1st Series

The **1st Series** is the first story arc in the *Platinum End* manga series and its respective anime adaptation.

## Plot

### "Gift from an Angel"

The story starts off with a class singing the Japanese graduation song called "Aogeba Tōtoshi". In Class 3-1 everyone is talking to each other, but Mirai Kakehashi as he sits in the middle of the classroom with his head down to the desk. It then focuses on Mirai hearing all his classmates talk to each other happily. After school he walks to a building and takes the elevator to the roof which is prohibited. He walks tot he edge of the roofs and asks to himself, "shall I die?". He then says that he wanted to be happy and jumps off the roof.

    While falling, he is saved by an angel. The angel says she came to make him happy. She gives him the "wings" and the "angel's arrow" to either fly anywhere in the world or control a persons heart. The angel then tells him his aunt and uncle killed his family. He goes to his aunt and shoots her thus making her fall in love with him. He asks, "did you kill my family? You and him?". The aunt says that he persuaded her to do it and wanted his dads fortune. She tampered with the families car and knew his mother and drove his dad and home very morning. She continues to say that he said he they adopted Mirai that the insurance company would pay them. The uncle then yells at her. When he got adopted they were kind, but once they got the money, they changed. The aunt then gets knife and stabs herself in the neck in front of them. He then asks his aunt why? The angel says because he said, "You should die". He realizes the red arrow caused it and that's how powerful it is. He then tells the angel to call the ambulance, but she says it’s too late and that she’s dead. The uncle looks at his wife's dead body despair and confusion and the angels says she came to make Mirai happy. He then says he has to be happy and wants to. In a flashback in Celestial realm, God addresses the thirteen angels, saying that he's striven for so long to make the human would better, but it is now time, as he begins to run out of energy, for a new human to take his place as God.

### "Man's Nature"

Three days after his aunt's death, Mirai is staying in a hotel room which he has obtained via the use of his angel's arrow. After suffering from the latest in a series of nightmares involving his aunt, Mirai finds himself unable to sleep. Although Nasse tries to convince him to go out and achieve happiness through the use of his powers, Mirai insists that he won't be able to find happiness by using his powers to steal from others or to hurt others. Nasse is crestfallen, noting that she had hoped that such freedoms, combined with becoming God, would make Mirai happy. Mirai, surprised to hear mention of God, asks for an explanation, prompting Nasse to reveal to Mirai that he has been selected as one of thirteen candidates who will possibly become the next God.

Mirai laughs this prospect off, informing Nasse that he has no desire (or ability) to become a God, and that he simply wants to find his own, normal happiness. Admitting that he will need money to achieve his goals, Mirai notes that he might use his arrow to get a job, but is stopped in his tracks at Nasse's suggestion that he kill his uncle and cousins in order to inherit their money. Although Mirai is horrified by the idea, Nasse insists that it will be easy, and reveals to him a second, white angel's arrow, which will kill anyone instantly. Despite Nasse's encouragement, Mirai decides that he will simply use a red arrow to force his uncle to confess to murdering his aunt, and that he will do so in the morning, after he has applied for high school.

Turning on the TV, Mirai and Nasse are shocked to see another angel hovering above the head of a celebrity, Tonma Rodriguez, who is in the middle of being interviewed. Deducing that the celebrity is another god candidate, Mirai realizes that the celebrity is using his red arrow to force women to fall in love with him. Disgusted, Mirai asks Nasse if there is any way to avoid the angel's arrow, but Nasse informs him that the only way to avoid it is to use the angel's wings. As such, normal humans can't avoid the arrow.

After his interview, Tonma is spending time with all of the girls under his control in his private limousine. As he makes plans to shoot other girls with his arrow, a mysterious figure in a suit of armor forces his way into the limousine and kills Tonma with a white angel's arrow. As the girls under Tonma's control come to their senses and flee, the figure watches from a nearby building, and condemns Tonma for his use of his powers.

The next day, as Mirai exits the high school he is applying to, he reflects on the fact that he will now have to study constantly for his entrance exams. Nasse suggests he use his arrow to gain entrance to the school, but Mirai insists that he wants to gain entrance under his own merits. As Nasse teases Mirai about possibly using his arrow on the person he likes, their attention is drawn to a group of girls discussing Tonma's death. Although Mirai seems unfazed by the news, Nasse is greatly worried, and wonders if Tonma was killed.

