ヒラエスは旅路の果て

HIRAETH WA TABIJI NO HATE

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
3
RELEASE
May 20, 2022
CHAPTERS
17

DESCRIPTION

After the death of her best friend, Mika is determined to follow her into the grave. But her suicide attempt introduces her to a world unlike any she's ever seen...full of gods and spirits and entities of which she could never have dreamed. But even with this world of wonder, can she find a way out of her sorrow?

(Source: Kodansha USA)

CAST

Hibino
Mika Kashima
Kami-sama

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Vampy
72/100
While enjoyable with a good story, it leads to a lackluster finish
Preface:
Maybe I went into this with the wrong intentions, but I was expecting:
Person wants to die -> meet people/have experiences -> Person doesn't want to die
While that did happen, it happened in the most unsatisfying way possible.

Let me start from the beginning.. We have our protagonist who wants to die because her bff(lover(?)) died. She meets these two dudes in various circumstances who also want to die, and they go on a journey with her to Yomi(death world). These two dudes are honestly pretty good additions. They each have unique motivations and interconnected backstories, which is really interesting! The group of the three of them bounce off each other very well, making for fun conversation and 'slice of life' feel. BUT, the tonal shift from "i want to die and i'm sad" to "hahaha im having a great time" is too sudden for me to like. I think I understand that the whole thing is 'the journey is important, not the destination', so they're supposed to have a good time, but the topic of them wanting to die is too heavy to bounce back and forth like that.

The beginning was wonderful though, the protagonist describing her sorrow of losing her friend(lover(???)) and how she just wanted to see her again hit real real close to home, and I was very excited to see what would change her mind to die, if anything. But, the story really sidelines the protagonist about 6 chapters in and focuses more on the 2 dudes, which I didn't particularly like.. Their relationship with the protagonist is pretty rushed(but you could expect that with something this short). Yeah, they're cool and have a good story to them, but BOI I was really invested in the protagonist's feelings.

Because of the sidelining, at the end, The protagonist all of a sudden turns her back on her friend(lover(?????)) at the last second and doesn't want to die anymore. I expected this, but what I didn't expect was for NO REASON TO BE GIVEN!! Like. WHAT? She says that she wants to live, but she doesn't know why. The whole reason I read this was for the sweet catharsis I would get when she explains why she wants to live, but did I get it? Nah. I can assume the reason was so her bff/lover could live on in her memories, but it isn't covered in detail whatsoever, so we are left guessing. TO BE FAIR, it is only 17 chapters, you can't expect something mindblowing, I guess I had my expectations too high.

All in all, cool short-ish story to read if you want some minor feelies, but don't expect something crazy amazing, and don't get your hopes up for a satisfying conclusion for our main girl.

Art- 8/10
Story- 5/10
Characters- 6/10

Overall- 7.2/10
I appreciate what message the manga was trying to portray, even if not done very well. I don't have the heart to give it any lower of a score than this.
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bomberatox
80/100
Overall, it’s absolutely worth reading.
At the beginning, I’ll be honest, the story threw me off a bit. The rhythm felt a little uneven, like it was trying to sprint before it had even finished tying its shoes. I had to stop a couple of times and recalibrate just to sync with the pacing. But once everything started to settle and the plot found its own heartbeat, it grew on me in a way I genuinely didn’t expect. The atmosphere shifted, the narrative pieces clicked together, and suddenly I was way more invested than I thought I’d be in those first confusing pages.

There were definitely moments where the tone leaned pretty hard into that “edgy” territory, which made me roll my eyes a bit at first. And Mika… yeah, Mika had phases where he was a really annoying teenager — stubborn, dramatic, emotionally messy. But somehow, that ended up being part of her charm. As the chapters rolled on, those flaws made her feel more real, like a real teenager would deal with the loss of a close friend.

Hibino, though. Hibino had me from the very beginning. There’s just something magnetic about him — his personality, his soft heart, the way he carries himself even when everything around him is falling apart. He doesn’t force your attention, he earns it. He was the character I kept looking forward to the most, and every scene with him just made me like him even more. He grounded the story in this warm, steady way that balanced out the chaos around him.

By the time I reached the ending, it all hit surprisingly hard. The emotional payoff was beautiful — not in a cheesy or forced way, but in that slow, cathartic way where you feel the characters have actually grown, suffered, learned, and healed in ways that matter. The character development is honestly one of the strongest aspects of the whole story. Watching each of them navigate grief, confusion, fear, and acceptance from their own angles was powerful. The narrative doesn’t treat death like some dramatic plot device; it treats it like a complicated, intimate experience that hits every person differently.

And the art… seriously, the art carried so much weight. It wasn’t just pretty; it amplified everything — the emotions, the tension, the quiet moments, the chaos. Some panels stuck in my head long after I closed the chapter, just because they captured something raw and honest.

Overall, it’s absolutely worth reading. It surprised me in the best way, and even with its uneven start and the occasional dramatic spike, the story has a lot of heart. I loved how it approached loss and mourning from multiple perspectives, giving each character space to express their own version of grief. By the end, it felt less like a story and more like an experience — one that stays with you a little longer than you expect.
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