Anyway, here’s Wonderwall, and welcome to my read-through of Chapter 174: The Way and The End in which the final battle concludes and it is glorious

If you’re not caught up, please use this index here to do so. There are no spoilers past the current chapter.

If you want to support the mangaka and read along, please consider buying a tankobon of the current volume or subscribing to Weekly Shonen Jump or Mangaplus. I’m not affiliated with VIZ, I just want artists to make money.

If you want to support this content so it can continue at a regular pace, please like my Facebook page and Twitter, or comment down below. I do read those comments, and they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Or, if you want to support me, buy me a cup of coffee here.

The Way and The End Summary

Stand Up For the Artist

At Shueisha, Hattori and Heishi stare each other down. Heishi reminds him of his strict orders to continue the story; despite that, Hattori promised them they could end it.

Yeppers.

Hattori defends them: the boys are always aiming for the top. They’re always looking for new ways to improve themselves as creators. The kind of creators they should be.

Heishi’s to the point and sarcastic: the best thing was to end their super successful manga after eight weeks?

Yeppers.

Hattori sees a difference between the end of Tanto and Reversi. They wanted to do better with Tanto, but here they want to give the series the perfect ending because it genuinely matters to them.

Heishi points out that Saiko’s wedding is going to be expensive—a good reason not to end the series.

Hattori goes harder: it’s amazing that the boys aren’t just creating manga for the page rate and royalties. Heishi admits that’s true.

Hattori steamrolls him: Shujin will continue to come up with amazing ideas, and Saiko will draw the art for it, and they will continue creating quality manga. He believes in Ashirogi. That’s their style.

Hattori offers his resignation if they won’t let the series end. Heishi thinks he’s joking, but Hattori is serious as a heart attack: he promised to take full responsibility for the boys ending their series.

Heishi still hesitates with the anime coming up soon–

Hattori brings up the god of Shueisha: in his first year, Torishima himself told him that a true editor will always stand for the manga artists when the company and the creators come to a disagreement.

Heishi is annoyed with “that old man,” and Hattori continues: obviously, if the mangaka is dead wrong, that’s different, but Hattori agrees with Asahirogi. Wouldn’t it be absurd to sacrifice the quality of the work just to support the other media franchises?

Heishi parrots what Hattori said and then lets him know that Torishima said the exact same thing to him. Heishi puts on his jacket in his dramatic style and offers to clean up the mess on his own.

Hattori thanks him.

Delivering the News

At Studio 92, Heishi drops the bomb on Konaka and Ehara. Ehara thinks it’s bold, and Konaka panics, predictably. Heishi apologizes, given how hard they’re working to complete the anime.

Konaka wants the series to run for as long as possible, but Ehara, ever the creative, has different ideas. He sees it as an opportunity to treat the anime as a complete adaptation and to have insight into how to adapt it best with the ending in mind. Another person present, whose name I don’t remember, points out that Reversi is dense, so if they only have to take a year to adapt it, it can be a much higher quality product.

Heishi’s glad to hear that, and he promises a masterpiece with a wonderful ending.

Konaka, outnumbered, concedes and promises to make an anime as good as the manga.

The next day at the Studio, Shujin gets the news that they have eight weeks to wrap up the series. Saiko chews it over and asks Shujin: Is that what they need to make Reversi the best?

Shujin confirms: it’s exactly enough to do what he wanted to do the way he planned it. He already knows the last scene, and they need to move full speed towards that ending.

Saiko thinks the last scene is the most important; in some ways, it determines whether the manga is a masterpiece or trash. What kind of ending did Shujin have in mind?

Shujin reviews the final draft in progress: the scene where Satoru heads out for the final battle after promising Naho that he’ll become human again; to become human again, he has to kill Schwarz, who is possessing his body; but if he does that, he’ll die too.

Dying on Your Own Terms

“If the demon dies, you die, and if you die, the demon dies,” Shujin explains that Satoru is going to die in the end as a human being. Shujin also knows what he wants the last scene to look like. He wants Saiko to start right away, so he can get started now. He asks what the idea is.

