Sadako at the End of the World (終末の貞子さん, Sadako-san at the End) is a comedy horror manga published by Kadokawa Shoten on June 29, 2019 in Japan and November 17, 2020 in the United States and Canada. It was written and illustrated by Koma Natsumi.
Official solicit[]
In a world torn apart by an apocalypse, two lonely little girls chance upon a strange video. To their surprise and joy, a girl with long black hair named Sadako climbs out of the TV...But little do they know that Sadako is a vengeful ghost who will kill them in a week! In order to help their new friend, these two sweet, innocent girls begin a journey to the end of the world to look for more victims friends. Can their bond with Sadako help her find peace and finally break the curse? Or will this tale have a tragic ending...?
Characters[]
- Ai
- Granny
- Hii
- Okiku
- Sadako Yamamura
- Yamane
Synopsis[]
Chapter 1: Ai and Hii-chan[]
Two young girls, Ai and Hii, find a video tape - the first they've ever seen, and play it. They experience Sadako's cursed video and at the end, Sadako Yamamura herself crawls out of the television. The girls are not scared, however, and are just amazed to see the first moving person they've seen in a long time. As it turns out, some sort of apocalypse has occurred, leaving Ai and Hii among the very few survivors.
The girls give Sadako a tablet that lets her communicate with them. They also have a cache of other videos, but Sadako's is the only one that functions. They marvel at what they think will be the ability to let them make more "friends" - coming out of the TV - if they are able to play them. They ask Sadako how long they have to watch her video, and she tells them one week.
Ai and Hii insist they are the last people alive, but they tell Sadako that they could probably search for more. Sadako actually hopes that they are the last ones, for once the last people in the world are dead, her curse can be lifted. However, if there are more people, she wants to curse them as well so she can finally be free. The girls insist Sadako come to bed with them so they can search for more people in the morning.
Chapter 2: Yamane the Beautician[]
They begin searching, and while walking, a cloth comes and hits Ai in the face. A beautician, Yamane, appears and apologizes for his cloth getting away in the wind, but Sadako thinks that he attacked Ai, especially after seeing scissors in his hand, and begins strangling him with her hair. Yamane, for his part though, can only think about how terrible the condition of Sadako's hair is.
Sadako lets Yamane go and they all go into his salon together. He gives Ai and Hii haircuts and stylings, but Sadako attempts to sneak away. Yamane catches her and asks to cut her bangs, which she refuses. He says at least he's going to treat her split ends. Yamane asks the girls where they all came from, and they tell him about the video tape. He suddenly remembers that it reminds him of a story that a customer told him once. Yamane goes to blow-dry Sadako's hair, but the power finally gives out in the salon. Sadako, however, holds the end of the cord and the blow drier powers back on so he can finish Sadako's new hairdo.
Yamane asks the girls if they want to stick around and be his assistants, but they say they've only got a week to be with Sadako, and they want to take her to find other people. Yamane asks if meeting Sadako counts as seeing her video, to which the girls surmise that it probably is, like a traveling theater troupe. Sadako doesn't know if that's entirely true, but she likes the idea. Yamane thinks perhaps he should go with them, but Sadako insists she can protect them. Yamane writes down directions to the salon in case they ever want to return, then tells them if they pass a couple of ghost towns, they should come across a residential area where if there's anybody else left alive, they'll be there.
As the girls go to leave, Sadako returns to see Yamane again. As he thanks her for letting him style her hair, she strangles him to death with the hair. She returns to the girls and they notice that her hair is a mess again.
Chapter 3: Granny is a Witch[]
Four days after meeting Sadako, the girls come across another abandoned house. They "borrow" a photograph of a woman and a young girl (which Hii calls "face paper") and some shoes. Later, they arrive at another seemingly-abandoned house in another town and decide to bunk down for the night. They are awakened by the smell of food, and startle an old lady (who they call "Granny"), who was making dinner. She invites her impromptu guests to join her, and the girls are happy to have fresh vegetables for once, since the only food they've had since the apocalypse were some canned and packaged goods their father left behind.
Granny tells them about her daughter who lives in a nearby town and says she hasn't dropped by in a while. Hii remembers the "face paper" and brings it to Granny, and she is shocked to find that this was a photo of her and her daughter years ago. The girls tell Granny that there was nobody left in the town at all. They also show her some of the shoes they took from the house, which were her daughter's favorite pair.
