Summer Time Rendering (Volume 6) – Return / I'm Home

Shinpei was played by the Shadows who now have the upper hand. However, there is a chance but they know about it too. Can Shinpei find Ushio before they do or is it really the end?

Summer Time Rendering (Volume 6) – Return / I’m Home

What happened?

When Shinpei turned back time to save Mio, he handed the Shadows the chance to kill Hizuru. Before she died, she left Ryunosuke with Shinpei, but what could they do? It was Shadow Mio that helped Shinpei realise that there was a chance. She noticed that the shell necklace that Shinpei had was actually a Shadow and contained all of Ushio’s memories. Why would she do that? But then it hit Shinpei – Ushio was still alive. At least there was another Ushio in this timeline. It was the one he met at the festival – the first Shadow Ushio.

They knew roughly where she was after being defeated by Heine when she killed the real Ushio but there was a lot of sea to search and Shinpei was certain the Shadows would be doing the same. They had access to all of his past memories as well. Using one of Tokiko’s Shadows, they were able to make it out to sea and find Ushio. She regained her memories from the shell which allowed Shinpei to kill himself and reset things with Ushio. Of course, he had planned it perfectly and the reset took them back to Hiruko’s Grotto.

Heine and Shideh raced to confront them, but Shinpei had the upper hand now. Even so, it came down to a fight between Ushio and Heine and at the last second, Ushio held back, sparing Heine. However, Heine’s missing eye awakened in Ushio much to Shideh’s delight. He fled to an alternate dimension, luring Ushio and Shinpei inside. There he had total control. Ushio had a plan to defeat him, but she needed time. Shinpei and Ryunosuke did their best to give it to her, but it wasn’t easy.

Summer Time Rendering Volume 6 Shinpei and Shadow Ushio in Heines home

What did you think?

This was a fantastic ending to a wonderful series. I will admit that the scene in the alternate dimension may have been a little over the top, but it made sense so I’m not too worried. The fact that everything came together was pretty much all you can ask for. There were so many threads and loops that stuff is bound to get lost and forgotten, but that wasn’t the case. Of course, for anyone that is a fan of time travel stories, you may have seen a lot of it coming. I certainly did and many of the questions I kept asking were answered in this volume.

It’s unusual to see a story like this end on such a high. There weren’t any real sacrifices and that made the ending that much nicer. I like it when a character has to choose between themselves and the fate of the world because that shows real character, but I do like it when everything works out too. My favourite moment was when Ushio and Shinpei regained their memories of the time loops because Ushio vaguely remembered that Shinpei had promised to buy her hundreds of Takoyaki.

This was an incredible story and I can’t wait to check out the anime now. It’s a manga series that I am considering buying in the near future. The six hardback volumes are beautiful to look at and this feels like a series that I could read over and over again.