Wait, is this actually the end of this? Damn, i was really hoping that the MC would change more by the end of it, but i guess its great to see that she at least changed a bit. Even though this was a nice chapter, i really hope the epilogue gives us a more satisfying ending than that. I feel that this series deserves more than just an open end.

Just give me a minute.... cries a flood

I can only hope that the epilogue will come and heal my broken heart.

But for seriously, the only difference between the Shou at the start of the story and the Shou at the end of the story is that she has a neat radio now. I hope we get at least a hopeful ending from the epilogue.

Jesus that was fucking depressing

I didn't like this last chapter, i'm quite a passive person myself like the MC, but there it was too much, she was like a dead fish floating on the water waiting for the end of the world...

last edited at Nov 21, 2016 9:06PM

WARNING The next comment could be cataloged as "Salty" and a little "insulting" so maybe you shouldn't read it if you can't stand those sort of comments , have a nice day.

WOW i never thought i could feel this disappointed in humanity after reading some comments on the internet, I really wish that those people that called the ending as "crap", "bad" or any other word of the same kind are just being sarcastic if not, this wasn't never going to be your kind of story to not say something more rude, and for those people that said shou had no change or only a little bit of it , I need to say somehing, no everyone is the same, for all of you the ending was meaningless or without much change but for the fictional character know as "shou" it did mean a lot if you can't understand that you should try to read it again.

I think the big flaw the ending had was that Shou was shown changing very little throughout the series, despite Chiharu's best efforts. That meant most of the stuff at the end of the last chapter didn't resonate very well. There was nothing really to invest the reader. I do like that Chiharu is relying on her to actually put in effort to find her and potentially start a real relationship, it's the one thing that the reader has to really hold on to.

If she does find her, or at least start searching, in the epilogue, that'll help a lot.

pretty much what i think, i was liking it but this chapter left a bad taste, can be recovered still at least

Anticipation builds.

Just saw the epilogue on the SAD blog, and I've gotta say I'm satisfied with it. Very glad I can walk away from this series with positive feelings.

Just saw the epilogue on the SAD blog, and I've gotta say I'm satisfied with it. Very glad I can walk away from this series with positive feelings.

Ah, went to look at their blog right after I saw your post. Wasn't how I thought the epilogue would be about, but it was nice, I find. Also, it's silly but this was something I had in mind

Oh and, did anyone else think this line was odd?

http://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/dark_forest_white_road_epilogue#17 lol

Just saw the epilogue on the SAD blog, and I've gotta say I'm satisfied with it. Very glad I can walk away from this series with positive feelings.

While I can say to that after reading this manga I enjoyed it I can't really say it was really in any way "happy". While we see Katsuragi (mainly through the Epilogue) grow as a character there is still a lot more we have to think about.
- First and most obvious is that if you look at the epilogue with a less optimistic point of you view, you could easily say that Katsuragi got the phone in an attempt to look for her. And her saying hi to the sister shes most dis tests could simply be proof of emotional damage caused by her actually being wallowed up in her "empty world" which was catalyst-ed by the events within the main chapters. And because of this emotional damage she is now fixed of achieving this world that she (blindee (sorry don't know her name and I don't wanna go check)) wanted for Katsuragi.
- The second is that no part of this manga is positive. Katsuragi's family is broken(mainly her relationship with her sister), and while the epilogue makes this break in their relationship seem small, a relationship like that won't heal for quite a long period of time. And most importantly Kasuragi herself and her relationship with blindee is broken, which is really just emphasized by the rest of the manga. All of blindee's efforts to create short term change are pointless, and while for mostly selfish reasons blindee's only hope of creating change is loss, which ofc works great on creating and developing people in and out of a book, but neither her selfish reason or her "attempt" to help Katsuragi give any grounding as to why this development could be positive step forward or done with a positive grounding. Because lets be honest if we wanted to create a more ideal situation we'd just make 3 girl that want to be Katsuragi's friends who are all hyper active and make up for her shy character type. This situation would probably help Katsuragi but in the manga blindee is inflicting emotional pain on a highschooler who has no support and is already hollow inside, simply for "selfish reasons" which in turn will probably ruin Katsuragi for the rest of her life as she constantly thinks about running back to the girl on that one winter. (<-- Not saying that's always a bad thing but for a person who most likely wont be going off and moving on quickly or hanging out with friends to move on from it, something like this will rip you to shreds.)

