it went for until this very day. This is why dragging a work out for decades might not be the best idea. I would imagine it being more financially sensible for author however. Just look at a dragged out work that's actually ended: Mahou Sensei Negima. The tone at the beginning and the end have completely switched. My biggest gripe with it, despite owning volumes of it, is even after more than 300 chapters and 38 volumes, costing 500 dollars that I am never going to get back, still omitted an entire chunk of story. So much so, Akamatsu has enough material to create another series. It's a shame Jiro works are so controversial, they are not always translated and released. I prefer owning Freesia, which sits in a small comfortable corner, than Dragon Balls, Gunnm and MSN, which looks awesome, but are actually frustratingly expensive, unnecessarily so.