By Natalie Martinaitis ’25

Major: English; Minors: Creative Writing and Journalism, Editing, & Publishing

Contributor Biography: Natalie Martinaitis is a junior and was the previous Editor-in-Chief of Washington College Review. She is the author of The Post-PSO Project, a novella about a failed project and escape from the planet Mars. In her free time, Natalie enjoys writing her next novel, playing board games, and obsessing over her collection of books. She’d like to thank her friend, AnnaMae, for introducing her to Pandora Hearts, or, as many fans affectionally call it, Pandora Hurts. It has fueled a passion that led to this paper–and maybe many more–even without reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Brief Description: Manga writer and artist Jun Mochizuki created the world of Pandora Hearts, a spooky and tarrying loose retelling of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. The story follows Oz Vessalius, who, at the beginning of the story, is cast into the Abyss, which is essentially dually heaven and hell, for his very existence. Throughout the manga series, Oz learns more about his past and his sin. This paper explores the next to last scene of the book, in which Oz and his two friends, are reunited after Oz is erased from existence. The scene can be read several ways—is Oz dead and now in the Abyss with his friends, or did he actually come back to the real world? Both the words and the way the image is drawn influence this ambiguity.

The following was written for English 400: Junior Seminar

Jun Mochizuki’s Pandora Hearts explores the reimagined fairytale genre with a darker version of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The final chapter of the last book in the manga series focuses on the differences between dreams and reality. Within this chapter, the protagonist, Oz Vessalius, and his counterpart, Alice, are erased from existence and taken to the Abyss, or the land of dreams. Frequently, the Abyss matches descriptions of heaven and is portrayed as a golden light. At the close of the story, Oz and Alice arrive, supposedly back to the real world, and meet Gilbert, commonly referred to as Gil, their best friend. Four pages from the end of the book is the final piece of text, which reads “Welcome home!” (Mochizuki 200). These words are encased in a bubble above the hugging Gil, Alice, and Oz, but it is unclear who is saying them. Many would argue Gil is, as the bubble is closest to him and it is assumed that Oz and Alice have returned to the real world. However, a closer look at the page’s other details can provide a different analysis.

First, the picture’s background is puzzling. The left side depicts a tree’s roots, which appear in the following panel and are revealed to extend from the bottom of a grave. The grave would indicate death and would therefore be inferred to belong to the real world, or the land of death. However, when more closely analyzing the hugging friends, one can see that there are specks of white dotting the characters’ clothes and also the space behind them. Such white dots often represent the golden light associated with the Abyss. Since earlier in this chapter Oz is seen to have a dream with these lights surrounding him, one might question whether these characters are actually still in the real world. Then, there is the matter of the dialogue. Once again, it reads “Welcome home!” (200). While many would say that this is a speech bubble coming from Gil, there is a bit of oddity in the phrasing of this statement. “Home” in any circumstance insinuates that one feels close to a place, a person, or a situation, and that one has somewhere to belong. It would be unusual that such a line of dialogue could come from Gil, who throughout the course of the manga series does not have a single place to call home. As an adopted member of the Nightray family, he already has issues with calling his adopted brothers trustworthy and lovable. His biological brother, Vincent, causes Gil much internal conflict due to Vincent’s violent tendencies. Then, Gil works as a member of the Vessalius family’s staff, which brings him close to Oz, who he considers a brother. Again, another barrier, the servant-to-master relationship, gets in the way of Gil fully calling the Vessalius household “home.”

So, then, one must question if it is Gil who is uttering these words. If so, this piece of dialogue could indicate that he is welcoming Oz and Alice, people who he has come to trust over the course of the series, back to the real world, or their physical home. However, because Gil does not have this full conception of “home,” perhaps it is instead Oz or Alice who are uttering this statement. If it were Oz and Alice saying these words, they would be welcoming their friend to his final resting place within the Abyss, as both were previously erased from existence. In this case, Gil would be reuniting with his brother, Vincent, who, earlier in the chapter, disappeared into a ray of golden light, finally taken by the Abyss. Based on the golden light surrounding the trio, it is reasonable to say that this scene happens within the Abyss. Furthermore, Gil’s dark clothing could also suggest his death. So, then, is it Gil who has fallen finally into the Abyss, in his old age, and has joined Oz and Alice in the eternal “home”?

There is no one correct interpretation of this scene; however, fans can be assured that the threesome is happy based on the enlarged text, the exclamation point, and the way in which Gil’s arm is wrapped around the other two. No matter the physical location of these three, they are clearly glad to be together, and perhaps that is what “home” truly signifies. 

In this single panel, Mochizuki plays with the nature of dreams and reality, that which is real, and that which is not. By having the single, rather large speech bubble above the heads of all the characters together, it builds anonymity as to who is speaking the words, and therefore calls into question the very nature of “home” and what that single word entails. By adding golden light to the panel, she develops a layer of suspicion of the Abyss and its role in the story. Therefore, this panel makes for an ambiguous but satisfying ending for fans of the series, not only because the trio is reunited, but because “home” is concrete in these characters’ minds and the golden light of heaven is always near them.

Works Cited

Mochizuki, Jun. Pandora Hearts. Vol. 24, Yen Press, Hachette Book Group, 2015.