Bokutachi ga Yarimashita - Vol. 9 Ch. 87 - If That Day Comes

[moikkai]

Disliking this ending is wanting to escape from reality.

 

[5nizza_13]

WTF??? Are you guys know what tragedy is? This genre is like big spoiler! And you anyway getting mad about endind... What a stupid fools you are!

 

[Kronous]

actually, i wonder if killing peoples will be that bad, never done though. but if hits person with blunt weapon till he lost his consciousness, i've done it (to thiefs or some thugs).

 

[Hootanic]

Good story and the ending fits. Sometimes things in life get out of hand with consequences that aren't intended and last forever. They can haunt people their whole lives. That's why forgiveness is so important. Tobio will likely never be able to move on entirely, but maybe with his new family he can begin to forgive himself and heal.

 

[Hexzertopi]

That was one heck of a manga. Though I didn't really understand the meaning of the last few pages and some meanings of the manga, so I looked through the comments and was able to understand it better. It's what I love but also dislike about these types of manga. They make you feel a certain way(to me at least), sometimes it hurts to continue reading, but you do it anyway. These type of manga make you think and are also able to give you a new perspective on life. I prefer having the ending be happy and joyful, but getting life lessons and a new perspective from a manga is something I'm not against. It was an emotional ride and in the end I'm glad I read this manga. Sure I might be sad and torn about the ending,but hey, life is like that sometimes. I wish you all the best fellow readers and to be and to have love in this life! Thank you scantalator and I'm sorry for your loss and hope you are doing better now,it really is a tragedy, deepest condolences @gormadoc

 

[Starbright]

@gormadoc Thanks for the explanation makes me appreciate the ending more and I'm sorry you had to go through that.

 

[Levankua]

Man sucks that the homeless guy is still gonna be executed after all that.

This was an incredible story of guilt and how unfair real life is. As everyone else pointed out, Tobio didn't get his penance he's gotta live with what he did for the rest of his life.

 

[litgit]

The boys journey has come to an end. Paisen, Isami and shitty Maru seems happy and doing great with their own thing. While Tobio, I felt bad for him.

 

[youngtokyo]

I'm only throwing this out there because it's all I can think of, but I don't know what the original Japanese is so I'm not sure how solid this is, but: When Na-chan asks about a name, it triggers a memory of Paisen setting off the bombs and says "I'm Tarou." In chapter 7, he doesn't say anything like that, just that "with his chin he'll set it off." Taro (in my experience no u but) is a really common Japanese name - like, common to the point of anonymity, were US people might say "Bob" or "John Doe." So again, without seeing the original Japanese pages I don't know what the original dialogue is either in chapter 7 or here, but I'm sure a Taro joke was made. But I think the purpose of that transition is, not so much to say that Tobio is considering this as a real name for his son, but I think it illustrates just how close to the surface it all is, and how close he really is to cracking. (Again, not that we need the point driven home more, but - another example of it.) I hope that makes sense, I just really was confused where "Tarou" came from so I put a little thought into it.

 

[no0neknows]

absolutely based. thanks for this scanlators

 

[terraformars]

＠youngtokyo he says『あご乗せ太郎です』(ago nose tarou desu) both times, with "ago" means "chin", "nose" means "to put on" and "Tarou" is a common name. Google "あご乗せ" (ago nose) and you will understand the rest.

 

[mouseyo22]

Great ending. It just shows you different people experience the same thing but suffer in vastly different degree. Paisen, Isami and Maru are back at square one. Even if the explosion didn't happen they will still be doing the same thing. They don't reflect on it too much. They have moved on and ignorance is bliss. Tobio suffers greatly because he thinks. He denied happiness because it would be unfair for the victims if the killer is living happily. The last panel shows his glee at destroying others and ignorant of the future and love which will be crushed. The gang wanted to show the world they are predators too. They thought they were invincible as stupid youths and their stories of killings would shake the world and they'll be at its center as villains and they would be redeemed by suffering. In reality no one cares. Whether you are guilty or suffering no one cares but you. No one loves you truly. They love how useful you are or how you make them feel. As you suffer more and more you will also stop caring about what has happened to you. Not everyone is capable of self pity. You can scream and no one will understand. Kill yourself and others will be glad. This will go in until the day you die

 

[MissBrainProblems]

Thinking about what the ghost of Ichihashi said to Tobio:

"You traitor."

I don't think this refers to Tobio going out with Renka after Ichihashi confessed to her, or to the fact that Tobio was responsible for the bombing, but rather refers to the fact that Tobio is happy, or at the very least trying to be so. The fact that Tobio is trying to be happy while Ichihashi and all of the other victims are dead - and many others permanently crippled - means that Tobio is "betraying" them and their memories. It's almost "treason" for Tobio to want to be happy after he's robbed so many other people of their happiness.

I think that this also ties in to what Tobio said to Paisen in Chapter 86:

"You're a murderer! Why should you have such a happy dream!?"