During Hattori’s meeting, he lets them know that Reversi will get the center color for its final chapter in Issue 31. The boys thank him, but he’s sad that it didn’t get Front Color like Crow. However, he notes that most of the editors were surprised and thought it was a pity to end the story here.

The boys apologize, but Hattori thinks there’s no reason to; he’s confident the readers will be surprised too: a series that has been in the one and two spot consistently ending early. They cannot fuck this up. It has to be spectacular.

The assistants are informed the next day, much to their surprise. Kato confirms her belief that it was the end; Moriya is impressed by how gutsy and “perfect” the ending is. Ogawa’s worried about their jobs.

Saiko reminds them that PCP exists *cries in the corner* so they can take their time making that now. Orihara thinks it’s a pity that they’re quitting when they’ve been on such a hot streak.

Shujin thinks that’s why it’s good to end here. Moriya believes it’s the artistic – and therefore correct – way to treat the story, rather than have it drag on.

Orihara lets them know that, due to how the battle between Schwarz and Weiss has escalated, his younger brother has been bugging him for the details on the story. He’s been delaying them by telling them he only knows two weeks out and can’t tell.

Shujin reminds everyone NOT to let anyone know the series is ending.

What’s Going to Happen Next?

At a middle school, three Reversi fans are blown away by how good it’s gotten lately. One thinks that Schwarz is going to win in the end; the other isn’t so confident. One thinks Schwarz is conserving energy for a final attack.

The reader wonders, though: what’s going to follow next after the battle? The other reader speculates they could end it.

The third, being a fan of jump, points out that that would never happen. Besides, it’s becoming an anime soon, and it’s very popular.

The first reader thinks it might be their final battle, though. The second fan thinks that would be super disappointing if true. They all wonder if it’s really going to end; you never know with Muto Ashirogi. One points out that normally, a new villain – like a grey or gold – would be introduced.

Pfffft.

They refuse to believe the series will end so soon.

It’s Perfect

In mid-June, Shujin submits the final chapter to Saiko, who thinks it’s perfect, and now all that’s left is to make the artwork as good as it can be. He asks to have the last page drawn beforehand so it’ll be the perfect final panel.

Shujin’s pumped to get validated and agrees it’s a great ending. The story has picked up steam since they entered the final battle. They’re going to become the true number one artists in Japan with this.

When asked what that means, Shujin explains they’ve been getting first in rankings, but they’re still playing second fiddle to Eiji in sales. With this final battle, they’ll be boosted to first place. He created the story with that in mind.

Saiko sees the light and gets started on making the perfect final chapter.

On Friday, June 15th, Hattori confirms that the ending is, indeed, perfect for the series. It ran for 49 chapters—exactly one year. Hattori brings fan mail. There’s a lot of it. They have one bag of the usual mail. They also have complaints from Miho fans (lol).

And most of the mail is from people who support Saiko and Miho’s dream.

Hattori believes Miho one because the Ashirogi fans came out in force. 900K people buy the graphic novel. He knows they’re still working on PCP, but the fans are waiting for them.

The Epic Conclusion

On July 2nd, Issue 31, Reversi’s final chapter is released. At the middle school, everyone’s shocked to see it actually ended and wants to read it.

The panel shows Schwarz and Weiss falling from the sky. Weiss’s body is disintegrating, and Satoru believes this is the only way: they both used the power of the demons, so they’ll both see each other in hell.

The final panel:

Eiji reads with glee. Fukuda’s team thinks it’s incredible, especially the artwork. They wonder how long it took to draw the final panel; they perfectly leveraged having two people on board.

Takahama sees the courage they had to end it here.

Shizuka reads with glee

Shiratori looks content, Peace next to him.

Nanamine reads with awe

Aoki looks delighted

Iwase looks content.

Hiramaru also believes Can’t Fool Me is headed towards a perfect ending before Yoshida kills that one in the cradle. Hiramaru apologizes.

And Miho reads with shock.

