Platinum End
Platinum End is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It was serialized in Shueisha's monthly manga magazine Jump Square from November 2015 to January 2021, with its chapters collected in 14 volumes. The series follows Mirai Kakehashi, a student who attempts suicide but is rescued by his guardian angel, Nasse, who not only has vowed to protect him, but bestows him special powers as he is also one of 13 candidates chosen by different angels to take the role of God, who is to retire in 999 days. Platinum End is licensed by Viz Media in North America. A 24-episode anime television series adaptation by Signal.MD aired from October 2021 to March 2022.
Plot
Mirai Kakehashi is a young orphaned high school student who lives with his abusive aunt and uncle after the death of his parents and brother. One day, Mirai decides he cannot take it anymore and attempts to commit suicide, but is saved by a Guardian Angel called Nasse, who also gives Mirai special powers. Upon learning from Nasse that his aunt and uncle were responsible for the deaths of his father and mother due to their jealousy and hatred toward them, Mirai uses the powers that she bestowed to him in order to enact justice upon them. This is only the beginning of Mirai's story, however, as Nasse soon after informs him that God will retire in 999 days and thirteen candidates to replace him were selected, one of which is Mirai. To make matters worse, not only is Mirai forced to take part in the contest to decide the next God, but some of the other candidates will do anything to win, including killing all of the other candidates as soon as possible. To combat these ruthless killers, Mirai forms an alliance with several candidates who share his goal: to win the contest without killing any other competitors.Characters
Main
Supporting
; / MetropolimanOther
; / Metroblue / Metroyellow;
; / Misurin
Production
Following Death Note and Bakuman, Platinum End is the third collaboration between author Tsugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata. Koji Yoshida, the duo's editor for the entirety of Death Note, said he had told the two that he would like for the three of them to work together again. According to him, Ohba had the vague idea for Platinum End towards the end of Bakuman; one of the ideas for the many manga featured in the story was about angels, and words such as "wings" and "arrows" were thrown around at the time. After many discussions, Yoshida said things for the new series started to come together when they decided to incorporate geometric motifs. Because angels are essentially the opposite of, if Obata drew them in a traditional Gothic style, they would be too similar to Death Note. As such, although it is set in the present day, Yoshida wanted to incorporate geometric or futuristic imagery in Platinum End. He also said that, if the theme of Death Note was "evil" or "death", the theme for the new series is "happiness".Unlike their previous works which were weekly serials, Platinum End is Ohba and Obata's first manga published with a monthly schedule. Yoshida said, with more than twice the amount of pages per chapter, the process is completely different in his opinion. Whereas with Death Note he was thinking first and foremost about the lead-in to the next week's chapter, for Platinum End the editor said he can focus more on a single chapter's story. But at the same time, he acknowledged that the longer interval between chapters requires they make them more compelling for readers to want to see what happens next.
Media
Manga
Written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, Platinum End was serialized in Shueisha's monthly manga magazine Jump Square from November 4, 2015, to January 4, 2021. The series' 58 individual chapters were collected into fourteen volumes, released from February 4, 2016, to February 4, 2021.On October 5, 2015, Viz Media announced that they had licensed Platinum End for an English release in North America. In March 2016, Viz confirmed that they would start releasing print editions of Platinum End, with the first volume released in October 2016. The manga is licensed by Kazé in France.
