To be honest, I read Brutal first and found out that it was merely a prequel to Trace. I've read the raws. I think... I'm a little disappointed. I preferred Hiroki Dan over Mano as the one who gets the last laugh. It would've been great if things went with how Hiroki Dan wanted before retribution truly struck him. It would've been great if Mano was successfully broken and let his emotions cloud over his senses and pulled the trigger towards Hiroki Dan as he wanted. Unfortunately, his humanity remains and he moves on.
But I think I would've liked the ending more if Mano actually did shoot Hiroki Dan making him create a conflict where he will constantly be reminded of his actions and wonder if it was the right judgement to pass on. Will it truly be justice? Well, Hiroki Dan is truly a piece of shit and bastard with good looks and wealth. But then I really love his character. I just wanted to see Mano actually experience some helplessness and express his anguish more clearly. He's too nonchalant (Chalant in some areas). Well that's also another thing I really like about Mano's character. But like I said—it would've been nice to see Mano experience helplessness and have that cold unexpressive mask of his removed. (Yes, he does get expressive at the end—smiling even.) But I don't want that kind of expressiveness. I want expressiveness in another area. An ending with Mano being more expressive in despair of his actions by killing Hiroki Dan would have been a preferred ending for me.
The actual ending is of course pretty okay... Kinda. Well that's just my opinion. Glad he moved on. Maybe the author should do two endings. Mano's smile was cute at the end though. :fire_emoji:
To be honest, I read Brutal first and found out that it was merely a prequel to Trace. I've read the raws. I think... I'm a little disappointed. I preferred Hiroki Dan over Mano as the one who gets the last laugh. It would've been great if things went with how Hiroki Dan wanted before retribution truly struck him. It would've been great if Mano was successfully broken and let his emotions cloud over his senses and pulled the trigger towards Hiroki Dan as he wanted. Unfortunately, his humanity remains and he moves on.
But I think I would've liked the ending more if Mano actually did shoot Hiroki Dan making him create a conflict where he will constantly be reminded of his actions and wonder if it was the right judgement to pass on. Will it truly be justice? Well, Hiroki Dan is truly a piece of shit and bastard with good looks and wealth. But then I really love his character. I just wanted to see Mano actually experience some helplessness and express his anguish more clearly. He's too nonchalant (Chalant in some areas). Well that's also another thing I really like about Mano's character. But like I said—it would've been nice to see Mano experience helplessness and have that cold unexpressive mask of his removed. (Yes, he does get expressive at the end—smiling even.) But I don't want that kind of expressiveness. I want expressiveness in another area. An ending with Mano being more expressive in despair of his actions by killing Hiroki Dan would have been a preferred ending for me.
The actual ending is of course pretty okay... Kinda. Well that's just my opinion. Glad he moved on. Maybe the author should do two endings. Mano's smile was cute at the end though. :fire_emoji: