A Painfully Honest Review of Platinum End 

Man, looking back, Death Note really did their female characters dirty, that FBI agent cracked the case on who Kira is all by herself and she was just unlucky and encountered Light right outside the Police Station.

The tl;dr is literally god is dying and gets a bunch of suicidal people to compete on who's going to be god NEXT and....the winner kills himself. Wow. How did nobody see that coming.

Fun Fact: In an early chapter of Bakuman, the protagonists storyboard a manga that is fairly similar to Platinum End. It was an action story about invisible angels with spears that can instantly kill humans. Eventually, they scrap the idea because it was stupid.

A lot of people argue "Batman had a no kill policy too but everyone likes him!" True, but Batman wasn't a bitch who sat on the sidelines and let people die.

If the writer does have it out for women, then that explains a LOT about the tension between L and Light.

Like MoistCritikal said “Why are the characters High School teens?” Them being teens serves no purpose to the story and how tf did they graduate they probably missed three months of school

"It's also a bit rich coming from a writer who has never been able to write women for shit and also clearly hates them." fucking hilariously accurate line

So Hajime is a caricature of an incel whose problems don't get fixed by looksmaxxing, and who simps over Poliman Chad, and only gets "cured" when he feels love for a woman? Wow. That's... layered.

Everyone's reaction to this anime/Manga: "NEW DEATH NOTE. LET'S F****** GOOO!!!!"🥳 After episode 3: "Let's... Let's just go." 😭

This entire story feels like the writer came up with a really neat and interesting ending and then wrote the story backwards from there.

The Bakuman chapter reads to me as "Women who are academically intelligent and take pride in that fact make me feel emasculated so she's actually really dumb because she isn't acting in a way that favours my ego."

Geoff: Now, you may want me to back up my claims that Oba's a misogynist-- Me, remembering the scene from Bakuman where the main dude tells a girl offering to give him writing advice on women to piss off: No, no, I believe you.

I think the part in Bakuman that really did make me go: The author does not know how to write women, was the one chapter were they LITERALLY TALK ABOUT WRITING WOMEN and the consensus they reach is "Don't put much thought into it. Just make a love interest who is your dream girl"

It's hilarious that the authors of death note ripped off mirai nikki, a show called a death note ripoff back in the day, and did it worse

The concept with using suicidal people could have worked so well,.... If he actually bothered to depict depression in any meaningful shape or form

Besides the women hating there was one scene in the manga that just RIPPED MY HEAD out of the little immersion I had left. Where they start talking about being gay and gay marriage? And the takeaway from the argument was "well if youre mean to people that hate gay people, youre just as bad because you arent being nice to them and accepting that its okay to hate gay people because people think differently!" I almost threw my fucking head through a window

“Their love affair is as hot and steamy as a raw carrot”. That’s one hell of a quote 🤣👏

Thank you for calling out Ohba's blatant misogyny. And his generally shitty character writing. Fucking. FINALLY.

"As hot and steamy as a raw carrot". I--... That is a phrase, alright.

Even when I read Death Note as a youngster, I just knew something about how Misa Misa was written bugged me big time. Hobbies? Light. Interests? Light. Goals? Light. Reasons to live? Light. Etc. etc. It bugged me SO MUCH; I never really liked her. Hearing the misogyny explained made everything make SO MUCH SENSE.

Ah, yes, Bakuman. The show where the idea of romance is "you're not allowed to even talk to me until your manga gets an anime adaptation, so wait for me."

I like how even the female characters with actual careers have to be in a lower position to their husbands/lovers in this mangaka's works because he's just _that_ insecure over the idea of women being the breadwinners

When the middle schooler turned into god and said "Well, I guess this is the... Platinum End lmao" before yeeting himself and erasing all life I got the true message behind this literary masterpiece

Do ya'll remember that one chapter in Bakuman where the protagonists try to break into the traditional shounen battle genre with an angel themed story, and the editor reads it and says "wtf this is dogshit. why are u doin this?" ? yeah me neither.

I dropped this anime after the main character got red arrowed by main girl, and instead of that being an interesting plot point, they did nothing but wait the 33 days for it to pass. Literally nothing happened in that month, I actually laughed when it happened.

