Platinvm End Vol. 12by Wolfen MoondaughterReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 6 While Yoneda, with Ogaro at his side, tries to glean more information from the angels, and this make a better-informed decision, the remaining God Candidates do their best to prepare for whatever Yoneda might try next . It's not easy to sit and wait when most of the world seems to wish them dead! Under the circumstances, can they trust Yoneda's invitation to meet?First, some gripes. I've complained about how this series depicts women, before, I know, but I really seem to notice the ridiculousness of the angels this time -- why do they look like they're wearing tight lingerie that barely covers their nipples? It's really distracting at times! I need to give a mild spoiler, but it won't actually affect the plot. There's some talk of how the Red Arrow makes the people hit with it fall in love with the sender, and twice, negative comments are made about guys falling for other guys because of it. One instance I can shrug off because the gender doesn't seem to matter so much as the fact that the guy in question fell in love with someone other than his already established girlfriend. But the other instance makes it hard to ignore that the negative reaction came right after he said specifically that he fell for another guy. The other instance involves Yuri complaining that the "guy-on-guy stuff is kinda hard to take." Minamikawa calls her out for the statement, for getting awfully close to being discriminatory against gays, yes -- but then Yuri takes her to task for conflating personal tastes like hers and discrimination, which she defines as a "social system backed by the powerful". See, here's the thing, though -- she may be right when she says that personal taste isn't discrimination, but whatever is going on between two guys in the room (and ALL it is, is the one hit by the arrow verbally defending the one who, consensually, hit him with the arrow -- there's no intimacy going in here whatsoever) has nothing to do with her. She says that it's a matter of her romantic interests only being in men. Well, them since she's not being forced into a relationship with a woman, how does her making that comment at all, make any sense? Yuri's negative statement about "guy-on-guy" was homophobic and uninvited; why did she feel the need to create a hostile atmosphere towards others for something that was none of her business? She even says that God should do something about "all this hysteria about claiming harassment and discrimination." Well, if God -- a role she's in a position to potentially take on -- were to do something about it, wouldn't that be an example of a social system backed by the powerful? God, a powerful being, would be making it okay for gay men to be harassed -- that seems pretty discriminatory by her own definition! She says that Minamikawa should go after the government instead of her, for not making gay marriage legal, but it's not like Minamikawa can only do one thing -- this isn't an either or situation. And anyway, at the moment, Minamikawa doesn't have the prime minister in front of her; she has Yuri. Society is made up of individuals, and societal systems are created when society decides en masse that certain individual actions are -- or aren't -- okay. Things don't happen in a vacuum. Yuri's individual action is a building block for the larger problem, and therefore responding to Yuri's comment was a perfectly valid thing for Minamikawa to do. Maybe the writer even meant it that way -- but in the prior volume, the writer did an amazing job presenting multiple sides, while here, there's no counterpoint -- not from Minamikawa or anyone. As such, Yuri's comments comes off here as the writer taking a moment to vent annoyance about not being allowed to freely express hostile opinions / harassment towards others without being criticized for doing so. (And it's extra-gross in that it's a female character espousing this, when women are often the victims of harassment, and so have good reason to want it to stop. Not to mention how the series so often depicts women in ways that cater to the male gaze.) I have to be REALLY spoilery here for my last complaint. I'm a little concerned that Yoneda's eye problem and general unpleasant appearance is supposed to be symbolic of his ultimate status as a villain (regardless of how he rationalizes his actions), and I am not cool with that. Society coming to associate physical attributes (like his eye issue, in fact) with evil has gotten people killed in the past. Okay, complaints over. Sadly, there's not a lot of philosophising involved this time (last volume was a feast in that regard) until well into the second half of the volume, but we do get some insights into Yoneda through fairly interesting flashbacks, and I more or less enjoyed watching him rationalise things. There were some slow bits and a lot of standing around, though, with the others. Things really pick up all around late in the volume, with a couple of really fantastic twists! The thing is, the story itself points that many people stopped believing in God already, after faced with this while situation, while some are still clinging to the idea -- and it seems like people have pretty much settled their feelings on the matter, so it's hard to feel like the outcome even matters anymore for the world overall! Now, it just comes down to whether or not we the readers care about who amongst the Candidates will live, and who will die. Written: January 30, 2021
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