I would have loved a happy ending but this is the one that feels true to the characters and completes their story. Mamiya in particular is such a delightful character, I will always defend a character whose trauma made them weird and mean and unpleasant.
The scenes where they debate killing Oota broke my heart the most I fear. We as the reader got to see exactly how brutal things got for Mamiya but Sada only heard the vague descriptions that Mamiya was willing to give up, so it's understandable why he would try to convince him not to kill him. But it must have been so hard for Mamiya to give in and agree to let him go, imagine someone who violently raped you just getting to live a normal life with a job and a family? But even then, he agrees because he loves Sada and wants to respect his perspective...
And the little concession Sada gives after taking a peek at Mamiya's scars, saying they can go kill Oota if he really wants to, mattered so much. It's so easy to judge Mamiya after the fact but what about the people that pushed him into that corner? They didn't give a shit whether he lived or died so why should he? But just that little bit of emotional validation from Sada was enough for him to drop his pursuit of Oota, seems like things would have never gone this far in the first place had his fucking dad done what he was supposed to do and ream out the ones who were bullying his son instead of treating him like a freak for fighting back.
It hurt my heart to see him say don't feel bad for me, I'm stronger than they are like baby no, we should feel bad for you, our hearts should break for what you went through. You survived and you're strong for that but it still hurt like hell and it's okay to acknowledge that.
I would have loved a happy ending but this is the one that feels true to the characters and completes their story. Mamiya in particular is such a delightful character, I will always defend a character whose trauma made them weird and mean and unpleasant.
The scenes where they debate killing Oota broke my heart the most I fear. We as the reader got to see exactly how brutal things got for Mamiya but Sada only heard the vague descriptions that Mamiya was willing to give up, so it's understandable why he would try to convince him not to kill him. But it must have been so hard for Mamiya to give in and agree to let him go, imagine someone who violently raped you just getting to live a normal life with a job and a family? But even then, he agrees because he loves Sada and wants to respect his perspective...
And the little concession Sada gives after taking a peek at Mamiya's scars, saying they can go kill Oota if he really wants to, mattered so much. It's so easy to judge Mamiya after the fact but what about the people that pushed him into that corner? They didn't give a shit whether he lived or died so why should he? But just that little bit of emotional validation from Sada was enough for him to drop his pursuit of Oota, seems like things would have never gone this far in the first place had his fucking dad done what he was supposed to do and ream out the ones who were bullying his son instead of treating him like a freak for fighting back.
It hurt my heart to see him say don't feel bad for me, I'm stronger than they are like baby no, we should feel bad for you, our hearts should break for what you went through. You survived and you're strong for that but it still hurt like hell and it's okay to acknowledge that.