Foreign characters in the Monogatari series: - Dramaturgy - Episode - Guillotine Cutter - Kiss-Shot Acerola Orion Heart-Under-Blade MY GOD HE'S RIGHT

Naomi was so heads and shoulders above her fiancé Ray Penbar in terms of detective skills it was painful. She basically solved Kira in one episode. The funniest part is the dialogue where Ray told her she will be a good little housewife after their wedding and she meekly went along with it. A real Naomi would laugh at the absurdity of his request after her years training and working as a kick ass FBI agent. Does she no longer enjoy her career? Did she forget what made her want to fight crime in the first place?

I got my sister into death Note and Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood. She asked about platinum's end since she heard the death note creators made it. I told her simply " imagine a show where a majority of the cast is Misa Misa" She thinks me for wasting my time too stop her from watching it

That ending is so oppressingly nihilistic. It's almost pointless, really. It is reflective of this whole anime, in a way. It is an interesting philosophical concept, but terrible as a story telling device.

Finally I hear someone talk about how weird the portrayal of women was in specifically bakuman. Even as a teenager first reading the story, glasses dude’s girlfriend and eventual wife’s writing made me feel uncomfortable, their relationship felt really forced and unnatural. And the main character’s crush also was written in a weird way, literally having no personality whatsoever and being made into an end goal which is just really weird… I find it super odd that despite the many people that have talked about bakuman it’s the first time I even hear about this actually being a flaw, because it definitely is

Funny enough, that episode where the female FBI agent died was the moment where I dropped the show for a while. I was so excited to see her become a major character, search for Kira to avenge her husband and how Kira would deal with her, knowing that she was totally on to him, or Light might even feel guilty for killing her husband solely to protect himself and start to question himself... But no, Kira manaqges to figure out her true name and kills her right before she can speak to L, and no one seems to even mention her after she dies and is never found. Also, in the following episode, L immediately picks up on where she left off so her death was even more pointless, just to rub salt on the wound.

There is a shocking amount of people who are genuinely arguing that the Oba isn't sexist. It makes me wonder if the worst of the misogyny was toned down in the anime adaptations or if they're just that deep in denial.

Good to know the creative team haven't really improved on their inability to write female characters, nearly two decades later. At least in Death Note it was kinda _subtle_ ... like we had Naomi for an episode. Still forever mad that a grown woman would ever fall for Light's bullshit because what kinda _teenager_ gets to verify her credentials for a serial killer case *she deserved better-*

People writing edgy "pacifist in war" stories should REALLY read Animorphs. One of the characters is the nature loving veterinarian moral center girl... and the psychological and moral decay that comes from being a guerilla fighter against an alien empire at (x)teen years old makes her basically a hypocrite, and called that in canon. She is happy voting no on morally dubious missions bc she KNOWS enough of the team will vote yes and the bad but necessary thing will be done regardless, and at one point asks her friend to kill a guy for her.

as someone who met way too many people who tried to base their entire personalities on L from death note, i can at least appreciate how the shut-in, antissocial genius is not being shown as a hot boy, because real people who act like that are the absolute opposite of hot, and i can say that from personal experience.

It’s always nice to hear from an anime reviewer who genuinely reads into the issues that come with certain authors’ outlooks. You can’t always separate art from the artist, especially when the artist puts so much of their own…. uh… hot takes? Into their work. Ohba’s work has been formative to how I view and interact with art, Death Note was absolutely huge for me when I first read it, and has never stopped influencing my art. That said, his misogyny is inseparable from his work, and addressing it is necessary. Keep up the great work, Jeff!

The ending of this sounds… wild. I feel like your interpretation of it would be vastly more charitable than mine, because alien god-entities wanting to kill themselves as the punchline to a whole story about suicidal people being chosen for a competition to try and save the world, only for their chosen god to commit suicide himself because he can’t take the omniscience and inaction, is… a choice! Heck it’s a whole series of choices!

Your explanation of the problem with Mirai's pacifism was perfect. His pacifism itself is not a problem--the extreme contrast to the situations he was presented was. His refusal to kill someone actually let's other people die...and inaction when you have the power to do so, is often argued to be tantamount to being complicit in killing someone. So by not killing someone, he's actually still killing people...meaning he's ultimately tarnishing his own happiness anyways. At least killing Metropoliman would be a one and done. Not killing him, meant an indefinite number and definitely more guilt.

"I wouldn't call it bad writing." You're right, it's not - it's something much worse than bad writing: boring writing.

