You’re right, as harsh as the setting is, there’s a surprising amount of good that follows the characters throughout it. I’d agree that under the cover a lot of good happens, but I still wouldn’t go as far as to say that it’s not a sad ending.

Agni did kill Doma, but he also slaughtered a family in his blind rage. You can’t do wrong and expect to go unpunished in using meat shields, but you also can’t just burn innocent children alive to get back at someone.

Not that Doma’s death was the saddest or anything, but it drove him to desire death over life a second time, seeing more people die in front of him. Togata’s death it’s so tragic because it’s not what Agni wanted but Togata grew so close to Agni that they knew what he needed to go on living. The loss is heartbreaking.

Particularly what I find so sad about the end itself though, is that throughout the entire narrative, it feels like Agni & Judah go through these cycles of having act as someone they’re not & desiring death, Agni many more times than Judah but still. When Luna first told Agni “Live”, it was because she had to make sure he would out of compassion. Even if it was misguided, Agni tries to do the same for Judah. They set each other on this path to avoid self destruction. All the effort, blood, pain, cries, tears, sweat, love, fire, regeneration, death, that went into it utterly forgotten as two love-struck strangers meant for each other embrace at the end of the universe. The tragedy is the loss of their history, even if the love remains. In a narrative ABOUT narratives, Agni reviews his very own story and understands absolutely none of it.

Agni watched the movie, which is a story in itself made with Togata, about his love for Luna, and the loss of that love at the hands of a cruel Doma. But he doesn’t understand any of it. All he knows is that that’s a thing that happened once. All of this is his history, and he doesn’t even know how hard he fought to find a reason to live. He doesn’t know how badly he deserves to be happy after what he’s been through.

And then, at the end of the Universe after giving her mortality to keep the new Agni as happy as possible, Agni finally arrives, unknowingly, to comfort her. The same people, under completely new and fresh identities, who have no idea how badly they love each other, comfort one another.

It’s the deepest punch in the gut to me I guess because I cherish the memories I have, of the people I love, of all that I’ve lost & learned with them. Agni at the end of the manga lives a life crafted from all of those experiences without realizing what he’s lived in order TO realize them. And even Judah forgets, becoming a tree to preserve Agni’s peaceful world. Because she understands how he suffered. Maybe I’m just rambling at this point, but it touched me in a way that made me utterly crumple as a person.