Well, discolored hand aside she's come out with minimal side-effects from her voyage. I don't think it's actually a type of 'corruption' as it seems to resemble more Scavenger's hands that any hostile anomaly, and since this is the last page for her (barring a return at a later date) I don't think she'll become the/an A!Otter.
That, and the way the scene brightens at the end and has Fennec and Raccoon present, makes me believe she'll be safe (as anyone here can be), quite possibly even leaving the apartments entirely.
Wasn't it shown on the TV that the whole town was under the same effect as the apartment?
It's implied that the apartment itself is in flux and that it might not be the same town all the time, as if the apartment is jumping between dimensions. I mean Racoon and Fenix regularly leave and come back without any problems so most of the craziness is centered around the apartment, only occasionally leaking out to the outside world.
Well, discolored hand aside she's come out with minimal side-effects from her voyage. I don't think it's actually a type of 'corruption' as it seems to resemble more Scavenger's hands that any hostile anomaly, and since this is the last page for her (barring a return at a later date) I don't think she'll become the/an A!Otter.
That, and the way the scene brightens at the end and has Fennec and Raccoon present, makes me believe she'll be safe (as anyone here can be), quite possibly even leaving the apartments entirely.
I think people are overthinking things. Her hand is just dirty. Scavenger digs through trash to find useful stuff and never washes them, so when the two held hands it made Mask's dirty.
And yes the anomalies are never to be trusted. One guy even came up with an explanation that it was just trying to trock Fennec to hand herself over so it could kill her.
Also this is more of a bittersweet ending than a happy one. Yeah Mask got out alive but she was replaced and decided to go into exile.
Exile! Exile! (self-imposed) Do all of the spare otters leave the apartment this way?
darkspire91 said: Wasn't it shown on the TV that the whole town was under the same effect as the apartment?
We can see a functional society outside the apartment; Friends have jobs and go out shopping. MBC News doesn't seem to reflect their reality. More simply, fake news. But it may possible that the apartment is blending alternate realities, given the spacetime and dimensional shenanigans we already witnessed.
Well, a happy ending, I wouldn't had bet on that. I mean on one hand, Mask has been replaced and she'll never be able to go back to exploration with the rest of the team, but on the other she's free from the apartment and the quasi-hive mind mindset of the G Otter squad, ready to live her life as her own individual. (baring some later dark twist that kills her or turns her into the A!Otter)
In a sense, it could be argued that the G Otter squad are the real loser of this story, as they might be considered as prisoners of the apartment and the allure of its mysteries.
Now the big remaining question is what the hell happened in the painted world between the human researcher and the previous G Otter squad and why none of them can remember it, which might be answered in a later arc.
I really hope that this story wont be an one-of-a-kind and that Abubu will do more long story arc like this one. (intersected by the usual two or three pages long stories concentrating on a single anomaly)
I think people are overthinking things. Her hand is just dirty. Scavenger digs through trash to find useful stuff and never washes them, so when the two held hands it made Mask's dirty.
And yes the anomalies are never to be trusted. One guy even came up with an explanation that it was just trying to trick Fennec to hand herself over so it could kill her.
I disagree with just being dirty just due to with how many things she must've touched I don't believe her hands aren't dirty enough to dirty spread to otter's hair (rubbing by the way) or to her mouth.
If this was the tv on page 48 then yeah I can believe that.
Although now I wonder if hell area and A!Otter are connected thanks to the new information given.
Between this Otter and the scared one, I'm starting to think Abubu's just gonna constantly tease us with these one-off Otters without ever revealing A!Otter's origins
I don't completely buy that her hand is just dirty, but I also don't see why the artist would introduce something as significant as an anomalous corruption mechanic just to have the affected character leave the story. Either it's not important, or we haven't seen the last of her.
I'm also curious why he avoids drawing her eyes here. Are they no longer red?
EDIT: After further consideration, I've come to the conclusion that her hand is meant to be a token of her experience and a badge which distinguishes her from other otters; in effect a scar. It may be permanent, but it is not going to spread or progress like a cancer or infection.
Could this be a fake exit? Scavenger-chan specifically mentioned five nexts. And that doesn't seem at random because at the next art she mentioned four. Which means there should still be 1-2 more art to go through.
I just realized, what if this is the real exit? Maybe Abubu is getting meta and Giant Otter here is exiting this series itself.
konoe0229: So in choosing to separate from the Giant Otters who not only tiptoe, but charge headlong into anomalies shouting "Fun!", she's gone from "Mask" to just "Giant Otter". I wonder if she saw herself in the bottle rat, a disposable creature... I hope the two of them can be happy as individuals. I hope we can see more of Arai and Fennec's peaceful expressions, too.
Abubu: Yes. Now that she's seen the parallels, she can't treat them [herself] as disposable anymore, is the intention.
Between this Otter and the scared one, I'm starting to think Abubu's just gonna constantly tease us with these one-off Otters without ever revealing A!Otter's origins
It's likely we're just jumping, looking for more backstory, and Abubu's not thinking about people looking for a backstory for A!Otter. After all, part of why the otters replace themselves is because a LOT of bad shit happens to various forgotten clones. It's likely there could be worse things coming out of the otters than just that one A!Otter. (And the little bunker's previous otter may have been the A!Otter, for that matter, just without the dots entirely connected.) I get the sense, though, that this is more a stream-of-consciousness project than a proper story where all the loose ends are going to be cleaned up.