"The kind of raw chemistry you can only get from the man who wrote Misa Misa" Love you for pointing this out. I re-watch Death Note sometimes- and then have to relive all my repressed memories of that abortion of a character. She's the adult version of the annoying kid constantly featured in children's productions.

I forget where I read it, but there was a manga by Ohba where he wrote a character explaining why homophobia apparently doesn't exist because... (checks notes) it exists on a societal level, meaning it's okay for individuals to hate gay people where another character has to explicitly say how smart she apparently is in what I can only describe as some Ben Garrison-tier wall-of-text shit? Yeah, the guy's WEIRD sometimes.

Ohba's women hating is something anime had to deal with forever. Of note, that thing you mentioned from Bakuman where Takagi says "women looking to be subservient to a guy are the smart ones" is actually changed in the anime to the still kind of odd but infinitely better "being able to be super well liked by everyone without being manipulative or really standing out is smarter than just being able to study"

Can we all just agree that the best "no kill" protagonist anime ever had was Vash the Stampede? We're all in agreement of that, right?

Oh good it's another "Everything still sucks and nobody's making it better so let's just reset everything and hope for the better" story, a reach so nihilistically self-centered that even if it comes from a good place, it immediately invalidates the fact that people do dedicate themselves to actually improving things for other people, no matter how small that may be in the grand scheme of things. Also the fact that it comes around bc a suicidal teenager was chosen to become god by a bunch of other suicidal people and the new god literally couldn't handle the weight of it all is... somewhat fucked, to be blatantly honest.

Death Note and Bakuman are two of my favorite anime of all time so I had extremely high hopes for Platinum End fully expecting it to be another timeless classic...boy was that not the case.

As someone who checked out of Platinum End two volumes into the manga when I realized I just... couldn't anymore with whatever Ohba's damage when it comes to women is, I am genuinely intrigued by the nature of its ending. Not intrigued enough to make it through the rest of it, but enough that I appreciate hearing about it secondhand.

You know, if you just treat the the ending as it's own thing and pretend rest of the story doesn't exist, you'd have quite the manga one-shot on your hands.

Oh man, I sure do love "Misogynist Loner Tells You Not to Commit Suicide by Making All the Main Characters People Who Committed Suicide and Giving Them Super Powers and Saying They Should Be God and Only Covering that Suicide is Bad and a Product of Our Society and We Should Change That Actually Only 2 Chapters Before the End" the manga

The red arrow had a lot of potential. Is Mirai’s love for Saki even real? They waited out the time limit, but he was still forced to feel love for her for 33 days. Mirai was perfectly fine with it because he already had a crush on her, but a protag who was NOT fine with being backstabbed by their crush could’ve carried the whole show with what was real about how he felt and what wasn’t. The entire genre could’ve turned to horror very fast.

The whole symbiotic/parasitic god-human relationship is a definitely interesting idea but it's more well handled in Small Gods by Sir Terry Pratchett.

In my opinion, what i noticed about both Death Note and Platinum End is that the author writes about a symptom of society, as if it were the disease itself. In DN it's crime. DN criminals are always ugly and shitty people, who do crime because they get a power trip from it or think they're above the people they threaten, rob or kill. On the other hand, the story wants to tell us that these same people simply stop doing this as soon as Kira becomes a phenomenom. In reality, crime is not that simple. Humans are complex in their emotions, thinking and acting. Poverty plays a role in it. Culture plays a role in it. Laws also play a role in it. Does Kira judge every person according to their country's criminal law? Or does he just go after what he was taught is right? Is Kira free of bias? Light is still not an omnipotent god who can see everything everyone everywhere is doing all the time. His only way of finding out about crime is through news reports. Also not all countries give out the full name of a criminal (at least in my country, they only give the Initial of the first name). What about people who were wrongfully convicted? The police force is not without fail, how can he know for sure that someone who's been sitting in jail for 10 years because they allegedly murdered someone is actually guilty? And what about people in power and rich people, who use loopholes to cheat the system and hurt other people doing that? Not to mention that the death penalty does not actually lower crime rates. People who plan on committing crime always think that they will not be caught, no matter if the punishment is lifelong jailtime or death. So the idea that Kira's existence lowers the amount of crime commited, when his persecution is not 100% accurate, does not work all around the globe, and does nothing to address the *actual* causes of crime, is not realistic even for a supernatural thriller story. And the same can be said about Platonum End and Suicide. People don't just commit suicide because they want to, there's lots of different factors to it, partially the same as for crime. Poverty, social status, culture, personal relationships, there's so many things that are involved. I mean, the beginning of the main character's story already showed it. So the fact that at the end, the god candidates are okay with the acceptance of suicide and NewGod's own subsequent suicide... it kinda rubs me the wrong way. Watching this video made me realize that the writer seems to not see heavy subjects such as these as nuanced, but just a part of life. A part, which he sees as a problem, yes, but doesn't really explore. This only get supported by the Bakuman manga sites you showed. I am all for flawed characters and I would be on board with Platinum End's story, if only there was a bit more social commentary put into it. A bit more thought about *why* these things which are problems for society, exist, and how to find a solution to it. And then also show why a teenager with a god complex may not find them. Edit: Holy fuck I took time to actually read those Bakuman pages at around 21:00 minutes. That pretty much confirms all my weird feelings I got from the writing. Ouba seems to realize that there is a societal hirarchy and wants to write stories about societal problems. However, since he believes and supports said hirarchy, it cannot be the cause for said problems. So he just... never explores its roots. Oh my fucking god. And that from the writer behind Death fucking Note! Imagine how much even better his stories could be if he tried to analize his own bias! Wow I don't even know what to say about this!!!