Tobio claims to have been "saved" by Paisen, but that's only partially true. Paisen's words have allowed Tobio to keep living, but they haven't allowed Tobio to cleanse himself of his guilt. Tobio, more than Maru or Isami, wants to cleanse himself of his guilt. After all, he was the one that smiled and felt joy at seeing the Yaba High students die in the explosion that he was responsible for (remember additionally that he was the one that suggested killing the Yaba High students back at the beginning). Paisen was allowed to cleanse himself of his own guilt by spending ten years in prison, but Tobio was robbed of that chance when the bombing was covered up and he wasn't allowed to properly repent.

As another commentor noted, I would say that the ultimate theme of this manga is "The things that guilt does to us, and the ways that we try to manage guilt and its effects." Again, as another commentor noted, this ending is not supposed to be a happy ending for Tobio. Tobio will never have a happy ending, because he will always be burdened by and live with his feelings of guilt - again, especially because he was never allowed to have the redemption that he sought - and will probably kill himself at some point in his life, because that's what his guilt does to him. If Tobio had managed to achieve a happy ending, then the theme that the manga was going for would have been lost. If Tobio had managed to rid himself of the feelings and burdens of guilt, then everything that had happened in the manga would have been pointless.

Tobio will always be haunted by guilt. He will never have a happy ending. That's the point.

That being said, yes, the ending did feel a tad bit rushed. Still, letter grade B+/A- or so.

EDIT: I also want to take a moment to comment on who shares the most "responsibility" for the bombing. Obviously, all four of them share some amount of responsibility, but Maru and Isami arguably share the least amount of responsibility - neither of them suggested killing the Yaba High students, neither of them made any bombs, and neither of them set the bomb that blew the gas tanks - and this is why they feel the least guilty and are able to lead the most normal lives.

Paisen shares a bit more responsibility since he's the one that made the bombs and is the one that set the bomb that blew the gas tanks, but his ten years in prison allowed him to repent for his share of the responsibility. An important thing to note about Paisen's level of responsibility, though, is that he didn't know that he had set the bomb that would blow the gas tanks, and hadn't even seen the gas tanks at all; he was completely ignorant of what was going to happen once they set the bombs off. Obviously he's still responsible to some degree since he was still the one that planted the bomb, but Paisen did not know what would happen. Unlike Tobio.

Tobio absolutely holds the lion's share of the responsibility for the bombing. Not only is he the one that suggested killing the Yaba High students, but Tobio saw that Paisen had set a bomb that would blow the gas tanks - where-as Paisen himself did not - but said nothing about it. He claimed that he didn't say anything about the gas tanks at the time they were setting the bombs because they needed to escape from the security guard, but the last page of the manga tells us the real reason that he didn't say anything:

He wanted the Yaba High students to die. When he saw the Yaba High students burning alive, Tobio was happy. Tobio knew what would happen, allowed it to happen, and felt happy that it had happened. As another commentor noted, his happiness was possible because he viewed the Yaba High students as some sort of foreign "other" that he didn't need to feel empathy for; after all, they had harassed him and his friends and nearly killed Maru, so they were just bad people getting their just deserts, right? It was only after Tobio met Ichihashi in the hospital that Tobio began to really understand the full gravity and weight of his crimes - that is to say, that he had killed other real, living people, with families and friends and dreams and loves and so forth, just like him and his friends - which finally allowed guilt to really begin to set in fully and properly.

Even if he wasn't the one to set the critical bomb, Tobio shares the most responsibility for the crime, and this is why he feels the most guilty out of all of the four main characters. And, as I said previously, poor guy didn't even get to repent properly, so he'll be left with that heavy burden of guilt for the rest of his life, without any way to alleviate it.

 

[caocao]

Fuck, this work is a truly masterpiece. This whole volume 9 is fucking dope, and the ending is amazing too.

Shame it's not as famous as Punpun, but equally amazing as a modern tragedy.

I really liked it, probably top 5 mangas I've ever read.


If you think it's rushed or bad just go back to your usual shonen, guys.

 

[caocao]

@MissBrainProblems nailed it.

 

[supesdupes]

Jumped in without a clue as to what this manga was about. Read the whole thing in one sitting. Goddamn this was wild. Will read again.

 

[Amphguy]

It's been a long time since I read this manga, and I've forgotten a lot of what happens in it, but those last two pages have to be the most memorable ending of any manga I've ever read. It's such a chilling reminder of how distorted the protagonist was from the very start, intentionally letting people die like that (he chose not to prevent the big explosion from what I remember) and and enjoying it deep down.

 

[Robinisback]

This was one crazy manga, I'm definitely going to remember it.

 

[reaperbreeze]

definitely a new favourite. that was amazing!

 

[Sonaldo]

@ZombiesAreNotOkay I think people did get that, but the problem is...that the point the manga has made ever since the beginning.

It doesn't offer a resolution. It doesn't feel like the mangaka was trying to tell the readers something beyond what was established in the first few arcs.
I think the previous chapter would've sent a more interesting message if it was the last.

Not getting any resolution is the point tho. Whenever the mc thinks his life is turning better, something related to the explosion comes back and remind him of it. Even in the last chapter, he's having a baby and rushing to the hospital to see it but seeing the survivor just relived the memories. That's like the common thing in this manga. He's never putting that thing behind. Just reread what he said to Paisen. Their lives are defined by that explosion. I think ending it like this sends that message even more.