Luta returns to Celestial realm with Tonma's body and, when questioned, admits that he expected to lose quickly. However, despite his quick loss, he is very interested in the candidate who killed Tonma...

Elsewhere, Tonma's murderer and his angel conspire to murder the remaining eleven candidates in order to become God faster.

### "Hero of Justice"

At some point in the past, the unnamed god candidate who killed Tonma is seen obtaining his suit (a replica of the suit worn by the TV superhero Metropoliman) from a man under the influence of his red arrow. After trying on the suit, the god candidate instructs the man to meet him in the same place in exactly one month, and then departs using his angel's wings.

As Mirai and Nasse shop together, Nasse tries to compliment Mirai on getting into his high school of choice, and for successfully forcing his uncle to admit to murdering his family, but Mirai is less than enthusiastic, stating that he is having a hard time feeling happy after hearing about Tonma's death. Their conversation is interrupted by a news report, which is running an interview with the real-life superhero Metropoliman. As the news agency plays footage of Metropoliman's exploits, Mirai and Nasse are surprised to see Metropoliman using the angel's wings, and the angel's arrow to fight crime, and begin to wonder if he is the one who killed Tonma. Their suspicions are confirmed by Metropoliman himself, who informs the news agency interviewing him that his purpose is, in addition to bringing peace to the world, to find and defeat his twelve enemies who fell from Celestial realm, and brazenly announces that he has already defeated one. Realizing that being seen with Nasse will reveal his identity to any nearby god candidates, Mirai quickly orders her to leave his side.

As Metropoliman arrives back at his home after his interview, his angel compliments him for his appearance on TV, but Metropoliman notes that the suit is too bug for him. As he begins to take off the suit, Metropoliman reminds himself that his high school entrance ceremony is the next morning, and comments on how "cool" it is that he, Metropoliman, is in actuality just a regular high school student.

In his new apartment, Mirai watches Metropoliman's interview again, and decides to ask Nasse to take his name off the list of god candidates. Nasse refuses, however, revealing that if Mirai stops being a god candidate, he will die. Changing the subject, Mirai asks Nasse about the different angel ranks, and Nasse informs about special-rank angels, with the ability to give their candidate both the wings and the red and white angel's arrow; first-rank angels, with the ability to give their candidate the wings and the red angel's arrow; and second-rank angels, with the ability to give their candidate either the wings or the red angel's arrow. Mirai and Nasse both come to the conclusion that Metropoliman will target candidates with special-rank angels first, but Mirai decides to go to his high school entrance ceremony anyway, rationalizing that he won't achieve happiness by hiding in his apartment.

As he prepares for school, Mirai reminds Nasse to keep her distance from him so other candidates won't be able to identify him, and Nasse tells him that she'll come to his side if he calls for her. Before he leaves, Nasse suggests that Mirai use his red arrow on his crush, Saki Hanakago, but Mirai refuses, stating that, after seeing the arrow being used to kill people, he cannot use it so carelessly. He assures her, however, that if he encounters Metropoliman he won't hesitate to use his red arrow on him.

Arriving at school, Mirai begins to grow excited for his new school life, but his excitement is quickly replaced by horror as he sees an angel hovering above the school. Mirai tries to pretend he doesn't see the angel, but the angel quickly spots him. The angel confronts and scares Mirai into revealing that he is a god candidate. Mirai asks the angel if his candidate is nearby, and the angel reveals that his candidate is also a student at Mirai's school and is standing behind Mirai. Turning, Mirai is shocked to see Saki standing behind him, and is unable to react in time to stop her from shooting him with a red angel's arrow.

## Events

* Mirai Kakehashi meets angel Nasse.
* Mirai finds out that his aunt and uncle murdered his family.
* The search for the next god starts.
* One of the god candidates, Tonma Rodriguez, is killed by a fellow candidate.

## Characters in order of appearance

* Mirai Kakehashi
* Nasse
* Mirai's aunt
* Mirai's uncle
* God
* Luta
* Tonma Rodriguez
* Kanade Uryu
* Meyza
* Revel
* Saki Hanakago

## Deaths

* Mirai's aunt
* Tonma Rodriguez