...What?

We'll always be together
However far it seems
(Love never ends)
We'll always be together
Together in electric dreams
- Phil Oakey & Giorgio Moroder, Together In Electric Dreams

Seem to sum up the ending to me ;D

Wonderful ending, loved it.

There's a fair degree of magic realism into it too, with the disappearance of the machine and with how it felt like they ended up looping back into the first time they entered the new world, but overall I don't think it's too important to dwell on that since it feels more like an aesthetic choice to represent what they were talking about souls and bodies and stuff.

Overall it's definitely not a series to think to deep about it, but just an incredibly beautiful ride, would love for Yoshitomi Akihito to make more works like this since their way of drawing weird sci-fi landscapes has to be one of my favourites of all time.

Thanks again for the month of daily bliss team <3

Wonderful ending, loved it.

There's a fair degree of magic realism into it too, with the disappearance of the machine and with how it felt like they ended up looping back into the first time they entered the new world, but overall I don't think it's too important to dwell on that since it feels more like an aesthetic choice to represent what they were talking about souls and bodies and stuff.

Overall it's definitely not a series to think to deep about it, but just an incredibly beautiful ride, would love for Yoshitomi Akihito to make more works like this since their way of drawing weird sci-fi landscapes has to be one of my favourites of all time.

Thanks again for the month of daily bliss team <3

Agree with all of this. And that’s pretty much how the genres work:

Impossible stuff happens because machines = science fiction.

Impossible stuff happens because magic = fantasy.

Impossible stuff happens, no magic, no machines = magic realism.

Impossible stuff happens, maybe some magic and/or machines, maybe not = Yoshitomi Akihito.

^/^^ word

Thanks for the wild ride.

Suicide

Maybe there wasn't even a machine.

The metaphor at the end between bodies and uniforms is interesting.

They cease to wear school uniforms because they grow up. And a parallel is made with life and death (reincarnation?)

Also, the "lilies" not allowed in the house suggests that their relationship might be taboo in one of their family.

So, where did they take refuge? In death or in a virtual world?

I have a hunch they "escaped" somehow, but where? Fairy Land?

I guess author left this up to us to decide.

last edited at Jan 3, 2022 11:57AM

It's like it ended 4 or 5 times in the last chapter. Very weird.

Like:
Planning to not accept how they couldn't follow each other seemed like a kind of pledge to change things in the real world to make things work out
Wanting to just be souls
Wanting to never leave Fairy Land
Showing them back at the start of the loop at the end

Their friends finding the machine missing (or never existed) despite finding their clothes and them never coming home plus some of the themes here implies another yet another ending: suicide. But that's only if you assume everything that happened is figurative and that no magic and sci-fi stuff existed.

It's like a grab bag of endings.

last edited at Jan 3, 2022 12:18PM

Needed a little more kissing but wonderful ending anyway. I was a bit worried they were going to find their mummified remains still strapped to the machines so I'm glad that didn't happen.

... that's mildly depressing.

One thing for sure. They're together now, wherever they are. So happy ending I guess?

Wonderful ending, loved it.

There's a fair degree of magic realism into it too, with the disappearance of the machine and with how it felt like they ended up looping back into the first time they entered the new world, but overall I don't think it's too important to dwell on that since it feels more like an aesthetic choice to represent what they were talking about souls and bodies and stuff.

Overall it's definitely not a series to think to deep about it, but just an incredibly beautiful ride, would love for Yoshitomi Akihito to make more works like this since their way of drawing weird sci-fi landscapes has to be one of my favourites of all time.

Thanks again for the month of daily bliss team <3

Agree with all of this. And that’s pretty much how the genres work:

Impossible stuff happens because machines = science fiction.

Impossible stuff happens because magic = fantasy.

Impossible stuff happens, no magic, no machines = magic realism.

Impossible stuff happens, maybe some magic and/or machines, maybe not = Yoshitomi Akihito.

Yup, one of the only good things about being from South America is having that rich literary culture, might also be why I tend to prefer stuff like this. And definitely love the twists that Akihito brings to the table with all of their work too.

While I was at it, I also translated the oneshot at the end of the volume and posted it here.

I don't think it really belongs on Dynasty, as it's nothing special, but I did it for the sake of completion.

