Shoumetsu Toshi (AFTERLOST) Episode 12 (Final) Review: Future

AFTERLOST’s big finale is here! Eventually, after 12 episodes, I have to admit that the ending left me with mixed feelings. It wasn’t phenomenal, still it had some memorable scenes. I stick to my opinion and I keep on supporting that it would have been a great series, if the approach was different! Let’s take a closer look to the final episode and see if the remaining queries were answered.

Plot

The action continues from where it was left off: our main heroes are fighting with Taiyo somewhere in Lost, while he attempts to execute them and Daichi. Daichi is still in his Matrix-cloud-full-of-0s&1s form and he is completely useless. But, out of a sudden, Taiyo unexpectedly becomes weaker, starting to lose his crazy super-villain powers. Why though? Well, it turns out that, instead of the badass scooter, the other op hero was Suzuna! That crazy and sneaky girl managed to predict everything after all, giving this jerk the lethal hit.

After Taiyo’s disappearance/death (not quite sure about what occurred here), Yuki has to face a big dilemma: will she erase Lost’s events and give everyone a happy life or will she choose the rotten reality that already exists? Well, every logical human being would go for the first option, but no! Yuki is apparently a complete moron who chose misery over happiness. Her argument was that difficulties make us stronger and that many new lives were born after Lost happened. It is ridiculous. Noone said that those children wouldn’t be born again! Plus, many innocent people, who got atomized in seconds, would get a second chance in life. Her philosophical and profound approach caught me off guard.

Episode Highlights

Yuki’s Big Moment: Yuki had to make a serious decision that would have an impact on thousands of people. Thus, she preferred the worst-case scenario and left the world keep living in its misery. I don’t know if maybe the production didn’t manage to convey the whole message correctly, but if it’s all there is, then Yuki should be gone instead of Souma!

Suzuna: Suzuna’s evil smirk made me go ‘Wooo-hooo’! That was by far the best part of the whole episode, since her sacrifice was meaningful and her foretelling abilities were more superior than we thought. This girl made a difference and fought the evil from the inside, almost winning. Cheers to that!

The scooter: Our beloved tough friend, the real hero of the series, the scooter! This bad boy managed to survive a trip to another dimension, almost without a scratch. It even surpassed Takuya’s hotness, since it’s all Yuki remembers.

Comments

AFTERLOST is over and its last episode managed to give me the chills at some points. The most controversial and questionable scene is, without doubt, Yuki’s choice. Surely there is a glimpse of logic behind her madness, such as ‘People should not play God’ and ‘You have to accept life as it is’, though it makes me furious that she didn’t hesitate vanishing even her own father to maintain an atrocious reality. The ending was a little blur, since we don’t know why Yuki lost her memories while Takuya didn’t, plus we don’t know if Taiyo and Daichi died or just transferred to their own universe. The finale didn’t have any real impact on the events, since the phenomenon of Lost continues to exist and threatens mankind, while everyday life remains bitter. Sadly, this whole series was a promo for the mobile game, in which the story continues. It is very disappointing that it was so poorly executed, since it needed at least 24 episodes to narrate this complex story correctly. I don’t hope for a second season, though I hope for a remake that will make justice to AFTERLOST’s interesting plot.

‘What will you choose?’

After numerous ups and downs, we’ve reached the moment where we say ‘goodbye’ to this debatable anime. In conclusion, it had an extremely interesting scenario lying under the surface, but the cheap execution lead the boat to sink. It is partly decent, but not something memorable and the ending was not as satisfying as it should.