While I do honestly agree with most of my previous I do get I am being cynical and their relationship and the fact that Katsuragi will have the chance to grow is a positive step forward with what was available, I still firmly believe that blindee was selfish in her decision which could very easily destroy Katsuragi's life under the pretense that Katsuragi will never be able to escape her hollow world with her own power or even worse just under pretense of her own selfish want to know "love".
But who am I to say you can't hurt others when trying to find love. Life happens.

Oh and, did anyone else think this line was odd?

I think its just badly worded and is sticking with the general concept about the fact that their relationship became disjointed due to neither person caring to fix it (nor was it caused by one side actually despising the other side)

last edited at Nov 22, 2016 2:41AM

what happened in the end? why they don't meet anymore?
i probably lost some important part of the plot, because i can't understand what's the cause, the MC is iper-passive, but the blond girl want to be found, then is she going away? the girl the MC call at the end, is she the blind girl or not?

This tells us she's probably on the right track, she cut her hair which is symbolic of a change on a deeper level, but I guess I'm not satisfied with a vaguer ending like that. I would have liked to see more quantifiable development and even a resolution to the romance aspect if there was to be one.

last edited at Nov 22, 2016 3:02AM

I'm sure it will get fixed soon but just in case, the epilogue should be placed at the end!

So, we could assume Shou is still seing Chiharu and that the phone was to call her everytime they couldn't see each other, right?

So, we could assume Shou is still seing Chiharu and that the phone was to call her everytime they couldn't see each other, right?

thats what im assuming is happening. she wants the phone to talk to chiharu and they still get together whenever they can as evidenced by people noticing the "creepy pale girl" that hangs around their house at night and shou being out and about during that same time period.

and thats without including that whole "you've got long hair again" bit at the very end.

last edited at Nov 22, 2016 3:56AM

I didn't read that last 4-Koma, that was cute.

http://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/dark_forest_white_road_epilogue#14
Character development!

Well that was just as opaque and borderline incomprehensible as the rest of this series.

Not especially profound ending but lovely in just about every other way I could have wanted. Especially this art! Even got to see what's going on with the sister.

It's pretty obviously a happy ending, if you take the epilogue in account.

Shou acknowledges her little sister for the first time in five years. I think it's implied that their relationship went south ever since Yuu recognised that Shou thought her as a nuisance, and actually taking the effort to greet her is a small, but symbolic gesture. Also, Yuu's classmates talking about the ghost (i.e Chiharu) hanging around the house implies that Shou managed to make contact with Chiharu and is actually buying a cellphone to contact her. Also, Chiharu saying that Shou 'grew her hair long again' pretty much spells out that they met after Shou got her hair cut. And that big ass smile from Shou in the end isn't something that ever happened through out the manga. You can't get anymore clear cut, really.

Also, while I rarely try to bring up realism as a defence for manga since it's usually a bogus one, I think this one deserves it. Shou was a completely broken person, and to her go through a dramatic change at the end of the manga would be, well, unrealistic. Speaking from experience, changing is an incredibly difficult thing for a person to do, and is a long term thing. You have to look at it from Shou's perspective. Shouting towards Chiharu at the train station, asking for a cellphone and saying 'hi' to her sister were most likely difficult, nigh-impossible things for her to do unless she really, really wanted them.

Overall, I'm satisfied

Whew, thank goodness there was an epilogue...shou is definitely more emo than the average manga mc, but thats kinda how I got into reading it ^_^
Thanks for translating

Oh Hell NO... that credit image.. NO.. please don't make my heart flutter so much!

So, we could assume Shou is still seing Chiharu and that the phone was to call her everytime they couldn't see each other, right?

thats what im assuming is happening. she wants the phone to talk to chiharu and they still get together whenever they can as evidenced by people noticing the "creepy pale girl" that hangs around their house at night and shou being out and about during that same time period.

and thats without including that whole "you've got long hair again" bit at the very end.

Phew! Well, at least that ending was much more uplifting than the last one. I mean, i would've loved to see Shou and Chiharu together again, but seeing Shou's changes from the sister perspective was a nice way of ending the series too.