Kokkoku Final Review

It took me a while to gather my thoughts after Kokkoku finished. This show is weird. It started strong but it had an ending I definitely was not expecting. For those unaware, Kokkoku is a show about a family who had 2 members kidnapped by an organization. In order for the family to save them, they used the power of a stone they had in their possession to stop time. Little did they know, the enemy organization had subordinate stones that let them follow the family into Stasis which caused a large amount of conflict all within this one moment of time.

Overall the story was worth it. I particularly did not enjoy the ending, but that does not devalue the rest of the story. As I mentioned in my last article, for a fan of time manipulation the Stasis mechanic was really interesting. All the way up through learning Majima’s motivations for entering stasis and up to Sagawa’s ascension to being a conscious Herald, the story was very compelling. Then it tripped.

We learn about Sagawa’s history of being forced into this fake religion his parents were a major part of and how it ruined his life. The battle with Sagawa was interesting but the story ultimately could not catch back up and it ended with what could have been a sad but “realistic” ending but instead ended with some Deus Ex Machina that was actually teased back in episode 1 before the first OP played. I’m not letting the ending ruin the whole show for me. The story up to this was very, very good and I feel they just wanted a happy ending for Juri after everything that’s happened to her.

The characters are absolutely great. You witness all of them figure out self-preservation is literally the only way they can survive stasis after a certain point. Shiomi is one good example of this. He was Sagawa’s right-hand man until he knew Sagawa had no use for him anymore and he immediately switched sides and joined forces with the Yukawa family and Majima. All this made the characters seem realistic, not all just 1-dimensional characters. I guess this argument works in favor of Sagawa’s downfall but I feel he should have died at the end instead of being reborn.

Juri’s descent into madness after being the last one in Stasis was absolutely fantastic. With baby Sagawa, she still had a purpose in Stasis, but after sending him back, she had no reason to be there and slowly lost her will to keep living. Had the ending been darker and Juri fully became a Herald, I’d be content with the ending. The deus ex machina with the self-proclaimed creator of Stasis turned the ending into a happy one but it felt like it was wedged in just to make it a happy end and to fill the backstory of why the stones existed in the first place.

Overall, the show is amazing. I would still recommend it to anyone who wants something different than the norm. If you’re a fan of time travel/manipulation then you definitely need to pick this show up. Out of 10, this show is a solid 8.5. It would be higher for me if that blonde chick didn’t exist. It’s available on Amazon Prime for your binging pleasure. Let me know what you think in the comments! Is the ending not as bad as I thought?