Endroll no Ato ni wa Saikou no Tabi Wo

I still remember the first time I saw the manga Endroll no Ato ni wa Saikou no Tabi O (or in English, “Have a Great Trip after the End Credits”), a friend had recommended it to me saying that it was something up my alley and boy were they right!

It contains many of my favourite elements in stories, a fantasy world setting with a story that is more about exploring it than about some great “goal”, tons of food, a comedic tone with a dreadful undertone (in a good way), as well as of course, a loveable duo.

Now I must confess, I read this manga in Japanese and I’m still very much learning Japanese so there were definitely parts that were hard for me to parse, but I still ended up loving the story and the characters all the same. This manga also took me… a very long time to eventually read haha.

Anyways, back on topic. It’s actually a relatively short read coming in at 3 volumes. I think it’s just about the perfect length for the type of story it wanted to tell. In some ways I would’ve liked it to have gone longer but I think the author made the right call with ending it where it did.

Of course, this is where I spoil the story so the usual warning if you care about spoilers.

I find it funny on a personal note how often when people ask about my favourite type of manga, I usually talk about how I like light hearted series. I live off slice of life even! I joke as much saying that I find the soul in SOL. And it’s true! A lot of my favourite series, even one of my favourite yuri series of all time (Himawari-san) are very much slice of life focused stories!

Yet, it’s not entirely accurate to say that I want them to be just be pure slice of life. I don’t know a better way to phrase it than saying I like my slice of lifes to be… progressive? Showing growth in some way, or some sort of continuity. It’s why I actually find shows like Lucky star hard to watch, but on the other hand I love shows like Non Non Biyori.

I also used to say that I wasn’t a fan of angst. Why would I read a story to be sad? Not to say that I don’t get why people do, but I deal with enough stress in real life! I’m trying to relax when I read!

And yet, some of my favourite media deals with angst and tragedy. Seabed to name one. Of course, Seabed is also heavily heavily a slice of life VN as well.

In fact, in a lot of ways, Seabed and Endroll are quite similar. Both are (spoilers for both) about coming to terms with their partner that is dead. Though in Endroll’s case, it’s a little bit more like they’re dying after being revived.

That underlying dread and sadness is done very well in Endroll. It’s a constant reminder that almost undercuts the happiness that the main characters are experiencing. It’s easy to try to push it to the side, but they both know that their time together is limited. Ultimately, Endroll is a story about how the main characters handling that truth.

There’s a lot of beautiful scenes in it, and that’s not even talking about the art (which is also very good!). One particular favourite of mine is the scene where they exchange dolls with a recorded message to each other. Aino’s contains a “I love you” to her beloved partner Iro, and in the last chapter we get to see the full message.

I love the scene at the end because Iro had been wavering in her path for a long time. Indecisive, and she looked up to Aino for her decision making. But Aino tells her that to walk her own path, walk the path that makes her happy. The choice that she makes won’t be wrong. In a time where she’s the most lost and doesn’t know what to do, Aino is there to help her, from the past, to reassure her.

And as a bonus, one last additional snippet, from Aino, the person who was supposed to be a selfless hero, makes a request for Iro to keep loving her until the end too.

I can’t express how much I love their relationship with each other. Both with how Aino supports Iro, but also with how Iro supports Aino too. Iro’s confession scene to Aino is really beautiful to me because it shows how their dynamic goes both ways.

Gah! I loved this manga, and I’m happy I was finally able to finish it in Japanese. Definitely gives me more confidence to go finish some other backlogged Japanese manga that’ve been collecting dust!