WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Platinum End Episode 24, "The Final Arrow," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation, as well as discussion of suicide.
Platinum End's divine battle royale to decide the world's next God ended in Episode 23, and peace returns to Earth in the series finale as the new God Shuji takes his place in the heavens and the arrows are confiscated. Only one red arrow remains with Professor Yoneda, but otherwise it's as though the titanic clash never even happened. Few people even retain memories of it happening.
Protagonist Kakehashi Mirai can now resume his humble quest to find true happiness as an ordinary citizen of Earth, and the other God candidates and their associates do the same. While the new God has apocalyptic plans in mind, not even the end of humanity can extinguish true hope and happiness. That is the shonen way.
In heaven, the new God-Shuji converses with the original God and they resolve the "chicken and the egg" paradox between humanity and God at last. An unknown party or entity created God long ago. God then created humanity, disproving Yoneda's "parasitic creature" theory. Meanwhile, God-Shuji observes humanity's endless suffering across the globe and concludes that nothing short of genocide can save it from despair and misery. As the destructive angel Munai had always intended, God-Shuji takes his own life, and the angels and humanity die with him in a massive apocalypse six years after the God candidate battle ended.
Starting with the youngest, everyone on Earth vanishes into thin air. Most people feel horror and shock as they see everyone else vanish, until the same happens to them as well. It's a nightmare scenario for 99% of humanity, but one particular couple doesn't mind it so much. Mirai and Saki, who have since gotten married and started their own florist shop, embrace one another and wait for the end to come. Both had once tried to take their own lives but survived, giving each of them a new appreciation of their remaining time on Earth.
They perish with no regrets, and even if he must pay for it with his life, Mirai spends his last moments in happiness with the woman he loves as his initial quest comes to a close. This allows Mirai to die happily, as opposed to his misery when he first attempted to take his own life at the start of Platinum End. On one level, this can be interpreted as a suicide prevention message, but there is more to it.
The sudden apocalypse in Platinum End finale does more than conclude the series by killing off the entire cast at once. It also reaffirms a few basic shonen core values, such as the power of friendship, the virtues of courage and persistence, and the wisdom of seeking selfless and constructive goals.
Mirai's goal to find humble happiness may have seemed underwhelming earlier in the series -- especially compared to Light Yagami's quest to become a god of justice in Death Note -- but in the end, Mirai gets the last laugh. He perishes in Saki's arms as the happiest man on earth, with no fear or regrets at all. His simple and mundane goal had allowed him to spend the prior six years in total bliss, and in Episode 24 he dies in peace, and something similar can be said for his wife Saki. However, this generally cannot be said for the rest of Platinum End's cast.
The other characters behaved in more selfish ways, and their deaths were equally harsh. The ambitious and cruel Metropoliman died in anguish when Mukaido shot him with a heavy machine gun, and in Episode 24, Professor Yoneda dies while panicking about the state of the world. The selfish hedonist Temari Yuri dies panicking and confused, a poor way to end her life. These characters never sought humble happiness, nor did they try to benefit others. So they receive a fitting end in the finale, while the shonen heroes Mirai and Saki get the best possible end -- a true platinum end.
For more information on the warning signs and prevention of suicide, click here. If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside the U.S., click here for a list of international hotlines.
