I decided to read this manga because I wanted to understand the controversy surrounding its ending. Also, spoilers ahead.

First things first, I do not think the whole manga is bad. I would recommend people read it because it has some good insights into the industry that are true, and things people may not know or simply want to ignore.

Now, for my review: I think the manga is somewhat good. Personally, I didn’t like it, but again, I still recommend it. The start is really interesting, with a good cast and a great plot to follow, but as it moves forward, problems start to appear.

The arcs feel like they’re stretched just to make the manga longer, and the main plot becomes almost secondary, advancing very little. Many characters that are introduced start to become background characters, added just to provide dialogue and help move the plot. For example, the half-brother was only there to make Aqua think their dad was dead. After that, he had no other important role. Other characters, like Kana, are used just to create sadness in the audience, and her story stops developing. The stepmom is just there, and the same goes for other characters.

As for the antagonist, he’s just a crazy guy who got dumped because of love—that’s all there is to him. His character arc is resolved too quickly, and we don’t get a deeper exploration of him after the breakup. He had an interesting story but was underused and ended up as just a typical killer from many other shows.

The reincarnation plot is more of my personal opinion, but it feels like it was only introduced to create the start of the plot. It doesn’t go anywhere else. They help the bird in exchange they get the reincarnation,and the god just seems like a tool to create more dialogue around reincarnation, and that’s about it.

I don’t necessarily find the ending with Aqua bad. My issue is that Aqua becomes the character for whom every plan works out—he’s always saying, "Just like I planned!" And that’s it. He was a genius, yes, but it became boring after a while. For me, it would have been better if he had survived because his plan failed, and his dad died, because honestly, the plan was just bad. The ending feels so rushed, with just panels of every character after his death, and that’s all. The ending with Ruby, she is just like Ai, is my main problem. All her development and her claim that she wouldn’t end up like Ai go out the window.

In conclusion, I think the manga had the ending already planned, but the middle part wasn’t fully fleshed out. When the middle was finally done, the ending had changed, but the author didn’t want to change it because it was already done, so it was forced to happen the way it was originally planned. I now understand the controversy with the manga, but in my opinion, the ending didn’t ruin the series as a whole. It was just a bad ending. The manga already had its flaws, but due to the interesting settings and characters, it didn’t matter. However, when it ends like this, people go nuts. I don’t think it’s the worst manga ending ever, and many people are exaggerating a bit. Of course, I read this in a week, while others followed it for years, so I get why this ending frustrates them. I recommend people read it, regardless of the ending. It has a worthwhile plot with a conclusion, but just not the best one.