GB manga end thoughts

[branchandroot]

So, let's see if I can keep this straight.

The GB world was a simulation from the start. It was constructed as a 'backup copy' of the real world (though why the infrastructure for something that complex would survive any disaster that wiped out the rest of the world is, um, not addressed) and a place/subject for the study of history and causality and fun stuff like that. It started developing differences, though, alterations in its history that changed the people/world it produced. Efforts to fix the problems failed, and when real-world people entered it, they were often overwhelmed (overwritten, sort of) by the versions of them that the GB world had.

At this point there seems to have been a division of opinion, among the team of creators, over what should be done. Some wanted to wipe and reformat the whole thing. Some wanted to let this new world keep developing along its own lines, becoming a true reality of its own. Dr. Amano seems to have been one of the former and Ban's Grandmother one of the latter. So Granny acts unilateraly and seals the interface between the real world and the GB world, with herself and a handful of other real world people inside, such as Kagenuma, Kagami, Masaki (?), Professor Makubex and Akabane.

Incidentally, I think it's quite possible that Dr. Amano was in some way responsible for the initial deviations, since part of her motive seems to have been to prevent or get around real world deaths, such as those of her son, Ginji, many years ago in the real world. Despite this, she seems to have been one of the votes for reformatting and starting over.

The real world, of course, is Babylon City, to the GB dwellers.

A huge power struggle ensues among the factions of the real worlders, both inside and outside (apparently the interface was not /totally/ sealed, or, perhaps, was only sealed from the GB side). Everyone seems to focus on the means of controlling the GB world, which requires a certain awareness of/connection to the sorta-virtual fabric itself. Kami no Kijitsu cards are one of the tools; my suspicion is that it expresses the archetypes that the GB world itself evolves, the ones that do not exist in the real world and thus have the strongest connection to the GB fabric. One suspects Professor Makube created/introduced Makubex for similar reasons. Dr. Amano may have created/grafted on Rai Tei to support the destruction of the GB world, since, if he went online permenantly, one suspects that's just what Rai Tei would have done.

Meanwhile, Ban's grandmother and Ginji's father are busy becoming the Witch Queen and the Voodoo King, respectively. I suspect these are archetypes they found within the GB world, possibly their GB selves, seeing as the Voodoo King appears to be grafted onto Kagenuma in the same way Rai Tei was grafted onto Ginji. At any rate, the Witch Queen creates (at least most of it seems to be her) three "keys" that can undo the seal she closed the world with: Himiko, once awakened, Shido's Chimera, and Ban-and-Ginji.

I also suspect that Ban-and-Ginji are a sort of final coin-flip, to see which faction will be able to choose the world's future. It turns out to be Ginji, which probably should have given the win to the Start Over faction, except that he doesn't choose that. Upon making it to the doors of Babylon City and entering the real world, and seeing the (much less tragic) real world versions of all his friends, and talking to his mother about what the hell is going on, he chooses to let the GB world continue on its own way becoming real.

Only with some changes, like Makubex being a real boy sort of thing, and all the dead people somehow being alive again. If there is an explanation for this, it is probably that, once the GB world is fully realized and separated, all it's denizens are real too, riding the coat tails of the change, and that the final battles took place in a sort of suspended time. Since the people who died did seem to be gathered into the Archive, presumably it disgorged them again into incarnation when Ginji decided he wanted his own world back.

And that's the end.

A metric fuckton of things are left unexplained, and half of the above is my own interpolation based on the little we are told (and the less that's been reasonably translated). We do not know whether realworlders are still in the GB world, or, if they are, whether they have simply been subsumed into their GB versions.

Akabane is still around, but he's a bit of a puzzle in any case. He is down the stairs with Ban, when Ginji goes up them to the Babylon doors, but the real world Akabane is also right past the doors, waiting to greet "the king of the world" and show him around. So, was he ever caught in GB to start with? He's supposed to be from Babylon City, so it isn't just his GB version that's been swanning around freaking people out, but... Yeah. He's the biggest standing mystery.

And, as our story closes, Ban's mom is being transported somewhere, and Hevn offers the Getbackers the job to retrieve her... that's our ending? Oi.


In short, good grief what a mess.

Comments

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

The real moral of the story is : Don't smoke crack and write manga, kids.

[branchandroot]

Seriously! I'm kind of inclining to the theory that Shounen mag pulled the plug on them because the fanmail was falling a bit too low, and they had to finish up in two volumes all of a sudden. Either that or A&A finally threw up their hands and said 'fuck it' and plunked an ending down any old how. *sighs*

[written-in-blue.livejournal.com]

....riiiiiiiiiight. Sounds like I'll be sticking to the first half of the anime, which is pretty and makes sense, too.

[branchandroot]

*wry* Yeah. Which is a crying shame, because Kazuki is just the most fun psychotic nice boy ever. Ah, well.

[bakkhos.livejournal.com]

Hey, there. A friend of mine is wondering whether there is any good fanfic involving Ban, Ginji, and Akabane. Can you give any recs?

[branchandroot]

*ponders* It's been a while since I looked up GB fic, but I do recall that xparrot wrote some very nice stuff. And, while there are only a few of them, Beth's fic was really good.

[gisho.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Just about.

I'm ... very much looking forward to the book that supposedly explains stuff, because very little of it makes sense as is. Although your interpolations seem sound.

[branchandroot]

I really, /really/ hope the after-book does explain things, because the ending sure didn't! *wry* I imagine it will be a little better when I have translations; at least I'll have actual source to poke at. But still!