To have or to be?
chapter 313 is a strange chapter ...
if I think of those who should have been on the road to "redemption" ... it seems to me that the only figure who, up to now, has not been redeemed is Asirpa.
While we have a Tsurumi who looks more at the remains of his family while he loses them, on the other hand we have Asirpa who, indifferent to any risk and danger, throws himself into the recovery of the property documents. And for the umpteenth time we have Sugimoto who saves her even at the risk of her life.
He was right Hyakunosuke. This train runs straight to hell.
The hell of a drop in level.
Asirpa, Sugimoto, Ushiyama and Ogata were on the road to "redemption"
Ienaga, Hijikata, Nakagura, Kiriranke no.
Yet seeing the latest developments it appears that that indication has been completely distorted / botched in a pejorative sense for the manga.
Why do I have the feeling that the plot has completely deviated from a whole series of messages that had been sent during, almost, the entire narrative arc? And above all, why did this deviation emerge in all its maximum expression in the last 10/15 chapters?
Leading to a drop, in my personal opinion, in the level of the story?
In chapter 313 the only figure that comes out well is Tsurumi. Consistent with himself to the end and, despite everything, an affective figure. In his way what he did (albeit destructively) he did it because he loved his family, He loved his wife and daughter. In contrast we have an Asirpa who appears to be the worthy daughter of a greedy terrorist. Everyone dies and her attention is on the document that proves ownership of a country.
The train runs towards disaster and she doesn't think about saving herself or saving Sugimoto (jumping off the train). Everything seems but positive growth. She and Tsurumi are two sides of the same coin. Tsurumi uses the frailties of poor young people to manipulate them. Asirpa uses gold to make other young people work for her goals, who see gold as a means to satisfy their needs.
In the end I see little difference between the two figures.
Absurdly, I think Tsurumi is better than Asirpa.
Asirpa carries on the project of her father. Wilk. Which Tsurumi rightly defines as the cause of all these deaths.
Sugimoto ... has always given me the impression of an ambiguous figure, as well as depicted as a not very awake character, whose only quality is considerable strength and physical endurance. He doesn't think about saving Asirpa. He becomes its armed arm, a mere executor of a girl's ambitions. Which, in the plot, passes from the pain of having almost killed (involotarily) Ogata. To overcome without serious problems a mountain of deaths caused by a gold hunt also fomented by her.
In all this, countless aspects of the plot and characters remain suspended, which at this point will never have an answer ... a bad ending.
As the story is ending, Ogata's ridiculous death proves even more useless.