[Guardian Enzo]

As I’ve puzzled over this ending and tried to imagine how I would have ended the series if it’d been my choice, I’ve come to realize that it would be impossible to deliver a conventionally satisfying ending without a fundamental shift in approach. Takahashi makes no compromises right up to the end, and in effect I think the way the show ends is a product of a trap that was inherent in his approach to the story.

I can say that for my money, the star of the final episode is one that you wouldn’t necessarily expect, and that’s Kasper. I think he not only delivered many of the best moments in the episode, but he effectively undercut the “Koko End” because it’s his words that stay with me more than anything Koko did. “If I can’t sell aerial weapons, I’ll sell naval weapons. If I can’t sell battleships, I’ll sell tanks. I’ll sell guns. I’ll sell swords. I’ll sell hatchets. If you seal away iron, I’ll sell cudgels. Such is the nature of an arms dealer.” It can hardly be denied that the moment that Koko looked most unhappy in this final episode is when Kasper said “I’m sure Floyd will be pleased.” In effect, Kasper denied Koko the joy of believing her new world would be what she imagined, and he unmasked the truth of her motivations, all with a single short speech.

Jonah searched for answers for two years. And during those two years, the world behaved exactly as Koko predicted it would. It made the mirage that Koko’s plan represents seem no less crazy than standing by and watching the world slowly bleed to death (especially given the fact that she alone among all the characters proved herself capable of truly revolutionary thought), but if there’s anything hopeful in what’s frankly rather a depressing ending, it’s Jonah’s words when he comes back to Koko. “I think both you and the world are crazy. But I’ll stick with you, Koko.” Jonah never accepts the right of what Koko is doing – for him, this is purely a personal decision. The world makes no sense, and the only thing he knows is that Koko is the person he loves (in what sense, it’s left to interpretation). But it’s still a tragic ending, because Jonah’s loss of innocence amounts to an admission that there are no good answers, only compromises we make to try and keep ourselves sane.

I’m sure that never seeing what the future holds after Koko pushes that button is going to prove most dissatisfying for a chunk of the audience as well, and I can’t say that I blame them. When I speak of the trap Takahashi-san set for himself though, this is a part of it. I don’t see any way he could have showed us what happened afterwards, because the overriding message of the story is more powerful if it ends where it did. I think in any event he told us exactly what’s going to happen, using Kasper’s words – and I don’t think it would have been very pleasurable to see that play out. The fact is that Koko revealed herself in the end to be a megalomaniac of the first order, albeit an amazingly charismatic and clever one (waiting until her quantum computer is small enough to be launched into orbit before clearing the skies is nothing short of brilliant, though I still wouldn’t call her plan foolproof). Like Chrollo Lucilfer in H x H (as I’ve said, in some ways Jormungand is a kind of seinen version) her true genius was in seeing the strengths of those around her, trusting them to do their jobs, and making them willing to die for the cause. But I wouldn’t want to put the fate of the world (or my own) in Chrollo’s hands, and Koko is no different – and the deaths of those 700,000 (or however many it ends up being) that are the down payment on Jormungand’s execution will weigh heavily on her as Kasper’s words play in her head. It’s really rather an ugly future we’re presented with, and kind of a mercy that we don’t have to see it.