Bakuman is so weirdly fascinating with how much of this story was clearly written to no-homo Light and L's relationship when you think about it. Like, if you read the story as Takagi being in love with Mashiro the whole time, then everything from his own kind of lackluster romance with Kaya despite him admiring Mashiro's relationship to his disinterest in writing women, to how he heaps praise on Mashiro and HOW often Mashiro reminds him not to be weird about it, etc. It does nothing to solve the narrative's misogyny problem, nor how weird it is from a writing perspective to say that "they aren't gay despite spending all their time together and being really focused on their collective partnership and relationship because of that bc Mashiro has a honey he's waiting for and they have a strict no eye contact before marriage deal going on," but it adds flavor text that's amusing to me and me alone.

I AM SO GLAD SOMEONE CALLED OUT THE BEGINNING OF THE BAKUMAN MANGA LIKE THAT, I found that really shocking when I stumbled on it a few years ago, and I'd never seen anyone properly address it.

Honestly, while I absolutely love that you tried to defend the end of... Well, Platinum End, the only thing I could do during the end of the manga was laugh like a madman. Like... They elect as God the only guy who's still suicidal after all this, and he commits God-suicide. How surprising. Couldn't have seen this coming. No Sir. I just couldn't stop laughing.

I think what annoys me most about this show is that, like you said, a lot of the philosophy is really cool. Pacifism is worth striving for, accomplishment isn't the same as the person accomplishing, and the people who most try to accumulate power probably shouldn't have it. But, like... catgirl skinsuit ruins it for me?

20:25 Suppose "kinda sorta fixed that" is right. I loved how that book still had to make the point of downplaying Naomi for being a woman with that ridiculously dumb moment, where she manages to counter an assault by the masked perp and then as he flees Naomi decides to not even try giving him a chase, because she "would not be able to outrun a man". It's not like she's a fricking trained and highly physically fit FBI agent or anything...

The duality of its philosophy is painful, on one hand, yes it does present some interesting and thought-provoking ideas on life, mortality, and so on... On the other, it's ending far too easily can be summed up as "You made a kid with a suicidal mindset god...and it went about as well as one might expect".

Seriously: if Mirai was a Light Yagami/Seventh Doctor style plots within plots super genius _too make sure no one dies,_ that could have been really cool.

Mirai's logic: "everybody must find their happiness" Mass murderer: "I find happiness murdering thousands of innocent people" Mirai: "You go get them and find your happiness !" Me: His logic, is totally flawed, FACEPALM

What frustrates me immensely about this story is the fact that the manga is so well drawn. Like, give me just half of that quality to make my own comic series and I would cry out of gratitude.

I heard "skin-melting super AIDS" and then my brain went into a haze as I drowned in the word salad that immediately followed. God damn this story is all kinds of fucked up.

Platinum End is baffling to me. Been hate watching it with friends. How can you make a wonderful thriller like DN and end up committing all the sins of its too-edgy imitators? Also, why does the author seemingly hate every character that isn't a sexy adolescent?

