"It's like... it's the same place, but only we are in a different world." | |
The information below contains information exclusive to The World Ends with You The Animation and may be non-canonical to the original game. |
"It's a Wonderful World" is the twelfth episode in The World Ends with You: The Animation.
Plot[]
In battle with Neku, Megumi Kitaniji as Draco Cantus says he can't believe Neku was the chosen one and refuses to explain. Draco Cantus fires two massive fireballs at Neku, but Mr. Mew pushes him out of the way. Beat and Shiki run towards him, Beat chaining Draco Cantus' heads to a pole while Mr. Mew attacks him. Beat and Shiki encourage Neku, but then Draco Cantus breaks away. Neku, Beat, and Shiki begin a Fusion. While Mr. Mew and Beat attack Draco Cantus, Neku uses a powerful Flames Afar, Foes Aflame psych to subdue him. They perform one final Fusion, blasting and destroying Draco Cantus with powerful lasers of light. Kitaniji lays on the floor, staring at his timer with only a minute left. He wonders if he was unable to defend Shibuya - the timer fades and he is erased. Beat sits down in exhaustion, but Neku reminds him they have to find the Composer. The door at the center of the Room of Reckoning opens.
They find themselves in a corridor covered in CAT's graffiti. Neku reflects on how CAT's graffiti influenced him, and how he idolized CAT. He wonders about Hanekoma's actions, but stops hesitating and screams out to him in the darkness. Beat yells for the Composer to come. Joshua walks through. Neku is grateful and thanks Joshua for his sacrifice. Joshua is surprised, but thanks Neku for helping him win the Game. He tells Neku that he was playing with Kitaniji for the fate of Shibuya and reveals himself to be Shibuya's Composer. A month before, Joshua wanted to end Shibuya due to its selfish desires. Kitaniji begged him to consider sparing it if he could reform Shibuya. Neku is horrified, and Beat is furious. He tries to punch Joshua, but Joshua uses his powers to block Beat's fist. He asks Beat to stay out of it, levitating Shiki and Beat to the ceiling and paralyzing them. Joshua explains he made it fair by leaving the Underground and observing from the Realground, choosing someone to play for him. Neku is in crisis over everything he's done during the Game to help Joshua erase Shibuya. He asks if Joshua erased Minamimoto as well - Joshua says Minamimoto kept interfering with his plans. He gives Neku back the last memories he'd been withholding.
Neku's memories start from when Minamimoto fired behind him - however, the bullet was meant for Joshua, who stopped the bullets. Minamimoto kept shooting as Joshua simply stopped them. Joshua raises his gun at Minamimoto, and he runs away. He then shoots Neku dead and drops him a Player Pin. Neku grabs Joshua by the collar and tells him about how he was blaming himself for believing Joshua to be his killer, for it to be right all along. Joshua forces Neku away. Joshua materializes two guns and mentions punishing Hanekoma for helping Minamimoto become Taboo. He proposes a Game to Neku, where the person who shoots first becomes Composer and decides what to do with Shibuya. Joshua starts counting down from ten as Neku cries. At 7, he raises his gun, but thinks of Hanekoma's "trust your partner" mantra. At 1, he drops his gun and lifts his hand out to Joshua. Joshua shoots him dead.
Neku wakes up in the Scramble Crossing, alive. He wonders what's going on and bumps and a passerby bumps into him. Neku stares up at the Q-Front, seeing an advertisement rather than a days countdown. At Statue of Hachiko, Neku runs up to Beat and Rhyme waiting for him. Beat doesn't understand why they're alive, but Rhyme says it has to be something Neku, Beat, and Shiki did. Neku asks where Shiki is - someone taps him on the back. It's Shiki in her real body, holding Mr. Mew. Neku takes off his headphones and greets her like when they first met.
On the roof of 104 Building, Hanekoma speaks to Joshua standing on the rooftop's framing. He remarks that while Shibuya's back to normal, allowing Reaper Kitaniji to run the Game was unprecedented, as long as fighting alongside Neku with suppressed powers. When Hanekoma mentions Joshua being hunted by Minamimoto, Joshua says that not even Kitaniji knew his Realground form, and guesses Hanekoma told him. He reasons that Hanekoma wanted to save Shibuya, and Kitaniji asked Hanekoma to make the Red Skull pins to imprint his will onto the people.
At Hachiko, Beat mentions new graffiti in Udagawa. Rhyme says it showed up overnight, and Shiki says everyone's been talking about. Neku says it was done by Hanekoma. While Beat teases Neku for his graffiti enthusiasm, Hanekoma says he imprinted his graffiti with "enjoy every moment". Joshua guesses it from Neku's enthusiasm for CAT. Hanekoma asks why Joshua spared Shibuya, and he answers it was because of Neku. Despite not listening to anyone and living his life alone, Neku trusted Joshua and lowered his gun. Hanekoma tosses his can of coffee in the air - it lands in a trash bin that Neku, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme walk past. Beat asks how they could perform a Fusion like they did on Draco Cantus, and Neku guesses Hanekoma was cheering them on with his keypin to the Shibuya River. Hanekoma mentions the pin Joshua gave Neku, disguised as a Player Pin but immune to Kitaniji's brainwashing. Joshua asks why Hanekoma fixed Minamimoto's Taboo Refinery sigil. Hanekoma explained he hoped Minamimoto could save Shibuya if Kitaniji lost to save Shibuya. He accepted the stigma of falling from grace in the hope to let Shibuya survive.
