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
ok I need to know what everyone thinks of the ending. I was confused and then totally disappointed. the entire story was brought down in like, half a dozen pages. it feels so pointless and ?_? and I tried to think that the author was forced to keep her alive but if you go back to the very first chapter, the very first scene is Shinpei reading the letter! so this was planned from the literal start of the story... anyway, thoughts & prayers
people keep saying that Shinpei actually died/that was only his delusion. But in some panel we can see Satoko's wrinkly hands/cheeks.
I feel like the author probably want to kill Satoko off (since Shinpei was reading Satoko's letter) then felt bad for us readers that she changed it into 50 years of separation instead
I keep holding on to hope that it was an executive decision made by some idiotic editor in charge or something. I'm softer about the ending now since some time passed after the trauma of it but I still really dislike it. it's not even about the 50 years of separation, it's about how it was presented. like, it's so unrealistic, given everything we know about these characters, that they would simply let go of each other and lose one another geographically... weird ass solution






damn old ugly fat bastard really is the worst trope out there. this could've been nice. we could've had it all