Title: Platinum End Vol. 10
Author: Tsugumi Ohba (Story), Takeshi Obata (Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Genre: Thriller
Publication Date: December 3, 2019
The Story
Volume ten of Platinum End begins with meeting up with Shjuji who was in the process of using his red arrow on his brother. Mirai deflects the arrow and we learn about Shuji’s backstory and how he wants to use red arrows on people who are suicidal to help them find the peace that they deserve… i.e. he wants to help them to commit suicide because he feels that it’s a human choice to end your own life. Of course, Mirai doesn’t want that and Minamikawa, of all people, is the one who convinces Shuji not to go through with it and to side with them. More on that later…
With Shuji on their side, they next want to come into contact with Susumu… the young boy who watched Mirai fight Metropoliman and revealed himself as a God candidate to the entire world. They take extreme caution because he possesses white arrows but it seems that he’s only interested in doing things that interest him. Luckily, holding a democratic-like discussion about who should become God is one of those things he was hoping for when he revealed himself. Since that, rather easily, aligned with the plot, he joins them… somewhat. He fears that due to his white arrows, he’s not completely trusted so he kind of stays away on his own.
This brings us to hunting down the final God candidate. We learn that the last remaining angel is Muni, Angel of Destruction. In the end, we, as the reader, meet the final candidate and how they view everything. This one is going to be quite a challenge!
Rather interesting turn of events in this volume. Of course, things were going too smoothly so the last candidate was going to be used to set up the next conflict. That was pretty obvious. The only thing I didn’t really care about from a story perspective is the fact that there seemed to be too many plot devices for the sake of carrying the story forward. Everyone just seemed to go with the flow without any type of hesitation Of course, I also left out recruiting Temari but you should read that on your own… it was pretty hilarious.
Characters
First off, we get an in-depth look at Shuji’s life and how his mother caused a divorce and drove his father into depression. When Shuji received his red arrows, he used them on both of his parents and drove them to suicide. In his father’s case, it was helping him end his pain while in his mother’s case, it was revenge for breaking up their family. Shuji wants to grant his brother’s wish and help him die and then he was planning on killing himself.
Through Shuji, we end up getting a rather dark and grim look at that world and society as a whole. The way this character was written, it’s almost as if Tsugumi Ohba had read one too many Inio Asano stories because Shuji seems like he would be a perfect fit in any of Asano’s manga. The only problem I had with Shuji was that he was dead set in his ways and needed a concrete reason to sway his feelings on suicide.
Minamikawa simply says that killing yourself would make you a burden to others. Apparently, that was the one reason that got Shuji to change his mind. I’m sorry but being a burden to others is one of the reasons people kill themselves to begin with. The whole reason doesn’t make any sense. Even when they try to explain it… about how you will be on the minds of everyone.. maybe you would cause people to blame themselves for not being able to stop it… or anything of the sort… those aren’t things people who are suicidal take into consideration… simply because they don’t care. It just seemed like a highly flawed reason… so much so that it seemed like Ohba couldn’t come up with a good enough reason and decided to spin a wheel and pick the one it landed on hoping the readers would think it made the most sense.
When we get to Susumu, it was built up in the last volume that he would probably be the next major villain but he’s not anything of the such. He’s just a little kid with eyes full of wonder, clinging to anything he finds exciting… except for choosing God, apparently. Watching two people nearly kill each other (Mirai and Metropoliman), and glowing with excitement and then boldly putting yourself into the public eye and exposing the God candidates to the world, bringing all nations to the brink of war over the capture and misusage of the God candidates themselves doesn’t exactly fit the character of a kid that just goes “YES! Let’s talk it out, that’s what I was hoping for!”
Did I miss something here? That just doesn’t make any sense. I know he stated that he knows he’s not trusted because of his white arrows… but I think I wouldn’t trust him because of his joy of watching two people killing each other and practically bringing tensions between nations to a fever pitch. Maybe that’s just me, though. It’s like they wanted you to forget all of that happened just for the sake of having Susumu be included with the other four candidates in order to hunt down the sixth and final remaining one. It just seemed too convenient.
Outside of that, we do see our final candidate but don’t want to get too much into him as it kind of is the ending of the volume and don’t want to give away too much. I will say that the character doesn’t really seem all that interesting. It’s almost a trope at this point when you learn of his character archetype. Also, Muni was a bit of a letdown. So far, I’m not seeing anything that screams “angel of destruction.”
Final Thoughts
There were some flaws, but this was still a pretty interesting volume of Platinum End. I can sense that the story is still being set up with the true heart of it, most likely, starting in volume eleven. If Muni and his candidate are either taken down or persuaded, what happens then? Leaving things up to a democracy is rather boring and it really can’t be that simple.
Plus, thanks to Shuji’s angel, Ogura, we learn a little bit about what God is and what kind of powers someone would have as God. We also learn of their fate which puts an all-new perspective on becoming God. It’s big enough to make some of the candidates second guess their ambitions. Still, this arc can either go one of two ways… splendidly with some twists, turns, action, and drama… or horribly… if they end up convincing the final candidate and end up having a discussion. If the latter, what happens once it’s decided? Is the series over? Is there conflict before the God can ascend to the throne? How would they make that interesting?
I can’t really see a way where it would be interesting. This was set up as a battle royale-style manga. I’m hoping we see more conflict, dramatic and emotional moments leading up to God’s selection! In other words, less talking, less democracy, and more Mirai Nikki!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