The middle school readers try to make sense of the ending. The two protagonists both died? No, Satoru chose to get rid of his powers to atone for his sins. One speculates it was to keep the promise with Naho.

The others try to confirm that Reversi has ended. One fan notes that he didn’t think this would happen and he didn’t expect it, but he’s satisfied with the ending. They all plan to buy the graphic novels, especially since there are only 5 or 6.

Everyone declares

MUTO ASHIROGI IS AMAZING.

At Suehisha, Heishi admits that Hattori and Ashirogi made the right decision. Reversi might go down as one of the greatest series in Jump history. Miura thinks it’s a masterpiece, and it’s getting a universally great response. Right, Hattori?

Hattori confirms it.

Saiko commented hat Reversi received first place for nine weeks in a row, and then one first place with the final chapter by a landslid.e

On that triumphant note, the chapter concludes.

The Way and the End Reaction

Goddamn.

That was great.

I just want to relish in this feeling. This satisfaction of the climactic moment. I know there are two chapters left. I know that the next chapter is going to be the anime airing, Saiko picking up Miho, and then the last chapter is *probably* their marriage and an epilogue.

I know this is pure wish fulfillment by the authors.

I know people would shit bricks if they needed it after only fifty chapters, and people would rail that it had been axed.

But goddamn.

Goddamn.

I feel soooo fucking good about this.

And the more I think about this moment, the more I like it. Because it’s the end of the story, we’ve worked for 9 years – or 10 – at this point, and we’ve gone through so many ups and downs. So many near misses, so many failures. And the climax of the story – no matter how unrealistic – feels completely earned.

This brings me back to the “equation” element of storytelling that I’ve mentioned several times.

In this equation, the climax is what follows the equal sign. And we have smaller equations that build to mini-climaxes. But they’re all building, systematically, to the final climax. And when it works, it fucking works.

And everything here is a summation of their experiences and, to Ohba’s mind, what the true greatest manga artist ever is: someone who has a series that ranks in the top 1 for its entire run, ends on its own terms, absolutely dominates sales, is done in a healthy, sustainable way, and is both artistically satisfying, and a complete statement.

And the boys have achieved it. And, to a greater extent, Bakuman has achieved it.

I think it’s safe to put a fork in the series at this point, although I might do a series review once I’ve finished this read-through in a few weeks. To give my thoughts on the series as a whole.

But let’s get deeper into things:

Dying on One’s Own Terms

I think the parallelism here with the series ending on its own terms – I have to imagine they told Jump they were ending it, and that was that, and planning with that ending in mind is a great way to parallel the main character of Reversi – Satoru – deciding to relinquish his power and die to atone for his sins—that’s amuch more definitive ending than I was expecting.

It’s a great narrative trick that in some ways perfectly encapsulates and synthesizes the metafictive component of this story. Showing us the final panel of the story – including the aerial battle – as the boys – white and black-haired – kill their story to live, is a lovely bit of self-reference.

But more than that, this is clearly Ohba and Obata’s definitive wish fulfillment, and they are trying to fictionalize and retcon their own failure to end Death Note.

The fact that they wanted to do Death Note with Light’s victory midway through the series must eat at them to this day. And I thought they wanted to devote time to that possibility.

But they went full bore into their own form of wish fulfillment.

This doesn’t get talked about much, but I think people often assume that wish-fulfilling power fantasies must necessarily be big, brawny dudes doing big, brawny dude things to get powerful, like Solo Leveling, or most shonen anime.

But Wish-Fulfilling Power Fantasies can be anything that makes us feel powerful and in control. And the boys getting their wish to end the series on their own terms, which in this equation was foreshadowed by Eiji, is powerful to them because they know what it’s like not to.

Being able to work on two series at the same time and not die from overwork is a power fantasy.

Having the fans all agree that the ending is perfect is a power fantasy.

And, honestly, it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility, because I saw it happen in real time. In 2020 with

Chainsaw Man

So yeah, here’s the thing. As you might have noticed in this read-through, I have intentionally laced the blog with narrativized elements of my own life to mirror the emotional trajectory of the series. I’m riffing extemporaneously as I write – I don’t do any revision other than a grammar check, for better or worse – and this is kind of the perfect moment to talk about the first series I read in Jump.

