엔딩메이커

ENDING MAKER

MANGA

STATUS
RELEASING
VOLUMES
Not Available
RELEASE
Invalid Date
CHAPTERS
Not Available

DESCRIPTION

After "outboxer009" wakes up in the body of Jude Bayer from Legend of Heroes 2, he soon discovers that his rival "sandstorm" has also entered the game world as Cordelia Chace. These top-two-ranked old pros come to realize that navigating this game world is much harder than just pointing and clicking. With the apocalyptic conclusion of the game looming before them, they'll have to combine his quick wit, her foul mouth, and both their gamer mindsets to make a new, less cataclysmic ending.

(Source: Tapas, edited)

CAST

Cordelia Chase
Jude Bayer
Maia Tantalot
Dahlia
Gail Bayer
Artur Chase
Alex Bayer

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

winnowgirl
95/100
Absolutely top-tier, the perfect mix of funny, charming, and cool.
Ending Maker is the absolute king of what it does -- as far as I'm concerned, it's a crowning achievement in the world of both manhwa/webtoons and isekai stories, nailing an absolutely perfect blend of ridiculously funny, genuinely cool, and surprisingly charming. Jude and Cordelia are the absolute power couple of all time, and every page they bless with their presence is a joy to read.

On paper, Ending Maker isn't terribly remarkable. Two rival game junkies get reincarnated into the world of their favorite game, realize they're screwed because it's an apocalypse story, and form an alliance to try and rewrite the ending of the game into something happier. It's got all the typical isekai beats -- game systems, pop-culture references, overpowered protagonists obsessed with leveling up, and enough cliches to make TVTropes blush. It executes on all of them so phenomenally, though, that I can't even begrudge any of it.

Let's start simple. It's nice to see a story about more than one protagonist getting isekai'd -- typically if there's multiple, it's a whole classroom of high schoolers, and 90% of them don't matter and are pointless side characters. Jude and Cordelia are both core protagonists, though, and their personalities and lives from Earth are not only story-relevant but genuinely entertaining. Not only is seeing two walking game encyclopedias essentially attempt a game-breaking speedrun plenty satisfying in their own right, it's a nice twist to see the typical game isekai traits split between two people. Jude has a near-perfect memory and an excellent grasp of tactics and planning, but it's quickly made clear that without Cordelia's excellent instincts and raw talent, he'd be screwed and vice versa.

I mentioned this briefly before, but now is a good time as any to talk about the phenomenal chemistry between Jude and Cordelia. They bounce humor off each other effortlessly in a way that's so smooth if you blink you miss three different jokes. They fight constantly, but have so much in common that the moments where they're perfectly in sync (which is, of course, increasingly most of the time) are satisfying as hell, and their ability to take a bit and run with it for literally chapters on end is fantastic. Outside of humor, it's also genuinely charming to see them slowly come to understand each other, using all that they've learned and all that they knew about the other before to build a relationship that can't be described as anything but the most ridiculous power couple of all time. Even with just the slow burn buildup, their developing relationship is genuinely so charming to read.

Ending Maker's humor is more than just chemistry between Jude and Cordelia, of course. There's also a whole load of pop culture references -- I honestly enjoyed them a lot, since not only are they drawing from a pretty wide pool, they're also never more than a line or two, and most importantly, they're directed at another character rather than the audience. As a result, it feels way less like the author trying to make references the audience will catch, and a lot more like Jude or Cordelia making stupid joke references they know the other knows already. On top of that, the facial expressions are top-tier, and the story has a fantastic sense of both comedic timing and when to go for over-the-top jokes and when to go for understated humor.

In line with the humor, Ending Maker also kicks absolute ass when it comes to cool fight scenes, in no small part because it understands and embraces that in many cases, being funny and being badass aren't at all opposites, they're very very similar. Cordelia cursing up a storm or making One Piece references while she kicks ass aren't antithetical to her being fucking awesome, they're a core part of it. Same with Jude -- my boy has a sadistic streak strong enough to carry entire jokes on his smug expressions alone, and seeing him turn that on his enemies when everything goes exactly as he planned is just that much more satisfying. The art is killer, too, the character designs are top-notch, and there's a very real sense of progression to our protagonists' powers without ever getting out of control.

The story isn't all funny jokes and cool fights, though those do make up a sizeable percentage. For all that the story is relatively lighthearted and primarily a comedy, Ending Maker is definitely willing to handle heavier emotional scenes, and more importantly is willing to take its own pathos seriously. Jude and Cordelia's care for their families, their friends, and even characters they've never met is a legitimate driving force behind their actions, and when people are put in danger or something threatens to drive a wedge into a relationship, the story doesn't shy away from letting those feelings take center stage. A lot of isekai stories have a problem where they seem almost allergic to sincerity and genuine emotion, always layering humor and/or layers of apathetic aloofness on their protagonists as a kind of defense mechanism against critique of authentic feelings. Ending Maker doesn't have that issue, though -- Cordelia and Jude worry when they're forced to anger their families to accomplish their goals, get upset when their companions are put in danger, and Cordelia sheds genuine, honest tears over Red Wind's predicament and the cruelty of it all. There's nothing here that's going to win any literature prizes, admittedly, but it doesn't need to be high art that says something profound. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do: create a sense of legitimate investment in these characters and this world, and invite us to allow ourselves to be taken along for the ride with all its emotional highs and lows.

There's a lot more I could talk about. The art is charming and well-done, the plot moves at a solid pace, and the broader cast of characters are classic but well-executed archetypes. Ending Maker's main draw is its humor, its combat, and its double-trouble loser gaming nerd protagonists, though, and in those areas it excels so much that it threatens to outshine even its own very solid foundation. I started reading Ending Maker initially for the humor, was drawn in by the hype, and became fully committed because of how incredibly fun it was to watch Jude and Cordelia grow stronger and closer. They're genuinely one of my favorite pairings I've seen in a very long time, and I can't heap enough praise on them or Ending Maker.
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