fr yall denying the ending is not gonna make it better. the idea that the whole thing was a delusion or like a coping mechanism because he couldnt bear reality makes no sense because why would he see his rival and get a bunch of letters instead of just seeing her. why would his delusion be an old lady sakoto rather than the one he actually knew and lived with (most of the panels show them as young again but the very first and very last panels show very clearly that sakoto has age marks on her eyes and arms). also their whole conversation, she literally says she's not a ghost, which i don't think any author with the purpose of portraying an illusion or making it an open-interpretation ending would add, so if this was meant to be open to interpretation, it is a failure as well. also it's good to remember THIS ENDING WAS SET FROM THE VERY FIRST PANELS, it was not something thought of in a rush or created to appease the audience after the manga was running, go back to chapter one and you'll see that the whole story starts with old shinpei reading the letters, so this was planned from the absolute beginning. you're the ones deluding yourselves with this idea that oh no she actually did die and he's just seeing what he'd like to see because yeah that would've been miles better than what was actually published but what's drawn and written is what counts
fr yall denying the ending is not gonna make it better. the idea that the whole thing was a delusion or like a coping mechanism because he couldnt bear reality makes no sense because why would he see his rival and get a bunch of letters instead of just seeing her. why would his delusion be an old lady sakoto rather than the one he actually knew and lived with (most of the panels show them as young again but the very first and very last panels show very clearly that sakoto has age marks on her eyes and arms). also their whole conversation, she literally says she's not a ghost, which i don't think any author with the purpose of portraying an illusion or making it an open-interpretation ending would add, so if this was meant to be open to interpretation, it is a failure as well. also it's good to remember THIS ENDING WAS SET FROM THE VERY FIRST PANELS, it was not something thought of in a rush or created to appease the audience after the manga was running, go back to chapter one and you'll see that the whole story starts with old shinpei reading the letters, so this was planned from the absolute beginning. you're the ones deluding yourselves with this idea that oh no she actually did die and he's just seeing what he'd like to see because yeah that would've been miles better than what was actually published but what's drawn and written is what counts