THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS AND SHOULD ONLY BE READ AFTER READING OPUS

So, assuming you just ignored that warning, I'll say again that I will be spoiling the ending of Opus fully in order to discuss it, so readers be wary. If you just want a recommendation from me, this is it. Go and buy Opus on Amazon or wherever you can. It's a great read and completely worth your time, especially if you enjoy Kon's other work. The purpose of this review is to give readers some food for thought about the ending, and perhaps change how they felt about it if they were disappointed or unsatisfied.

My experience after finishing Opus mirrored that of finishing Neon Genesis Evangelion. Although both had troubled endings, I found myself satisfied with the result regardless. Both of them also later received an "actual" ending, though the ending to Opus wasn't available until very recently and doesn't undo the ending readers were left with in 1996. What's bound to anger many people is that there is no actual "end" for the characters. Just who is The Masque? Is everything eventually set right in Resonance and Nagai's world? What happens to the characters after Nagai finishes his manga? We'll never truly know, but I personally thought the current ending sent an interesting message about the relationship between author and creation. Much like how Nagai can't finish Resonance, Satoshi Kon was unable to finish Opus, and this comes to an interesting climax when Nagai confronts Kon in manga form. It purposely leaves the narrative to Opus and Resonance incomplete, but it strengthens the message that an author doesn't necessarily have complete control over their work. Although Opus focused more on how an author doesn't have complete control in terms of character and plot progression, the end shows us that sometimes the author doesn't even have control over finishing their own story. Nagai doesn't finish Resonance, Kon doesn't finish Opus, and the two clash over this fact in the final chapter. Although it's still a bit disappointing that we'll never know how Resonance and Opus were originally intended to end, the ending we got was far from a bad one and should hopefully leave the viewer thinking about the relationship between fiction and reality, which is ultimately what Kon originally intended.