The part leading up to the ending was the best, in my opinion. Making the whole town naturally be built into a huge spiral unwittingly by its inhabitants was really clever, especially since we were made to wonder about why the old houses weren't destroyed and at the design on the old map. And then it turned out there was a path leading underground in the old lake--with a spiral staircase of course. It was exciting to finally find out what was hiding in the lake. And then it turned out there was a whole "spiral kingdom" down there, the source of the spiral curse! I think this was designed well by the mangaka, engaging the reader with the promise of finding out what was causing everything, gradually revealing ever more grand and more mysterious spiral "secrets" which were behind the events: from small individual occurrences with spirals, to the swirling lake, to the whole town's structure, to a near-endless spiral staircase leading down, to an enormous cave full of a giant spiral castle, around a a giant spiral "eye." But then it just ends: "and then Kirie and Shuichi turned into spirals too, and they stayed that way together forever. The end." What a let-down.

It was lacking both in respect to the characters and in respect to the spiral premise of the story. After coming to like Kirie and Shuichi through all the events, I was left thinking, "That's it? Come on, you're telling me after miraculously surviving all the other stuff, they just went poot? They got all the way to the cause of the spiral curse and then just died?? What was the point of them surviving as normal humans to reach the spiral eye then? And the mangaka didn't give any explanation about the spiral curse, even though that's what the manga was about.

Of course, what I wanted was for Kirie and Shuichi to somehow overcome the spiral curse (They did make it all the way to the source, after all!) and escape the town, but I think this manga still could have had a satisfying ending if, after they "died" (became spiral people who just stare at the "eye"), the mangaka had explained the crux of the spiral curse through narration. The "extra story" chapter at the end is the perfect place for that narration, too! (But instead, it's only a oneshot about a spiral event, like in the beginning of the manga.) Without bothering to tell us why the curse was there, why in that particular location, how the spiral underground eye was created, why it would "turn off" and then back "on" over time, why the spiral curse wasn't able to spread and affect other surrounding areas, etc., it just feels like the foundation of the story is missing. Especially after what I thought was a great lead-in to the ending, it's a real let-down. I can deal with the ending not being happy (well, typical "happy," anyway), but an ending lacking the most important part of the manga (an explanation of the spiral curse), really diminished the experience of reading this for me.