LogFAQs > #942560399

Uh, so was that *actually* the end of Shibito / "You Will Hear the Voice of the Dead"? The 12th volume / chapter 78 is so fucking abrupt. The whole volume had the general feel of wrapping things up, but then we get a very open ending with a few unsatisfying conclusions to the main character arcs.

I absolutely loved the manga when it was mostly one-shot stories connected by a handful of characters (and, tbh, I'd love to see the format repeated except with POV characters for different stories). Later on, we start to get multi-part stories -- which was still fine, for the most part -- but ultimately it just mostly becomes one continuing story. And I think part of it was just things going off the rails. There was a one-shot character -- the unnamed serial killer called Ghost (or tmaybe she mentioned her name in a later story to Ryoko) -- who they kept bringing back until she was central to the final story.

I will say that I enjoyed some of the callbacks. The series has a lot of references, etc, to earlier stories, including things that factor into the final story (specifically the fish creatures from the first island mystery). On the downside, the author doubled down on what was an allusion/nod and fucking outright featured Cthulhu near the end.

Oh, and the scanlators apparently misgendered a character the shinto-esque priestess-looking character whose name starts with a K- or something. It was confusing as fuck because in her second appearance, she looked more feminine and then later on we see she has cleavage.

I would love to see this get an anime, but I just can't imagine it ever happening since the series wrapped, it apparently largely flew under the radar, and it's kind of a fringe concept. If it did get an anime, I expect it'd get more of an ending or, at least, a "here we go again" kind of ending that shows that life keeps going. As opposed to a this might be the apocalypse, but I think we have a good chance of stopping the end times.

The president's character is continually hilarious for her douchebaggery. She continually pulls self-centered shit. Every now and again you'll forget how horrible she is and then she'll do something to remind you that she hasn't changed much since her first appearance. (Although the last story she stars in she's more of a team player.)

And while Koizume (?) probably appears in more stories than she does (partly because he appears in most of the stories featuring her, and is generally kind of a background character besides that), the president kinda feels like the series' third-biggest character after Kishida and Ryoko. As such, it was kind of a bold decision making her so awful. A lot of the other characters have their moments, but there's always an "okay, but..." aspect to them where they have some redeeming quality to make up for their shortcomings (notwithstanding that she does save the group a few times).

Oh, and what's up with the title? Despite being called "You Will Hear the Voice of the Dead," Kishida's whole thing is that he can see ghosts but he generally can't seem to hear them talk. (major spoilers) And, to really make it annoying, Ryoko finally speaks near the end, but the author purposefully keeps a secret and just shows that Kishida is deeply moved by her words.

Rating the stories, I think my favorite might still be "Ferris Wheel of Death." I loved "My Bloody Night Game" which, despite a flaw or two, was a great slasher. "Legend of the Red Sand" was pretty nice, although it was very one-note. Then "The Book of Magic" and "The God Project" both had great concepts.

"The Haunted Tunnel" and "Day of the Pig" were also fantastic. It was also kind of interesting since it introduced new characters in one story only to kill them off in a second, unrelated story.

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There are precious few at ease / With moral ambiguities / So we act as though they don't exist.