"And with his sister complex turned up to 18+" Had to pause for a bit to get the laughter out if my system I'm also always a fan of a synopsis that sounds like you're just pulling words out of a hat!

I never really thought about it, but the comment about Oba hating women has me looking back on Bakuman much sadder than I ever thought I would. And I freaking love that manga.

The series has a massive conceptualization vs execution problem. The ideas and themes it poses are intriguing, but the execution of them are so poor that it makes those ideas MORE confusing. It supports, detracts, validates and invalidates so improperly that, by the end, it felt like it ended right where it began. It genuinely felt, to me at least, that little was accomplished by the stories end.

The fact they cut out the very strange argument about gay people from the anime is the cherry on top. Went from a fun trash show that devolves every episode to unbearably ugly and lame.

A part of me is glad that I never watched this anime, glad I actually listened to the criticism

My favourite part is where Yuri Temari instagram baddie goes on a rant in ch 45. "Gay men are hard to take, I'm tired of hearing about you talk about this other guy because it sounds super gay." "Bro, homophobic much?" "UH I'M INTERESTED IN MEN OKAY I'M NOT DISCRIMINATING AGAINST ANYBODY JUST CUS I LIKE MEN. Sheesh there's so much hysteria about discrimination this, bigotry that, UHG. Stop calling me a bigot Just Cus I Like Men (but not gay ones)! The next God should end that. Discrimination is SYSTEMIC ONLY like slavery or genocide or forcing me to accept any marriage proposal from anyone even if I don't like them, not me for having personal preferences. But yeah gay men are hard to take. Anyway if you're so mad why don't you legalize gay marriage, then maybe you can come for me." Then it ends with the guy she got all 'you sound gay shut up' on saying she has a point, as though the entire thing wasn't steeped in whataboutism, contradictions, and didn't begin with her shutting down a conversation because a guy was worrying about another guy ergo gay, ergo stop. It's so out of nowhere and makes zero sense LMAO Like damn someone sure is tired of getting called out, huh Ohba?

Kazuchika Kise wasn't the only director on it, he was only directing the second half. The first half was done by Hideya Takahashi, who directed Keijo!!! and is one of the two director of Jojo Part 5.

Just a clarification, Talk no Jutsu is specifically about making someone change their personal posture solely via talking, anything else is just regular talk

Mirai really said "I won't kill anyone, but I WILL hold this guy down while another guy shoots him in the face." Which is. Missing the point of that philosophy, I think.

I swear the man character not wanting to kill someone is understandable. But DAMN WAS IT FRUSTRATING TO WATCH.

The fact that a human who tried to kill himself becomes god kills himself because he realizes he wasn't the only person suffering and infact even more people suffer every moment and were in the same or similar place as him, thereby causing ragnarok, is something I will carry with me for as long as I live

This manga was written to be the opposite of death: - Protag who went power crazy vs protag who just wants peace - Grim reapers vs angels - Ending where things went back to the way things were vs ending where everything changed - killing done remotely vs killing directly done hands on - Poorly written female characters vs poorly…. Oh wait, that one stayed the same.

“Their love affair is as hot and steamy as a raw carrot.” Lord that got me rolling on the floor.

I think Mukaido would have been disappointed by Mirai because Mukaido only cared about his pregnant wife and daughter, wanted them to live and be safe. The ending of Platinum End does not honor Mukaido's wish.

you killed it, there really isn't anyone who says the things i like to hear as much as you do in terms of anime commentary.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the scene in the manga where the Influencer goes on a homophobic rant, justifies her homophobia by claiming "well, at least I don't murder people like Metropoliman," and the agent agrees with her.

Just read the manga. One thing that bothers the hell out of me is how empty Mirai’s and Saki’s eyes are 90% of the time. Even when they’re confessing their love to each other, they keep this stoic face that just makes them look more uncomfortable than anything else. It's a little unnerving how apathetic they look at times when they should be scared or happy. It’s weird since every other character is drawn to be capable of expressing more than two emotions. I think Oba hates writing romances, but does so anyway out of obligation to meet Jump's standards. At the same time he intentionally makes them so uncomfortable to the point readers prefer he not try to include them.

I absolutely hated Platinum End, and I only bought the manga. I got it out of my house the second the series was done. The ONLY thing I want to say is Mukaido - his motives, his relationship with his family, was just great. He was the ONLY person I rooted for the entire story and he went out like an absolute badass. This story did not deserve him.