Joshua wonders if Hanekoma's words of encouragement to Neku, Joshua starting the Game with Kitaniji, Hanekoma teaching Minamimoto Taboo, and Neku interacting with other Players were all necessary for Shibuya as Neku, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme meet up with Sota and Nao at Tokyu Hands, Kariya and Uzuki eat hot dogs at Mexican Dog in Spain Hill, and Def Märch performs at the Concert Stage. Hanekoma agrees and says they proved nothing in the world is pointless. Joshua ponders "enjoy every moment" as he turns into his Composer form, a ball of light, and flies away. Hanekoma sprouts his angel wings and flies off with him. The final shot is the graffiti at Udagawa Back Streets: purple headphones surrounded by angel wings.
Characters (English, Japanese)[]
- Neku Sakuraba - Ben Balmaceda, Kōki Uchiyama
- Daisukenojo "Beat" Bito - Van Barr Jr., Subaru Kimura
- Shiki Misaki - Morgan Garrett, Anna Hachimine
- Megumi Kitaniji - Christopher Wehkamp, Hiroshi Shirokuma
- Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu - Clifford Chapin, Ryōhei Kimura
- Sho Minamimoto - Brent Mukai, Takayuki Fujimoto
- Makoto Miki (no lines)
- Shuto Dan (no lines)
- Itaru Yokoyamada (no lines)
- Futoshi (no lines)
- Raimu "Rhyme" Bito - Dani Chambers, Ayana Taketatsu
- Sanae Hanekoma - Brandon Potter, Kenjirō Tsuda
- Sota Honjo - Matt Shipman, Yûsuke Suda
- Nao - Brittany Lauda, Mami Fujita
- Eiji Oji (no lines)
- 777 (no lines)
- Tenho (no lines)
- BJ (no lines)
- Eri (no lines)
Noise[]
Differences from the Game[]
- Due to not being restrained by Kitaniji, Beat and Shiki help Neku fight him in the anime.
- In the anime, Kitaniji dies straight away, whereas in the game he has a talk with Joshua afterwards in which Kitaniji thanked Joshua for giving him the opportunity. In the game, Kitaniji also congratulated Neku and said the rest (i.e. defending Shibuya) is up to him.
- The conversation with Joshua is very different in the anime.
- Since he didn't show up before the final fight, the trio meet with him in a graffiti filled room.
- In the game, Neku is unable to kill Joshua due to their friendship. In the anime, Neku remembers Hanekoma's advice to trust his partner, so he drops the gun and tells Joshua he trusts him, and Joshua shoots him.
- When Neku passed out/died after being shot by Joshua, Neku saw Hanekoma by Joshua's side. In the anime, Neku doesn't see him.
- In the game, when Neku awoke in the RG, he couldn't stand up for a few moments, too overwhelmed by everything, and then he stood up and screamed, "Why... WHAT THE HELL?" In the anime, he stands up immediately and someone bumps into him.
- In the game, Neku had a monologue which was removed in the anime: "Same streets... Same crowds too. Yeah, Shibuya hasn't changed a bit. But still, I don't think I can forgive you yet. You don't see it, but... those few weeks were very hard for me. Learning to trust people; having that trust broken. Finding out the town I pegged as small, and stifling, and empty... wasn't any of those things. I'm glad I met you guys. You made me... pick up on things, I probably would've just gone on ignoring. Trust your partner... and I do. I can't forgive you, but I trust you. You took care of things, right? Otherwise, Shibuya would be gone and my world with it. Hey, did I mention? I've got friends now! We're meeting for the first time in a week. See you there?"
- In the game, when Neku meets up with Rhyme and Beat, there is no more dialogue after Rhyme calls him over. The group's high five was also removed.
- The anime features a more extended ending in which Neku, Shiki, Beat and Rhyme walk around Shibuya, and meet up with Sota and Nao.
- Characters like Sota Nao and Def Märch are revived in the anime, while the game leads the player to believe they are still dead. This raises the possibility that all the players who played the Reapers' Game during Neku's weeks were revived.
- The anime closes with an image of new Udagawa graffiti by Hanekoma (CAT), showing headphones (a reference to Neku) with wings, a final gift from Hanekoma to Neku.
Gallery[]
The Animation episodes |
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The Reapers' Game • Shiki • Erased • Reapers • CAT • Turf (Episode) • Joshua (Episode) • Emergency Call • Rhyme and Beat • The Countless Wrongs of Our Day • The Hour of Reckoning • It's a Wonderful World |