Wow. I never honestly thought that this series would end.

For a refresher course in the utter weirdness that is this series, try this synopsis from 2004.

But if you haven’t read all 27 volumes, it won’t really help. ^_^

Okay, when we last left Akira and her gaggle of obsessives, crackpots, aliens, mythical beings and assorted other psychotic hangers-on, we’d basically determined that her father was the source of all evil on the planet, as well as being incestuously obsessed with Akira. His name is Kashiwagi, so we never really expected much from him in the way of being good. ^_^

And to his credit, since Akira slept with her foster mother and sister, we really can’t blame her foster father for falling prey to the same urges….I guess….

Yui and Midori and Akira are still embroiled in a passionate, yet hopeless, three-way love triangle, while Mayu (who has, after dozens of suicide attempts has come to realize that her foster sister will never again sleep with her) has finally let go of Akira.

Sutton and Miller (who, due to taking over his clone’s body, is now the crown Prince of England) almost finally get together, but in a bizarro-world ending, *don’t*. Of all of the non-couples, this one bugged me the most.

Because…after Yui finally kills Kashiwagi and revenges himself for all the crap he has put the world through, and after an hugely emotional scene in which Akira and Yui restore the world’s peace from outer space…Yui leaves and Akira marries Miller.

Huh?

Yes, after all the Yuri and BL and incest and violence and clones and strange science and dinosaurs and Tennyo, Akira and Miller just get married and live happily ever after.

However, as Akira lays dying after a long life (but not having aged a day) like Kaguya-hime of the legend, the Tennyo – in this case, Yui – comes and takes Akira back to her rightful place at his side on, presumably, the moon. Or something.

So the ending, while filled with the same level of violence and sex and weirdness that makes the story so damn cool, gets all unbent. The boys all marry the girls, Sutton goes back to his wife (well…his clone’s wife, anyway) and poor Mayu is :*completely* forgotten about. I insist that she remained in China with Shunran and lived happily ever after in as normal a lesbian relationship as one could have in a mythological feudal Chinese kindgom surrounded by people who are obsessively in love with one’s foster-sister. For this story, that *would* be a relatively normal relationship.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 9, but it’s love it or hate it
Characters – 9, again, you either love them, or…
Yuri – 0

Overall – I don’t regret a single moment spent with this series. But I sure as heck want to start over from the beginning and re-read all the bits where Akira’s foster mother, sister,and her servant Shunran, sleep with her. Not for any particular reason, I guess it’s just that those were the moments I disliked Akira least.