The ending sucks. :(

[kat_phantomhive]

Well yeah, when i first read this i got hooked up and i thought taisuke will end up with Nami </33 Geez! Why megumi? :( I mean Nami is soo perfect with Taisuke and again it's all about megumi =w=
Taisuke is an idot. :<
And Hell Yeah.. Yuuta is sooo cute and hot after those five years C: and Nami is Still hot and beautiful as ever ♥
I wish Yuuta is a lot more older so that he can paired up with Nami >:]
Well i think Nami will end up with aoi's oldest brother :]

Let me hear your opinion about the ending guys :)

[snowflower280]

I know! I totally expected that Taisuke would end up with Nami. I even thought it was confirmed after they kissed, but I guess not. D:<
But you have to have some respect for the author; he finished this series practically on his deathbed and did a good job of it, too. Aside from the fact that Taisuke wound up with Megumi (who barely even filled a role after the first few chapters), I was very satisfied with how the story closed up.

[neronakos]

It's kinda open. He ended up with Megumi but it seems that he had feelings for Nami too.
I don't remeber, did Yuta ended up with this Kurumi fat girl or with Aoi?

[Webdemon]

So the ending was bad because someone didn't end up with the person you originally thought? And the fact that he played the hero and saved the day(?) never crossed your mind?

[newyork21]

It's kinda open. He ended up with Megumi but it seems that he had feelings for Nami too.
I don't remeber, did Yuta ended up with this Kurumi fat girl or with Aoi?

Im going to guess most definitely Aoi

[Mastap14]

So the ending was bad because someone didn't end up with the person you originally thought? And the fact that he played the hero and saved the day(?) never crossed your mind?

>Women Logic

[Estoc]

The ending sucks because the author got cancer and died midway through the story. It's kind of hard to come up with a perfect ending when that happens all of a sudden. I'm sure he intended to resolve things much more thoroughly and develop their relationships more fully, but, you know, cancer.

[Mikiti]

The ending didn´t suck. It was one of the best endings for manga that I´ve ever seen.
But yeah, sure, it wasn´t your typical shônen ending, just like ALE isn´t your typical shônen manga. It was a realistic (and by realistic I don´t means that it could actually happen but that it´s coherent with the rest of the story) bitter-sweet ending. Kinda reminded me of the ending of Slam Dunk.

Actually, I was also disappointed by the fact that Taisuke ended up with Megu. I liked Nami sooo much better. But it´s okay, it´s coherent with Taisuke´s background. And Megu isn´t the average useless girl. She had guts when needed and her love for Tama probably saved humanity. Still, I feel sad for Nami, because she still loves Taisuke and will probably love him forever. Maybe she´ll end up with Rei, who knows, but it must be hard to fall in love with someone else when your first love saved the human race.

But there was so much more in this ending than a disappointing outcome to the romantic subplot ! First, who won and who lost wasn´t determined by the characters´ power but by their feelings, and everything fell into place perfectly. I had to read the last chapters twice because I read so fast the first time that I had missed quite a few important things. Hirose lost because he was thinking he had won, and he disappeared the bomb because he saw that despite all the atrocities he had commited and claimed responsability for, Taisuke still loved him and couldn´t kill him.
Hirose didn´t come back from the dark side of the force. He redeemed himself a little, but he couldn´t be saved, he WAS a bad guy but not one hundred percent bad and that´s what makes a mature, heartbreaking ending. Just go and take a look at that last image before Tama takes Hirose away, the way he and Taisuke exchange a look, it´s so good !
I think Hirose acted all along like a kid who wants to test his parents´ love. And if I break everything, will they still love me ? They still loved him yeah, but when he got his answer, it was too late for him.

Also, the last chapter was quite anticlimatic. First, because that kind of flashback "We´re still alive but here´s what happened 5 years ago" is by essence anticlimatic. And also because after such thrilling adventures, to see the characters definitively go back to normal life is a little sad. But that´s what makes the story lingers in you, what makes you think back about the characters and what´s tells ALE apart from all the disposable mangas (or books, or movies) one can read every day.

Apart from this, I feel like all my questions haven´t been answered. I don´t really understand what Yukie wanted, maybe I read to fast once again. And who was Tama´s mother ? Did the heart have to be awoken so that she could be born ? What happened to Katsumatas´s wife, she wasn´t Tama´s mother, was she ?
If someone could explain, I´d be grateful.

>Women Logic

Please, spare us your macho crap.

[Rummycaek]

Apart from this, I feel like all my questions haven´t been answered. I don´t really understand what Yukie wanted, maybe I read to fast once again. And who was Tama´s mother ? Did the heart have to be awoken so that she could be born ? What happened to Katsumatas´s wife, she wasn´t Tama´s mother, was she ?
If someone could explain, I´d be grateful.

Yukie wanted to destroy the heart.

Tama didn't have a mother or a father. Tama was born, iirc, when the heart formed and needed the heart to become whole.

I don't recall what happened to Katsumata's wife, but that's at the very least what I got from it. I could need to read through again to really understand everything though. Some things were really left to one's own imagination.

Honestly though, to those bitching that this ending wasn't good just because a character didn't end up in a relationship with who you wanted, have a little respect. It's not a shoujo manga, and trying to turn it into one is likely to leave you disappointed. The author finished this manga only a few months before dying to cancer. We're all very lucky that we got to see an ending to it at all and should be grateful to be honest. This manga was a fantastic story, and the ending was left pretty open, in such a way that there are infinite possibilities as to what their futures may hold.

[mk_cy]

although there were times that I hated Hirose..
but the one I hate the most is probably Megumi..I just don't like her :| '
I wished that Wansuke would end up with Nami :|