The End

THE END

5.88(0K votes)

Popularity #16715

episodes

Type

Music

Status

Finished Airing

Aired

Dec 1, 2012

Avant GardeDramaSuspense

Synopsis

THE END is an opera birthed out of the collaboration between Keiichirou Shibuya, director and script writer Toshiki Okada, and illustrator YKBX. This production does not feature any humans, and replacing all familiar elements of the non-existent singers and orchestras are aria and recitative by Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid, with a story told by computer-made music and visuals. This production tests taking the traditional tragic structure of an opera asking "What is death?" and "What is an end?" and puts Hatsune Miku as the mediator to reread it in a modern way. (Source: Official Site)

691 Members

Worth Watching? — Global Verdict

3.5/10

Average Review Score

Recommend It

Reviews Worldwide

International Reviews

Clamshell

Not Recommended

It’s not like I feel nothing. There is an emotion here. But I can’t pinpoint what it is. Rage or disgust. Probably disgust. I mean really, what were they thinking? Actually I do know what they were thinking. “Vocaloid opera.” And that’s where they stopped thinking. They jumped right into it and a month before release they realized that operas have a story and music. They had neither. Well shoot, we have to write a story. How do you make a good story? Make it relatable. What’s something that everyone does? Die. Perfect.It’s a story about death, starring Miku. But someone might notice the story is lacking. Make it artsy, make them feel dumb for not getting it. Insult their intelligence on top of stealing their time. Making a minute and a half of good music is hard. Too hard for them. And then there’s the other 84 minutes. What do we do? It’s a vocaloid opera, make some vocaloid music. Should it be catchy? Haha no. Perhaps a song about a dragon. With her face in the dragon’s mouth. Trust me, it’s going to look way stupider than it sounds. I can confirm that The End does indeed end at some point. The applause was the most unbelievable part of this entire ordeal.

5 found helpfulOct 15, 2024

Community Discussion

The End is certainly… an experience. It’s a memorable one, that’s for sure, but whether in good way or bad way, that’s very much up to you and open you are to more weird stuff, because comprehensiveness was definitely not on the list of priorities when making this. First off, a warning – the first 15 or so minutes are headache-inducing. Not even hyperbolically, the sound design decision went with really pitched machine voice for a secondary character. Miku herself already doesn’t sound great when talking if put together by someone not great with the software, but this other character is just next level, the staffwho greenlit that must have been deaf. Luckily, the show gets more watchable after the introduction. Well, to an extent. I’m calling this an experience because it really isn’t like watching a traditional movie, or even a regular opera. The visuals are thrown in pretty haphazardly, as if the script writer was just pulling out topics of a hat and making a themed Miku out of that. Which isn’t to say the visuals aren’t interesting – but again, that’s more in the meaning of that it makes you question what is going on. The story itself is, as you might gather from the synopsis, about Miku realizing she can die and dealing with the sudden reality of mortality. Unfortunately, the monologue is more interested in questions than in answers, and looking back “what happens after death” isn’t exactly one of the most original topics if you end at the question. Well, at least we got some cool visuals of Miku talking to Mega-Miku or whatever the fuck that was, I guess. To get to another point, this is a musical. So there are songs. Full disclosure, I’m not really a vocaloid fan. But I do like some of the songs. Not any of the songs from this musical though. The songs all sounds same-y, unimaginative and honestly flat. Which is a baffling attribute for a musical, those should have been a highlight and that’s especially when the whole musical is centered around a character that is already known for making music that is beloved by many people. I might have marked my review as “mixed”, but honestly I’m just personally interested into weird shit and obscure titles. In reality, I expect most users won’t enjoy watching this much, especially if you usually watch just the “regular” kind of anime. This is more of a fever dream, but it doesn’t hurt to watch one of those once in a while, right?