Platinum End episode 24 delivers what is a truly awful finale to what has been a dumpster fire of a show. Sure, the show had its good moments here and there, but its utterly detestable qualities are what most people recognize it for. This finale ensures that Platinum End‘s worst moments define what its legacy will be among weebs for years to come. Let’s talk about what went down in a spoiler-filled discussion for the entirety of Platinum End.
Finding happiness
With Nakaumi now God, he struggles with another entity within himself whilst trying to understand the nature of heaven and the angels in Platinum End episode 24. Meanwhile, everyone left on Earth goes about with their usual lives. Saki and Mirai go back to school, deciding to start a flower business together. Yoneda and Temari do more research on the red arrow he was left with.
Years go by, and Nakaumi watches his friends’ lives progress. Mirai and Saki eventually end up getting married, and the two find happiness with each other. Even Yoneda, who is as cold and calculating as ever, almost breaks his stoic facade when the Kakehashi couple sends him some flowers.
However, when discovering that God was not created by humans, but rather was created by some other unknown entity, Nakaumi takes some drastic measures. And it’s these drastic measures that cement this finale as truly disastrous, even for Platinum End‘s standards.
And then they all died
So yeah, Nakaumi kills himself. Platinum End episode 24 sees God die, and everyone else along with him. That’s right, no one else survives. Not the angels. Not the God candidates. Not the people. Everyone dies. The end.
And now, viewers are left to wonder what the point of it all was. What was the point of watching all these candidates go through a grueling selection process only to have everyone die in the end anyway? There’s a cold, hollow feeling left at the end of Platinum End‘s finale. Perhaps true to the identity that the show has established for itself over the past months, the finale truly feels like the execution of a big dramatic moment that’s supposed to mean something, but ultimately amounts to nothing.
There’s nothing cathartic or satisfying about how the show ended. It does not even feel like an ending that’s thematically resonant. In fact, it’s an ending that raises far more questions than it answers. Whoever thought that having everyone die in the end would be shocking and emotionally gripping seriously has a screw loose. The way things stand, Platinum End‘s ending is an insult to everyone who kept up with the show’s 24 episode run.
The show that fell flat
And so Platinum End is over. What a ride it was. For all the hate and ragging the show receives, it all looked very promising at one point. A new story from the creators of Death Note with an interesting premise seemed like a recipe for success. However, the screws seemed to come loose rather fast, with the show’s first cour being one of the most convoluted, poorly written storylines any anime has produced in recent memory.
The show never fully recovered from that, and what we’re now left with is a show that fell flat trying to be something bigger than itself. It’s a show that tries its hardest to make viewers believe that it has something intelligent and meaningful to say about life, death, religion, faith, and happiness. However, beyond mere lip service, it adds nothing to any of those complex themes. It’s a show about a bunch of suicidal people who compete to become God, with all of them dying in the end. It really doesn’t get any deeper than that.
Thankfully, the show is now over. While the bereaved and tortured souls that have stuck with this show can now move on with their lives and watch some actual good anime—anime that actually deserves respect and attention—one certainty that can be taken away from this experience is that the time spent with Platinum End will never be forgotten. Amid all its faults lay an eye-catching show which may have not lived up to expectations, but certainly provided viewers with one of the most flashy and bombastic pieces of dumpster fire they’ll ever see.
Platinum End is streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
© Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata/Shueisha, Platinum End Production Committee
