** BEWARE OF SPOILERS **
Introduction
Today marks an end of an era. Yoko Taro’s longest running manga “Thou Shalt Not Die” (君死ニタマフ事ナカレ) with mangaka Moriyama Daisuke concludes with 59 chapters. It seems like an odd number to end the series on, but…
Quick Synopsis
The last two chapters follows Kuroi to Miyata Hospital where Project White first originated and continued with experiments to find the key to eternal life. Once there, he’s confronted my multiple clones of Yamabuki, who is actually the clone of Mr. Miyata himself. Kuroi, still gravely injured from the previous fight, somehow manages to kill some 10-20 clones, but come after him until Rokusho and Tokiwa come to helpー
Remember, Rokusho and her family were casualties of Project White. She and her husband came to the hospital for fertility treatments, but she was merely a test subject for Miyata. Her daughter died and husband murdered, so she’s out for revenge against Miyata and Project White just as much as Kuroi is for revenge for what happened to Mashiro…
Eventually, Kuroi gets a card key to access a lab 4 levels down. Rokusho and Tokiwa stay to fight the Yamabuki clones when the next wave of drug-enhanced clones come at them. Tokiwa uses his drug on himself, which gives him super strength for 30 minutes before it explodes his brain.
4 levels below with Kuroi, he discovers a dozen or more Yamabuki clones… the only problem is… they are children. He goes to strangle one of them but stops short, completely having an emotional break down.
He says that Mashiro was the one who returned his “humanity” and therefore he could not kill the children. Instead, he somehow makes his way out of the hospital and collapses along the beach, seemingly dead (we don’t know for sure). Many of the Yamabuki children with their umbrellas in the rain come and gather around Kuroi. That’s when Mashiro shows up…
We haven’t seen a cognizant Mashiro in a LONG time, and I’m skeptical that she’s at all in control of whatever remaining humanity she has… but the look on her face here at least makes it seem like she understands… that a small fragment of her still remains.
She then sweeps Kuroi up in her arms in a very 2B/9S fashion before apparently dancing before the giant, full moon.
In The End
So, in the end, we didn’t get a very satisfactory conclusion. I mean, sure, the majority of the characters’ plots have been effectively concluded in a satisfying way, but… I just feel like this ending is super anti-climatic and is lacking SOMETHING. But maybe that’s the point…
All the things that I’ve been speculating about how the manga could fit into the overall Yokoverse remain unanswered. We get absolutely no confirmation–nor denial–of anything, so all of that will have to torture us for years to come as it remains purely speculation.
All that being said, there were quite a few of the main cast that survived through until the end:
- Mizukaki
- Botan
- Momoka (twins)
- Akane (twins)
- Seiji
- Rosavi
- Rosavi’s “special” son
And let me tell you… I am SUPER HAPPY that Mizukaki and Botan survived. Aside from Kuroi, Mizukaki was my favorite character in the whole series… It was actually the TSND Zero stage play fro 2016 that woke me up to his character, and I have Kurofuji Yuki to thank for that with his immaculate performance. He was the quintessential Mizukaki! (I just wish he wasn’t so silly in this photo!!)
- Thou Shalt Not Die Zero Stage Play – Review
- Thou Shalt Not Die Zero_Kai Stage Play – Official Report
- Connections to the Yokoverse (Speculation)
- Regarding the English Localization and YenPress
I am super sad that the series is over without so much of a hint regarding the speculation that I’ve had for the past 6 years. But that is exactly how Yoko works. Every story that he tells is essentially a stand alone. There may be connections here and there, but generally speaking, he does not step forward with a lit lantern in hand to lead the way forward, showing how things connect… Because it’s not important for the immediate narrative. Sub-series could connect in a very obscure way, but it’s really not all that important…
It’s just important to us fans who NEED TO KNOW!!!
Personally, I don’t think Yoko does anything on a whim. If something seems familiar, like the end shot of Mashiro holding Kuroi… I think that was MEANT to illicit thoughts of 2B & 9S… Anyone who has played Automata would no doubt think the same thing. We don’t need him to say something like, “YES! You’re absolutely correct! There is a direct connection between these characters!” to draw our own conclusions…mostly because he will never give us an answer but also because it really doesn’t matter either way.
Final Thoughts
So, I’m super interested to know whether or not Kuroi or Mashiro survived after this ending… Clearly, Mashiro doesn’t seem like she’s in any danger whatsoever… but it’s still pretty unclear if Kuroi is still alive. It would be pretty fitting that after Mashiro returns his humanity, he’s allowed to die AS A HUMAN rather than some distorted demon… like her. I don’t see him surviving after this point at all…
BUT… Kuroi and Mashiro did connect on a sexual level… so it could be possible that Mashiro, even given her situation, she could be pregnant… (somewhat like Rosavi and her son), which begs the notion of WHO THEIR CHILD COULD BE!? OG Nier perhaps…!? lol I can only speculate!
I may have some additional things to say about this series as the dust begins to settle… but for now, I think I’ll end things here…
It would be very interesting if this series were to get an animated series… They discussed this idea back during the all-night event in 2016, but… who knows!
Last but not least, the final 10th volume of the series will be released on October 24, in about two months! Then my collection will be complete and I will have a TON of extra books/sets to sell!! lol
Recent Comments From the Staff
When the final chapter was released in Big GanGan, Yoko Taro and Moriyama Daisuke among others commented on Twitter. As a way to memorialize the series, I’ll share their comments below!
And this was my attempt to get any sort of information out of Yoko… I know how he writes and all of his stories are perfect stand-alones, but when you zoom out further, you begin to see the bigger picture–the Yokoverse–and how everything connects, some in very slight ways and others are much more vital.
I have been speculating for years, since the first chapter of this story, how it could be connected to the overall Yokoverse. I’ve discussed that in detail multiple times, but I also wondered if Yoko would talk a little bit about this as part of his series wrap-up later when the final volume is released at the end of October. I didn’t expect him to answer me within just a couple minutes…
Basically, I have been speculating for years that the TSND story fits into the post-6.12 incident and pre-NieR world within the overall Yokoverse, and I wondered if Yoko could comment anything about this. I didn’t expect much and would have been satisfied with a simple “no comment”… but he responded with “It’s a secret”.
It’s a secret.
Anyone who knows Yoko or knows how cheeky he can be should know this is a common Yokoism. Of course, this in itself is complete conjecture on my part, but we have seen how he uses this phrase to denote a general positive answer while also leaving out all the details… because that would get him into lots of trouble…!
I would like to have much more spoilerish, speculation talk, but this probably isn’t the best place for it… Anyone who would like to discuss this in further detail can hit me up anytime in our NieR/Yokoverse Discord at the link below!
