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THIS IS AN MANGA ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS ANYTHING BEYOND THIS CHAPTER.
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uggg... this ending makes me wish it had ended with the final page of 46. Having him forget the whole last year is such a fucking cop-out and piss poor unimaginative writing.

I think that was a nice way to describe a glimpse of hope with the inevitable despair lingering around.

I'm not going to do a review proper because it already has a (16/16) review on MAL and I'm feeling lazy. Sorry!

Lament of the Lamb - 7-8/10

LotL is a gradual descent into the darkness of the mind. There are very few main characters, and most spend the majority of the series brooding. It's a compelling read because of the gloomy sense of hopelessness the series has. The cast reflect the situation by very rarely smiling. It's depressing to read, certainly, yet I always found myself wanting see what was around the corner, despite the often sluggish pacing.

Reading it, I couldn't help but be sucked in. When I first received the first five volumes way back, I started reading the opening volume at around 1 AM and stayed up until 6-7 AM to read through all I had. That's how much it absorbed me; pulled me into its bleak world.

The most fascinating aspect is, without a shadow of a doubt, the relationship shared between Chizuna and Kazuna; the brother and sister of a cursed 'vampire' lineage. They grew up not knowing each other, Chizuna suffering from her need to suck the blood of others from childhood, living off her father, and Kazuna living a relatively normal life. However, Kazuna's life all changes when he starts lusting for the blood of others and, after going back to his old family home, runs into his long lost sister. They start living together shortly after this - Kazuna seeing his mother in Chizuna and Chizuna seeing her father in Kazuna. Chizuna is best described as twisted, having had a love-hate relationship with her father because, after her mother's death, he started seeing her as the replacement for her mother due to her resembling her, and she depended on him for blood. With Kazuna in the picture and her father dead, the roles are reversed - he takes blood from her - but he still fulfills the role of being the replacement for her father, him resembling their father. It's hard to get a firm grasp on their relationship - they aren't brother and sister in actions, as them kissing highlights, but they also are not lovers.

What ultimately let the story down was its lethargic pacing and 180 ending. In the sixth volume in particular, too much time was spent on needless subplots. One subplot involved a character trying to uncover the truth behind the suicide of Chizuna and Kazuna's father, going over old ground and then vanishing. Although it did open the path to the big twist of the series, far too much time was spent with the 'camera' on this mostly pointless character. As for the ending, it came close to ruining the entire story; ending on an illogical high after all looked lost at the end of the next to final chapter. In short, if the story had been 'tighter' and chapter 47 hadn't occurred, it would've been a far more enjoyable story to read.

Worth reading? Yes - it's different enough to be worth the time of most - but it's far from perfectly executed.

Personally, I felt that the slow pacing was the best part of this manga. It really made the character developement feel more organic and allowed time for the backstory to be explored. It's rare to find a manga that takes the time to make characters feel natural. Instead they usually go for quantity rather than quality and throw out revelation after revelation or conflict after conflict in a desparate attempt to hold the audiences attention without taking the time to show how this will affect the characters.

As for Ch 47: It really was not that terrible of an ending. It's only crime was that it was a mediocre ending which replaced the end of Ch 46. In my opinion Ch 46 was the ideal ending so I also hate Ch 47 but if there hadn't been a Ch 46 then I think I would have been OK with Ch 47. It certainly did not come close to retroactively ruining the entire story.

Exactly my opinion. After rereading the manga, the mangaka betrayed me as a reader and gave an immature ending that did not fit the two teenage protagonists' struggle to deal with their emotions maturely.

MANGAKA FAIL!

I think it was great. I don't know what you people raging about.

It just showed that there might be a chance for a complete recovery for someone that is dealing with that illness which plagues their family for generations though Kazuna didn't remember anything about it at all, they do know that it will come back anytime in the future and when that happens, the people around him are prepared to helped him. Though a chapter 46 finale would also be not that bad since this is a tragedy manga.

Also, Chizuna's death is a bit disappointing as well as depressing because she just quited and accepted her inevitable fate after she learned about her mothers death. I would prefer to see her fighting till the end.

Well, anyway, that was a great read since it has a different approach on vampirism and I could really feel the emotions that they are portraying.

I wasn´t expecting too much to be sincere but now that i´ve finished reading this manga i found it quite entertaining and well written ;)

Well about chapter 46 it would have been a nice ending but in my opinion that was a little bit predictable and cliche.
Can´t say i actually find chapter 47 a masterpiece ending... but in fact it was a good way to put an end to a cycle and to let us readers know that even after all those hardships sometimes life reserves something that we can use to start anew.

Well i guess that " as long as you keep on living good things are bound to happen" is a good way to sumarize what this ending meant to me ;)

Score: 7 or 8 / 10 cause i found this manga quite enjoyable and not the typical vampire story.The ending (chap 47) was a little bit too immature and rushed and that is probably what prevents me of giving this manga a better score.

The ending in chapter 46 was already good enough. This last chapter wasn't really bad, but I didn't quite like it. The whole memory loss thing is just kinda lame.. in a way, it shows that there's hope for Kazuna to live a happy life despite everything that had happened before and for this manga, a tragic ending would be more suitable. Plus, I like tragic endings.

I found the ending to be quite nice. If anything, that the last page of chapter 46 was a bit too abrupt relative to the rest of the story, and the actual ending fits the tone of the manga better. At the very least, the supporting cast of this series deserved that much.

When I witnessed the death of the siblings, I felt a sense of peace wash over me, like the lump that I had been carrying in my throat throughout the manga had vanished. I heard that Ch. 47 was going to be something unexpected, so in an attempt to brace myself I searched the net for what would happen. I read the words "He wakes up without any memories of the past year" and, gaping a bit, thought that was a spoiler enough, and continued. So I was able to prepare myself somewhat, but that wasn't able to prevent the weight on my chest that steadily got heavier as I read up to the last line: "It's part of our new beginning together."

But thinking over it, it was the perfect kind of ending for such a manga. Ch. 46 was too ideal. Lots of us wanted a good, happy ending for HnU--meaning, a "tragic" ending to end it all. And then Ch. 47 smacks 'em in the faces. Memory loss is a little cliched, some would say. But in this case, in my opinion, not really.

And I agree with Torisunanohokori. It gives the supporting cast a chance.

But what I will disagree with is the belief that the ending was too "happy" for the manga, because it was an ending that made me sad and troubled. The probability that Kazuna will fall victim to an attack and suffer (you know what comes next) is too high. It keeps me biting my nails, wondering what will happen and thinking, deep inside that I already know. Yaegashi's optimism at the end was creepy too. Like it could all end pretty soon. If the mangaka's intention was to give the readers a feeling of hope after the tragic ending (which we all wanted), they failed. >__<

Still, I give the manga a high rating cause it's one of the best mangas I've ever read.

I was disappointed with the ending.

I'll ignore the fact that amnesia is one of the most overused plot devices and that any self-respecting writer would at least look up amnesia and realize that it doesn't work like they think it does. Now he has no memories of the sister that loved him, falling in love and being forced to keep her at a distance, the knowledge he gained about his family, or any of the struggles he's endured. chapter 46 was a much more endearing ending, but if they didn't want kazuna to die they could have picked wrote something better than this.