manga: Her Majesty's Dog Vol 11 (end)
So, did anyone else keep losing track of whether or not Toui was a good guy or a bad guy at any given time? I did. And, really, I don’t care about his angsty devotion to his brother or whether or not his intentions were noble. Maybe if he’d shown up more before the last couple volumes. I read the book for Amane, Hyoue, and Ateko. Sometimes for Hayato and Zakuro, but not very much. Really, I would have rathered Toui’s page space had been used to resolve some of Zakuro’s story.
Thankfully, things did circle back around to Amane and her plotline. I’m glad that was as much-if not more-about Amane finding her true self as it was about saving Hyoue. Normally, I’d be annoyed by the guy being given the power to name the girl, but here, it addresses a power imbalance that’s been present throughout the series. I don’t know what I think of Amane and Hyoue returning to school. On the one hand, I like that it has them continuing on with their lives. On the other, I would have liked to have seen Amane in charge of the island, now that she knows who and what she is. I’m also glad that it acknowledged that Hyoue would be alive long after Amane dies, instead of ignoring that aspect, or waving a magic wand to make it go away.
And I’m definitely happy that the series didn’t end with the Ateko/Aoi pairing that’s been hinted at a few times. She can handle him, and he’s fairly tolerable in their scenes together, but she could (and should) do a lot better.