By Motoro Mase
Episode 2: The Last Song
Act 3
Torio goes through with the radio performance. The show is a half-hour long and begins 30 minutes before Torio is scheduled to die.
There is a lot of cutting back and forth between Torio and Hidekazu, who is unconscious, near death and in a hospital. Torio is extremely nervous about his choice. It isn’t until the last minute that he finds his confidence. Instead of playing the song the promoter wants him to play he goes with one that Hidekazu wrote for them.
Torio collapses, dead, as he finishes the song. There is a brief fleeting moment where they seem to encounter one another in the spirit world. Torio has just died and Hidekazu is about to be revived. It was very moving to me.
Hidekazu recovers. He is approached by the same record exec who previously said he was only interested in signing Torio. The exec wants to sign Hidekazi but the songwriter-performer stays true to himself and doesn’t sign.
Fujimoto and his boss make a brief appearance but this installment is all about Hidekazu and Torio.
It has been several years since I first read this volume. It lived up to my memory of it. I look forward to reading more of this series even if I have read 80% of it before.
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