The New Year holiday passed quickly. During the Spring Festival, Picca Comics had a long break, which left many readers feeling restless.
After all, with no new comics to read during this period, they felt like they had come down with a case of "I-can't-live-without-my-favorite-app" syndrome.
So, when Picca Comics resumed publication, bookstores were packed with long lines of people eager to buy the latest issues.
"Attack on Titan?"
Seeing the new release, Ren couldn't help but smile.
It was the complete version of Attack on Titan!
In his previous life, before crossing over, this series hadn't finished yet. Now, he could read the entire story. Ah, the perks of being a man with a system.
At this moment, he couldn't help but think of two other famous series that had yet to conclude in his previous world: One Piece and Detective Conan.
Who did Conan end up with? And who was the true boss of the Black Organization?
Did Luffy finally become the Pirate King, or was he still "the man who would become the Pirate King"?
Unfortunately, Ren hadn't drawn those two series yet. But having Attack on Titan in its entirety was already a big win for him.
Feeling a bit excited, Ren began reading Attack on Titan.
"Oh, so that's how it is..."
"Huh? I didn't know that part!"
"As expected of a masterpiece!"
He read on, muttering to himself as time flew by...
Suddenly, he yelled, "What the heck?!"
Ren angrily tossed a pillow to the ground, which happened to land right on Jada as she entered the room. Luckily, she reacted quickly and caught it.
"What's going on? Why are you so upset?"
Jada, holding the pillow, approached Ren with concern and placed it back on the bed. She had never seen him this angry before—not even when tons of people were bashing him online for the ending of Cautious Hero. He had laughed off those criticisms like they were nothing.
What could have made him so mad this time?
Could he be exhausted?
"Ah, it's nothing..." Ren sighed heavily, waving it off. "No, it's just that... I feel like I've been served a pile of crap."
"..."
Hearing his out-of-context remark, Jada frowned.
Crap? She glanced around the room, even sniffing the air.
No strange smells... Was her nose blocked?
"Are you sure you're okay?"
She bent down and pressed her forehead against Ren's to check for a fever. Finding nothing wrong, she breathed a sigh of relief. "If you're feeling tired, you should really take a break."
In her mind, it was probably overwork causing his frustration.
"Don't forget what we learned from Cells at Work: If you're exhausted, your cells will have to work overtime too."
"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Ren forced a smile, watching as Jada left the room. Once she was gone, he lay sprawled out on the bed in the shape of a starfish.
"Man... this series..."
Ren shook his head, thinking he might as well abandon any plans to continue Attack on Titan.
Although he didn't mind fans criticizing him, he did care about whether a work had a satisfying ending. And to him, Attack on Titan's conclusion was a clear example of a bad ending.
As he pondered, he looked at a scene from the manga. "At that time... Bertholdt couldn't die there, so we let him go, and then... made sure she walked in that direction..."
This was something Eren and Armin had said. The panel depicted the moment the wall was breached, and it showed that Dina had originally been heading towards Bertholdt but then inexplicably changed direction—straight towards Eren's mother.
Although the manga never outright stated that Eren caused Dina to head towards his mother, the use of the word "let" made it a pretty clear implication!
Ugh, let's not even talk about the dialogue. Let's just focus on the plot.
Bertholdt was a Titan shifter, and the lore established that mindless Titans prioritize eating Titan shifters. So why did Dina, upon seeing Bertholdt, change course and attack a regular human instead?
It's obvious—based on what Eren said—Dina was deliberately directed to attack Eren's mother because Bertholdt wasn't allowed to die there.
Good grief. As Ren recalled the moment when Eren had once asked Reiner, "Why did my mom have to die that day?" he couldn't help but want to facepalm.
What a joke! How could Eren even have the audacity to ask that?
Ren felt like his earlier hopes for Attack on Titan were crashing down in a big way. In his previous life, he had saved fan art of Eren standing proudly in his Survey Corps uniform while his mother lovingly patted his head.
Back then, Ren had thought, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if something like that happened?" But now? The actual ending made him cringe.
The artist who made that fan art must be feeling pretty embarrassed right now.
Sure, the storyline for Tokyo Ghoul wasn't perfect, but at least its ending didn't turn out as disappointing as this.
"Nope, this is too much. I can't keep reading."
Ren forcibly blocked out all the Attack on Titan plot details that the system had just transferred into his mind.
Then he moved on to the second work of the month.
Ultraman Gaia, the "Earth Shattering Giant."
"Now this is something I can get behind."
Ren smiled in satisfaction.
If someone were to ask him which Ultraman he liked the most from the Heisei Trilogy, he would say Ultraman Tiga, as it was part of his childhood.
But in terms of story, his top pick would be Ultraman Gaia.
After all, Ultraman Tiga was more of an episodic series, whereas Gaia had a rich, ongoing plot. Many episodes couldn't be finished in one go and had to be done in a continuous, serialized format.
The entire series had both main and subplots running from start to finish.
For example, the major overarching storyline was about the true nature of the Radical Destruction Bringer.
Then there were smaller subplots.
Like the Crisis device prophecy.
And also, the conflict between Gaia and Agul, as well as themes about humans, monsters, Earth, and even the anti-war messages woven throughout.
All these elements came together, with the main and side plots intertwining over time. The show slowly unraveled its mysteries, ultimately tying everything back to the Radical Destruction Bringer.
The storylines were incredibly well-crafted.
"Now that Ultraman Dyna is finished, it's time to start work on Gaia."
Ren murmured to himself.
The prospect of working on Ultraman Gaia had completely erased the sour taste left by Attack on Titan's ending.
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