After the girls have gone back to sleep, Sadako visits Granny, who is looking at old photos of her daughter and herself. She tells Sadako that she is the radiant young woman in the "face paper", and that she used to be an actress. Sadako asks her if she's given up acting, and Granny says that her life has become a "one-person play" and that she is fine with her "curtain" closing soon. It seems she's been one foot in the grave for a while, and the thought that her daughter might be still alive is all that's kept her going. Knowing that her daughter's gone, though, has let her know she can pass on.
Granny's conversation wakes up Ai, and Sadako tells her about Granny's past as an actress. This amazes her, and the three decide to put on a play outside, of Hansel and Gretel, with Granny as the witch, Sadako as Hansel, and Ai as Gretel. Hii wakes up, wondering where Ai has gone to, and they draft her as a second Gretel.
The girls and Sadako leave after the play, with Granny packing up some provisions for them, including some honey. She also gifts her daughter's shoes to Sadako, telling her that her bare feet make her hurt just looking at them. As Sadako and her friends walk off, Granny passes away with the photo of her and her daughter on her lap.
Chapter 4: The Girl of Plate Manor[]
On day six of their journey, the girls still haven't met anybody new since Granny. Since their time is almost up, Ai gets the idea to go home and watch the video again, extending their time together. Sadako insists it won't work, dashing Ai's dream of them spending forever together. She asks where Sadako's home is, and she tells them it's a well, and then has to draw one to show them what it looks like. Hii dashes off and Ai and Sadako follow her; Hii had seen a well earlier. Sadako says it's not hers, however. They open the well's lid and Hii falls in, but before she can get too far, she is thrown back to the surface.
Another ghost girl (Okiku) rises from the well, They tell Okiku of Sadako's well and video, and she says she's heard of a curse like that before. She tells her own story, and says that she broke a very important plate and cast herself into the well in shame, haunting hateful people ever since. Ai says they have a plate that she can replace it with, and give them one of theirs. Feeling joy for the first time in forever, Okiku gives a piece of advice to what she considers the last kind people on Earth - if they remain with Sadako, death awaits them. Okiku returns to her well, leaving the plate by the edge.
That night, as they all bunker down in a cave, Ai can't stop thinking of what Okiku told them. She tells Sadako that she wants to know about her, and that they should play a lot on the following day, which will be their last together. She then says they could go to Sadako's "home" together. The next morning, they arrive at that well.
Final Chapter: We Love You, Sada-chan![]
However, when Sadako reads the sign at the well (the girls can't read it due to the large amount of kanji), she learns that the well has been filled in. Sadako thinks more about how she might disappear if her curse kills off these final two survivors. On that final night, girls go to bed, with Hii falling asleep pretty much instantly. Ai asks Sadako to take a walk with her. As they walk, she tells her that it was lonely for the two girls all on their own, and that it's been so much easier to have another person to be around. Even though she's "scary", Ai doesn't mind being around Sadako. She tells her that she understands about Sadako's history and fate, and about how her video doesn't have a happy ending. Ai realizes that she's going to die now, but is okay with that because she's had a fulfilling week with Sadako and Hii and that she has gotten to do everything she's wanted to do in life. Sadako offers to retroactively "record" everything that they'd done that week, so that they can still, in a sense, be together forever. Ai hugs Sadako and tells her she loves her.
In the morning, Sadako finds that she's still around, even though Ai and Hii are dead now. She realizes that must mean someone else is still alive. Sadako notices the last remaining living person, and turns slowly to look at the reader, declaring that it is them.
Report on My Visit to the Set of Sadako[]
Mangaka Koma Natsumi (characterized as a cartoon cat), details her visit to the set of the 2019 film Sadako. She watches the cave set being constructed, and sees a bunch of props from various movies set up like a museum, including a giant pair of Sadako hands, a Sadako that pops out from under some stairs, and Sadako's well, which she gets permission to sit in.
Special Bonus Comic: Salon in the Great Beyond[]
Sadako visits her friends from this journey in the afterlife, approaching Yamane as he works on Okiku's hair. Yamane tries to convince Sadako to finally let him cut her bangs. Although she protests, Yamane insists that since he gave her his life, she could at least let him do that. He cuts her hair, revealing her face, and all of her friends marvel at how amazing it is, but an embarrassed Sadako just grows the hair right back in place.