I’ve probably told this story, but I don’t remember telling it, so fuck you, neener neener.

I became obsessed with My Hero Academia when I was at an emotional low point, and this part we can skip a bit because the self-mythologizing has gotten old, pat.

Anyway.

Once I finished the show, I read the entire manga cover to cover in like, 4 weeks. And then I needed to read it chapter by chapter.

To that point, despite only being a baby weeb, I desperately wanted to read Shonen Jump for the first time. I was kinda…like, nervous, for some stupid reason, because I didn’t know how to read it. But I looked it up, and I found Viz’s website.

And I saw the digital magazine, which you could get for 24 dollars a year and get every issue. Incredible deal. So I bought the digital magazine.

And the first chapter of a new series came out in the first chapter I read.

Hell-Warden Higuma.

Lol, not quite.

My first issue of Jump was the first issue in which Chainsaw Man was released. I was initially not quite taken with it – I was more concerned about HeroAca – but I read it.

And then, two weeks later, I was told my subscription was being cancelled. At first, I freaked.

But then I learned why, and we’re here, now.

It was canceled because the digital magazine, which was a digital scan of the whole magazine front to back with no separators, was being turned into the Vault, and you could read every available series from Jump on that vault. From the first chapter to the present. Because I had subscribed, I got 15 months free.

And I GORGED MYSELF.

This is where I became the manga weirdo I am today. I read One Piece first, then Naruto, and Bleach, and I’ve been reading every Jump manga in the vault since then. I’m over 10,000 chapters deep. So only about halfway, but at this point, I’m just reading the backlog because I’m caught up with every series.

A Chainsaw Man was the herald of my manga journey.

But the thing about Chainsaw Man, and the reason I bring it up is;

It Had A Perfect Run

I was there. I was still using the r/manga Reddit to lurk on community discussions of each successive chapter. I saw it do something seemingly impossible, where it got increasingly hyped up the more people read it.

And then it abruptly ended at chapter 97. And the internet flipped out.

It ended at precisely the right time. Every chapter was believed. And it became a phenomenon. It didn’t matter that it was less than a hundred chapters; it was perfect.

And now Part 2 is….well, less great, but even though this is pure wish fulfillment on the author’s part, I still love it, and I can confirm – thousands of manga chapters later – that it is possible to achieve.

And while reading all those manga, I wanted to start writing about them. And one day, I decided, on a whim, to read Bakuman. That first chapter convinced me.

I have to write about this.

And so let’s get back to what works about this chapter

Hattori

Yeah, I love Hattori going to bat for the boys, and I love that Heishi is willing to listen to reason. Is it narratively convenient because it’s the end? Hell to the yes. Every time this has happened before has been a fight; I don’t believe for a second that Heishi would roll over because Torishima said something about it.

Although I do love how clearly they love drawing the hyper-realistic depiction of Torishima every time they can.

I love Hattori’s passion – willing to quit his job! – to get his boys the ending they deserve. This relationship has been one of the best things about this manga, and I will always love their clear care and desire to support each other even if it is also a desire to be attached to one of the greatest series of all time.

I love the speculation by the middle schoolers about a grey demon – see, I’m not dumb – I’m kind of glad that Ohba thought that through because it would make sense.

But the point is to win definitively, and they’ve won definitely.

I liked the wish fulfillment of the fact that there are only five volumes to entice readers to buy the whole thing and boost the sales retroactively of the entire manga.

I love that Shujin and Saiko are totally in sync with each other for the ending.

I love that the assistants are having to keep quiet about plot developments from loved ones.

And you can see that this ending – even though it strains credulity a bit – does satisfy almost everyone who engages with the story.

But in particular, I loved

THE reaction shot

Yeah, so I missed this the first time I read the chapter, but on Page 18, if you look, you can see every major and minor character reacting to the story in some way.