The second oneshot, "Tokyo Girl", has already been translated years ago and is on MD.

last edited at Jan 3, 2022 12:44PM

I think its impossible to say any one thing happened for sure, but the mention of the lillies being poisonous to cats immediately followed by them both eating one and kissing seems to point towards a double suicide to me. But who knows. I really enjoyed this one either way

Ending be like ENTERING ELECTROSPHERE

...but really, might as well Epileptic Trees it as a particularly bizarre alien abduction or "spiriting away" gone postmodern gone techy. Would make as much sense as anything. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

just wonderful

I think its impossible to say any one thing happened for sure, but the mention of the lillies being poisonous to cats immediately followed by them both eating one and kissing seems to point towards a double suicide to me. But who knows. I really enjoyed this one either way

I thought this too but I don't want to interpret this story this way. The story was very puzzling yet intriguing. I would like to interpret as that sci-fi shit thingy devoured them and now in loveland.

I think its impossible to say any one thing happened for sure, but the mention of the lillies being poisonous to cats immediately followed by them both eating one and kissing seems to point towards a double suicide to me. But who knows. I really enjoyed this one either way

I thought this too but I don't want to interpret this story this way. The story was very puzzling yet intriguing. I would like to interpret as that sci-fi shit thingy devoured them and now in loveland.

Which leaves the question where Sci-Fi-Thingy went. The shed looks nothing like before. Did it go poof? I mean, it'd be hard to explain all the events portrayed if it never even was there, harder probably than why it's gone now. Was it all just a drug induced dream and they OD'd in the end?
Questions answered, questions raised.

I have a hunch that it was all a plan of Mizuki.

The shed belongs to her family.
She's the one who drags Nana into the virtual world.
She's the only one who "hears" a voice.
The two kissing on the top of the tower they spot are maybe Mizuki's wish (it echoes the last pages of chapter 21)
When they wake up inside the VR and see their own body, Mizuki wakes up, but when she kisses the sleeping Nana, some part of Mizuki is still inside the VR and echoes her thoughts (I won't accept it).
In the final chapters, it's obvious she masters the commands of that VR.

So, it all points to a plan of Mizuki to keep Nana by her side "forever" as consciousnesses inside a virtual world, therefore avoiding the graduation, the fact that "lilies" are forbidden in her house, and leaving fairy land.

In the end, they leave their uniforms (symbolically their bodies) behind and get naked to enter the VR.

So, what happens to their bodies is the unknown here. The absence of the machine is odd too.

But who cares? Theirs souls will be forever together.

The Real Ending: Mizuki and Nana longed to escape this narrow and oppressive world, to fulfill their desire for each other and for the right to write as much bad love poetry to each other as permissible under international law. But a virtual world is no place to escape into, and the more they pondered the existence of the machine, the more they realized that it was probably just a sex fantasy simulator for Mizuki's grandfather. So they turned off the machine and decided to elope to Canada (where Nana had family), and to raise funds they would sell the machine to the highest bidder. The next day Mark Zuckerberg appeared at Mizuki's house, waving Bitcoin and foaming at the mouth. The sight of the machine drove him into an orgasmic frenzy that was registered on seismographs three prefectures away. And that was how girls left him, driving away in an Uber with millions in crypto and their luggage and passports, while Zuckerberg was weeping and yelling incoherent statements about the "metaverse" and "his company was now more overpriced and overrated than Apple." They are now attending university in Toronto, are working to obtain Canadian citizenship, and plan to get married after graduation.

It's all complicated and lovely.

But if lilies are poisonous to cats but represent yuri,does that mean the lesbian flower of power is a hindrance to getting puss puss?

Also,does that mean the grandfather also disappeared into the machine?,perhaps even occasionally going in and out of said machine?

Then that odd one-shot...

Nya-chan's take is mild and doesn't stray too far from what we've seen, like, it's consistent with the story and tone and does check out with the usual gaps. A reasonable take

Arcane's take got a good laugh out of me. A hilarious take.

last edited at Jan 3, 2022 5:12PM

Didn't expect a Lain sequel to go this direction.

I also forgot about the title: "Lily System".

So it's a system made for lilies (ie, yuri). Or maybe to be a home for yuri on a symbolic level.

Like, they can be "lilies" only inside this system.

And I noticed also that besides the fishes and the uniforms, this system is inhabited by cats. It's a system where there can be cats AND lilies.

The uniform symbolic is both "growing up" (once you leave high school you don't wear one ever again) and "dying" (leaving the body behind. But why are there empty uniforms in that system?

It's like the author hid a lot of hints and it's up to us to decrypt them.

What a beautiful story. What an absolutely lovely and mysterious ending. I am very sad it’s over. I love all of theirs, but this is really special.