BLISS RATING: ★★★
I’m yours until the end of this world.” – Sanket Choudhary
Admittedly, BOKURA NO MICRO NA SHUUMATSU is a rather complex story trying to be fashioned in simplicity. It is a story about a toxic love that was lost years ago and resurrected, ironically at the end of the world.
There is so much symbolism in this series that it will make your head spin. And you can read into this story, variations of what love is and how its indefinable force controls you and the world around you.
This is indeed a story of love. An ugly love. A toxic love. A painful love. One I could not wrap my head around. Yet here it is. A love centered around two very unhappy people full of joyless functioning and longing for one another in the most ardent way. Yet, remained apart for 10 years, only getting together ‘accidentally’ at the end of the world. Nishina Masumi (Seto Toshika) had been in a relationship with Kusakabe Ritsu (Nakata Keisuke) in college. Each looked at relationships almost from dichotomous points of view. Masumi looked at sex and a relationship through the eyes of trust and to some degree represented something special and predestined. Ritsu’s approach is more into the here-and-now and pleasure must be taken in the moment and to commit to one thing seemed counterintuitive to him. Having to live for the moment meant being with whomever he fancied – male or female. Esoterically, however, it did not mean that Ritsu did not love; there is no question he did. But the love he had for Masumi was not strong enough or meaningful enough for commitment.
With Masumi feeling betrayed, he became a recluse and merely just functioned in society. That is Ritsu’s power over him. On the other hand, Ritsu never forgot and profoundly regretted what he did and therefore at the end of the world who does he wants to be with is Masumi. In a sense, destiny is the manipulator here.
Having reunited after 10 years, Ritsu is just as self-centered and toxic as ever. He remains as narcissistic as previously and only sees the world through the prism of his experiences. He sees life as fatalistic and unsalvageable. Ritsu asks for Masumi’s help, knowing full well that Masumi will be unable to walk away from him in these last few remaining days. In Ritsu’s journey to reunite with Masumi, he meets up with a young man named Hirose Yuma (Tomimoto Sousyo) who from the very beginning is an enigma of epic proportions. He is and becomes a metaphysical character. He is transcendent and mystical but not quite magical.
He is real, innocent, but seraphic and gives meaning to being virtuous. Along the way they also meet another character that is an image of Yuma’s idol fixation, Madoka. While not exactly the individual, it is an uncanny facsimile yet unique and distinctive. Her name is Kagami Meguru (Idegami Baku) whose sister Yuma is fixated on.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? This is an exceptionally well-acted series of fascinating and memorable characters, be they people you want to love or hate. But who stand out are two that are exceptional. Tomimoto Sousyo as Yuma, the quixotic young man who perhaps hold the fate of the world in his will. He is a fascinating character and is played with complete innocence and a child-like nature. One could not help but admire his credulity. Unfortunately, they did not flesh out his role significantly enough to make his character truly believable. They made his actions look more like quirks or happenstance events rather than true happenings. This diminished his role and made it feel his character was too light. They could have made him a figure of outstanding proportions but did not. Both Matsumi and Ritsu ask the basic questions, “What is he? Is he a supernatural miracle boy?” The question is never fully answered or for that matter fully explored. It is all so cavalier. Yet, the circumstances make it and him profound. The other character who is difficult to look away from is Idegami Baku as Maguru. In reality, he becomes the younger sister of the famous idol who committed suicide that Yuma is fixated on, Madoka. In playing the dual roles, she adds a certain unorthodox dimension to this story, which is both fascinating and unique, yet seemed underutilized. While Masumi and Ritisu know her story, his identity is never really revealed to Yuma. Would it have made a difference? No, I do not think it would have.
This series is taking a more metaphysical approach to the story and wants us to believe in miracles. That would be a worthy outcome if the story itself matched that outcome, but the two main characters are so flawed that the question has to be asked are they worth saving? And if so, why them? Will the outcome of them being saved going to contribute to the overall improvement of humanity? I cannot answer that question. The other two series made us feel something. This series only made me feel sadness for the two main characters and honestly did not feel they would show redemption if given a second chance. I loved Yuma’s innocence and would hope in the end he was able to save the world for himself and Maguru with Matsumi and Ritsu only along for the ride.
Honestly, I felt nothing for this series. It never got emotionally deep with any of the connections for me to feel, care, or commiserate with. With the other two series, I actually felt genuine sadness for their destruction or understood the need to end their days in hedonistic pleasures. All this series seemed to have done was wallow in its own sense of fatalism and inevitability. As I am not a believer in ‘miracles’ and since, if that was what this series was trying to convey at the end, it did so too obtusely for me to regard. And honestly, I did not care. So, the saga unfortunately was lost on me, and I simply could not get into its own self-indulgent direction with no real sense of purpose or design.
As I have done in the past, I highly recommend that production companies at the end of the credits give hotline numbers for suicide prevention or mental health services. This indeed may be helpful even if it only saves one person.
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