That being said, yet again, a huge title ends, and I seriously don't understand how people are calling the ending to this work a disappointment, nor can I sit here idly and accept that this is at all times a masterpiece of manga. There were flaws, nothing egregiously detrimental to transform this into slop, and there were high points, that equally deserve their praise and I'm sure other narratives did it better. Now, enough meta-preamble and just give some minor thoughts. This preamble is more for future me to understand that on release, the last few chapters of this series that no doubt will stand as top manga/anime for many was quite divided online.
I jumped into this ride fully hooked on the mysterious introductory chapters that seemingly take place in the future of the main pages of said chapter, there's a seedy underbelly of entertainment mystery and there's a clever setup to the story where we see future glimpses while reading the prologue. Except you don't know much. That was really fun, and what drew many people in. Death of a main character happens, reincarnation, time flows, new protagonists take the field, an overarching mystery of who killed that main character, and a fun narrative where you reincarnate with all your previous intelligence and huge amount of connections, star power, and luck form around two siblings. Childhood turns into adolescence, revival of idol groups, movie dreams, live theater, youtube, entertainment industries are captured really well at the outset. Probably around 2/3rds through, one of the bigger weird moments of incesty vibes occur, and I will say that the overall quality of the manga went down a little around this time, i wasn't rushing to open the app and read new developments, I sort of took a break as it seemed there needed to be a hiatus on behalf of the creators and as readers, the hype that held us went away and we wanted more answers. The artist and author come back, we get a huge culmination of many loose ends, and we get a controversial ending (but I'm left with the question why was it controversial?) and the series ends on a tragic bittersweetness with glimmers of hope. That shouldn't be a spoiler, you know how dark things began, I would say that the ending landed largely in the same way.
The art was great, and there were panels of excellently executed mesmerizing gazes and vistas, of course very dramatic since this is a story revolving around actors and their major stages or minor stages, be it at a concert or masking daily pains and tragedies of their pasts. I think the character designs were nice, attractive actor vibes, the idol sets and costumes, even the theater moments, really allow the artists to shine and make dashing outfits and wonderful backgrounds for our little acting troupe The characters were fun, albeit annoying sometimes on account of them being literal children much of the narrative, but you know what! They mature and they grow and they develop realistically through mental illness, trauma, career challenges, everything, so it's really great to see how they grow. I mean this narrative takes place over a couple of decades, and even the adults in the story have their ebbs and flows: particularly special was seeing how the couple that adopts the main protagonists at the beginning go through a separation and then years later meet again and without spoiling much, they're just very realistic and adult about what happened.
The story is a meandering mess (nonderogatory, it's messy, let's be real) of tragedy, comedy, and will they won't they-isms everywhere. There was a general sense of "I'm so smart no one will figure out my plan" and then a character would be like "I know your plan, don't think I'm as stupid as others, let me in on it" and the characters would put themselves in dangerous positions and go through unhealthy moments and grow out of it. There was care between these characters, even buried under the tsundere glares of some, there was genuine care and I appreciate that about the characters advancing forward to succeed in this little twisted fictional setting.
There are touches of supernatural that I felt would be expanded more, if anything that is a criticism I have, perhaps it's that I found a character that represents chaos showing up shrouded in crows to be fascinating but besides one arc, much did not happen with that aspect. And that goes for the end too. You see, I can sympathize with the criticism that the ending was rushed. The ending 4ish chapters after the main climactic action that rocked the world, were done with a narration over action, so dialogue was not front-loaded, rather the viewpoint of a singular character. I get why that would not mesh with people on account of an ending to a series that was so dialogue heavy, built around actors with strong emotions, and gushing with personality, it's a little strange to not have final moments of the same way. But that cannot blind people out of understanding that the ending was good. It's not a happy ending where everyone gets away free of consequence, choices matter and actions of the main characters matters in the end, to protect who they love and to advance the goals of those in their lives. People's complaints assume because of the time passing in those last few chapters, that the characters get over what occurred and I'm shocked by this lack of comprehension. The characters are not "over" what happened, nor are they uncaring for the friends they lost on the way.
I think the ending solidly showed how grief manifests in people differently and with a nuance that doesn't show melodrama and constant suffering nor does it show happy-go-luck lalaland.
TL;DR: I would definitely recommend this series to anyone willing to go through a story with its major flaws coming in late in the series. The opening gambit of unique storytelling and the arcs based around the characters evolving their acting and connections, it's a drama after all, and it was a little wishy-washy with its potential love triangles and the waifu wars but with a little bit of introspection, I'm sure we can all agree that the journey for this story was fantastic, and the ending is shocking but enjoyable. It is not a waste of time at all, or mid, or a waste of potential as I'm seeing doomposters say. On some days I want to give it an 8, on other days I want to give it an 8.5, this is a great story and does not overstay its wonderful welcome.
