English Dub Review: WorldEnd: What are you doing at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? “Chtholly”

Joy is not in the ending. It’s in the living.

Spoilers Below

Last we left off with the show with the unreasonably long name, everything had gone to hell. Yeah, that kinda sums it up. Chtholly’s consciousness is now completely submerged in the soul of her past life. The ship is swarming with regenerating Timuri monsters. Nephren is on the brink of opening her Fairy Gate and destroying them all. Rhantolk and Nopht are holding their own against the monsters, but are beginning to tire. In the meantime, Willem decides to deal with his rage and self-loathing by joining the fight. These monsters can only be destroyed by specialized weapons, but he is beating them with his FIST. One by one, he punched them straight out the airlock. And when there isn’t an airlock, he makes one. His body may not be able to generate much venenom anymore, but he’s still Krillin Strong. Rhantolk asks him if all humans were this unreasonably powerful, and he gives her his story. Of how he trained for years to become a brave, and even though he was the strongest of them all, his power still wasn’t enough to save the ones that mattered to him. He still can’t. Despite his deep injuries, he presses onward to help Nephren. She’s in the hold, protecting the shipment and the remaining soldiers. Her eyes are turning red as she loses herself to the Fairy Gate, and it’s interfering with her fighting. In a sudden burst of her power, she defeats the monster, but not before taking heavy injuries in the process.

Just then, altitude control on the ship goes out. In order to maintain lift, Grick puts the pedal to the metal, generating lift the old fashioned way. However, so many holes have been punched in the ship that stuff is being sucked out. This includes the monsters and Nephren, who is just barely holding on. Willem arrives as she falls, grabbing her hand. His grip is slipping from his own blood. Nephren consoles him, saying that he’s already saved them several times over. Besides, her Fairy Gate is about to open and blow the entire ship away. He has to let her go. Moments later, she slips from his grasp, falling out of sight. Unable to let go, he leaps from the ship, bounding to rescue her, knowing full well that this act will kill him.

Back on the ship, Nopht lay in the corridors, too beaten and exhausted to move. Then, Chtholly steps out into the hall picks up the Nopht’s sword and head to the nearest hole in the ship. Nopht begs her to stay. Her fighting is done, she should just leave and find her happiness. Live for the rest of them. But Chtholly says that’s impossible. She can’t seek her happiness. She already has it. As she leaps from the ship, the last of her blue hairs turn red. She ignites her fairy wings, flying down to catch her sister and her lover before they become chunky salsa in the sand below. It’s too late for Nephren, however. Her mind is completely gone. Chtholly waves her hand across the girl’s eyes, putting her to rest. With what little time she has left, the now red-haired leprechaun protects Willem, dashing into a desperate fight as the two lovers remember the joy and feelings of their relationship. In the end, her Fairy Gate opens, destroying all of the monsters. But… She’s gone now. And that… is how it ends, folks.

This episode was everything I was expecting. It was also everything I was fearing. There is no deus ex machina. No sudden reversal of fortune. Chtholly is doomed to die from the mid-point of the series and there was nothing anyone could have done about it. This is not a happy ending, but that’s the point. There are no “happily-ever-afters”. There is only the joy of the moment. The ecstasy of living one’s life to its fullest, because each experience may be your last. This may sound depressing and nihilistic, but it isn’t. It’s raw and real, and a thought that should press us onward. There is happiness in this world. There is joy. You have to choose it, and to quote The Last Starfighter “You gotta grab on with both hands and hold tight”. The ending is right there around the corner, reminding you not to take anything for granted. To be honest, I feel a bit raw after watching this ending. I’m a big softie, I guess.

So, on to the technicals. The animation was amazing. Some of the best I’ve seen from this series yet, and it’s no slouch on the average either. The effect where Chtholly’s last hairs turned was, at the same time, subtle and smoothly done. It happened so gradually as she talked, you almost didn’t notice it. The whipping hair and clothes as everyone fell from the sky were expertly animated, constantly moving and flapping without any cycled animation. The animators knew this was going to be their goodbye to Chtholly, and they made it count. The voice acting tore me up. Micah Solusod and Amber Lee Connors gave a brilliant performance during the final scenes. As they recounted the character’s feelings, they emoted so deeply, I could feel it. Put right up against a haunting rendition of Scarborough Fair, it stirs the heartstrings.

But it does much more. It connects back to the beginning of the first episode, the song we heard as they traveled through the flying island together. And when I went back to confirm this, I rediscovered the opening of the series, all built from re-arranged chunks of this episode. Everything that happened here was told to you at the very beginning. Unlike some series, it doesn’t matter if you saw the ending at the beginning. I got lost in the journey here. To be honest, I fell in love with this series early on, and it almost paid off for me here. The ending feels unresolved. Not only does it seem like Willem may still be alive out there, but we don’t know exactly what happened to Chtholly afterward. Though her mind is completely gone, did her original soul take over like Ithea, or did she die? The last scene of the show is a flashback to when she was born, and it feels a bit out of place. It was obviously making a point, but I didn’t get it. Trust me, I want with all my heart to give this episode a perfect ten. I really do, but this ambiguity keeps me from being able to. I know that a sequel series of the light novel has been produced, so that may help deal with these lingering feelings, and may give us a few more of the answers about the past that this series didn’t give us. Until then, this amazing episode gets nine fallen leprechauns out of ten. Rest in peace, Chtholly.