Route End - Vol. 8 Ch. 54 - The End Of The Beginning

[Varler]

Thanks for completing this series! It was really good! Although, yes, the ending felt a little bit off.

Also, I hope that Taji and the detective lady can get together now, after so many years.

 

[idle_af]

I don't know how you guys think that the supernatural element was suddenly tacked on at the end. There ultimately was no explanation, I agree, but it was foreshadowed right at the start of the manga, not including all foreshadowing sprinkled through the story. It was teased with Igarashi's brother (who turned out to be his look-alike) peering through Taji's apartment where Igarashi's brother previously lived. It was also teased with the shrine where Ezaki was first discovered hinting at something religious. I'm pretty sure it was deliberate because you see Igarashi's brother's look-alike before the scene. Regarding the look-alike, of course, Igarashi eventually found out that that wasn't the case but when Kitou met with Tachibana when he was supposedly chasing someone tampering with police data it was as if it's explicitly stated already. Heck, even when Yanagami met Tachibana when she almost killed herself at the roof, it was already strongly hinted that there was some reincarnation shenanigans going on. The only mystery left at that point (regarding reincarnating) was whether or not it was only with Tachibana (because he was the only one "confirmed" to us readers that he had died already with the triplets bit the police were saying). Although, I thought it would be Omi who'd stop Yanagami from jumping on the roof because when it was shown to be Tachibana, the shrine with Ezaki was most likely to not have any reincarnation shenanigans, that it was only Tachibana that can actually revive.

The ending was definitely rushed though, could've explored some plot points. Also fuck the author for pussying out with Taji and Igarashi being a thing

@zawarudo
1. I agree, I don't even get the part where he cucked Taji but then he was this (fucked up) good guy all along? Maybe I just speedread that part, whatever

4. Because he was a malicious loose end, I think? Tachibana said that this was the first time that a believer (Oda) talked about God (Tachibana) in much detail to someone else (Ezaki). Or maybe it was for more personal reasons, since he apparently is bored of this whole immortality thing so he's now trying to do good with regards to Taji and AUN members. Seeing as how Ezaki fucked with every single one of them in a way, that could be a reason. I lean with the first one though.

 

[kronix]

Really?

 

[SomeGuy1]

After 53 chapters of being shown people's motivations and struggles, the finale being a text-based infodump followed by a literal deus ex machina is really unsatisfying.
And my theory was that Wild Card/Tachibana was a network of clones, rather than one person. The supernatural/scifi elements with him were definitely there.

 

[Etesian]

Sudden supernatural twist leading to a bad ending...what is this, did David Cage write the last few chapters?

 

[ngkn92]

The end is nice.
I like the scene with all those bloods on the wall. Chill.
Hope those two can find happiness together.

 

[Nimroth]

The supernatural part I don't find one bit surprising, if anything it was too obvious from the way the author had been foreshadowing it, though I'm not sure how I felt about that.
Aside for that it is a pretty unsatisfying ending, felt like the author didn't want to commit to actually tying up any of the plot threads and just slightly hint at how things will go.

 

[DatDopeCracker]

Regardless of how the story ended, I wanna give a huge thanks to everybody on Peckham Scanlations. I started reading this manga almost as soon as it started to be uploaded and had a great time each chapter, all of that wouldn't have been possible without you guys. So thanks a lot and I wish you good fortune in your future endeavors!!!

 

[Xitel]

Y'all complaining about asspulls need to go read Fire Punch. That series pulled asses out of its asses one after another until there was some sort of Lovecraftian ass monster that devoured the universe.

 

[Dzimitory92]

Two questions left unanswered: who's God and why Masato still has black hair after 30 years in prison...

 

[PotatoZero]

Wut..? A major part of this manga for me was about how the author is going to explain the triplets without actually going triplets.. and now it's a god?

 

[CatLife]

It took 30 years to hook up again, it just feels wasted IMO

 

[Oeconomist]

The story didn't so much conclude as fall over onto its side and lay there.

 

[hollyguild]

I'll agree the plot ending wasn't the strongest, but this manga was always mostly about the characters and their relationships with death/suicide. That part still holds up. Thank you for your work, Peckham Scanlations!

 

[coldpray]

Author's way too harsh on Taji. Thought he'd give him proper happy finale, but *sigh*, he deserved way more than life full of work, without kids(otherwise it'd be shown here, 'cause of the wedding and stuff) and seems like Igarashi has or had a partner, kids (huge implication here by Yuta saying she's coming alone today). And let's not forget Masato's being an dick taking Taji's first love for himself( or did I miss something and he had a good reason for it?). Taji deserved more, imo.

 

[zawarudo]

@idle_af
I took it as both brothers having some sort of hero complex where they want to be seen as the ultimately good person by taking the blame for stuff and becoming the figurative villain, this was foreshadowed among other things by the flashback to Taji wrecking a bunch of his classmates for trolling the crying lady, and in Masato's case he of course did it by becoming End aka the fake murderer, but this also makes the connection to him killing Tachibana 3 times very frail since he legit killed them and was probably in a worse mental state while doing it than when he faked the other murders. Also Masato's reason for refusing to be visited by Taji was sure as hell not because of guilt.

What pisses me off is the fact that the writer started a cobweb of plot points but then refused to, or was unable to, find a path that can wholly untangle the whole mess. To sum it up: Ezaki is a shrink plus shrine priest who has a hobby of indirectly killing people but then Masato "saves" them because of his own trauma but then he also kept killing the same guy due to his insanity, this guy was actually a god whose involvement with AUN and thus Masato was for unclear reasons, what is clear is that he seemed to be bored by his existence and appreciated Masato repeatedly killing him, he later decided to punish Ezaki for playing god with the lives of the mentally ill and reward Masato for having killed him 3 times by kidnapping him and showing him his old man face which probably means nobody else killed him after Masato did. Whew!

 

[zevelworld]

@justtio

thanks for your hardwork

 

[idle_af]

@zawarudo
I get that part, I understand the reason for their portrayal, it just seemed to me that the cucking seems so out of place considering what happened afterwards. Because at first, I think it was the author trying to give a background to Masato's general psychoness but as we all know he eventually went with the hero complex shtick like you said. So to me, it seems like the cucking was just handwaved. It seems weird to fixate on that specific point but in retrospect it just seemed so OOC for Masato if he had that hero complex all along (I agree with this, by the way, just that the author seems inconsistent in his fleshing out of Masato). Which might be explained by the fact that the author just wasn't able to connect all those loose ends at the climax, even with that massive infodump.

@PotatoZero
I can't even begin to wrap my head around a possible solution to that lmao. Maybe clones like the other poster said? Otherwise, for it to be at least a little bit realistic, it seems impossible for it to not be triplets.

 

[PotatoZero]

@idle_af
That's exactly what makes it interesting, I can't wait to see how the author will outwit me. But this? I feel betrayed.. it feels like trying to solve a closed-room mystery and the solution is that there's an unforeshadowed secret entrance all along...

 

[idle_af]

@PotatoZero
I wouldn't go as far as feeling betrayed but you're right, the author just lampshaded the problem at the end, saying that Tachibana is essentially an asspull hah