***THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS***
As far as being the final ending, I guess it was kind of a given that the people on the island weren't going to magically come back to life, but the fantastical and often over-the-top nature of the series certainly wouldn't rule out such a miracle. The real reason is that this series is a tragedy more than anything, and I can't help but consider that to be lazy writing.
Think about it, the series basically ends with Ange being the protagonist and the sole survivor, but she wasn't even introduced to the manga until the third Episode! Then that whole thing with how the old, amnesiac Battler somehow survived, and you kinda think that he's going to snap out of it and have a happy ending living with Ange. But no, apparently this physical shell has to die and return to Battler so they can be at peace. Which is fine I guess, but why include any of that? Was that supposed to explain everything that happened? It's just a mess thrown on at the end that really confused me more than anything.
I can understand wanting to try and wrap things up neatly as possible at the end, but this series has so many folds and wrinkles that trying to logically sort it out is pretty much impossible, so I'm a little offended that they even tried. I really didn't want someone to wave a magic wand and bring everyone back to life, but somewhere in the middle would've been nice.
To summarize, it seemed to me that after such a complex and crazy journey to get here, the writers had painted themselves into a corner. They didn't know how to write an ending for all the characters that wouldn't contradict the story thus far... so they didn't. The good guys beat the bad guys and lived happily ever after, except that they're dead and they've BEEN dead this whole time so... what exactly changed? Are they in heaven now or something? Are they totally dead? Are they still playing games on Rokkenjima Island? It's really not clear and by the end it gets so meta that it's hard to take anything at face value. I really liked the whole series so I'm still giving it an 8/10, but they could erase this ending and start a new Episode and I wouldn't feel bad about it.
