One Great Panel: The Color of the End

Finding joy in the end of times.

I went off on how much I’m enjoying this series last week, and today I’m taking it to One Great Panel. And I’ll also say—I had about five panels I was debating between to pull out from this series (mind you, that’s only from volume 1), because similar to a series like Kagurabachi, it has a serious knack for framing.

I decided on this one, and I’ll get to why in a second.

This panel is from Chapter 3, Page 79

Context: The hero of the series, Shun (standing here) is searching for survivors after a deadly virus ravaged the world. Her first stop is this movie theater, where she finds the robot seated here, having transferred his previously human consciousness into this new form. Here, he watches movies until the end of time. In fact, a new movie is about to start.

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This is such a beautiful moment in the context of the story, because Shun and her adorable little mascot companion Coo are such an optimistic pairing. They want to find people, to help survivors. Their big mission is to rescue anyone still alive and discover a cure for this sickness that has claimed so many, but it just feels like the true goal is just to meet people. To remember what it means to make a human connection.

Case in point, Shun doesn’t just see this guy and bolt. She offers to take him with her, to “join the crew,” but this character has other priorities, as he identifies here. And in a truly special moment, Shun and Coo stay and watch a movie with him. It’s charming, it’s humanizing, and it really spotlights how meaningful a human interaction can be, no matter what that human looks like. I brought up that same theme in my piece on Tsugumi Project too. It’s really impactful, no matter how prevalent it is.

Now, onto the artistic merits of the panel. For starters, The emptiness of the theater is more than a tad symbolic of the state of this world as a whole. And sitting there is one half-bodied android, who can never leave on his own. It’s such a sobering, seemingly monotonous existence, but it makes you think, given the situation, if he chose wisely or poorly. He won’t die naturally, because he’s in an android body. But then again, he’ll never die at all, and the movies will just keep playing. Is that a winning end?

There are smaller nuances to the panel that I appreciate as well. The complete darkness. It carries the tone for the overall state of the world. Also though, the choice of seat. Now, I went back and forth on if this robot actually chose that seat, or if the consciousness transferred to him already in that seat, and without any other context clues, I’m opting for the former, because I believe that in this setting, this robot chose the seat with the best acoustics. Everyone knows there are certain sections of a theater that just sound better than others. It’s never the front, back, or sides. Which checks out with where he’s sitting.

He has literally picked his ending, whenever that may come to pass. Again, it’s dark, but it’s also hopeful. And that’s how this whole series feels thus far.