Volumes
Anime
On December 2, 2020, Pony Canyon registered the "Anime-PlatinumEnd.com" domain name, and on December 19, 2020, at the Jump Festa '21 online event, it was announced that the manga would receive an anime television series adaptation by Signal.MD. Hideya Takahashi directed the "first series", while Kazuchika Kise directed the second, with series composition by Shin'ichi Inozume, and character designs by Kōji Ōdate. Masahiro Tokuda composed the anime's music. The show ran for 24 episodes, and aired on TBS, BS11, and other channels from October 8, 2021, to March 25, 2022. Band-Maid performed the opening theme song "Sense", while Yuu Miyashita performed the first ending theme "Kōfuku-Ron". Kuhaku Gokko performed the second ending theme "Last Straw". Both Crunchyroll and Funimation streamed the series outside of Asia. On October 28, 2021, Crunchyroll announced the anime would receive an English dub, which premiered on November 18 of the same year. Medialink licensed the series in South and Southeast Asia. Disney+ Hotstar started streaming the series weekly in select Southeast Asian regions from January 5, 2022.The Platinum End anime series was released in Japan on DVD and Blu-ray across four volumes, each containing six episodes. The first volume was released on January 19, 2022; and each volume was released bi-monthly until July 20 of the same year. In North America, Crunchyroll released the first 12 episodes of the series on Blu-Ray on January 10, 2023, followed by a second Blu-ray release on June 6 of the same year, that contained the second half of the series. Crunchyroll also released the anime in two parts in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Reception
The first volume of Platinum End debuted at number two on Oricon's weekly list of the best-selling manga, with 105,213 copies sold. In December 2020, the manga had 4.5 million copies in circulation. When reviewing the opening chapter, Ian Wolf of Anime UK News compared Platinum End to Ohba and Obata's earlier series Death Note, saying: "the central character is a teenage boy fed up with life, who is guided by a supernatural force and given great power. Both leads seemingly find themselves on the path to becoming a deity. However, while Light Yagami uses his powers for diabolic ends, killing anyone he suspects of doing anything wrong while being observed by a shinigami, Mirai Kakehashi is guided by an apparently more benevolent force." He also called the series an example of a death game. Writing about the first chapter for The Fandom Post, Jarius Taylor gave Platinum End a B+ rating and compared it to Future Diary writing: "while I don't have too much doubt it'll be stronger overall, the overt edginess here isn't something I was quite expecting from Ohba. Still, it's a pretty interesting read from beginning to end, and there's a lot of potential in terms of both thriller aspects and the overall theme. Hopefully, it'll be able to differentiate itself from Future Diary more going forward, but for now the idea of Ohba and Obata taking a crack at their own version of it seems pretty good to me".Nick Creamer of Anime News Network also compared the manga to Death Note and described the series as a battle royale that mixes "rule-based thriller shenanigans and misanthropic theology". He praised Obata's art for combining "wondrously complex" background details and almost off-puttingly precise character designs "to arrive at something as cold as it is striking". Although he also praised Ohba for his pacing of action and twists and for constructing conflicts that truly make the characters seem smart and worth following, Creamer called his character and thematic writing "abysmal", as he found most of the characters to be either one-note villains or sycophants. Creamer stated that the third volume of Platinum End improved the manga from an interesting series, into a genuinely strong one. While still finding the story's philosophical pretensions to be "muddy", he praised the volume's focus on thrilling dramatic setpieces and its emphasis on new hero Mukaido. In contrast, AIPT Comicss Eric Alex Cline found volume seven to be "wonderfully political", with topics such as classism, charity, and the human right to happiness all addressed effectively and enhancing the series' sense of substance. He noted the classist elements of Kanade's views to be especially well-handled, as Ohba and Obata explore "toxic societal associations between poverty and the concept of people being metaphorically unclean."
Reviewing Platinum End for The Outerhaven, Josh Piedra called Metropoliman a great antagonist because he truly is a "disgusting" character with a god complex. He praised volume nine of the series for quickly establishing the new direction that the story is heading, with a new cast of characters, new plots and new threats. Piedra felt that Ohba's bringing of religion and philosophy into the story in volume eleven was both shocking and well-executed, while noting it to be a "bold move" that could rub some readers the wrong way. He stated that the ending to the series surpassed every expectation he had, and suggested that its epilogue could be the most-shocking event in any manga. Delving into "the philosophy of life itself and its existence, it gives a magnitude of reflection so great, that it raises questions about our own reality and our own lives." Commenting on the series as a whole, Piedra called Platinum End enjoyable, but not without its flaws. He described it as having every semblance of Ohba and Obata's trademarks; deep, meaningful dialogue, multi-layered stories, and two major arcs that are different, yet, similar to each other. However, like their other two series, he found it dragged in some parts. Piedra ranked Platinum End second among the duo's three works; ahead of Death Note, but behind Bakuman.