Time is never on the side of the fairy soldiers and Willem their caretaker. It seems like every day brings them closer to the end of the world — or perhaps they’re already there, living in the twilight of a world ruined by those who came before.
When the anime adaptation of WorldEnd came out I knew that the light novel series it had been based on was quite short, only five volumes (plus side volumes), so I was under the impression that the anime’s 12 episodes covered all of it. It didn’t: volume 3 marks the end of the adapted material with volume 4 being an entirely new, although expected, chapter in this tragedy given substantial form.
While I don’t yet know the contents of volume 5, volume 3 was actually a fairly good place to end the adaption if you weren’t able to adapt it all. It starts with Chtholly having regained a part of herself but only part — she’s still plagued by memories not her own and everyone is aware that this encroachment upon her mind will eventually be fatal. She’s no longer a fairy soldier either and feels completely out of sorts while Willem is just happy she’s alive and home. But there are still a couple of other fairy soldiers outside the warehouse and Willem, Chtholly, and Nephren go to check on them where they are working as bodyguards for teams excavating down on the surface. Needless to say, things go south and the entire crew ends up in a fight for their lives that doesn’t go very well.
Volume 4 begins with Willem and Nephren having been swallowed up in an illusion created by one of the beasts. The two of them know full well that it’s a dream created by someone’s memory but they’re stumped since not only is it a memory of the town Willem lived in hundreds of years ago, but this illusion is far more detailed than his own memories. The “time” is also a few days after his final fight in a distant battlefield where he was petrified, right before the nightmare of the beasts began. With no obvious clues as to who the dreamer is, the two of them have to simply live out the “days” in this town all while looking for clues so they can break out.
Volume 4 also finally reveals the cruel circumstances that created the beasts, or rather it confirms what happened since my suspicions proved correct and I don’t think this reveal was meant to be a momentous, out-of-the-blue twist for the readers but rather yet another tragic moment. I remember watching the anime and thought the world was a future Earth, since it aired in a period where non-isekai/true fantasy anime was a rarity. But this volume confirms that this is in fact not planet Earth (although I’m still theorizing that the Visitors might actually be humans, in part because it’s their meddling that sets everything else in motion which seems rather human).
Volume 4 I think is my favorite volume of the series. It feels more tightly focused (previous volumes sometimes seemed to spin their wheels in side-plots), the “mystery” behind the illusionary dream was new to me, and, while it was going to end in tragedy (since we know that Willem’s hometown was destroyed right around this time) the payoff was still very gripping. I also like Akira Kareno’s ideas more than their characters. Most of the characters I like is when the story is in their own, internal worlds, but when the characters actually interact with each other they come off fairly flat. Since the main cast is down to just two characters in volume 4, Willem and the already-taciturn Nephren, this wasn’t as large of a problem as it usually is.
I’m almost never a fan of sad stories, it’s usually too easy to see where the characters went “wrong” and that leaves me feeling more annoyed than sympathetic. In WorldEnd, however, the circumstances are so large that it’s hard not to feel sympathy for everyone living through these trying times. I’m curious how volume 5 will end the story (ignoring the sequel series which hasn’t yet been licensed) because at this point it feels like the characters won’t be able to net anything more than a temporary reprieve/happiness so I’m really not sure how Kareno will create a “satisfactory” ending within those limitations.