I haven’t commented on it, but the narrative dead-ends of Iwase, Shiratori, and, to a much lesser extent, Nanamine, have bugged me a bit. Obviously, they’ve had to take a backseat to the final showdown between Eiji and the Boys, but I was wondering if they might return since the characters’ arcs are not super complete.

Well, mostly.

But they weren’t forgotten, and seeing each of them react to a job well done is one of my other favorite tropes of conclusions.

Oh, you thought I was done listing off tropes from the endgame? YOU FOOL

Yes, I am a sucker for the “all the characters from the whole series cheer on the main character, during the final battle.” It’s one of those cheap tactics that ties everything together neatly and makes it really feel like the end is here. I love it. I never stop loving it. Will never stop loving it. Neener neener.

And here it’s done so subtly, so quietly. You have to read the manga slowly to even see it. It’s blink and you miss it.

But every major character reacts to the final moments. Even Shizuka. We haven’t seen him in hundreds of chapters. And Nanamine, who looks pissed that they perfected the story.

This aroused powerful emotions in me. The feeling of having been with these characters so long and seeing the final apogee of everything, the height of the mountaintop, and getting one last meta glimpse

At

The Final Panel

This was beautiful, and this is the actual reason this chapter worked. I’m willing to forgive some of the wonkiness of these final moments because that final panel FELT like a final panel. I think I have favorite panels, and better panels in the series, and more elaborate panels, and panels that show more care

But that final panel of the two dead men on the street – where Weiss looks like a villain – feels like a real final panel. And one that’s morally ambiguous too. A death with dignity

And to see everyone in the street just going about their daily life is impressive. Because those bystanaders weren’t just trained to meet the quota. It’s clear that Obata actually took time to draw that final panel in the way described here, which is so beautifully meta. Just as making the conclusion of the manga the final meta point at the conclusion of the manga.

The boys have definitively won, and even though it feels the tiniest bit rushed, and I could have used a beat more, they won completely. They’ve made an indelible masterpiece which will make them money from merchandise for ages; they have the respect of their peers, and their audience; and they got to end a story on its own terms.

For a long time, I used to be obsessed with perfect runs. And I think a lot of creators dream of making a series or piece that ends great. While I disagree that a shitty final panel will ruin the series – I’m more of a journey before destination type if you couldn’t tell – I do dream of making a perfect run.

Something that is critically and commercially successful, something that lingers in the gut long after you’ve finished it, and invites re-reads. And who wouldn’t want to make something like that? To make something immortal and perfect that also supports you? It’s the real dream.

So this is wish fulfillment for me too, because I know that getting there has so many elements of luck, time, conceit, and other things you can’t control.

So I’m really okay with this ending.

And to speculate a little.

The Next Chapter

So the next chapter is going to feature two things, at a minimum: the anime airing, Saiko hearing Miho’s voice, and running to get her. It may feature other things – I assume it will, I usually miss a lot of details in these things- other than that, we’re in the falling action of the series.

I hope we get to see Team Fukuda again before the end and check in on the other characters. I hope Eiji concedes defeat in a way only Eiji can do.

But mostly, I’m ready for this series to end. I feel delighted by this moment, and it galvanizes me to pursue my own art to be the best I can be.

Is it perfect? Technically, it’s a bit messy.

But is it satisfying?

Oh yes, oh yes.

Stray Thoughts

–Didn’t mention “Naho’s Promise” but it’s a nice touch to have that be the deciding factor in the endgame of the series. Life imitates art, sometimes.

–Also didn’t talk about Ehara and Konaka’s reactions to the anime. They’re going to get a perfect anime adaptation, too. It’s going to be poggers, baby.

–I didn’t mention this at all, but one of the equation elements was Shujin planning the climax to get the maximum number of votes. Something that was introduced all the way back in the very earliest chapters of the series. And during the Iwase battle.

–Moriya’s reaction was great, too.

–The fan mail. This moved me, probably more than it needed to. But seeing our boys get natural support because of their actions and desires was cute to see.

Until next time,

peace