The manga kingdom has a lot a good dialogue for a action military strategy manga because you feel the tension were each political choice is made the weight of an entire civilization is placed onto it each plan feels like a do or die situation

L: Got any death notes? Light: Go fish. Got any real names? L: Go fish

Gives the vibe that the writers watched Magical Girl Site and were like “we could write circles around this” and then shat out their magical boy with equal level of quality.

One way to interpret Platium End's ending is suicide should not be normalized and people cannot solve bigger problems, when they can't find their own motivation for life.

I'd argue that the ending makes all the edginess ESPECIALLY pointless mainly because of how the world ended. It was entirely preventable and easily foreseeable even within the overly convoluted and nonsensical setup it received. That convoluted and nonsensical setup just makes it worse, and that's not even mentioning how the last second twist just further reinforces the idea that the end of the world was meaningless as it didn't even help the overgods achieve their goal either. That final twist was just unnecessary. The theme is broken because world didn't end because of forces beyond all control. It ended because no one (including the angels and previous God) realized that letting the most suicidal kid in the world become the one entity holding it all together was an unfathomably stupid idea and everyone involved was too selfish to take up the mantle to protect the people they loved from complete annihilation. For this theme to work, the tragedy should not be easily preventable and probably shouldn't be so grandiose as the end of the world. These things cheapen the message.

wait why didn’t they make the scientist guy god? seems like he would be more motivated to solve the problems of humanity (and get to figure out how everything works at the same time)

Platinum end is the main example of "GREAT IDEA BUT BAD EXECUTION".

"Hot and steamy as a *raw* *carrot* " is an incredible phrase.

It's funny, mirai nikki managed to kill everyone but also have the happiest ending of any death game thing I have seen. All the villains end up stopped and the heros gain recognition. The big cherry on top is that yuki and yuno are now both gods and they get to be together for the next billion years.

I wonder how well stapling the third act of Platinum End onto Death Note's second act would work. I mean, obviously you'd need to change a _lot_ about both stories to avoid having the shinigami turn into angels and all the human characters into completely different people, but...could be a neat thought experiment.

This show lost me when they’re at the stadium and they legit say “don’t look at the magical stuff cause it will be obvious only we can see it!” And then they spend two episodes craning and twisting their heads and making insane expressions to see what’s going on

Honestly I would have just given Saki a version of Mirai’s suit that has a heart on the chest with either lighter or darker blues or even purples and have the hood have little owl tufts on it, and also that both of them would have them cool visors but those visors would make them look intimidating as well as protect their eyes and provide the VR moogick this show brabbled about.

The bit about the misogyny was very well written 😂

The manga art is nice, but after hearing the analysis I'm glad I didn't pick this up. The poignant ending might work in a short story but not in something like this. I ended feeling bad for all the characters who disappeared on the wish of one person.

FBI agent lady was the best character in Death Note. she was there for all of two episodes (i think, i haven't rewatched since middle school), but i still remember her to this day, and she was also very formative in the formation of my own sense of style... ^^;

Honestly reading/watching Platinum End, especially with the ending and with the character Gaku Yoneda...it makes me think Ohba was in a very bad headspace. If not suffering from depression. During the time he wrote the series. Which if it is the case I sincerely hope he can get help if he needs it.

Yeah, I'm going to have to heartily disagree regarding the value of the series' ending. While the concept could potentially have served as an interesting short story if published standalone, the swerve into "cosmic depression" at the end of this longer series just makes me view everything that preceded it as having been utterly pointless. To me, it's not Homer rolling down a hill into a gymnast dismount, it's Homer roiling down a hill only for the planet to then blow up as soon as he comes to a stop.

"Walter White if he got Superpowers instead of Meth" The best line in the video. kinda makes me want to watch the show just for him.

Platinum truly seems like an incredibly neat set of concepts that are imperiously hard to flesh out and execute properly, and that's exactly what we got.

Thanks for calling out Ohba’s misogyny. It’s so blatant and awful. Bakuman chapter 2 was so horrific I dropped the series right away, although I’d suffered through Ral-Grad before that and it was also horrifically terrible, although not written by Ohba, just illustrated by Obata. Both of them are misogynistic and it sucks. It harms their stories and holds them back, on top of perpetuating their hatred into another generation. Can’t believe they grew up in The same society as Miyazaki and came out with views so egregious.